I grew up a little different than a lot of other families. I won't go into too many details but the younger portion of my childhood was great... my parents were married, they owned a very nice house and my dad owned his own business. We'd go to Disney World every year and everything was great, so I guess you could say I had a great time growing up.

It all spiraled downhill in 2008 continuing on into the 2010s. My dad lost his business, my sister was raped, we lost our house and our car, we moved into a duplex and to top it off, my parents got divorced in 2011.

My middle school years were some of the worst years of my life, there were points where my mom and I were considered homeless because we weren't sure where we were going to stay that night. It got so bad that at some points my parents didn't have enough money to buy necessities for ourselves such as underwear and socks.

Fast forward to today in 2020. I am now the first person in my family to attend college (I'm a junior on track to graduate next year). I maintain three jobs (a server, working for a professional basketball team and being the President and Editor-in-Chief for my Odyssey community as well as being an elite creator for Swoon, Odyssey's dating side of writing... hence why a lot of my articles are dating/relationship related) while also being a full-time student.

I'm going to school to be a sideline reporter/sports analyst. I've had two internships within the sports industry that dealt with broadcasting and social media. I even started my own podcast regarding sports and dating.

You could say I've achieved a lot already for only being 21-years-old. But with success, there always comes criticism... good and bad.

Some of the negative criticism I've gotten include:

- "Her articles are dumb and no one reads them."

- "She tries too hard to become something in the sports industry."

- "She only wants to work in sports so she can impress guys."

- Guys have told me that girls tell them not to talk to me because they'll end up being written in an article or talked about in my podcast.

Those are only a handful of comments I've heard so I'm sure there are other ones out there I haven't heard yet. I know for a fact these comments out of people are from people who don't know me well or at all.

But when I hear these comments, yes it bothers me, but in the end, it only drives me more to be successful.

Yes, I always talk about my success and yes some people probably find it annoying. But I can tell you right now, ten years ago when I was experiencing some of the worst moments of my life, I never pictured myself where I am now. Being a full-time student while maintaining three jobs is a lot... and of course, I struggle with it sometimes.

So when I hear criticism, it only makes me realize that I will be successful in this world. I know many other people can't say they've achieved this much at my age and I'm very fortunate to say that I have. It's taken a lot of work but I'm doing it and I couldn't be prouder of myself.