When I lost my grandmother years ago, I felt that what matters to me is the love and support of my own family and a lot of things most needed for me to take care of when I reached an age of responsibility that are worth fighting for. My grandmother was a proud woman who made sure her children and grandchildren were given divine wisdom, faith, love, and charity throughout their greatest endeavors. She could cover her children's financial situations, invested her money in college education for her grandsons, including me, and made sure that we had enough to survive. The only obstacle that occurred before her death was the fear of her children fighting against my mother. It was not only something my grandmother would have prevented, but it was also an unfortunate event that would have broken the family up. If my own family would have wanted me cut off from my mother by now, my grandmother would be turning over in her grave along with my grandfather. The grief I had after her death made me fill my heart with passion as well as a strive to survive. It taught me a lesson that every day I have to be strong, resilient, and persistent in achieving the goals that will keep me from going down the wrong path. Even I, the only child of a single parent, would try to financially support my mom in the future whenever it's necessary. Whether it's money for food, clothing, gas, public transport, or student loans to optimize, anything can happen and help a financial cause. That is the miracle that I am fighting for in the future.

The one song that had a strong message in my personal life is that of Unchained Melody. I listened to many versions of it besides the Righteous Brothers and Elvis, who made it very popular in the 60s and 70s. Listening to the song goes back to my high school years when I met a beautiful Jewish girl on my track team who caught my attention. I had a secret crush her. However, something happened afterward. I made the mistake of drawing a picture of her without permission. She was unaware of my artistic abilities. I apologized to her then, but I felt it wasn't strong enough to undo what I did. It put me in a state of depression. I couldn't get over her for what I did. It wasn't until I watched the movie Ghost and first heard the song. Then, I learned its sad history and meaning. It was about a man who waited so long to be with the woman he loved so much. The lyricist who wrote the words in real life had feelings for a girl in high school, but she was seeing someone else. That experience had put him in the same "unchained" state of depression as I had. Unchained Melody is a sad and depressing ballad for anyone to go through romantic turmoil. Unchained Melody will always be one of my favorite songs to listen and express. I hope men like me would know what it is like to wait so long for love and realize what went right or wrong.

As a fledgling artist, it is best to know by heart what I am passionate about doing before I can use my intelligence to make something out of a living. Learning about the old and recent masters of art and their techniques gave me vision and insight on how to work and develop techniques and talents on my own. When learning a new process from experience can give me time to focus and concentrate, I use all of my effort to make a difference before completing a project. Being an artist is not easy because of how the economy affects our ability to afford materials, pay rent, and keep track of reporting sales when necessary. However, embracing the lifestyle of one is beyond expressive in a way that artists connect to the real world and visualize what can be solved in various ways.

My biggest dream was to be a full-time artist with a business, entrepreneurial specialization of painting, drawing, sculpture, graphic design, furniture design and restoration, photography, printing, and much more. I am reliable in using my talents and intelligence for a purpose in doing partnerships with art stores, antique shops, art museums and galleries, hardware stores, home-improvement stores, interior designers, fashion designers, and other artists who have the same interests I do. My plan to achieve the goal is to learn the resources in my professional studies in order to strengthen my business as an artist and entrepreneur while achieving another goal for financial freedom. It is considered a continuation of my higher education once that is accomplished and then I will proceed with creating a pathway to start a career. Over the years, I pursued this vision as an opportunity in order to ensure that I am determined to make strategies, map out plans to start, build, and grow the business venture I dreamed to operate, work with people through teamwork, and use methods of marketing, accounting, data analysis, and innovation. Originally, my first dream was to be an artist specializing in oil painting, graphic design, architecture, and fashion design. Then, it shifted into being interested in museum curation because I happen to have an exposure in art history and various cultures that begin to explore a multitude of curiosities along with my expanding intelligence. Recently, my interest in business and entrepreneurship did not occur until the pandemic began. I realized that it was only the right path for me to financially and professionally support my sole-proprietorship that I started in 2016. So, I began to do some research on what business and entrepreneurship is all about. I explored by looking through MBA programs and other related fields that will benefit my interests. I felt that an MBA will help me in the future, but finding another degree gave me another viewpoint. A Masters in Professional Studies in the Business of Art and Design, as opposed to a regular Masters in Business Administration, is more focused on continuing education and directed in a concentration of shaping my sole-proprietorship. I had a history of learning experience since I was only a child until I reached to my adult years about how I am handling my ASD(autism specturm/Asperger's syndrome disorder) for as long as I can remember. It was difficult for my mother to raise me properly so that I can learn and grow. It was a personal challenge that affected my ability to communicate as well as learning at a certain level to excel appropriately. I went through many trials of lessons I learned from the past, levels of enrichment to improve my speaking, writing, and reading, and making realistic choices. Although my communication skills being affected by my ASD has become more abstract than realistic, my learning disorder is an area that I have to manage by myself in order to prioritize and be a good communicator overtime as I improve. I learn everything by understanding what my interests in a high level of education will take me. Art, in particular, has always been my true passion throughout my life. However, realizing that the knowledge I have gained from history, appreciation of antiquities, other artistic abilities, influences, and research on how to start up my own business gave me an open sight for opportunity to create. This experience will provide me a chance to build my educational roadmap and be responsible with not only my finances, but the infrastructure overall.

