There are times when my thoughts can overwhelm my train of thought and cause me to think that even though life is really good for me that it is so terrible that there is nothing at all good about it, but in reality there have been so many challenging times in my life that getting to this point in my life and being as independent and successful as I am is nothing short of a miracle and something that I realize that I need to be proud of.

My life has indeed been challenging. There have been a myriad of issues, incidents and events that have not made me the proudest person and have caused me great stress and agility to not only myself but family and those caring for me too. While I have been blessed to have two amazing parents that fought tooth and nail many times against systems that were uneducated themselves and had many other detrimental thoughts to make my life even more challenging, they have always seen the potential even more than I have allowed  myself to see and with the right services and support, I would overcome the challenges that I was experiencing and come out of it a better person and indeed I did.

My mom was even better than the advocate themselves and made sure that I got what I needed when I could not even speak for myself. My father was the backup person when my mother was challenged by the detriment of my challenges and got me to what was possible when many, including my mother, thought it could not be possible. They were the ones who took countless jabs of physical and verbal abuse from me when things were challenging, but one thing that they did not do was ever give up, even when the times were tough and there was no sign of better times ahead. They kept things going until they resembled some sense of normalcy.

It can be hard to imagine all of those tough moments in my life that were hard for myself, my family and those that supported me along the way, but it also has made me stronger when the moment dictated itself when others in my family had their own struggles because I have overcome so much in my life and even though there are times when I think it is really bad, there is also a part of me that also realizes how bad that it could really be if I allowed myself to get in a detrimental position and that it is important to redirect myself and remember all the challenges that I have been though how amazing that it is to be able to be where I am today and be able to do the things that I am able to do and how much work it did take to get here and even though there are challenging moments that come from time to time, there is always a promise of a new day ahead and hope that things will be just fine if I allow myself to continue to focus on the good and be optimistic about the future by working more on improving on what needs to be worked on and allowing myself to grow even more.