Human Trafficking. As members of society do not always directly experience the impact of human trafficking many members have grown blind to this problem. Human Trafficking is primarily the kidnapping and selling of humans. This includes young and old. Human Trafficking is goes hand in hand with Sex Trafficking which is the kidnapping and selling of humans for the purpose of sexual intent. "The number of U.S. citizens trafficked within the country each year is even higher, with an estimated 200,000 American children at risk for trafficking into the sex industry. (U.S. Department of Justice)". Two hundred thousand children! Two hundred thousand children are at risk of being kidnapped and raped by sick people. If this does not show we have an incredibly large problem at hand I am not sure what will. This is a huge problem impacting the safety of everybody in society as all ages are targeted in different ways. In pomona california this is common. It is common for young girls to walk home from school and never make it home. Nobody knows what happens or is able to find them. It is like they just disappear. Not even a month ago a school mates sister went missing on her way home from a friend's house. Nobody has heard from her since. For the sake of safety it is clear there needs to be more organizations and a larger movement against Human and Sex Trafficking as a whole. When a child goes missing it should not just be another face in the news paper. It should be search parties, investigations and arrests. Change needs to happen! We need to fight for the lives taken by sexual and physical abuse. We need to fight against our children being taken next.

"That is not true", "You are just saying that because of your parents", "You don't really understand what you are talking about". I have heard these comments day in and out as I express my beliefs. People assume that because I am not an adult that I do not have the mental capacity to have my own beliefs. The reality is that I base my beliefs upon my morals and factual evidence I have been exposed to that support them. I have personally faced racism, bullying, sexual harassment, and so many other things I feel nobody should have to experience. The reality is that several people feel those things were somehow my fault. Somehow to others being a victim of sexual harassment is my fault for wearing tight clothes. I use these experiences to build courage to speak my mind and stand up for others so that they will never face those challenges or at least will have somebody to lean on who has experienced it. Honesty, integrity, and bravery are all factors I had to grow and develop. I have always respected the opinions and ideas of others and in turn expect them to respect mine even if they do not agree. I learned very quickly that people will not respect my opinions but also that respect is a healthy part of a relationship. I choose to surround myself with people who are respectful of what I believe. Through years of people not respecting my opinion it has actually made me respect my opinion more and stand up for what I believe in. I do not fear what my family will say or think. I will forever be entitled to my opinion and nobody can change that. I intend to continue standing up for what I believe is right.

College, veterinary school, my dream, will be my top priorities financially until I have fulfilled my education. In the present day, I am struggling to earn money that will pay my enrollment fees and dorm necessities. I live in a low-income household I try to earn my money instead of burdening it on my family. So if I had a thousand dollars it would go toward my educational future and maybe some groceries for my family. Growing up with a single parent who works day in and out to provide food on the table and a roof on my head has taught me to work for everything I want in life. I am doing everything in my power to make sure that my college expenses will not take a toll on my family. My way of giving back to my community has always been gardening. I plant foods and distribute them door to door. My goal is that I will eventually give back in a way that might be more meaningful. I intend to encourage your minds to seek and work for the education they deserve like I am doing now.

The best confidence starts with Self-Love. Confidence is a sense of knowing you can do something and not letting the negative people phase you. Confidence can also mean that you believe in yourself and what you stand for. Throughout my life, I have been bullied for not looking like the rest of my classmates or for not having a normal support system. Being Native American I have thick, long, brown, frizzy hair, tan skin, and dark brown eyes. Many people do not have the ability to look past the simple flaws that make people human and see the true beauty beneath them. However, I do, my hair may have been frizzy but it was triple the amount of hair the average girl had, my teeth may have been crooked but that was not a permanent problem, I may have dark eyes but in the sun they looked like honey. Unlike me, the bullies had permanent ugly features on the inside. I am proud of myself, my accomplishments, and my beauty regardless of what others think or say because I love myself. Racism, sexism, and bullying are all factors that have affected my life but above all my self-love has conquered all and my confidence has thrived with every experience I fought through. To be confident is to be loved and strong in so many ways but for me, I know as long as I love myself for who I am the dirty comments mean nothing. In truth, each person experiences confidence in different ways but one is not truly confident until they experience self-love. I will never let haters break me down or feel worth less than I am. I am beautiful, brave, strong, and kind. I intend to continue loving myself and help others find their self-love.

