My name is Serena Garcia. Growing up, my dad worked late night shifts so my two siblings and I spent a lot of time around our mom. Up until we were old enough to stay home alone, tagging along with her on errands was a part of the daily routine for us. Like any family, mine faced certain hardships along the way. One particular hardship was when we were told that my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was 9 years old at the time, so I didn’t fully understand just how serious the disease was. It wasn’t until a few years later that I finally began to shape my brain around a deeper understanding of the disease’s severity. For the first several years of my mother’s cancer, she was constantly in an out of treatment. There was always hope, as well as periods of time when it seemed like she would be cured, but right before fall of my freshman year, things took a sharp turn in the wrong direction. She began to have difficulty walking, and eventually she lost the ability completely, as well as all mobility and feeling in her legs. She was put on bed arrest in our home as her condition worsened more and more each day. It was September of 2009 when my dad pulled my siblings and me aside and told us that the doctors estimated a slim 6 months that she would have left before the disease took her life. There was simply nothing else they could do. However, instead of 6, it was only 3 short months later on December 9th that we watched her take her final breath.
It’s been almost 3 years since my mother’s passing, but I do believe that in those three months I spent by her bedside in the make-shift hospital room my dad and some nurses set up in our house, waiting for some kind of miracle, I learned more than I had in any of my preceding 14 years. My mother had devoted her life to helping others. Before her condition took control over the last three months of her life, her job was working as an advocate at a women’s shelter until she was promoted to being a crime victim’s advocate. I knew the basics of her job but we spent a lot of those final 3 months talking more about it than we really had before. I learned that her whole career really was focused around the good of others, and learning all of this made me want to see what I could do to help others as well, from the smallest to the biggest of gestures. Since my mom’s passing, I’ve joined clubs at my school such as UCrew and Interact which are groups aiming to impact others through different types of volunteer work, and I’ve also volunteered at a senior living home. As my life progresses, I will continue to make it a priority to continue her legacy in helping someone in need as best I can. She dedicated her whole career to that and discussing her experiences with her up until just days before she took her last breath has been one of the largest influences in me wanting to help others as well. Michelle Garcia, my mother and greatest influence, will forever remain my inspiration.