I have seen how my parents struggle just to feed us.

I have heard their fight every

sleepless night blaming each other. I have felt how people treat us because of the differences in our
social status. It was like a bad dream, a nightmare that I wanted to cast aside. As a child, I was so
afraid that I ended up blaming them. I swore I’d never be like them, but I was just a kid back then.
Because as I grow up, I started to realize things and have moments I look back on and wish I could
change. Life isn’t about rainbows and sunshine, legos and dolls, candies and chocolates. Now, I can
finally understand my parents. I can finally see the world the way they see it, the cruelty they tried to
hide from me just to keep me safe. They can finally share their struggles with me and I can finally
share my dream with them.

Poverty has been the biggest hindrance to my success, but it has also been my loudest
cheerer, motivator and inspiration. It leads me to my biggest goal as a student, it is to finish my
study, not just for me but also for my parents. I want to make my Mother and Father proud, and show
them they did their job as a parent and raising a successful child that knows more than what I knew
better. I also want to show the world that I made it despite the discrimination and prejudice of me
marrying early. By then I can finally conclude that with a brave heart anything is possible and I made
it.

I aim to be a successful lawyer someday. I came from a poor family living in a poor
society wherein we spend more than we earn. I want to raise the voices of the farmers and my fellow
Ilocanos. I want to show them, those people with extraordinary dreams and amazing obstacles, the
flame of hope and roar of justice for our kinds. I also aim to be a reliable public servant. I believe that
government hears the voices of the poor, they live for the poor; therefore, I want to be part of that
platform. As the doctor from One Piece once said, “When do you think people die? When they are shot
through their heart? When they are ravaged by an incurable disease? When they drink a soup made
from a poisonous mushroom? No, it is when they are forgotten”. I will never forget those lines, I kept
them and I promised myself that before I die, I’ll do everything to be as remarkable as the doctor.

This is my goal and what I aim to achieve in the future. With the flames of my
determination and desire, I will burn and make my dreams come to life.