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At the beginning of 2020, I was facing some major hardships in my family life.  I had already decided that after a decade break from school to marry and start a family I was going to return and finish my AA.  However, what was happening in my personal life solidified the need to do so.  I dual-enrolled at two community colleges so I could finish my last two classes of my AA and apply to transfer to CSULB to begin working on my bachelor’s degree.  I was taking online and evening classes and working on studying and writing papers during the day, while also watching my youngest child. I had recently made the hard decision to stop homeschooling my older child.  It was a huge adjustment, but I was confident that he would do well in school and I could focus on my own education.  Then Covid-19 hit.  It felt like life changed in such a short period of time.  I went from having time to focus on my classes to suddenly having both of my children home, essentially having to homeschool again, and trying to continue in a biology class with a lab that were very much meant to be face to face classes.  As my personal life continued to be challenging and stressful, these changes felt like they were too much to handle.  My anxiety was high and made it even harder to study for my exams and complete my papers.  Somehow, I managed to complete both of my classes with good grades.  I was so blessed to have an amazing biology professor that cheered me on, encouraged me to not give up and told me he knew that despite my unconventional situation he was confident I would achieve my goals.  Had he not taken the time to meet with me over zoom, I may have dropped the class and given up.  Although the future is very uncertain, I keep pressing on and was accepted to CSULB and am enrolled full time.  I plan to continue chipping away at my degree. My personal life is still a mess, people I have known have passed away from Covid, and at any moment my kids might be sent home for distance learning, but I am determined to do the very best that I can to be an example of pressing on and achieving goals.