Tessa
I am a 16-year-old who thrives knowing that I will always reach for more, and will transform my goals into realities, not merely dream of them. Similar to the Monarch butterfly who travels remarkably long distances each year to reach their destiny, I understand that the decisions that I make along the way as well as my efforts will largely determine my future.
This desire may only be quenched by immersing myself in the rich educational landscapes offered on the other side of the world - an aspiration regretfully out of reach for my family. Despite having several jobs, I know I cannot afford to continue my education without some assistance. I also know I will exceed all expectations should I earn this scholarship.
One of the other ways that I enjoy spending my time is powerlifting. At first, I just went to the gym with my brother, then he signed me up for a powerlifting competition for beginners, which is when I became intrigued by the sport. Before long I was competing in a national competition in Merida, México where I got first place in my category, granting me the pass to compete in the world championship which was held in Romania.
I am committed to serving a greater purpose for this scholarship, working even harder, not only to gain more knowledge, but also to do what I believe is the best path for me, to keep exploring the world, and finding what my passion is. I am eager to start this journey, and I hope that the Monarch Foundation will support me through it.
STORY
Blog
May 2025
Hello dear Reader!
I am excited to tell you that I finally graduated! I can't believe how fast time flies when you are busy. I had my last day here at Picacho, and it was beautiful. After 16 years of getting dropped off at the same school, it is finally over. I would be lying if I said I wasn't going to miss it.
Picacho McGregor gave us a last school tour, starting at kindergarten and ending at the High School football field. It was our last goodbye, our last time seeing all of our friends together at the same time. Our last time walking through the same halls we met. Our last time standing between the same four walls where we got to know each other so well. I truly can't grasp the concept of not seeing my friends every day, in the same class ever again. I am beyond excited to begin my new journey, but there is a small part of me that doesn't want to leave. A part that wishes she could stay in this exact place forever. Yet there is a bigger part of me who can't wait to get out of Cabo and start her new life. I am beyond grateful for all of the amazing opportunities that I have had these last three years. They have not only helped me learn so many new lessons, they have also shaped me to become the woman that I am today. I hope to become the best version of myself through the next four years of university, and I hope to surround myself with new faces who will help me reach my goals. Thank you for taking your time to read tessa´s Month of May. I hope you get to read my June's adventures.
April 2025
Everything seems to be coming to an end, soon I won’t be in the same classroom as my childhood best friend, I won’t be able to look around and see all the familiar faces that have been part of my life for so long. I will admit that it is scary, not knowing what is going to happen next. However, I am confident that with the help of the foundation I will be able to get over these challenges.
I am beyond grateful to be able to go study abroad for the next four years. I cannot even begin to express how excited I feel for what is to come. I remember being a little girl and imagining how amazing it would be to be able to go to their other side of the world and now I’m going to be able to do so! While also meeting new people and surrounding myself with new faces, learning so many new things about the world and immersing myself into new experiences. Although I am aware that it’ll be challenging I am also willing to learn. If there’s something that I have learned these past months is that life is a lot easier once you are determined to face challenges, as new ways of learning instead of giving up, and I hope to do this with the support of the Monarch Effect Foundation and of every person that is supporting it.
March 2025
Hello dear reader, as you may already know my name is Tessa Roberts, I spend most of my time at the gym, reading books, baking, working on my business and going out with friends. Yet, sometimes I feel like time is simply slipping through my fingers,- I hope you understood the Mamma Mia reference- to the point where I feel I don’t even have the time to look back and enjoy the little moments.
