This is my plee... first

My name simply doesn't define me. If it must be known, my name is Ebony. What does define me is my heart. It has stood through the test and trials of this life, so far. I'm 17, and I've lived in Chicago all my life. The city of hustlers, killers, drug dealers, even strippers. The victims of welfare. To me this hell here. Seventeen and I've seen more things a movie can't even play. I want to be the first in my family to EVER go to college. I want to be able to support my mom, who struggles from paycheck to paycheck. I believe that if my mother could turn her life around from a recovering addict, then I can make mine into anything I put my soul into. With this scholarship will be the first step to my life. This scholarship will be the key to my home. If not this scholarship then maybe somewhere, someone will give me another. I can sit here and pour my soul into this, but it probably won't even make a difference if I’m one in a million. I've tried so many different ways to "come up" in this world.... but it always seems like if I haven't earned it, then I don’t deserve it. Bad things always happen to the best people, and the BEST things happen to the worst. I don't know if I've made an impression with my words but I pray that someone heard my cry.