It has always been hard being a woman, not that it's not hard being a man, but there are so many things women have had to overcome to be where we are today. Today, sadly women are still seen as those who should sit at home and clean or tend to their children all day. Women have mostly broken that standard. Thankfully, nowadays we go to college to get a nine to five job. We work our butts off just to put men who think the world owes them everything in their spots.

Being a racially mixed woman is even harder just because you have more working against you because of the color of your skin. Coming from a racially mixed woman, it can be hard. When I was little I was always told that I needed to be cleanly and learn how to cook so when I got a husband I could TAKE CARE OF HIM!!1 Luckily, my mom raised me to be a strong and independent woman because for an awfully long time I thought my only purpose was to get married and have children! I do not have anything against those who choose that path, it just wasn't for me. Now keep in mind I am 18, just graduated high school, and will be a freshman in college soon. Which is crazy because three years ago I thought I was going nowhere or that I would be pregnant and living off my parents. Seeing my mom struggle to make a living and her still prioritize me even though we didn't have the money was crazy, and it made me change my mind about where I was going to be in three short years.

She is my inspiration! We watched her work two jobs to keep me and my siblings in a home with working water and electricity, seeing her bounce from have barely any money to getting her own apartment. She is a single mom, has an AA, and could only work certain hours just because she had to pick me up from school. She applied for jobs she was well overqualified for and still had a hard time getting them because some man was seen more qualified even though he had no working experience! She is the reason I see single or teen moms as the strongest people in the world, especially when they work hard to make their dreams a reality. Many of the older women in my life went from high school to getting married and having children. They are the ones that give me the most advice when it comes to going to college and making a mark for myself because most wish that it's what they had done.

Now these women have made me strong, thoughtful, and successful during high school. It's my turn to take life and make it my own, it will be hard and definitely makes me want to cry just because there are so may hoops to jump through, but if women before me could do it, all it means is I have a chance to do the same. I will be going into a field of work where men dominate. There are only five percent of women in the American Architecture Firm, but I'm going to shoot my shot. This means it will be hard, but if there's a will, there's a way.

I'm still building my path and I have extremely long way to go and nothing will keep me from that. Within this article I've called myself a woman but honestly, I'm still working on it. I'm not done becoming the woman I want to be. It may take me years and years to get to where I want to be. In spite of that, I'm okay with it because even though we may be called "women," there is a maturity always being built behind the word personally, no matter who you are.