It was a normal day in the beautiful city of New York. Rebeca’s mother Lisa had arrived in one of the many parks located around Manhattan curiously looking around the area. She was there on a blind date that was set up by the current philanthropist she was working with. Rebeca’s dad Andrew also worked with the same philanthropist and he wanted Andrew and Lisa to meet up one day because he believed that they would be the perfect match but neither one wanted that because they were dating other significant others and they didn't want to meet anyone but eventually they both caved in and agreed. Lisa approached Andrew and introduced herself and the rest is history. Rebeca was born and raised in New York her whole life and in the same apartment overlooking the sun melting on the horizon ahead each night. Rebeca had a happy childhood with many friends, love, and support but it went sour when COVID hit NYC in 7th grade she had to relocate to her house in Florida. During the 9 months she was in Florida it took a major toll on her and in her words “I learned a lot then, I cried a lot and it was really hard because I lost a lot of friends and I found out their true colors which is a bit scary.” In 8th grade, Rebeca moved back to the city and it was difficult for her to make friends due to changes in their life. In 9th grade she moved to another school and being social she wanted to make friends, unfortunately in November, Rebeca had to get surgery because her Cleft Palate had been causing some issues that needed to be solved. Rebeca proceeded with the surgery but when she got back, “Those 2 weeks I was gone, apparently everything changed and they didn't want to be friends with me anymore.” those supposedly friends had then talked about her behind her back. Having faced these problems in her life with her Cleft Palate and the wrong crowd, she wanted to look ahead into the future and only focus on positivity. Rebeca joined her varsity tennis team, school fashion club, and soon the newspaper. On the tennis team, Rebeca met Penelope and Izzie describes her as “My soulmate, I love her to death, she helped me from a gloomy point in my life” Since then Rebeca has been much happier with her friends and mentally. She was able to build on her relationship with her father through their shared passion for golf. She golfs with her father as much as they can and they both love the experience they share together. Rebeca’s final words perfectly summed up her experience in NYC “Growing up in New York City, Im a very different person than I would’ve ever been. New York has made me a stronger person.”