I have had many close relatives that have passed in my family and each one has taught me that life is valuable. I was always told when someone passes grieve for a while but do not mourn them so much that you lose track of your life. The death of my grandfather hurt the most be he always wanted me to continue to pursue what I wanted most which is to become a physician. The plans for my life to become a physician he supported me with, he was my number one fan. For as long as I can remember growing up he always supported all my crazy goals in life. However, God took him and I believe things happen for a reason. I miss him dearly and after mourning his impactful loss I had more meaning to pursue my career. I graduated high school and got an associate's degree at the same time to give me a head start on my bachelor's degree. I had many highs and lows when doing this but I knew that my grandpa was watching over me and I would not let him down I would fight to get to my end goal that I would always talk to him about it before he passed. I did not lose sight of my future goals but I did not forget him either. Now I am in college attending Baylor University with two more years to finish my bachelor's degree and then apply to PA grad school. I miss him dearly but his death helped me focus more on what I want to do with my life and fight for it and never give up no matter the obstacle. I am going to fight until I become a Physician Assistant and get Ph.D. afterward in health science studies. I will not stop fighting for my life goals and I will always remember my number one fan my grandpa being by my side.

What can I say, finances, they are an adult’s nightmare. I just turned 18 so I am considered an adult and I guess that is going to be my nightmare soon. I have not had much finance and financial education experience as a whole. I know a bit about finances because of my mom who has a degree in business and management. I have a problem right now with finance which is having money to pay my tuition. I am planning to get a job in the summer so I can gather money so I will not have to take out student loans. I know for a fact that I want to graduate college debt free and only a few people have attained that, and I want to be one of those few. Finances is all over us and used on a daily. I get an allowance from my parents, and I create my own budget. I have money so I can spend for gas, food, emergency expenses, and save for school. I have minimum experiences with finance, but I have knowledge of it. Now for financial education I took a statistics class so that is close to any finance education. I learned a bit about everything such as budgets, expenses, and personal expenses. Overall, as you can see, I do not have much knowledge of finances but now going into college finances has been the main topic. Sadly, I did not take any finance classes in high school. Therefore, I did not learn finance, but I do plan to take a finance class to get myself more aware about such topic. When I do gain that knowledge, I know I will make a great future for myself. I plan on making a budget. As I will be working soon hopefully, there are many bills to be paid and personal expenses to be made as well. I have a plan on how to make my life with finances in the future easier and better. I want to write down all the weekly expenses in one sheet, the monthly expenses in another sheet, and the yearly expenses in another. Writing down the expenses of the amounts will give me a number so I can make a budget for a weekly, monthly, and yearly. Because as we know there are yearly taxes and only expenses that are only yearly and expenses that are only monthly/weekly. Therefore, calculating the expenses and creating a budget is how I will mange to have a better future using what I learned of finance.

My name is Yahaira De Leon I am a high school senior from a family of four. My mother and my father were never married, and we do not all life together. My mom, my brother, and I live in one house, and my father lives elsewhere. I do not want to sound cliché, but I have been interested in the medical field and that is where my desired career will be. I would like to be a cardiothoracic doctor or a registered nurse. There have been multiple reasons why I am motivated to become this profession. My brother has multiple heart problems thus he will be in and out of cardiologist offices. I will accompany my mom and my brother to those doctor visits, and I will see everything that would be done for my brother. The doctors have done many tests, check vitals, cardiograms, and etc. that have to do with checking the heart. I have been very intrigued by how doctors can help make a person get healthy and feel better. I want to help people get well, be healthy, and do everything in my power to help a person live another day. I always want to strive for the best for myself because I see how my mom with a bachelor’s degree has a stable job and a stable life. My mom as well is one of my biggest motivations to always do better in life she has two great jobs where she works H&R block and is a bookkeeper at Memorial Middle School. I want to add that I did have financial issues during the pandemic where we would live paycheck to paycheck but now, we are stable. I have been through many things that have shaped me to be organized, responsible, always on top of my schoolwork, dancing, cooking, baking, well mannered, and have great time management skills. I am very kind, considerate, helpful, and just a great well-rounded person. I may not be perfect, but I love being me knowing always living my life, studying, spending time with my dog, and doing what I love. What excites me about stem is the millions of programs and careers in that path. Learning so much about the STEM program is what excites me there is so much to learn about the medical field, which is the science section. A positive impact in a world through a job in information technology is I want to become a doctor which is a career that is very impactful. Helping people feel better is something that is very beneficial and helps people in all ways. Whether it is a doctor or any career in the stem program helps people in only positive manners because countless ways that it can not only help people but everyone in society. I look forward to learning so much in the STEM program and making a positive impact on everyone My most challenging year, my junior year, was extra rigorous because of the pandemic; everything was online. There was so much going on in the world that affected my mental health, making me unfocused. I was enrolled in college classes that year, as well as AP courses and extracurricular activities. However, I suffered multiple deaths in my family because of COVID-19, and I grieved most of the school year. I had to become self-sufficient in studying. To ensure my schoolwork was done on time or earlier, I would dedicate a couple of hours to it and other to mental health. Although it was the most challenging year for me due to circumstances, I learned to be independent and have self-care days. Throughout the four years of high school, it was not as terrifying as I thought it was going to be, but it was a wonderful and memorable experience despite the down parts. Countless challenges and unique opportunities have shaped me to be independent, organized, self-care, make sacrifices, take on opportunities, challenges, and manage my time accordingly. If the opportunities had not presented themselves during my first year of high school, I would not have been graduated top 1% of my class, ranked number 10, and become the person I am today.

There are so many people in history that you can choose from such as from men and women. Whether they are colored, different ethnicity, or whatever the case may be. There is a woman that I do admire in history and she was the first lady of the first colored president. Someone that I admire from history is Michelle Obama. She is such a strong colored woman with such an intelligent mind. I myself am not colored but I am a Hispanic female. She continues to strive no matter the labels they put on her or how much pressure she has on a first colored lady. I look up to her because she is so inspirational and inspires me to never give up. Even if she was the first lady of the president she still participated in many influential acts. She always aspired women to be the greatest they can ever be no matter color, gender, race, etc. As we all know, being a colored woman in present times may not be so easy because of how society puts things into different perspectives. The fact that she overcame all those obstacles they never brought her down because of her own confidence with to me is very admirable. In conclusion, Michelle Obama is the person that I admire in history. Even though she was not the president but she was the first colored first lady of the White House which is amazing. She used her power to help many people especially women to have a voice in this difficult society.

In this world, there is a plethora of books to read about due to the variety of genres. From history to biographies, to science fiction, to fantasy, to horror, and etc to read about. I am a person that finds it hard to find a book to enjoy reading if it is not in my interest. There are books here and there that I find personally super interesting and can never stop reading them. However, there is a book that I found a deep connection between the main character and the theme. This book is based on a true story and it is called Wonder. The book Wonder is about a little boy that has autism who goes through the trouble of trying to live a "normal" life with special features on his face. His family convinced him he was perfect but once he started to go to school he started to get bullied. The amazing thing about this little boy is that he did not listen to those bullies. Even though he did get his feelings hurt along the way he just found ways to ignore them and embrace his social features. My favorite part of this book was when he rose to be such a bright boy despite all the challenges he has had in his life. It is so inspirational that it motivates me to live every day like it is the last and to never give up no matter what challenges life may throw at you. Overall, the book is one of my favorites because it has true events and it is inspirational. I can connect with the main character to always move forward in life and just keep going. Every day is a blessing no matter if people try to ruin it.