Who knew life insurance was a thing, well not me at the age of 10 and 11 when both of my parents died. My real parents were both drug addicts and could not get clean enough to get custody of me. At 2 years old I was adopted by the people I called my parents. When I was 10 my mom died of a massive heart attack. My dad committed suicide the next year. I was devastated.

My mom’s sister got custody of me. There was no life insurance, but they did receive a monthly social security payment for taking me in. My aunt gave me $200 per month and I had to buy my food, supplies and pay for my phone each month. I was verbally & physically abused for 5 years in this home. I knew they were spending the rest of my money on themselves. I was told I was worthless and would never amount to anything. My plan was to join the military to escape the abuse. I had no money & no support.

In February of last year, my best friend at school saw the marks of abuse on me. She told me I had to tell the guidance counselor, or she would. I finally got the nerve to tell her. Within a week I was removed from the home and placed with a Pastor and his wife. A month later legal custody was given to this Pastor’s daughter and her husband.

This was the greatest blessing I could have ever received. They helped me believe that I can be anything that I want to be. They have saved my money each month to help me be able to attend college, while paying for everything I need now out of their own pockets. I now have a full time job at a daycare taking care of precious children to try to save in the short 8 months before I leave for college.

My goal now is to go to Pensacola Christian College to be a nurse. I want to serve the public by taking care of people and by being aware of the signs of abuse. My new family will help as much as they can, but they cannot afford to pay for all of it.

My new family has taught me a lot about money and about how important life insurance is. They already bought life insurance for me. How different my life would be if I had life insurance money waiting to help me with college!!! I will always have life insurance to take care of my future family.

I am thankful for people like you who are helping people realize how important life ins is, while helping college students! Thanks so much for your consideration!!!

A purple-flowered backpack from Guatemala hangs from my door. It’s filled with pictures of my parents, the only thing I have to remember them. The loss of my parents shaped my life in ways I never could have imagined, especially when it came to my education and future aspirations. My journey began in Schuyler, Nebraska, where my parents, undocumented immigrants, tried to provide a better life for us. When I was five, my father was deported due to a DUI, leaving my mother alone with three young children. Unable to manage on her own, she moved us to Guatemala. Life was difficult, but we managed. After my sister was born, my mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. My father had returned to the U.S., and our family had plans to reunite. I was six when I witnessed my mother’s passing.

With no financial security or life insurance, my siblings and I were separated. My brothers were taken to Nebraska, while I remained in Guatemala due to an expired passport. When I finally reunited with my father in the U.S., I thought life would stabilize. Instead, it became a cycle of struggle and instability. My father turned to alcohol, and after another DUI, he was deported once again. My brothers and I were left behind, living with relatives.

Had my mother and father had life insurance, my siblings and I could have had financial stability, which might have allowed us to stay together. Instead of constantly worrying, I could have focused on my education from a young age. Life insurance could have provided security, funding for school, and an environment free from poor financial hardship and instability.

After my father returned to the U.S., we lived with his girlfriend and her children. He drank heavily, and when he was intoxicated, he became violent. The abuse, fear, and instability made life unbearable. Eventually, his drinking cost him his job. One morning, after a short period of sobriety and promises of change, my father committed suicide. Once again, I was left asking, “Where do I go now?”

Moving in with relatives in Gibbon, Nebraska, provided the first real stability. Though I’m considered homeless by the state, I finally felt at home. I worked tirelessly to ensure I was not a financial burden, balancing work and school. The weight of my past only fueled my determination to succeed. I want to pursue a degree in social work so I can help others who have faced adversity like mine.

Receiving the Life Lessons Scholarship by Life Happens would mean more than financial assistance, it would be proof that despite my hardships, there are people who believe in me and my future. My journey has been filled with obstacles, but I am determined to build a future where I can provide stability and hope, not just for myself but for others in need. My parents may not be here to see me succeed, but I know they would be proud of the person I am becoming.

Just one day before my sixth birthday, on July 1st, 2013, my father passed away from sepsis. Losing a parent so young is losing a piece of yourself before you even understand who you are. My memories of my father are blurred, not just by time but by the pain of his absence. What I remember most vividly isn’t his love or laughter but the moment I begged him to wake up, watching helplessly as he took his last breath. His absence shaped every part of my childhood. Without life insurance, there was no safety net. My mother, left to raise six children alone, worked herself to exhaustion as a custodian, coming home too tired to do anything but sleep. My older siblings, once my protectors, were forced into adulthood, giving up their dreams just to keep us afloat. College was never an option for them; they took jobs young, prioritizing survival over aspirations. When my stepfather entered our lives months later, I hoped things would change. He was supposed to provide stability, emotionally and financially. Instead, his promises were empty. He didn’t help my mother with bills, and when he left, he took more than just the little money we had, he took away my innocence. For eight years, I endured sexual assault from someone who was supposed to heal the wounds of my father’s death. Instead, he made them worse. As I grew older, I realized my father’s absence extended beyond finances. There would be no father-daughter dance at my quinceañera, no cheers from him at my graduation, no steady hand to walk me down the aisle. When I attend college, I won’t have his guidance, his support, or his pride. Instead, I have had to push myself. To help my family, I took on responsibilities no child should. I cared for my nieces and nephews while my siblings worked, kept the house in shape, and learned to be independent when I should have been carefree. While my classmates worried about homework, I worried about whether we’d have enough for rent. I refused to let my circumstances define me. I turned to education as my way out, knowing I had to break the cycle. None of my siblings went to college, but I am determined to be the first. My father had only completed elementary school before coming to the U.S., but he wanted more for his children. If he were here, he would have told me to keep going, to fight for the future he never got to have.

