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When I graduated high school, I knew I wanted to be a nurse, I never planned on going to culinary school, I loved baking at the time, but didn’t ever think about making it into a career. So I went to community college, did my basics, and applied to nursing school, but things just didn’t work out that way. When it started going south, and things not lining up like they should have, I sat down and rethought what I wanted to do. So I do some soul searching, took some time off, and finally figured out what I wanted to do. Since I was a little girl, sitting on my grandmother's kitchen counter, helping her bake, whether it be pancakes, or a cake, I knew baking was going to be my lifelong love and passion. So when that memory came up, that’s when I realized that I could turn that lifelong love and passion into a career. I searched and searched for weeks to find a good culinary school that was close to where I lived, I almost gave up until I found the institute. I did some research, went to a meeting and took a tour. After that, I was hooked. Once I started I did my academic classes, did my labs, and learned so much from some pretty amazing people. There were many times where I wanted to quit, to give up and go back to Brenham (which is where my mom lived), but I kept on it, I looked toward the future, and met some amazing and inspiring people along the way. (Heck, if it weren’t for culinary school I would have never gotten out of my shy shell and met my wonderful boyfriend.) Having people around me that loved and supported me along my journey, for sure helped me get through my lowest times of wanting to give up. A lot of times I felt like nothing was going right, that the world was against me. But once I got to show my skills and let everyone know what I was made of, things turned around for me. So what I have to say here today is, never give up on what you want to do. And if things aren’t working out for you, change, try something new, do what you love to do. When things weren’t working out for me, I changed and found what I love to do. Be who you want to be, be someone that you like seeing, don’t please everyone else, please yourself first. “Working hard is important. But there is something that matters even more: believing in yourself.”