What makes your story unique:

I wrote this one paper about my father. He’s not in my life anymore. My main motivation was to prove to my father that I don’t need him to succeed, to be who I want to be. That was a hard paper to write because it’s personal. There’s not much to talk about. He left at a young age and I don’t have a father figure in my life; my grandfathers both passed away, and I don’t consider my uncle a father figure. Learning how to do things a man should know without being taught by a man is hard.

What inspires you:

My mom does the best she can for me and my three sisters; she plays both parental roles. She’s taught me many things my dad couldn’t teach me. We moved from Florida to here when my mom and dad divorced so we could start over, have a new life and move on. I have to be the best I can be to prove to my dad that him not being there doesn’t affect anything, even though it’s hard to not have him.