Micayla Martin

Personal Statement

My father worked as a car detailer in Maryland where he had to return to his hometown of
Shawville, Pennsylvania, due to a severe nervous breakdown caused by the company's lack of
safety equipment involving the inhalation of spray paint. After returning home, he decided that
he wanted to get his CDL and become a truck driver. After completing his training, he met his
future wife and my mother. My mother was known as being a bookworm, and very smart, had
just graduated highschool, and on her 19th birthday she married my father. Rather than going to
college, she decided to become a stay at home mother when my brother and I were born.

My father had saved enough money to buy a house in Reynoldsville PA, where he wanted to
raise his children and save his relationship with his wife and the mother to his children. Shortly
after moving, with a 7 year old and a 3 year old girl, one day his wife decided to walk out on all
of their lives. To this day, he doesn’t know the exact reason, being that after getting a stable
living and home his relationship seemed to be improving. While having to juggle one child going
to school and one staying home, he later had to resort to either taking his children to work, or
having them sleep on his friends couch overnight. He also had to completely change his work
shift so at night while the kids slept, he’d work, and while he slept my brother was at school and
I was at home.

When I started going to kindergarten, he tried to give love another shot. After six years of being
with the same women, his good luck suddenly went sour. Shortly after he had my youngest
brother, a situation happened with her, and he was forced to raise my brother on his own. This
time he did get help from his eldest son and daughter.

My fathers paternal nature, and his hard work ethic, and his selflessness, is the reason I’m as
resilient as I am today. When I came of age to realize the situation my father has been in I’ve
dedicated myself to being the best worker I can be, never giving up on someone, and never
leaving a situation no matter how impossible it is. Although today he tells me how difficult it
was for him to juggle my brother and I, he wouldn’t have given up the opportunity to have such a
strong presence in his family's life. He tells me that he wants me to learn from his mistakes by
having a stable career that I love, and to never let myself rely on other people if I cannot take
care of myself. He also taught me the value of hard work, and how difficult situations can often
lead to good endings.

Although growing up without a strong mother figure in my life to this day still affects me
negatively, my father is the reason why those negative qualities I once had have been reversed.
Everyday, I appreciate the things he has done for me and my siblings, his hard work will always
be something that I admire and inspire to have.