Stifling sounds of a chair colliding with the adjacent wall send vibrations throughout my room. My mother's sporadic cries bleed through the crack from underneath my door and I embrace both my twin brother and sister's hands in hopes that their rhythmic breathing from deep sleep is unstartled. Although inevitable, I try to swallow the know that has formed in the back of my throat and contain the tears overtaking my eyes. A slam of the garage door affirms that once again, my father, once with a contageous smile that caused creases around his mouth, is now "fighting" to provide for his family. Climbing higher in debt, my parents cease to get along anymore. The love that would radiate between then is now clouded by the stresses caused by my elder brother, Eric.

    About egt year hve passed since Eric has been allowed to step foot onto our household. Only in his mid-twenties, Eric's craving for success disintergrated into his obsession for drugs. Resentment arises within me when I realize that he has acted so selfishly, relying financially on my parents to provise his housing and college expenses when he seems to not care much for his future. All throughout our uprising, my parents made it a priority to persistantly remind us children of our intellect and potentail. Yet all of that optimism from my mother and father crumbled when Eric turned to the "escape" of abusing drugs.

    Reality is what stirs me. Now a senior in high school, I realize the likeyhood of having the privilege to attend college is slim to nothing, due to my family's financial struggles. This is what horrifies me. Apathy towards Eric is what arouses a hunger for feat and achievement. I glance over to my younger sibling, whom are still naive of the stresses of growing up, and silently promise to myself- and for their sake- that I will break the chain of poverty and will accomplish more than I have been anticipated to.

    I delve myself into the opportunities accessble by my school for the reason being I refuse to let my education blunder due to my "situation." I have enrolled in multiple dual enrollment and advance placement classes which offer college credit at no expense. I have great enthusiasm to be apart of such honorable classes that neither I, nor my parents, would have thought likey. One great quality of mine is that I happen to place a tremendous amount of pressure on myself to assure both my younger siblings and me that, with great effort and perseverance, we can create an opportunity to have successful lives for ourselves.

     In result to this, I am appreciative to my mother and father for instilling the notion that my future depends on the amount of exertion I put forth in my studies and the time I am willing to dedicate to my future. After graduating high school, I plan to keep to continue demostrating that I do not have to continue on in the same path as my elder brother, and that I will, and have, overcome obsticles that have been thrown my way.