Family, love, memories, animals, and my future. These things not only motivate me but help me push through the challenges life has thrown at me. I have had numerous losses and hardships throughout my life. April 7th, 2021, I faced the hardest challenge I have experienced so far. I went outside and found my dog, Cater. He had been a part of my life since I could remember. And there he was, still, stiff, and cold. I remember screaming until the blood vessels in my face burst. The pain in my heart was indescribable. The only things that got me through the day were the memories of Carter I had and my dad. Yet somehow that was only the beginning. My mom, grandpa, grandma, aunt, animals, and so many more left gaping wounds in my heart. I did not always know how to handle these losses and experienced severe stages of depression. Each day was a battle and eventually, I won the war by keeping in mind my family, memories of them, and my future. Through each hardship, I continued to fight for my future. My mom died as a teenager. She never went to college or fulfilled her education. I learned to bring the single memory I have of her with me to help me get through all the challenges of education. The journey of life has led me through numerous days of volunteer work, performances, and 12 years of education! I had to overcome my grief to focus on school. It has taught me I can overcome the inevitable hardships to come. As I have persevered through the ones already faced. With a proper support system and positivity, I know I can make my dreams a reality. I intend to.

At a young age, death clouded my life: my mom, grandpa, grandmas, and aunt. Death is one of the hardest things to experience as it feels like a gaping void in your soul. I went through each loss hearing people tell me, "̈It is going to be okay" and "I know how you feel" but they didn't. When my loved ones lose someone close to their hearts I let them fall apart in my arms. Then I piece them back together with good memories and love. The way I wanted to be when I felt hopeless. Eventually, as losses continued my connection with empathy grew. Then, one day, my cousin called me in tears. His father had been battling cancer for years and it was getting worse. He needed yet another risky surgery. Empathy may have stopped my cousin from killing himself. Depression is a difficult problem to face, when feeling hopeless sometimes it is hard to see what there is to live for and easy to overlook the good in life. My cousin reached out for help and being able to empathize with him and let him know just a fraction of how much he was loved made him realize how much he had to live for. Helping him realize his little sister and mom were going through the same thing and if they lost him it would be like losing the two closest people in the world. I told him he was too loved to lose faith in life because it was hard. Everybody experiences different things in life and we must remember that we do not know exactly how someone is feeling. We can only empathize and love. I intend to do that in the future while I pursue Veterinary Medicine helping people overcome difficulties and grief.

What do I do to take a step back and focus on myself? Well, have a daily skin care routine, I garden, I journal, and sometimes just spend time with my animals. My skin care includes a gentle cleanser and apricot exfoliator. Followed up by a cleansing face mask. Then a soothing moisturizer and vitamin c oil. These really help relax my skin and just make me feel good. Gardening is my form of emotional therapy! I absolutely love it and think it is incredible that I help give way for new life. The feeling of the cold soil in my fingers on a hot day is lovely. Also, watching my plants grow feels like an accomplishment. With every new plant I am able to give back and provide fresh food for my local community. Then of course there is journaling. That is the part of my day when I connect with myself and my thoughts. I get to let every word spill onto the pages and release any stress, grief, or pain I am feeling. It is like the emotions melt out through the ink of my pen. Releasing a burden. My mental health is a high priority in my life and I continue to follow a routine that helps me monitor and improve it.