Having a healthy lifestyle can be a determination to strive as a goal to achieve. However, having to change the way one eats can be hard as changing one's own self as a sacrifice for the greater good. Time is important to make decisions in order to focus on improving my physical health and mental health. Also, it takes a lot to focus on my spiritual health because living my life cannot be fulfilled without knowing what your goals are improve your own health. Exercising is one of the key steps to stay forward and move on without being distracted. Another key step to move forward and improve your health is meditate. Meditation is about finding your place of calmness, tranquility, and peace. Without it, a bad life can lead to dysfunction and disruption. Overall, improving your physical, mental, and spiritual health are important in a way you can live your life more often in a positive setting.

From a time around the mid to late 2000s, I was sent to middle school in an area on the other side of my state county from my home because the students at the elementary school near home were treating me unsafely and I had no else to respond with action to prevent getting bullied. As time passed by when I finished middle and high school years, I had to get to know the neighborhood as I progressed throughout my teenage and adult years about the people I grew close with and gained awareness. Being in a new neighborhood as opposed to where I currently live gave me a real voice. That voice was to tell a story about who I am, what I am proud of, and what I am capable of doing in order to change lives. From childhood, I have been victimized from catholic school by sexual rape and abuse, beaten and abused by my own father, being bullied in elementary school near home, and facing mental, nervous breakdowns triggered by toxic family members and traumatic memories that made me feel weak. I was never born weak as some people in and out of my family and friends think when they see me or hear me. I know there are others like me who have the issues, interests, and complex stories like I have. All it takes is to enrich yourself overtime and get better at it by exercising, speaking loudly, singing, and express creativity through art. As a fledgling artist coming from a multi-complex family, I find the diversity and universe very interesting to acknowledge because everyone has a different viewpoint on the world others do not see. For me, I see the world through facts, evidence, and observation in an abstract way where the communication I receive and attempt to interpret seemed very tense. Tenser ways that I envision led me to pursue my inspirations to make works as a blend of realistic and abstract forms of art. To be an artist is to know your vision, influences, and creativity that you like to express out and display to your audience for a cause. An artist is motivated by other artists in a sense that there is education involved. Then, an artist should know the practical methods of learning how to do business modeling, marketing, public relations, and entrepreneurship. Being an artist can be interesting when you explore new ways to build up your creativity and how to manage the costs of materials, the instructions of taking account ledger of materials and supplies used in projects and products in the making, and the sales marketing. Every artist has a voice to express their creativity and how they're connected to events that still happen today. But people should know that every artist needs to get paid in order to maintain the costs of their own materials instead of doing things for free.

