I strongly believe in humanity and opportunities. I think humanity is one of the most beautiful things in existence. I also think everyone deserves an opportunity in life. As a result, I want to try to support people, and if I can do it, I will.

When I was eleven years old, other people excluded me. People talked to me with no respect. When I tried to talk to them, I was ignored and set aside, no one wanted to offer me help. I was lost, lost and alone on my own. This made me feel rejected by others and I developed an internal fear of speaking. I did not have friends and I was afraid to talk to new people. I was not only afraid of talking to new people, but also to my family because I did not feel comfortable with anyone. My fear made me build a cage for myself, a cage that didn’t have a key. Since I could not talk to people, I had to do things all by myself because I was not brave enough to ask for help from others.

During this time, I barely knew English. I was not confident enough to speak it, further complicating my ability to talk with people. I had always been a good student, but because of the language and being afraid to ask for help, my grades decreased a lot. So, there I was every lunch, sitting alone feeling stressed and anxious. To my fortune, after some months someone talked to me. This person was just like me; he had no one to talk to and was limited by language. We became good friends and together we supported each other and practiced our speaking skills. We were still afraid of talking to new people, but we became confident about our language skills. However, the pandemic began as things were starting to go well for my friend and me. My friend and I kept in contact, talking to each other, making us trust each other more.

When schools were open again, my friend and I saw each other after almost two years. Throughout those two years, we changed by being more talkative and communicative. I was ready to finally meet new people. I started talking to new people and I found it pretty interesting. Every person I talked to was different and had their own stories to tell. This made me discover that I liked putting myself in their shoes. I liked to support other people. I liked to help other people. My speaking skills improved along with my grades. My internal fear of speaking disappeared. I finally felt free from the cage I built for myself.

As I transitioned to high school, I started thinking about my future and who I was going to be in life. I thought a lot about what to study after high school. I wanted it to be something I liked to do. I thought maybe I could study engineering or something related to science. After thinking deeply about it, I decided to study law to become a lawyer. I want to be a lawyer because I want to help people, people who have no one to help them. In my experience, it takes just one person and one decision to improve someone’s life. As a lawyer, I will have the chance to make people's lives better. Being a lawyer also requires speaking skills. I was terrible at speaking, and maybe I still am, but I lost the fear to express myself and to try. I have decided that if I am not good at speaking I will just try until I am good at it. Meeting that friend changed my life and I’m grateful because he gave me the opportunity that no one wanted to give me.

Finally, after all those experiences I learned that after the storm comes peace.

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