Personal Statement

My name is Pricilla Quezada and I am a part of Merced County located in the central
valley . Our community is known for its large agricultural industry, where we help to provide food
for a large part of the world. Merced Country is also recognized for its diverse population which
has grown to a population of around 90,000 individuals. People here are incredible and this city
has influenced my life and culture to an immeasurable extent. I have moved around but
somehow I always end up back in Merced CA. It's an incredibly captivating city with a little bit of
everything. I was born in Merced February 10th, 2006 and spent most of my childhood growing
up here, however my childhood wasn’t always easy, me and my 4 siblings on my mom's side
lived in a rented house which wasn’t located in the best area. My siblings started to fall in with
the wrong crowd and all of them now record and have been incarcerated. My mother has been
one of the most influential people in my life. I remember her getting up early everyday to go
work in the field in order to help take care of us so she was absent most of the time. I’m not
saying I blame her. It's hard to raise five kids and often she would leave me with my older
sibling, but for some time I did have some resentment towards her for never being there. Now of
course I see how her situation didn’t allow her to be there, I know she wanted to be and that
really what matters to me. She doesn’t really understand or speak too much English but my
mother has never let any of the above stop her from supporting me or my siblings in every way
possible.
As I mentioned before, my siblings were not the best influence, often they left me alone
so I was left to take care of myself and I was good at it. I became very independent at a young
age, but I wasn’t exactly a great kid either. Once I got into middle school I started to fall into a
bad crowd myself, gangs were a common thing in my school and while I was never directly
involved I was known because of my family's history. My father was also in the picture. He's an
amazing person who inspires me everyday to be a better version of myself. He wasn’t aware of
the situation. He knew my siblings were badly behaved but not to the exact extent I never told
him because he was so responsible he’d manage to get full custody if I did and while that might
have been better for me I was young and I felt I had a commitment to my family. When middle
people who knew my family would speak to me and it gave me a bit of reputation, I think that if I
hadn't left when I did I could've possibly ended up the same as my siblings, not that there were
bad people simply that they were wrongly influenced. It’s truly amazing how circumstances and
people in your life can shape you so intensely. I always think about how what I do affects other
people and it's the most eye opening thing in the world to see how I impact people’s lives so
drastically and how they have the ability to impact me as well. That's why I am so grateful that
despite my not so convenient circumstances I always had people to guide me especially my
older sister on my dads side of the family, more than anyone else she’s who I hope to make
proud.
Thankfully my mom moved to snelling to work as a manager assistant for Foster Farms.
It was a dead town, barely any people and you can drive right past it without knowing you did. I
absolutely hated it, I made friends but I missed the buzz of Merced, my mindset was still the
same and I didn’t care much about school or anything really. Eventually my mindset began to
change. I would look at my siblings and realize that I didn’t want their life. In and out of jail,
never able to keep a job, pregnant at 18. I wanted real life for myself to get a job and have a
family and I wanted to inspire people. So I decided to start studying hard during my freshman
year of highschool, but life was not on my side during my freshman year at El Capitan High
School my mom got promoted to be a manager in Waterford, meaning that we were moving
again. I didn’t want to move. I had already decided to stay living in Merced with my Dad and it
was really incredibly hard to adjust. I had to move things from house to house while doing
school work. There were times when because of going back and forth between my mom and my
dads house I’d forget my work and not complete an assignment or a due date would go right
over my head. Once I started to get into my routine my life flipped again. My dad had to travel to
Mexico over some family business and so my mother couldn’t drive me from Waterford to
Merced just to go to school. I had to start at a new school in Waterford. However that wasn’t the
end of it because since my sister worked at the time I’d get home from school just to babysit my
niece. I love her. She is one of my sources of inspiration but watching her while attending school
made life incredibly difficult for me. I really struggled to keep my grades up and sometimes they
did fall and it would absolutely devisate me. I felt like I was overwhelmed all the time and like I
was just so stuck in a cycle of almost getting to where I wanted to be and then plummeting
downwards. I eventually got a job at my school working for the cafeteria which gave me a lot of
peace of mind. I worked there for a few months before moving back with my dad a final time.
Keeping up with my life has been nothing but I think I have managed to keep my head above
water and I think I would be a great addition to your campus as a representation of how even
people who endure difficult situations can prosper when they are willing to work towards their
goals.