It was 2022, the year my older sister graduated from high school and decided to move out. Since we come from a Mexican background, she was the person who would take care of me and my four younger siblings while my mom and step-dad went to work in the fields. I'm sure it was hard to babysit and do schoolwork at the same time; soon enough, I would find out how hard it truly is.

After she moved out of the house, I was appointed as the new babysitter since I was the second oldest. This was a huge responsibility which I now had in my hands. The summer of my freshman year was spent babysitting, from 8 am until 3 or 4 pm during the weekdays, and many times even on the weekends. Once school started, the load got lighter. I would only watch the siblings who were old enough to go to school; this included my younger brother who was eleven years old and my little sister who was seven. This meant that I had to go home right after school to look after them, giving me no time to participate in any extracurriculars. It upset me that I wouldn't be able to participate in sports throughout my high school years. Despite this, there was one sport that caught my attention, track and field. A sport that requires a lot of running, which to me is no problem seeing as I love to run. Unfortunately, participating in this sport requires after school practice, which was a problem considering I was needed at home to attend to my siblings. I’ve always wondered how fun it would've been to be a part of the track team.

Even with the responsibility of babysitting my siblings, I still decided that I wanted to take more rigorous classes in school. I started off by taking a more difficult math class than most of the students in my grade. At the time, I was a sophomore enrolled in Algebra II with juniors; spending the nights studying, while spending the day babysitting. Sometimes I even had to study and do homework while watching the kids. The next year, I decided to take two college classes, Central Washington University Pre-Calculus and Eastern Washington University History. Now that my two younger siblings were a year older, it made watching over them a lot easier. Although I still had to come home right after school, I had more time to study and do any work I had from school.

Now, it's my senior year. My siblings are old enough to take care of themselves and my grandparents have moved into our garage that we turned into an apartment. This means I now spend less time babysitting, giving me more time to study and join after school activities. I loaded my schedule with four college classes, CWU Calculus, EWU U.S. Politics, University of Washington English, and CWU Finance; I also became President of Chess Club. The gift of time has presented more opportunities for me to help out my community by volunteering with a number of organizations in town.

Overall, being tasked to watch over kids throughout high school was no easy task, but I am thankful for it. If not for being bestowed the responsibility, I wouldn't be where I am or who I am today. It has also taught me how to handle kids when I become a parent in the future. It has shaped me to be a leader who can handle tough situations. I hope my sacrifices teach my siblings that no matter the situation we are placed in, there is always room for opportunity to strive for success.

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