Midway through my first semester at Rice University, I was failing all my classes. Between my parents moving our family across the country two weeks before school began, facing a constant shortage of money due to financial hardships and struggling to form connections at my new school, I failed to fully commit to my studies. Turning my grades around began with reaching out to my father who advised me to commit to an activity I enjoyed outside of my classes. I began taking part in extracurricular activities, revamped my diet and started exercising regularly. I decided to reach out to more people, and created a support group around myself. With these in place, I went back to my studies with a restored focus and raised my grades back up.This experience
