Scholarship Essay

Hello, my name is Hailey Jade Ray. I live in a small town called Mantorville, but I grew up in an even smaller town called West Concord, both in Minnesota. I have 2 older sisters both from a different dad, and a younger brother and sister from the same dad. Growing up I went though a lot. My dad has always had a heavy drinking problem. He was always in my life, but never really invested the way I wanted my father to be. He is an amazing dad, I know he loves me and I know he cares, but the alcohol gets the best of him. Growing up I hated to see my dad drink, I’ve always felt like I have two different dads. One sober and one drunk. It was the worst thing to see, and seeing that I knew I didn’t want my younger siblings to see that. Luke, my brother is only 4 years younger then me so he saw a lot of what I saw. Tumbling down the stairs, two different personalities, yelling, crying, laughing, whatever his drunk mood was, me and my brother basically went through it together. My sister Aspen, is 10 years younger then me. When she started to grow up, I became very protective. I didn’t want her to see that side of him, because I didn’t want her to get hurt the way it hurt me. I didn’t want her to see the bad side of dad and have to look back at that when she’s older. As time went on, my dad lost custody of Aspen. Although my dad loves us kids so much and he truly cares and does anything for us, he just doesn’t have the right life to raise a little girl. Even though my dad does not have custody, we all still get to see Aspen and just because my dad messed up, doesn’t mean we lost Aspen also. We still see her and so does he. She comes to all family holidays, birthdays, and reunions. The reason why continuing my education is important is because I know that I want to be someone big some day. I want to be able to make my kids happy and my parents proud. I want to prove to the rest of my family that even though I have gone through a lot and needing to grow up a little to fast, that I will not let anything get in my way. Not only will I do it for myself, I will do it for Aspen. I aspire to be her role model and be the big sister that she looks up to. In order to show her that us ‘Rays’ can get through anything, I have to practice what I preach! And by doing that, I will follow my dream of continuing my education.