March has felt like such a hurried month, I finally had the chance to get back into routine after a heavy week of many exams and projects. Before I continue to talk about my month, I would like to ask you something. When was the last time you sat down and took the time to look back on all of your accomplishments? I believe that sometimes we can get so caught up at work, in our studies or simply in life, we focus so much that we tend to forget about the importance of stopping to enjoy. I am only a few months away from my graduation, which means that soon i'm going to leave this beautiful place, full of amazing people that have taught me so many valuable lessons. I'm going to be away from the many outstanding teachers which I had the honor of learning from. I'm not talking about the things they taught me in class-although that was really interesting as well- Im talking about the teachers who constantly encouraged me to be my best self, the ones who helped me through rough times. Those are the teachers which I value the most. The ones that not only show up to give a lesson, but the ones who genuinely care about their students. I will miss staying in during recess to tell profe Nacho that I had finished the book he had recommended to me, I will miss looking for Miss Denise in the hallways to tell her all about what was new in my life, I will miss seeing my mom during my breaks (she’s a teacher at my school). There are also teachers who I started missing already since they left before I graduated. I think about these small interactions more often than not. I remember reading a quote that said something along the lines of "Missing someone or something is a quiet reminder that it mattered — that it touched your heart in a way worth remembering. " So I am grateful that I get to miss such a beautiful place, and such heartwarming people. I think that this month has truly made me fall in love with living. I love that I am able to learn new things everyday, I love that I can meet new people everyday, I love that I can visit new places, I love that I can play music and dance, I love that I can laugh with my friends, I love that I can bake, I love to love. I am in love with life. And I hope you are too.
January 2025
Este mes ha sido todo sobre probar cosas nuevas y aprender de ellas. Una vez más, tuve la increíble oportunidad que me brindó la Monarch Effect Foundation, que me proporcionó una pasantía. Mi rol fue desarrollar un sistema—o el plan base—para trabajos de pasantía dentro de la fundación. Lo que me parece realmente asombroso de esto es que mi trabajo será utilizado en el futuro y perfeccionado por estudiantes y diferentes empresas. Al principio, me sentí un poco nerviosa porque era algo en lo que nunca había trabajado antes. Sin embargo, logré avanzar con Lisa y, después de eso, continué desarrollando el sistema por mi cuenta. Aunque todavía es un trabajo en progreso, puedo decir con confianza que he aprendido muchísimo durante este proceso. Este mes también pude enfocarme más en mi negocio de galletas, lo cual fue muy emocionante para mí. Hornee muchas galletas para diferentes eventos, pero mis favoritas probablemente fueron las de temática neón. Además, trabajé en el desarrollo de un nuevo sabor para San Valentín. Experimenté con dos tipos de galletas de red velvet, y creo que quedaron realmente deliciosas. Últimamente, también he estado explorando el concepto de abundancia. Empecé a escuchar diferentes videos sobre el tema y me di cuenta de que estamos constantemente rodeados de ella. Es una idea interesante porque no es algo en lo que realmente te fijas hasta que empiezas a prestarle atención. Noté que los árboles tienen una abundancia de hojas y que, durante estas vacaciones, tuve una abundancia de nuevas oportunidades.
December 2024
I never really grasp how important being flexible is, it wasn’t up until this month that I’m starting to write my thesis for Picacho where I am realizing how important it is to be flexible. Sometimes you want to start something and you have a whole plan on how you want to do it, however, it doesn’t always work out .
My plan for my thesis was to develop a program where I taught the importance of entrepreneurship to lower income communities, I wanted to teach them the basics of business so they would be able to start their own business and eventually grow it into something much bigger. However, I faced many difficulties after I realize that the community I wanted to focus on wasn’t as stable as I thought. That is why I will be shifting my focus on my thesis to a new subject. I still wish to help the community so I’m going to be working on developing the program program on my own. I am very excited for this project and I hope that a lot of people can be benefited.
I am very glad to be able to learn so many things throughout the different experiences that I get to have, I think it is a great opportunity that I am given from school to make this investigation because I am able to take so many new q with me.
