It seems corny, maybe even less than but I think my biggest achievement to date is not giving up on my life and my future. As a low income student and youngest of 4 it has been very hard for me to stay the course. When you grow up with nothing it’s easy to think that your future will repeat the cycle. All 3 of my siblings never finished high school so growing up I had no one to really look up to or even a solid reason to do what I’m doing but now more than ever I realized that I do. Everyone talks about the oldest child, and the middle but the youngest is played off as the one who has no struggles and no worries, however in a low income household I’ve found myself with the pressure and weight to make it out so the cycle can not continue. Not giving up is my biggest accomplishment to date because despite how I feel, I have borderline Personality disorder so what I feel, I feel intensely. It’s almost like I’m feeling emotions with my entire body and soul. I have battled this while simultaneously trying to be the daughter who isn’t seen as a failure, while trying to figure out how to take care of my mother because she is 55 and her health isn’t getting any better, we don’t have a stable place to live at the moment either . Despite it all I have sacrificed my mental health and even physical to make it to college, getting accepted was the best feeling ever. My mom smiled ear to ear while hearing toy accomplishment yet when you’re low income based, a deep thinker and a perfectionist, things don’t stay happy very long at all. I immediately started thinking about how can I afford room and board, how can I afford tuition, how will I make it all 4 years to get my degree if I can’t even afford my first car at 18 years old. I really don’t want the acceptance into college be the furthest I get because of my financial circumstances. I don’t want to be older in the future and tell my kids that I almost made it but I couldn’t reach far enough. So I try and I try and I try which is why I am so grateful for scholarships like these. What people do for others is the most admirable thing about the human race, and even if I didn’t get this scholarship I can’t be mad at anyone because there are others like me who maybe have worse situations. Unfortunately with the economy and the world in general, it revolves on money, it breathes it like oxygen, and we, the few and the proud but less fortunate are suffocating, grabbing for a morsel of higher education because we want to be different, we want to change and not conform. This experience, from homelessness, to current financial struggle to make ends meet, it has shown me what I want in life, what I don’t want in life and how much stronger I am and have been for everyone around me In the future I hope to have gotten my bachelors degree in English, I want to write novels and books and screen write for movies and shows. Most people say it’s a silly dream and the pay is horrible and unlikely but what I desire most is to give people the experience is gave me growing up. Books and writing helped me cope and survive, the words that were stuck in my throat bled onto the paper and I felt free, Mary Frazier felt free. I created worlds and characters and for once I felt in control of something, I couldn’t control my living situation, money or my mothers health but I could control where I projected my anger, sadness and turmoil. Those worlds I created helped me stay sane, and I think the world could use a bit of sane. However if I were to define the greatest writers, they had to have to right amount of crazy to chase the same dream I am in the face of uncertainty. So for me, not giving up has been my biggest achievement, in the face of disappointment, in the face of adversity and doubt, in mental health deterioration and in my sadness. I still smile and wonder how my future will look because I’m not stopping until I get to it.

It was A few weeks before the start of Covid. I was 13 years old and my brother was 15. We were outside the door of the place we had just been kicked out of that let us stay one night while we were evicted from our apartment. I just remember how cold it was, my fingers were freezing as well as my legs and my brother and I had one blanket to cover up with while my mom went to go put our things up in storage. I didn’t like seeing my brother cold so I gave my brother the cover and got up and started pacing and back and forth while I was going back and forth trying to keep myself awake and alive with 2 thoughts: “Is this really how you die?” And “I want to die” For the next 5 years we would move around 9 times. And even now I and my mother live in a place called Potters Children’s home until I am off to college. For me it’s been rough being the only one trying to break cycles in my family with poverty, drug abuse, teen pregnancy, dropping out, living off of food stamps and in section 8. Though I’ve grown up around it, it made me afraid of it all. I want better for myself even if I don’t know how to get to it. I figure my education and being the first of my mother’s children to go to University and be accepted or even graduate high school is a good first step. After coming out of many storms such as these it has ruined my mental health and dimmed my spirit but there’s still a spark there, it has molded me and my heart into what I am now and why I keep pushing forward. I desire to make a difference to others around me, to show it is possible to be pulled out of the endless pit. Financial struggle is no stranger to me but it showed me that I needed to end that cycle in my family, poverty is no stranger either but again it’s showed me what I did not want. My mom is 55 with so many health issues and not getting any younger, she can’t provide what I need for college, we barely have our own car that works, despite this I rather not complain but try with everything in me until the end to make something happen. This scholarship would take so much weight off of me and my mom so she can see at least one of her 4 kids make it before she goes. This money to me is an investment to my future and a ripple effect to potential impact I could have on others when I accomplish what I’m aiming for. This is my story, it might seem vague but if I told it all, I’d need more than 500 words to do it justice. Thank you all.

