Samantha Simon

Growing up I always loved Disney princesses. When I lived in the Dominican Republic as a little girl with my mom, my dad would bring me back Disney princess dolls from the different countries he would visit for work. When I had just turned four years old we moved from the Dominican Republic to Allen, Texas. I remember getting very attached to all the dolls and that is where my love for princesses started. Later my dad got transferred to Houston, Texas for his work and In 2012 the movie Brave was released and Merida was the first Disney princess at the time to be independent and have curly hair. This is why she became my favorite princess.
Merida, the princess from the movie, was a spunky strong independent princess who set my standards high for what I wanted to be like when I grew up. When I was little I was a very independent kid. I did not like to let my mom pick out my clothes or dress me, I wanted to do it all myself. Merida was very independent because she too had her own style and did everything that a royal princess was not allowed to do such as archery and building her own house in the forest. This is where I truly started my journey into engineering because from then on I would build pillow forts and make doll houses out of cardboard, paper, tape, and paint. I would also make furniture out of chopsticks I would break into small pieces.
As a child, it is important to have good role models in all aspects, in this case, Merida was the first Disney princess to have wild curly hair. Before Merida, I hated my curly hair because I felt it was too wild and messy, but Merida took pride in her hair and embraced it. This impacted me as a little girl because I no longer was ashamed of my wild curly hair, instead, I embraced it! I learned to be confident about myself, not just in my appearance but in everything I do, including school and extracurriculars. I also learned that being confident means never being afraid of new challenges, for example when I first started engineering the projects and assignments were much more difficult than I was expecting, for example, my very first engineering project was to build a digital cube. I worked so hard on this project and encountered many difficulties at the beginning such as learning to design different parts of the cube, but now I look back and realize how much I have grown and realized that project was not as difficult as I thought.
In conclusion, Merida has taught me many things like being confident and independent in everything that I do. Ever since I was little I have always looked up to her because of her intriguing personality and independent nature. As Merida would say “Some say fate is beyond our command, but I know better. Our destiny is within us. You just have to be brave enough to see it.” To make my goals happen I have to put myself out there and work hard to achieve my goals, that is something that Merida has taught me.