To me, art is a priceless piece of emotion. As Aristotle once said, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance”. I have spent countless hours, locked away in my room drawing, making short films, or simply singing. In those precious hours, I was given the ability to forget about my father’s deportation, our constant moving around from apartment to apartment, and my mother’s financial problems. To me, art has been a constant and has kept me together during stressful times. Instead of being another statistic, I turn to the arts to express my frustrations. Throughout this experience, I have come to realize that I want to be able to help others find their inner artist and help them find a way to show their motions and frustrations not by pointing gun but by expressing their feelings through art strokes.

During these tough economic times, one of the first programs to be slashed away at our public schools has been the arts. However, many fail to realize that teaching the arts to students can make a difference in their lives. Art can move mountains. I know that pursuing an education will provide me the skills to motivate the next generations of students to be inspired by art. I believe that by finding ways to save these programs, we give students the opportunity to have a positive outlet to show their emotions instead of using drugs, joining gangs, or dropping out of high school.