Since a young age, I have found that living a life based on ethics and values is very important to me. It is something I have looked for in people that I surround myself with. I wanted to be around people that had convictions stronger than mine, people that could provide mutual growth. A value that means a lot to me is ambition and drive. The ladder of success is a ladder that I have wanted to conquer since I was a teen. As soon as I graduated college, I had the need to start college and enter into the workforce. I wanted to strengthen myself academically, but I couldn’t bare to hold my career back. I entered the financial industry as a simple customer service representative. Through hard work and drive, year after year I found myself aligned with promotions and accolades. This put my education on the back burner. Growing up I found that there is a ceiling in the financial industry that is capped with your level education, so my ambition drove me to get back into gear with school and start taking classes to finish my degree. Not being in school for over 4 years, and jumping back in full time, while working 46 hours a week has not been easy, but I know that it will be worth it in the end.

Growing up the ladder of success branched in many directions. The need to be the best I could, to be at the top meant, I needed to be the smartest, the strongest, the most faithful, the most pious, and the most honest of all of my colleagues. My dad is a neurologist, my mother is a nurse, my oldest sister is a doctor, my second oldest sister is a CPA, and my youngest sister is a senior in college on her way to pharmacy school. Yet here I am, 6 years older than my youngest sister, and 30 credits behind her. Of my older sisters, I am the only one without a terminal degree. This has fueled my drive to push through academia and show my parents that I am just as sufficient.

I believe I stuck to the values that I found most important. I am proud of the accomplishments that I have achieved. I have always strived to be the best I could be. I have not stopped climbing the ladder of success, and I believe my drive and ambition will help me continue to elevate.