The most influential person in my life is a very special person that has been with me since the beginning. That person saw me take my first steps, heard my first words, and cured my first cut. That person is Patricia, my mother. I can count on her for everything no matter how bad she will always stick with me till the end. She has taught me a lot of things throughout my life for example she taught me to never give up no matter what, if I want something in life I can’t quit even if I fall once or twice I keep trying till I succeed. She’s the greatest example of a hard working person, that’s who I want to be when I grow up. She has also influenced me in one of the biggest ways possible, she has taught me that you can live a life without alcohol and drugs the way she has hers.

I remember when I was playing my first soccer game I was defense and the other kids kept shoving and getting passed me and we lost it wasn’t mainly my fault but we did loose. Right after the game I told her I wanted to quit and I thought she was mad because we had lost but she wasn’t she was mad because I had quit. That night she gave me a speech about how quitters never get anywhere in life and if I quit on this one thing I might quit on bigger things down the road. She influenced me no to quit on soccer and thanks to that I kept trying till I got better.

She is one of my biggest motivators to go to school and to do my best because when she was young she didn’t get very far with her education. My grandparents didn’t have the money to keep her and her 9 siblings in school so she started working at the age of 13 to help her family out. She always talks to me about the value of education and that she doesn’t want me to have to do back breaking work every day like she does to support us. That’s one of the biggest reasons why I want to get to college to make myself and my mother proud.

My mom has showed me that peer pressure is not real and that we make the choices we want day by day. Drugs and alcohol are never the answer to any problem and she has shown me that in two ways. First she has lived a life free of alcohol and drugs, she has never given in no matter how pressured she was. And she has reminded me every day since 8th grade that I should never use drugs and the day that I decide to use them she will be heartbroken and disappointed not mad. And to me that a great influence and when I grow up and have kids I want to do the same for them.