On the Monday before Thanksgiving of 2024, I was rushing toward my dad’s room at the hospital ER when I received a text message from my stepmom that said, “I love you. Don’t freak out when you see him.” Having no idea what had happened, I stood up straighter, bracing myself to face whatever was on the other side of the door. When I pushed it open, my world narrowed to a single moment: the body of the man who raised me, barely clinging to life and almost unrecognizable, was lying before me in the hospital bed. I knew immediately by the yellow hue of his skin that he was in liver failure.

The next morning, my younger sister, stepmom, and I stood over him and held him in his final moments. Just after his heart monitor flatlined, my stepmom asked, “What do we do now?” That question is just as relevant in our lives today as it was in that moment. In the three months since, I’ve been trying to relearn how to function normally while coping with the trauma of witnessing his suffering. Nightmares have made sleep deprivation my new norm. Even though I allocate much of my energy toward keeping the heartache at bay, panic attacks ensue at random places and times. This is exacerbated by the fact that I’ve been working longer hours as a server’s assistant in order to support myself. It’s harder now than ever for me to maintain my 3.9 GPA. I’m in need of scholarships like Life Happens because they could alleviate the enormous emotional and financial weight on my shoulders.

My mom, who supports my three younger siblings, cannot help me financially. My dad was my sole financial support. The limited funds dispersed by his life insurance policy were allocated toward his hospital and memorial expenses, leaving nothing for my siblings, my stepmom, or myself. He had only a few hundred dollars saved at the time of his death. His investment in a more comprehensive policy would have made a tremendous difference in all of our lives. Now, I am on my own, terrified and unsure how I’ll be able to finish my degree.

I’m one year away from completing my bachelor’s degree in Spanish, and afterward, I intend to go to nursing school. Before my dad died, I frequently thought of my future with excitement, eager to take on the rigorous challenge of nursing school and use my degrees to provide compassionate healthcare to diverse patients. Now, I feel a tightness in my chest when I think about what the next few years might look like. I realize that without the help of scholarships like this one, I do not know how I will fund the rest of my education. My path forward has been frayed before my eyes due to this new financial hardship. Where before I could rely on my tenacity and discipline, I now have half my mind on funding my education. The future I envision is only possible with the help of the Life Happens scholarship.