I was born and raised in Waco, Texas. I'm an only child, so people tend to have the stereotypical impression that I'm spoiled, but I disagree. I was raised to put others before myself and be respectful of their feelings. I was taught to always be happy, not to let anything or anyone get me down and to always have a positive outlook towards everything. Your outlook on life says a lot about the person you are. I have always been very optimistic; I tend to see the good in everything and everyone. I believe that no matter what you are going through in life, there is always something good around the corner. This mindset has a positive impact on my behavior, it has helped me to be very aware of who I am and I believe this has allowed me to establish a solid foundation towards who I want to become. Many people have asked me how I manage to always stay so positive. My answer is that it is very important to understand that life goes on, no matter what happens to you, you have to stay strong despite everything. It's not about how many times you get knocked down; it's about how many times you get back up and continue to be strong. There have been multiple events and relationships that have affected me for periods of time, but I have healed and continue to strive to get better every day. When I was five years old I started kindergarten at La Vega Elementary School. About halfway through the year my parents decided we needed to move house, which meant I needed to move schools too, so I moved to Cedar Ridge Elementary. At first it was difficult to adapt to the new environment, but after a while I got used to it and liked the new school. I went there all through fifth grade and then I moved on... halfway through the paper... I had the death of two people very close to me. One was the man who lived next door to me when I lived in my first house. I never had a very close grandfather, but he was there from the day I was born, I loved him as if he were my real grandfather. My cousin's wife also died this summer. She wasn't closely related to me, but for the last ten years she lived in the house right across the street from my current house and I saw her daily, she was honestly like a second mom to me. These events really opened my eyes and made me realize how precious life is and how much I should appreciate it because it can be gone in an instant. Both of these deaths and my mother's fight with cancer have affected me a lot in the last few months, but I'm slowly feeling better about how things are going, I refuse to lose my positivity.