For as long as I could remember, it has been my fondest dream to attend college. I knew that it would be an uphill climb to attend any college at all on my fixed income. All my life, I have worked mediocre, low-paying jobs. It is obvious that I cannot reach my dream without financial assistance. I sincerely hope that you will take into consideration my application for a Scholarship here at College of the Sequoias.

Over the past couple years; everything in my life has drastically changed. The way that I think, react, and live is now totally different. As I was growing up, my stepfather physically, sexually, and mentally abused me. The situation that I was in cost me many valuable things, including my childhood, but in retrospect, I have gained more that I lost.

Two years ago, finally hitting rock bottom at age twenty-nine, I found my self trapped in a ness of problems. Two years prior to this my mom and stepfather had moved to California, I stayed behind in New Mexico, soon my stepfather returned and moved in with me. His abusive ways, came back immediately. He threatened to shoot me; and all my friends. He had total control of my life; my worst fear was the reaction he would have when I told him of my wanting to leave. I was no longer content to play the same old roles that my stepfather expected me to play.

After a major fight with my stepfather, I was standing at a payphone attempting to call a friend to come pick me up, trying to catch my breath. I couldnt think of anyone to pick me up. I felt as if my sense of being had been totally cut off because of him and the decisions I had made. It was like I had flashbacks of the scenes through the last ten years of my life and how I was reacting to situations, and how everything I did was only fixing things in the short term. I came to accept what had happened to me in my past and decided to move forward to a better future.

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