This scholarship isn’t just about financial relief, it’s about rewriting my family’s story. If my father had life insurance, my path would have been easier, but it wouldn’t have changed my determination to succeed. His absence shaped me, but it will not define me. I will honor his memory by walking a path no one in my family has. I will graduate. I will succeed. And I will ensure my struggles pave the way for something greater.

The summer after my high school graduation, no one had heard from my dad for days. My grandmother woke me up with some eerily familiar news that had changed my life once before, “Your father is dead.” Having already experienced the loss of my mother a few years prior, I once again had to face another devastating reality but this time it was my father. However, I was no longer a twelve-year-old girl struggling to understand death. I was eighteen, old enough to grasp the full meaning of loss, and understood that the future I had been working toward was about to change. At the time, I had been working a full-time job to save money for college, never expecting that those savings would be needed to help bury my father. My father, an undocumented immigrant, had no life insurance coverage and the consequences extended far beyond him. His absence took a severe financial toll on my grandmother who worked two full-time jobs and still wasn’t able to afford funeral expenses. Witnessing her struggle to pay for costs led me to take on an additional full-time job to contribute to household bills while organizing fundraisers such as food sales, yard sales, and a GoFundMe Page to gather donations. This led to the realization that if my father had life insurance, my grandma and I could have focused on healing instead of scrambling for resources. Had I not worked a second job, I would’ve taken advantage of opportunities in the summer such as attending a Summer Bridge program to familiarize myself with campus and spend more time with my loved ones.

After the funeral, I realized I had suppressed my emotions, but they crept up a week before moving into my college dorm. I was emotionally and physically exhausted; I regretted choosing my dream school which was far from my grandma, who still needed support. To ease my worry, I had given my grandma the rest of my savings, but depression lingered throughout my first semester. The loss of my father left me in a spiral and it had a significant impact on my grades.

After reaching out to long-term therapists, I saw improvement in my mental health and grades. I realized that although losing both my parents was difficult, this experience was a firsthand insight into the devastating consequences of financial unpreparedness. I am determined to break the cycle by setting aside money in case of emergencies and reinforcing the importance of having life insurance for my family and myself. Utilizing my earnings from my current job, I opened up a savings account serving as an emergency fund in case any situations, such as these, come up. As an intended economics major at UC Berkeley, I hope to pursue a career in accounting to help others understand their financial circumstances and promote financial literacy in marginalized communities. Because of my loss, I remain committed to honoring my parent’s memory by achieving my academic goals and providing a better future for my family and myself.

I grew up in a loving home with two parents, but a monster lurked in the shadows. Addiction played an ominous role in my household, always looming and waiting to strike. On December 28th, 2017 my father attempted to murder my family due to his intensifying drug habits and untreated mental illness. He was unsuccessful, but ran away with the only money he had immediate access to: my college fund. Eleven months later on November 27th, 2018 he committed suicide. This contributed to my own mental health struggles and extreme financial hardship as my family was in hiding for the duration of that year until the court case went to trial. Due to my father’s suicide, my family received zero life insurance after his passing, and instead wound up in extreme debt from the damage he caused on his path to self-destruction.

As a sixteen-year-old girl who loved her father dearly despite his vices, I was grief-stricken. As a junior in high school who scraped by, unable to tell her friends where she was and terrified to leave the house, I was left with the notion that college was not an option. I joined the workforce and secured a full-time position in hopes of obtaining financial security. I saved money not knowing what it would be used for but soon recognizing I didn’t want to be the “left behind.” I took the leap to pursue education in 2023 as I found a passion for wanting to help others in similar situations. I am now a Criminal Justice major, hoping to utilize my education and prior experience. Unfortunately, due to this life experience, I also now lack funds for college and only have what I worked tirelessly to save as I transition to a four-year university.

Having life insurance would have allowed us to remain in a stable home. My mother has worked her entire life to provide for us children through my father’s nefarious activities. Instead, she has spent the last 7 years barely keeping her head above water in attempts to break even with my father’s debts. I am on my own when it comes to my education, and I knew that wasn’t her fault. My mother wanted nothing more than for me to become an educated young woman, and I know the extreme burden it has caused her to accept the fact she could not support me in college. I am currently accepted into multiple schools in California, with the hopes of getting into Cal State San Diego, which offers one of the top Criminal Justice programs in the state. I work diligently to make this a reality by maintaining a 4.0 GPA, continuing to work 30-40 hour work weeks, and applying for scholarships such as this one. I want my mother to retire someday, I want to raise a stable family, and most of all: I want to live the life that was almost taken from me, and this scholarship could change the course of my future.