Julianna Hawley

Breaking the Cycle: How Loss, Hard Work, and Perseverance Shaped My Future

When I was nine years old, my life changed in a way I could never have been prepared for.

My dad passed away suddenly from a heart attack. He had a successful job in New York City and made a good living, but he did not have life insurance. When he died, that income disappeared with him. My mom was suddenly faced with raising me while also figuring out how to financially support our family on her own.

She went back to work, and my grandmother stepped in as my full-time caretaker. During a time when everything around me felt like it was changing, my grandma became one of the people I could depend on most.

Then, only a year after losing my dad, I lost her, too.

My grandmother passed away from cancer when I was 10 years old. By that age, I had already experienced two losses that forced me to grow up much faster than I ever should have had to.

With my mom working, I learned how to take care of myself. At 10 years old, I was doing my own laundry, cooking for myself, and learning how to be independent. These were not necessarily things I thought twice about at the time. They were simply things that needed to be done, so I learned how to do them.

When I turned 14, my mom encouraged me to start working. Living expenses were not cheap, and I understood from a young age that if I wanted things, I needed to work for them.

That was when I got my first job as a hostess.

I stayed at that job for seven years, returning every summer. During the winters, I found other ways to make money. I babysat, walked dogs, and even worked as an umpire for my local Little League. If there was an opportunity to work, I was willing to take it.

I have always been a hard worker, but underneath that work ethic was something even bigger.

I wanted to be different.

I watched my mom do everything she could to provide for me, and I will always be grateful for the sacrifices she made. At the same time, I knew I wanted to build a future where my own children could have opportunities and financial security that my mom, despite how hard she tried, was not always able to give me.

I knew that if I wanted to change my future, I had to be the person who changed it.

So I became the first person in my family to go to college.

And then I became the first person in my family to graduate from college.

I graduated from Mercy University with a 3.97 GPA, earned the distinction of summa cum laude, and received the Outstanding Academic Achievement in Management Award.

Those accomplishments mean so much more to me than what is written on a diploma or an award. They represent every shift I worked, every late night I spent studying, every sacrifice my family made, and every moment when giving up would have been easier.

College was not a period of my life when I could focus solely on being a student. I continued working to support myself. I waited tables while completing my degree, and I held an internship with Westchester Property Management Group as an Accounting and Insurance Intern.

I was building professional experience while simultaneously trying to get through school and prepare myself for what came next.

After graduating, I stepped into a full-time position with Westchester Property Management Group. But I did not stop there. I also took on part-time work in sales with Blue Light Events and as a banquet server at Hollow Brook Golf Club.

Working multiple jobs can be exhausting, but when I look at what that work has allowed me to do, I feel incredibly grateful.

Today, I can pay for my own vacations. I buy my own clothes and groceries. I make payments toward my student loans. I can go out with friends, travel, and enjoy things I once viewed as luxuries, knowing that I earned the money that made them possible.

There is something incredibly rewarding about being able to provide for yourself when you remember what it felt like to grow up worrying about money.

My story is not about having everything figured out. I am still at the beginning of my career, and I still have so many goals I want to accomplish.

I want to continue growing professionally, become financially successful, build a career I am proud of, and eventually create a family of my own.

But I also recognize how far I have already come.

The nine-year-old girl who lost her dad could not have known what the next decade of her life would look like.

The 10-year-old girl learning how to cook and do her own laundry did not know that one day she would graduate summa cum laude.

The 14-year-old girl starting her first hostess job did not know that she would stay there for seven years while eventually becoming a college graduate and beginning her professional career.

Losing my dad and grandmother at such a young age taught me lessons I wish I never had to learn so early. But those experiences shaped the way I approach my life today.

They taught me independence, responsibility, perseverance, and the importance of preparing for the future.

Most importantly, they gave me a reason to break the cycle.

I cannot change the circumstances I grew up with, and I would never take away from how hard my mom worked to give me everything she could.

What I can do is take the foundation she fought to give me and build something even bigger from it.

One day, I want my children to grow up knowing that they are secure. I want them to have opportunities without having to worry about whether their family can afford them. I want to give them the childhood and future that I started dreaming about when I was still a child myself.

That is why I work as hard as I do.

And when I look at my life today, I do not just see how much further I want to go.

I finally allow myself to see how far I have already come.

For that, I feel incredibly blessed.