Writing can make or break anything. I know that’s a bold statement but I, Mary Frazier , am here to explain why and how I want to use my ability to write and ambition to learn to write better in college is so important. We often look at writing as a thing to just get through life with but it’s such a beautiful gift to have because words—regardless of anyone wanting to admit it— can make or break a person. For example great speakers always had to write down most of what they wanted to convey, some words were so moving that it turned the course of history all together and that’s something I want to be apart of and contribute to. I plan on continuing writing in college and learning the ins and outs of the beautiful language I speak and use it to spread hope and the aspiration to be something (even though everyone is something from the moment they are born, they just haven’t fully stepped into it yet) and turn others lives around. In my darkest moments writing has created an outlet for me, an escape to entirely different galaxies and world’s unimaginable. While in college I plan on majoring in English and soaking up everything I learn about how to make my words much more eloquent and absorbable for audiences I want to put product out for, because see my biggest dream is to become a novelist or screenwriter, but both would be a dream come true. To me getting these credentials in college is super important for me especially if I want to break into an industry for screen writing. So I want to take advantage of college and be around others who know more than me, because when I am faced with people who are wiser and much more knowledgeable than me, I don’t cower or get intimidate but I sit and watch how they’ve gotten to that place that I’m climbing. I will be the first ever in my family to graduate high school and go to college and I can’t believe it nor did I think I’d make it as far as I have because I did think I would follow in my families footsteps but I’ve come so far to stop here and call it the end of the line. Even if financially I’m figuring it all out on my own that’s okay because what I go through I still use to fuel my desire to speak and write to the masses and hope that one day people like me will also see that the future may look dim right now but once you get out the storm then the calm returns. Many talk about the calm before the storm but I’m here to show that there is also an after and if we can fight until we get there then it will all be worth it. Thank you to whoever is reading this, I hope you have a great day!

How do you write on paper? With your left hand or your right? With your mind or with your soul. My name is Mary Frazier and I am 17 years old and fortunately an incoming college freshmen if I can just find funding. In the future I really want to be a novelist/screenwriter/director at some point. Those things are what I’ve had an interest in for a while but haven’t had as much time honing my crafts since me and my mom and brother move a lot due to unstable living arrangements and lack of money so it’s a bit stressful still trying to pursue something that just doesn’t seem to be as important compared to where I’ll lay my head at night. The reason I want to pursue this is because I never really had friends at all and even to this day, but I would always find comfort in creating and structuring entire world—galaxies even—through my words. It changed my life personally to see my words come to life and be there for me more than actual people that I knew. I really used to be a lonely child so to write and express, especially through poetry, it helped me release a lot of things that I just could not physically speak of to another human being. I want my novels or scripts or any of those things to make a difference because I can genuinely realize that the world needs a difference, and with words there is reconciliation, communication and more that can be expressed with them. I also want to show that if you fight for something hard enough it can be achieved, as of right now we live under the Potters house for children and they’ve helped us a lot but once I turn 18 it’s over and it worries me that I won’t be able to chase my dreams and make it become a reality because I will have to work more than I already do to help with my mom and such because she’s a bit disabled and was recently diagnosed with diabetes and constantly gets sick. I’m not saying all of this to get pity but to show my motivation for why I’m working so hard to do what I do, why I try to be perfect in school and everything that follows. While many times I’ve wished to be from some advantaged family who could send me to college, I realized that it’s not going to happen and that I have to make it happen for myself. So yes I want to change the world one book at a time, show little kids that imagination can become reality and move others with my words and be relevant to the worlds struggles and provide an outlet and pleasure for others, but also I’m afraid to fail because it’s not an option for me because if I do I won’t be able to comprehend my failure because it’s not only mine but also my mom who’s raised me by herself for so long and I just want to give back what she lost sacrificing to have me before it’s her time . So again I say from my original work, “How do you write on paper, with your left hand or your right? With your mind or with your soul?.” To me words aren’t just letters on paper but to sum it up, simply in its totality, words are part of my soul and attached to my reality. Thank you for reading I hope anyone considering reading this has a great day!.

Hi my name is Mary Frazier and today I will be explaining just how this scholarship could and would help me. I’m the youngest out of 4 and currently the only one who is graduating high school in may of 2025, the rest have had kids or dropped out. Really since 13 years old, my brother, my mother and I have been moving constantly due to not having a stable place to stay, first in a motel and then the Salvation Army, then we had an apartment for a year till we could no longer pay. We then moved in with our grandmother for 2 years and then we came back to where we were and stayed with my mothers friend, then a random family, then in a place called the Potters home which I currently reside. Despite financial struggles, chaos, and my mental health I have tried my best to hang on and hold onto the hope that I can and will be something. I have refused to give up and let my life be like my family’s. This is why college and getting a degree for something I love and know I’ll make an impact doing is so important for me. I really realized I’ve got to be the first in my family to make it out and mentally I’ve already decided that I will be the first to make it out. My dream if I were to specify it is to write novels and also have those books become movies one day. I want to inspire others to dream and realize those things can become a reality despite upbringing. This scholarship can help me in this goal to where I am going. This scholarship is like treasure In my eyes especially since I have no financial support from any of my family and it’s just me alone. My McDonald’s job won’t cover my fees but I figure this scholarship can help me get much closer to my goals. I remember 2 quotes, one from a man on a YouTube video actually and it inspires me to keep going and the other I first saw on Pinterest in my freshman year of Highschool. The one from YouTube said: “If I can just get through the fire, if you can just get through it, then you’ll come out furnished like gold” and the second quote said : “What if everything you are going through right now is preparing you for what you asked for”. To this day I can not forget both of those quotes because it keeps me going, to realize that the storm may come but I must stand firm because soon the rainbow and the sun will follow to show that maybe it isn’t that bad, that maybe life despite struggle can be simply beautiful. Thank you for reading, I’m Mary Frazier and I hope you can take this into consideration, have a great day! I