I was asked to take a quiz on VIA character strengths, and I was assuming I would get the basics like love and humanity but, to my surprise my first result was strength. As I looked into it more and found out that my biggest strength is overcoming things in my life that are normally difficult for the average person to do.  

As I thought into the idea of overcoming and strength, the word growth stuck out to me because I grew up with a lot of loss in my life, I witnessed death of a loved one at age twelve, when my grandmother died, and let me tell you that it something that I still have a hard time dealing with it and to this day I am still dealing with it to this day. This past April I lost my little brother to cancer during my senior year in high school, and it was hard to deal with that pain, but it was something that happened and I could not control it. So, to go back to the word growth, 

the idea that in order to grow, you have to let go of the past and continue on with it.  

After going through all the pain of letting go, I began putting all my negative thoughts and feelings into just about anything I could do like painting, drawing, and planting. The one thing that stuck with me during the past couple years of my life are plants, just about anything I can do with them, I learned to love nature and plants from my grandmother and she gave me the green thumb of the family, so to honor her and the idea of growing from the hard times I have gone through, I chose to take a picture of my snake plant that started my path of growth.  

Overall, the thing that I bring to YCP is the idea that no matter the struggles you have and the pain you go through, there is always something to learn from it. The idea that no matter the amount of trauma or struggles you go through there is some sort of comfort in knowing you can grow and become whoever you want to be. The last thing that I wanted to add is no matter the name that people refer to as or the way that you are viewed by people around you; you can become the person that you want to be no matter what happens in your life, as long as you continue on and grow as an individual.