When I was younger, our family didnt have nearly as much money as we do now. We lived comfortably, and certainly had more than the average Bolivian, but we didnt have much to spare. I lived with my older sister, younger brother, and younger sister. My parents decided to invest in a good education for us all because they knew about the importance of education. We all went to a private school, and we were all signed up for after school English classes, although I was the only one out of my siblings that finished all of the courses. I was a very good student, by the time I finished high school I was bilingual. I applied and got a scholarship to study in the US. My dream was to go to school in the US. Most of my fathers side had gone to college in the US, and talked highly about their experience there. Some of my friends had visited the US before, and I remember being incredibly jealous of them. One of my friends had the opportunity of spending a year of high school abroad in the US, and he would send letters to me telling me about all of his experiences there. I remember wanting to go, but my family simple did not have the money. Back then I worried about political instability in Bolivia. Times were tough, there were many revolutions in the government, none of us knew what would happen to our country. I cared a lot about stability. I was worried whether I was going to succeed in the US, first as a student and then as a professional. By a mixture of hard work and a little bit of luck I achieved what I wanted, which was to go to the US, get into a top school, go to a top graduate school, and then become a world authority in my field. My current goals are to make sure my daughters have a bright future, so that they are better prepared for the future. That is a major goal, because professionally I have done most of what I intended to do.