November 2024
The deadline is right around the corner! Universities are waiting for my submissions! Eager to hear about my life journey so far! I’m writing essays until I feel like my hands are about to fall off. Thinking of what will make me more appealing towards universities, what should I talk about? My powerlifting story, maybe my Cookie business, different situations that I’ve had to face in my short life? There’s so many options yet I can’t seem to choose which one describes me best. What are three words that describe Tessa as a person? Maybe it could be intelligent, creative, perhaps, ambitious, that sounds about right. While writing all of these things, I come to realize how much I have been able to achieve! I become more proud of myself each day, and even more thankful for the people that have helped me make these dreams come true. I know it sounds cliché, but I don’t think there’s another way to describe it best, that feeling that I get every time that I am able to look at what I have created and look back to all of those helping hands that were willing to give me so much! Thank you to each and every one of you.
I have recently picked up reading again, the monarch foundation gave me this book that I had been meaning to read for a long time. You might know it already. It’s called Atomic Habits. This book talks about how you can make small changes every day that may seem un significant in a week, but if you keep doing them for a long period, then you will see amazing changes. I have learned to apply this knowledge in my life implementing new habits that will help me achieve many great things. For example, the first thing I do when I wake up instead of picking up my phone and checking social media, I have changed this bad habit and turned it into a new one. I now wake up and automatically put a video on YouTube that is teaching me something new. I also love to start my day by planning what are my “Big Three” of the day! I have enjoyed this book so much!
A book may seem boring to many, but something that a lot of people over look is how valuable these small pages can be. I mean, think about it, a book is someone’s life work summarized into about 250 pages. if you want to learn something, the easiest way to do it is by picking up a book. I seem to have fallen in love with reading all over again. And I can’t wait to dive deep and dissect more books.
October 2024
Life suddenly seems to rush by. So many great opportunities stepping in front of me, and I lean forward trying to catch them. I believe that these opportunities are here thanks to the hard efforts that I have put in over the last two years.
Im so excited to be stepping into this new life chapter, I feel like I have the opportunity to be reborn. And I know that may sound cliché, however, going to college to me means that I will be stepping out of my comfort zone, something that seems scary, yet it makes me buzz with excitement.
Over the last few months I have been able to start working on my college applications, having the opportunity to determine where it is I want to live is something that is truly salient for my future. Not only will I immerse myself in new cultures, I will also surround myself with completely new environments. Getting the opportunity to choose what education I will get, trying to decipher what it is that I want to pursue, all of these things are amazing opportunities that I will cherish, and make the best out of. I cannot stress enough, how thankful I am to be able to go after my dreams. I know it is something that not a lot of people get to do.
This last month I had to make a hard choice. I had to see what my goals were, what I saw for myself in the future. Whether that be going off to Europe, continuing my Cookie business, learning a language, or competing in Powerlifting. These are all things that I really enjoyed doing, but I understand that sometimes you have to make sacrifices, in this case, I decided to choose my education and my business. These are both things that truly speak to who I am, and who I want to become in the future. And although it was hard, I decided to end the chapter of competing. This was due to my many reasons. One of them being that I wish to focus more on my education, I also want to put more time and effort into my business.
I learned many valuable things while training, while traveling, and when competing. I learned that winning doesn’t always mean getting a metal, it can also mean, taking truly amazing experiences and life lessons back with you, and being able to teach other people what you have learned throughout these adventures. So my heart is warm, knowing that this choice was made because there is so much more to come.
1 August 2024
My latest pursuit is Malta! Aiming to accomplish my personal records and setting harder goals for myself. I am truly proud of myself for coming this far! Representing my country makes me feel abundantly honored. I wish to make my family proud.
Looking for my University has also played an important role during these vacations! I am thrilled to learn more about where my studies can take me! Every day of research fills me with more excitement towards my future. Looking at the different opportunities that my hard work provides for me, giving me a glimpse of what my future holds for me. I know what I am capable of, and I cant wait to pursue what I love.
My cookie business is a priority as well, I aim to research more every day in order to fully submerge myself in how I can manage my business better and in a greater scale, I am passionate about growing this project that I have, knowing that it is teaching me an immense amount of knowledge, and teaching me the importance of responsibility.