What inspires and influenced me to be an entrepreneur is having one from my past that is still encouraging me to make decisions between now and the nearby future. My mentor, who is a grand master in the martial arts style of Kung Fu, taught me various things about entrepreneurship that led me to pursue this fledgling path. To be one is to envision what comes true once a product is expected to provide some form of success in the venture. For his arena in martial arts, it was focused on educating kids and adults how to change their way of living and how to look out for each other as a family. While I was there, there was a sense of persistence and discipline in the works that I never knew about until I was in college long after I left martial arts. Overtime, I began to self-educate and learn from others about what does success, business, and living making really matter about for everyone. While I was in college focusing on my studio art and history concentrations, I soon became interested in the field of entrepreneurship because I felt that every artist should know the principles of managing their artwork and run their individual activities as their own business venture to plan operating. As a result, I began to dive into the MBA programs within my university and ask questions about them specifically while I was learning more often about it. Everything from marketing, collecting, accounting, management, and communications were critically important important to grow in that industry. I believed that it would be the opportunity I see as key to manifest in a career path I pursue as a creative director, artistic manager, or a self-managed innovator who shares love and appreciation for the arts and visions to achieve success. Currently, I am devoted as a scholar and fledgling artist who is seeking various resources about how to market, to manage, and take charge of my own sole-proprietorship independently. However, I later learned that a creative leader and artistic business owner interested in entrepreneurship of the arts would seek help to fortify a possible venture plan through marketing, finances, accounting, security, and operations. An artist and an entrepreneur have a few things in common: they are both creators, innovators, dreamers, and visionaries. An artist has influence from another to express creativity in order to see one's visions, dreams, and important topics. An entrepreneur can do the same thing, but can write a storyboard in a step by step process in order to envision goals to earn. Entrepreneurship is a method of brilliant and intelligent ideas that is driven to create and build businesses and jobs. Having a creative vision is important because it will predict the future of profits, sales, and outcome in anyway the economy and community are affected. I believe this scholarship will not only benefit my academic interest for post-baccalaureate studies, but also my professional arena as an aspiring, independent artist with a multi-media technique set who seeks to gain the business skills, knowledge, and experience for future success.

I agree absolutely with this statement above because overcoming an experience from a parent's addiction to alcohol can be more than overwhelming beyond many ways alcohol abuse and addiction can take. As a child growing up, I always thought my own father was not a good person from the beginning of my childhood and I absolutely never knew that he had an addiction to consuming lots of beer, which was the only alcohol substance he ever had. I knew later on that his character was far duplicitous than I expected because he was fired for using racist comments, used his earning money irresponsibly, and borrowed my mother's own finances from both banking and retirement accounts for unnecessary purchases. All of that was due to his alcohol addiction, which resulted in attempted murder, divorce from my mother, and losing our home. Everything became devastating because of his own faults. My mother tried to make sure his drinking would never impact me, his only living child, that I would never go down in the same route as he did. It was best that I, the child of an alcoholic, would most likely be making choices to live a good life and I still do. As for my father, things have changed for the past decade as he slowly reached to a point where he realized that his drinking caused him to make very bad decisions as well as signs of failure as a father to his only child with ASD. When I saw my father after I graduated from high school, he was not himself at that time and he had lost his job due to dispute of child support. He was passive aggressive and used verbal patterns of abusive behavior towards me in a way that it made me feel hurt so much that I would never forget what I reacted. After that, he went missing in action and no one in the family has ever heard from him for a full year. I received no phone calls, no birthday cards in the mail, and no other form of communication from him. I was very worried something had happened to him. I felt that his drinking had almost took his life and ended up in an area no one knows he's at. After a year of his absence, I received a call and it was the husky bass-baritone voice of my father in total shock on Christmas eve, 2015. As I answered the phone, he apologized to me for what he did because of his alcohol abuse and addiction that led him to bad situations until he finally realized everything he did was wrong. At the end of the message, I decided to forgive him after all he has done to me, my mother, the family, and his own friends for destroying the relationships he built out of his alcoholic selfishness. He couldn't see a therapist to treat his mental illness, but I prayed for him everyday to be a better man rather being the worst and be dead. Living with a parent at an early age has been heavily traumatic. But, it gave me insight to what I have to do so that I would make good decisions to live my life and move on with being affected by the use of alcohol in its many forms it will take. There has been saying that a child of an alcoholic may increase the chance consuming in the form of addiction and abuse. However, I believe that I will do things better rather than taken advantage.