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Hello, my name is Valentina Lizarralde. I am 14 years old, attending Everglades High School as a freshman, and I was born on August 18, 2003. I was born in Miami, Florida but my parents and sisters were born in Cartagena, Colombia. Considering my family was born in a foreign country, I see myself with the same heritage and was raised with Colombian morals. Clearly, due to being the first individual in my family to have been born in the United States, I feel extremely distant and different. I visit my family in Colombia at least twice a year, which is the only feeling of unity that I get to experience. My heritage explains my personality since I connect to the customs of most Colombians.

I am confident, brave, and communicative. Attributes that were taught to me as I was growing up beside my sisters. My parents got a divorce when I was 5 years old. My father had to leave the house, meaning I would only get to see him once a week, and my mom had to work in order to give my sisters and I a better life. Due to not having my parents in my life full time, my sisters took the role of a mother and raised me to be the person I am today. I am blessed to have had such incredible role models, and I thank God for blessing me with an extraordinary family.

Since, my sisters have influenced me the most, I want to go into depth on their history. My oldest sister, Maria, is currently 23 years old with 3 children. She had her first child during her senior year of High School, while also attending Everglades High School. It was a difficult adventure with many obstacles, but she is the strongest most intelligent person I know, so she did not let that determine her path and she graduated being top 5% of her class. To this day, she achieved many of her goals including attending FIU and graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. My other sister, Diana, is 21 years old and is also a remarkable individual that has influenced me to be a confident person. She has always dreamed big and taught me to never lower my standards. Although she has also committed many mistakes, she never let them shape who she is, but learned from them to become a stronger and better human. I would love to be as influential to my nieces and nephew as much as my sisters are to me and I hope I can make a difference just like they did. Hopefully my future plans of becoming a motivational speaker help individuals realize the importance of living a positive life. Thanks to my sisters, I learned I should always smile to others because I might make someone’s day better.