For many people facing hardship after hardship can make an easy excuse to give up and realize that maybe your life is destined for failure. For others, they decide to take those hardships and turn them into motivation to make sure they become the best version of themselves as possible. That is the route I chose.

When I was younger I had a life full of love and laughter and was a very happy child but that soon changed in my early preteens. On March 3, 2007, my mom unexpectedly passed away and that was the beginning of a long line of sorrow and sadness.

After her passing, I lost almost all motivation and that started my journey of depression. When a parent passes away you hear a lot of “I’m sorry’s” but even those words are not comforting. I did not have a lot of people around me who really understood what I was going through so I was in a sense very alone and did not know how to cope with it at first. I caught myself questioning my faith because I did not know why God would take away one of the only people in my life that I knew was always there for me and always had my best interest no matter what.

My senior year of high school while everyone was excited about beginning this next chapter of our lives I did not know what I wanted to do next. I always knew I wanted to make a name for myself and become successful but I knew I would not be able to afford tuition on my own.

In order to keep my loans amount down, I worked 2-3 jobs my entire college career and always made sure to keep my grades up so that I could get scholarships. On top of my jobs, I also always kept an internship; I knew that a degree without experience in your field, unfortunately, did not mean much.

I remember many sleepless nights, times when I would go to sleep hungry because I could not afford food, and just feeling stressed out. Getting through the last five years has not been easy and took a lot of praying, strengthening my relationship with God, and perseverance.

My last semester was full of excitement and extra stress. During January 2018-May 2018, I submitted over 400 job applications alone and was not having much luck. I started to feel discouraged and did not understand what I was doing wrong. I turned down offers that did not align with the way I saw my life going and started to question if I made the right decision. Aside from job searching everything surrounding graduation seemed to cost money and a lot of it. I started to feel myself go back quickly into a depression and did not know how to get out of it. I not only felt as if I was letting myself down but as I was letting my mom down as well.

My 23rd birthday was May 9th, the day before graduation, and although this should have been a very happy time I still felt a huge chunk of stress and disappointment. The next day at graduation my spirits were lifted a bit, even though I was stressed out over finding a job in my field and finances. I was so proud of myself.

During my graduation ceremony, I received a call that I made it to a final round interview for a dream position of mine. I immediately knew God had been hearing my prayers. It was on His timeline and not mine. And just to make sure I knew that this was all His doing, God scheduled my interview for the position the following Monday, right after Mother’s Day. An indescribable happiness and peace fell over me upon that notification. I felt my mom’s presence and a huge relief from all of the stress I have been harboring. The interview seemed to have gone very well and I felt a good vibe from everyone but you can never be too sure. So I still prayed on it every day. My prayers were answered again on His timing. I received the call the next week that I landed the job.

May 2018 was one of the best months of my life. I hit a milestone birthday, graduated with my B.A in Public Relations with a minor in Retail and Consumer Science from the University of Houston, and landed my dream job just weeks after graduating college. Losing a parent and being in college is not easy. Many students rely on their parents help emotionally and financially while in school so for me not being able to have that was challenging. But what I did have was God. And with Him, I can proudly say that I overcame one of my biggest obstacles in life thus far.

Ready to start the next phase of my life, I can boldly say that I may not know where life will take me next but I do know that I am determined to succeed.