My family means the world to me. I deeply love every person in my family. They each have had their own role in forming my life and the person I am today. Graduation was the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. The time I spent with them was valuable and prepared me for my life in college. My mom is funny and takes things light heartedly, yet is serious when the situation calls for it. She taught me to enjoy my life and have fun, yet to take things seriously when needed. She was the leading force in helping me with my writing as a child starting high school until I took the reigns for myself and created my own style from her. My dad, being very smart, organized and studious, taught me to balance my life with school. Life needs to have a little bit of work in it, not all just play. Both of their attributes and views on life helped me determine my life and the way I want it to become. At graduation, I felt like I not only graduated from high school, but I graduated from being instructed by my parents day-in and day-out. Now, of course I am still learning from my parents, but not every day. I feel like I am a mix of both of them: I am not a serious person at all, but I am serious when it comes to things such as schoolwork. I feel like they have prepared me for challenges I would face in college and beyond.