My work drive and journey to the road of higher education have taught me my most valuable quality is my intelligence. It has not only guided me through the first 12 years of education but the first 12 years of hardships and experiencing the world. I began to experience loss at a young age starting with my mother. Losing a parent is an indescribable event that changes one's life forever. My dad took over as a young single father and has raised me since. My intellectual ability has allowed me to live a life that would have made my mother proud and continues to make my father proud. My father with support from the Chumash Indian Tribe was able to enroll me into private school. From that point forward, school became an essential part of my life. I learned very quickly that I loved learning and that there were so many possibilities for me in life. So now in high school getting ready to graduate it is so clear to me that I want to pursue something greater in life. Without my intellectual ability, it is very likely I would have fallen into the same pattern that my parents did instead of having learned from their mistakes. My mother was pregnant in high school and my dad was a father at 18. I am so grateful for all they have given me but I have come to realize that I can do better than a high school dropout. I can be the first in my family to graduate and be successful. I have not had many role models in my life but thanks to my intellect I have placed my standards in life high above those that the rest of my family follows. Although they are good people they fall into the darker parts of their personalities in a way I strive not to do. This characteristic of myself will continue to encourage me to do the best and be the best version of myself. Life is never easy. In life, all good things come to an end as much as we pray they will not. I have learned to define my life with the good moments not the bad. For years I believed I was the cause of the constant loss clouding my heart before I realized that I was in no way responsible and was tired of blaming myself. I learned to love myself and appreciate everything life had to offer. I know my intelligence will help me get through life considering it already has in numerous ways.

Adversity is an overruling factor in my life. I have faced racism, financial struggles, and bullying. Somehow, this is only the beginning of the struggles I have faced and overcome. My skin is light brown, my eyes, dark brown, and my hair is somewhere in between. My appearance has been the leading reason for my bullying and the racism I have faced. It had been assumed that I was a light-skinned African American and I have faced those racist comments and names. For those who know I am Native American, I have been made fun of, having white children run around me in circles making absurd chants and reenacting what they have seen in foolish cartoons. Then there are the times I was told I would never have a future and would end up pregnant at seventeen because I was Latina. As a child this torment was unbearable and I did not understand what I had done to deserve it. But, through each instance, I learned to be strong and take each word with a grain of salt knowing I would prove them all wrong by having an incredible future and education. As a child, I lived in a three-bedroom home with seven people and three animals living in it. It was what we could afford together. Each of us shared a room. At one point I had to sleep on a cot because there was no room in the beds. When my father and I finally moved we got a tiny home that used to be a garage. It was cozy at first with a bathroom, bedroom, and kitchen. But then we realized there was black mold, there were bugs, and the toilet barely functioned. The landlord refused to fix anything. We lived there for almost seven years. After saving up we moved again. I now have my own room and there are no safety hazards. My dad and I were a team and we got through the struggles together. My whole life I have been bullied. I have what my family calls "Native Hair". It is long, thick, frizzy hair that came with my ethnicity of Native American. Before I learned how to style it I was tormented for it every day at school. I had people tell me I should just chop it off or hide it never understanding why. I experienced having teachers and proctors ignore the dirty comments or the kids pulling my hair. Then after fifth grade, I was still very short. From that point until high school I was bullied for not being tall enough. I have constantly shoved around or picked up. I also often had people go in front of me in lunch lines saying I was so short they didn't see me. This bullying lasted through high school. In between these instances, I also managed to get bullied for having a deceased mom, having crooked teeth, having braces, having dark-colored eyes, and for my voice. For years I would cry and put up will all the bullies and their comments. I used to take each one to heart. Then, I realized I was beautiful and I liked the way I looked. I learned to love myself and not hyperfocus on other people's opinions. I do my best to support those who are being bullied and now grow a community garden to support those with financial issues. I do everything in my power to make sure nobody in my community goes hungry. In the future, I plan to do the same.

My grandpa was my everything. He taught me the foundation of what my education has been built on and loved me like his own daughter. He was my everything for eleven years of my life teaching me to live my best life. However, nothing lasts forever. My grandpa got in a car accident three days before my birthday and my world was stripped away from me. I felt like I was caught in the middle of a packed highway. I had to learn to be my everything without my grandpa; to love without fear of loss. I am my everything.