When I was in elementary school my teacher had me and my fellow class members sit in a circle in the middle of the classroom. As I sat in the circle, my teacher looked up and requested that we share something interesting about ourselves. Giving us a moment to think, my mind went in circles on what I could possibly say about my life that could be deemed “interesting”.

One thing that entered my mind was I’m an only child but that wasn’t too interesting. The next thing that entered my mind was I do however have two grandmas, a great grandmother. Now to me this sounded interesting, not too many of my friends have two grandmas and a great grandmother. When my turn came around I shared that interesting thing about myself and as I did my friends all looked at me and said, “You’re lucky.”

I was lucky, having four strong and powerful women that were and still are my role models today and it is something that I’m very proud to have. Each one of them taught me so much in life, as well as life lessons along the way. These lessons are ones I can pass down through out life. One of the lessons I’ve learned is from my Grandma. My Grandma was someone who would make anyone laugh, smile and feel loved. One of things that my Grandma taught me was to treat people with respect and there’s always room at the dinner table for another person.

The next lesson I learned was from my second grandmother. My Granny was a strong person and a fighter. She cared about everyone and for that, everyone loved her.  A couple of things I learned while being around her was to be a hard worker. This piece of advice is something I use while here at LMC and I know in order to achieve my goals and dreams in life, I must work hard. There are times when I wonder why I’m working so hard and sometimes it seems like it is not paying off. Then I realized the hard work isn’t going to be seen overnight but you will feel it inside. For me it feels like a sense of pride and achievement in knowing that I worked to make my dreams come true in life. The second thing she taught me was how to be a strong person. In life we’ll have doors closed in our faces, be told that we’re not good enough or just be thrown curveballs. These bumpy patches in the world only make us a stronger person. My Granny was one of the strongest people I know in life.

The next life lesson I learned was from my great grandmother, I called her Grammy. Grammy was the most sweetest and caring person I have ever met. She saw a lot of things in her life and worked hard in the process to achieve goals. She taught me to be who I wanted to be and chase my goals in life. There was this one time when I was sitting in the living room with my Grammy and she looked at me and said, “Never pretend to be someone else, be you and be happy with the person you are.” This lesson has stuck with me the most in my life. I’ve never been confident in my life nor have I had the best self-esteem. I’m always questioning myself if I’m good enough or smart enough and this is where the words my Grammy told me come into play. We always think that we’re never good enough and need to be better or be someone else in order to be liked, but it is not true. We should be proud of the person we become in life and never change for anyone.

As I grow as a person there are times when I find myself getting lost. These life lessons help me go on with my life and help me carry on. I was a lucky person for having three incredible, strong, caring and loving role models who have shaped me to be a better person. Even though they’re no longer alive, these life lessons live on.