“Everyone has inside them a piece of good news. The good news is you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is.”

–Anne Frank

What a week! Now that this semester is over, I have had some time to breathe! I was able to chaperone a field trip with my daughters school (as well as check off a beautiful sight of our “summer of sightseeing”) at a local place called Heritage Museum and Gardens. Ava and I stayed after her class left to enjoy even more of the beautiful sights. We played in a place called “Hidden Hollow” where Ava was able to express her creativity through music, art, and gardening. We climbed a tree house, rode on a vintage carousel (twice!), did some soul searching while we walked a labyrinth, and even found a fairy tree! I was able to educate Ava on the importance of bee’s on our society and to just let them “bee”, as well as some mosquito protection education. After a long 5 hours of walking, our legs and our knees were so sore! We went home and spent the rest of the evening relaxing with a superhero movie.

The next day was an extremely exciting day, as it was the “Evening of Excellence,” a scholarship award ceremony at Cape Cod Community College. Both sets of my parents were in attendance, as well as Ava. Tim, my boyfriend, stayed behind with some important work projects. First of all, I have to give my daughter a lot of credit…she is 5 years old and sat through the whole 2-hour ceremony without crying or getting into trouble. Granted, she was bored and got pretty silly throughout the event and had to be hushed quite a few times, but she sat through it and she listened and she didn’t cry when I wouldn’t let her play outside even though there were several other children outside. Little did I know that my scholarship award was going to be the very last one called. After hearing name after name after name, we were all getting very tired (and hungry!). I even made a joke and said “watch mine get called last…just my luck!” Well, turns out that yes, it was just my luck…but not in a bad way. I was honored to be awarded the Wilken’s Family Scholarship, a $4000 scholarship awarded to single parents. While on stage accepting the award, the President of the College looked at me and said “You know, that’s not the only scholarship you received…” and then it was announced that I was also receiving the $1500 Accenture Scholarship. At that moment, my jaw dropped to the floor (just in time for the photo op), and I walked off stage fighting back the tears. Everything about this moment was so surreal. I have worked so hard each and every day, dedicating myself to my daughter, my education, and my school activities and projects. I have never been more proud of myself and I am looking forward to continuing to build my education and my future.