00:00even though I enjoy reading novels poetry had never interested me that much that ended up
00:11changing the middle of my eighth grade year one day in school my English teacher had my
00:18class read a poem titled Still I Rise by Maya Angelou reading that poem has really changed my
00:25view on life being human I have gone through many challenges in life one of which was living
00:38with a disability there were many people who thought that I would never be able to
00:43learn to speak properly so they believe that I would never be able to function in life
00:55in all honesty in my childhood was a bit difficult having to deal with having to deal with the after
01:04effects of being autistic when I was two I was diagnosed with the disease which caused
01:10me to stop talking and develop a fear of water when she suddenly stopped talking and she was
01:17diagnosed as autistic it was a big shock to all of us because she was at the beginning it was a
01:24nightmare simple things like you know a person touching you or water falling on you wind blowing
01:31across you can be very painful and irritating for a person on the spectrum and she was one of those
01:37people I know for me elementary school it wasn't great at all they would always make fun of my voice
01:45and just and me being different in general they told us and you've got a 10-month window to
01:54get as much improvement in this child as you can expect to see because after that the brain is
01:59pretty much going to close down I remember the first thing they started doing was playing with bubbles
02:04of course a bubble then pops and now you've got wet on your hand but that was teaching her and training
02:10her mind to accept the touch of the water as a positive thing my parents kept taking me in speech
02:18therapy and I was able to start talking again when I was almost five years old the regional center
02:25stopped speech therapy services on her and I said my god has not told me to stop we're gonna just keep
02:31on until the money runs out and we went into debt literally in less than a year when I was 11 my mom
02:39had me audition for a Los Angeles children's chorus and that was where I started learning how to sing classical voice
02:46not only how I managed to overcome a disability that a professional speech therapist told me I would never
03:04overcome but I have I believe I've also accomplished a lot with my life too
03:10when I first started synchronized swimming I was honestly indifferent to it because I just saw it as
03:19another activity my mom put me in but then as I continued doing it and made better friends and got
03:28better at it I started to realize that I really liked it when you when you spend that much time with people you
03:39grow close to them and form good friendships and that's something I really like about it
03:47she's managed to break into a sport that is predominantly a white female sport and has been a junior
03:57olympian three times in that sport I remember when she first started it there was some rather
04:04blatant racism going on and she persevered there's a certain magic to seeing what you like and saying
04:12I'm going to I'm going for the gold I'm going to try to take it even if people don't want me there
04:17after reading this poem I realized that even though I had overcome my disability I wanted to
04:31help others who were still struggling with theirs as a part of girl scouts I'm actually working on
04:37my gold award and my gold award idea is to establish a synchronized swimming clinic for
04:43girls with special needs I just want these girls to know that that they can do it and they have
04:52potential and I realized what a difference the special olympics made and all I can say is don't give
05:01up you've you got had gone a long way and made a log a lot of progress and you have just as much
05:09potential as anyone else just looking at you know where she came from what she had to overcome how much
05:19she pushes herself and her goals and aspirations um it's basically magical I honestly imagine myself
05:32having a fulfilling adult life professionally I'd like to become a pilot either a commercial or a test
05:40pilot I think I was around eight or nine I had read an article about a kid who was my age at the time
05:48who was flying planes and then I thought that's so cool I want to try that too and then sometime it sunk in
05:57late after that that I could do this as a career and I was like why not I know that if those first
06:05few years of life had gone differently I probably wouldn't be where I am now
06:14one thing that I have learned about life is that no one will go through it without experiencing
06:19difficulties of varying degrees Maya Angelou could have let her difficult childhood become an excuse to
06:25stop her from being successful however she did not do so even though I have not lived that long
06:33I have experienced various challenges and I know that as I get older and become an adult I will have
06:39to overcome even more difficulties I have learned to accept that even if I do not like the challenges I
06:45am going through they will be a part of life and that overcoming them can be extremely rewarding
06:55what I think I guess what I am going through is I have learned to accept that for me
07:01I see it in my life and I will see thinking of being done
07:02all of the things that I have learned over me
07:04for my point because I am going through strong and that I am going through
07:07to be able to to play a part of life and I hope to be your earn and you
07:08to keep you trust me for your part of life and that I am around
07:11I am going through with you for a second and I will be on my team
07:11to share I am glad I am I'm really here in the afternoon
07:15on my journey is helping me through the next day
07:17I am going through to my life and that you will find me
07:19it will be a part of life and I will always be a part of it
07:22for the only one of my kids I'm over there
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