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"Just eat the chicken they don't feel it when they die" was something I was told constantly as a child by my parents every time I expressed sadness about eating meat. But deep down inside I always felt that what I was doing was wrong and I always felt so guilty eating something that used to be a breathing living being. But I would put my thoughts aside and just eat what was on my plate. This changed two years ago when I decided I no longer wanted to contribute to animal cruelty and I became a vegetarian.

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Everyone has different goals and their own way of achieving them. College is a significant part of life that will help me reach my goals the correct way. Getting a good education is the first step, and learning to become more independent is the next. Determination plays a huge role as well. Education is a very powerful thing, that we are lucky to have in this life.

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“Nicole Chavez please report to the main office ready to go,” I heard as a third grader in Flocktown Elementary school. I was so excited, I was the kid who got to go to the office and be sent home early. As I arrived in the office I noticed something strange. My brother was there along with my mother, but not my father. She told us that it was a day that we just get to play “hooky,” but it turned into a day I will never forget. As we packed all of our backpacks and things into the car, my eleven-year-old brother asked, “Where are we going,” and my mother replied, “To visit grandma.” We loved our grandma so much and became very excited to see her. We both didn’t understand why today we would travel an hour and fifteen minutes to see my grandma if we were in school, but the two of us were happy to be out of school and going to see our grandma that we ignored the inability to understand why we had left early.

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Discovering something you don’t want to hear is not always easy. One of the hardest things I’ve went through in life was finding out my bones were starting to close and I only had two options to choose from. The first option was not doing anything about it, and just accepting the fact about it. The second option was to take Growth hormones, and having a certain timeline to follow. I think choosing between the two options was the hardest thing to do in my life, because I had no clue what to expect. What I didn’t realize was that the option I chose would take longer than I thought. During this process, it changed my life dramatically, and to this day I am beyond thankful for what the doctors were able to do for me.

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When you experience your first love, you are blinded by all of their flaws and imperfections. The person who you are hopelessly in love with may cause you more harm than good. While all of those around you insist that this is not the kind of person you should be with, the last thing you want to hear from them is ‘’I told you so.’’. It takes a life changing situation to realize their true colors. When my pregnancy test revealed two lines, the person who I thought was incapable of ever causing me harm damaged me forever.

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I now realize how precious life is, because I've have seen how easily it can be taken away from us. A couple of years ago, I was involved in a serious car accident when coming home from a party. It was your typical high school party where kids drank and seemed to forget about all of their problems. Except it didn't end well  for me and my friends. This moment altered my perception of life and it changed me, I believe for the better. The experience was a frightening one, but eye-opening.

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There will always be people that say things about me and try to put me down, but it is my decision whether to let that impact my life.  In the beginning of the year, I was friends with my roommate that I met during orientation.  We were best friends as people would say, but towards the end of the first semester our friendship went south.  When I made the decision not to be friends anymore, that took a lot of stress off of my shoulders!  Once she started to talk about me, that is when I decided that I need a change.

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Walking into a hot, sweaty gym with no air conditioning and intimidating older girls staring me down from head to toe gave me the overwhelming feeling that I didn’t belong. It was tryouts at my high school for the competition cheerleading team; the team everyone wanted to be on. I always had the dream to become a cheerleader, but receiving the news that I didn’t make the team crushed every bone in my body. The feeling of not being good enough taught me the process of getting knocked down, but I ultimately learned it’s about getting back up.

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Have you ever been so nervous that if felt like your heart was beating a million times per minute? I experienced this feeling in my grammar school talent show and I will never forget it. Ever since I was child, I always found an interest in singing. However, I have never performed in front a huge audience before; though I always said to myself I would whenever I got the chance. When I was in sixth grade, my school was hosting their very first talent show for all the students, staff, and faculty to watch. I signed up as soon as I heard. Two weeks later on the actual day of the talent show, I was nervous wreck and thought the whole thing was going to be a massive disaster. Then again, it turned out to be the best thing that has ever happened to me.

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