Personal Statement
As the youngest sibling in a close-knit family, raised in a really small town in Southern Oregon, I find my story might differ from others. My eldest sister Katarina taught me when I was young to be a hard worker through academics. She demonstrated the concept well by graduating college and when she was in high school, she graduated in the top ten of her class. This really influenced me to work hard in school to succeed. Similarly, my father taught me how to work hard because I would go work with him doing hard labor all day long in hot weather. I saw the rewards after I finished working. He also taught me how to be outgoing through his radio show because he has many different people on and interacts with them. I started track my sophomore year of high school; I got the idea from playing soccer, when as a team, we would go on our two and four-mile runs for conditioning, and I would beat all my teammates. Track has taught me to persevere because when I get into races and my coach tells me to stay on another opponent, even when I am in pain, I stay on them for the whole race and most of time I win. It is always tough, but I get through it. Still, I have had many academic obstacles I have had to overcome. I was born with a learning disability but have worked throughout my youth to improve. I had a Individualized Education Program (IEP) from 3rd grade to 7th grade for the writing, but went off of it when my hard work helped me perform at grade level. As I look forward to my next couple years, I want to finish high school strong and get into college. I am extremely excited about my future in running, but also completing my academics and eventually creating a career.