It is usually so difficult to focus on the positive qualities about ourselves because it often feels like the bad qualities overshadow all that is good within ourselves. At only 17 years old, I have done a lot of self-reflection lately because I felt the pressure of trying to be perfect, but never being able to succeed. After going on this journey, I have recognized and favored one of my most ideal qualities, which is my nature to persevere even when all odds are stacked against me. When I was 10 or 11 years old, my brother joined an after-school STEM program and I noticed that it was an all-male club, I had been trying to find my passion and what I desired to do long term. Being a young, black female, I was certainly a minority in the STEM program. I pleaded with my mom to let me join this program with my brother because I knew this would be an experience of a lifetime, she finally buckled and allowed me to join him. I walked in on my first day with a hopeful attitude and looking forward to the moment that this program would present to me. As I predicted, there was no one who looked like me, aside from my brother, I was the only other minority and I was the only female. I ignored this because I thought to myself, "I can do anything that they can do." The first project that was assigned to us was to program a robot to be able to follow a tape trail and we were aimlessly assigned a group to perform this task. As I walked over to my group, it seemed like they all knew each other since they were making jokes and ready to begin. When I sat down, I immediately felt a negative shift in the group, but I ignore it since I figured it was because we simply were not acquainted yet. We quickly got to work considering we were on an exceptionally tight time crunch. I was not taken seriously because I was physically different from everyone else. I kept giving suggestions, but they were constantly being ignored. I swiftly realized, that being nice was not going to get me to be taken seriously, so I got frustrated and demanded some sort of respect since I was a human being just like them. After that, it was as if I were talking to completely new people, they would listen to my suggestions which ultimately made the robot work in a more precise and calculated manner. The bell finally rang, time was up, and we were ready to be judged on the accuracy of our robots. After what felt like forever, we had an almost perfect run. Unfortunately, another team defeated us, so we received second place which I was content with because we did it as a team. If I had just let my teammates underestimate me, we may have not even received such a high placement. Even though this was just a small experience in my life, I completely believe that it opened my eyes to one of my strongest qualities. I have concluded that this quality will help me in any field I decide to pursue because it is universally helpful.

Growing up, my parents have done an amazing job of providing me with numerous volunteer opportunities. One time that stuck out to me was when I was volunteering for the Habitat for Humanity organization. This was a few years ago so I don't remember all of the specific details, but I do remember that we were moving desks out of what appeared to be a storage unit, it was a hot and stuffy day with a lot of people in an enclosed space. I was somewhere between 10-12 and my family and I have done this a few times. I vividly recall being nothing short of exhausted because I always put my all into everything that I do and the outside conditions just exacerbated this overwhelming feeling of fatigue. My friend would always ask me why I am so tired all of the time because I would always mention the soreness in my muscles. I explained to her that I volunteered with Habitat for Humanity every Saturday for a couple of months, so that was the reason. I could see her face change from confusion to a flood of empathy. She then asked me more details about what I did to help and started asking in-depth questions like the name of the lady that helped my family and I get started. After I gave her all of this information, I saw her face light up and she said that she was going to join the quickly growing community. I felt a sense of excitement that I helped make a connection and did something that would be for the good of more people at the same time. I found it so interesting that I was able to make that happen just by mentioning it a couple of times. I was completely riveted that my resilience was able to help someone else find a path that may work for her and that would ultimately find and help people in need. This experience has always and will forever stick with me because of the mere way it played out. I would not trade this experience for anything in the world because without this, I would not have directly learned that hard work will always pay off sooner or later. While I don't volunteer as often as I did before, I still make time for volunteering. Whenever I have that spent feeling, I always remember this experience and without fail, it keeps me going.