Aaron and Ruby Dicks Scholarship

When I was nine years old my family became homeless. The memories of being a child, homeless, and helpless are branded into my brain. The memories of being a child, homeless, and helpless are branded into my brain. So I use those painstaking feelings of dependency and the mercy of others in a cruel world as a catalyst for me to lift my family out of poverty and financial instability. I hope to attend the University of South Carolina and break the generational curses that have haunted my family by being among the few to receive a higher education. Books were my only escape from the harsh reality I lived. My mother always told me, “Knowledge is power.” Even when the future seemed bleak, books gave me hope. Every page I turned gave me hope, every story I read reminded me that there was a world beyond my circumstances. I held onto the belief that our struggles were temporary. During these dark times I would have these vivid dreams but even those were constantly interrupted. My careless, drug-dealing uncle would often wake me up stumbling in the house, with random women always smelling of alcohol and marijuana, waking me up from my slumber on the lumpy living room couch I shared with my mom. Always ensuring to turn on the lights and loudly exclaim "Make yourself at home." and to not mind me or my disabled mother resting. The next morning I would then have to wake at 4:30 AM. Thanks to the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, a cab was to be my chauffeur. An old, often smelly, yellow cab would pick me up every day for a roundtrip of 40 miles to and from school.The long cab ride to school was worth every mile. I know this because this experience helped me realize the concept of education and its importance to my life. As time went on I realized my education then and now is a blessing and is something I will always own. Today, the courage and inspiration I find in books continue to guide me as I give back to those in similar situations. I supply homeless girls with feminine hygiene products. Many basic needs for women, such as menstrual products, are considered "luxury items." This makes them ineligible to purchase with government-assisted funds, such as SNAP/EBT, or WIC. I remember being a young girl, homeless and destitute, wishing to have something of my own. In those moments, I needed something that could not be stripped from me. Because of this, I supply girls with menstrual products, self-care items, underwear, shampoo, body wash, and body mist so girls in similar situations can possess these small essentials. However, The memories of being a homeless little girl will forever etched into my brain. I look back on that time in my nine-year-old life when it was full of pain and fear, but even in the darkest moments, books gave me faith. It was my faith that whispered to me that my struggles were temporary. Now as I'm a college student all I see in my life is love, opportunities and many blessings. I learned from that experience, to use my knowledge to help propel and further my education, and no matter the dire situation or circumstance I may rely on my knowledge for confidence, income stability, and a means to assist me in my life overall. I overcame a myriad of challenging circumstances with ADHD, homelessness, and poverty by focusing on my education. Now those days of feeling isolated and helpless, are in the rearview mirror.

For as long as I can remember, reading has been one of my favorite hobbies. In elementary school, I always brought the most amount of books to our school’s annual book swap and bought as many books as I could at the book fair. Over the past 12 or so years of my life, I have read everything from young adult fiction to romance to thrillers (my new favorite genre). And despite the fact that I exclusively read fiction, they, just like non-fiction books, allow the reader to explore new perspectives and see the world from a different lens. Through the many books I have read, I have learned life lessons that have contributed to my passion for patient advocacy in healthcare. Though they might seem trivial, young adult books have taught me a lot about society and how to advocate for what you believe is right. Book series such as The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Divergent by Veronica Roth depict dystopian worlds in which the main character is the catalyst for change in their respective communities. Katniss Everdeen fought against the Capital’s use of the Hunger Games, a competition in which teenagers from across their nation are pitted against each other in a fight to the death, for entertainment. Beatrice Prior advocated for those known as Divergent in a society where everyone is only allowed to express one personality trait. These books influenced me to stand up for my beliefs even when I am in the minority. The efforts of one person may seem futile, but I have learned that even if you think you are the only one, there are more people just waiting to be inspired by your message and support your cause. These lessons have translated into my life goal of becoming a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and advocating for marginalized groups such as people of color, those of low socioeconomic status and non-English speakers. These groups are often underserved and overlooked in healthcare due to implicit biases that are based on racist, sexist and classist ideals. My goal as a future Black female physician is to give a voice to those who are traditionally unheard. Recently, I have become fond of reading psychological thrillers and suspense novels. I love being able to use the bits of information given to me throughout the story to try to determine the truth. Whether it’s solving a murder mystery or choosing between the narrations of two characters, these books have taught me to think past initial assumptions to discover the truth. This can be compared to the steps doctors follow to diagnose patients in which they must get the full story including past diagnoses, current medications and allergies, in order to give an accurate diagnosis. Through my passion for reading, I am able to improve my deductive reasoning skills which will benefit me as a future physician. Too often are patient symptoms dismissed due to unconscious biases in healthcare preventing patients from receiving care. As a physician, I intend to not only hear everything my patients have to say but also review all the facts and background information before I make a diagnosis. My long-term ambition is for every person to have the opportunity to receive equitable healthcare despite any defining factors that may have restricted them in the past. In order to attain my educational and career goals, I will be attending Duke University in the fall where I intend to co-major in Spanish and Global Health, putting me one step closer to giving back to underserved communities through my passion for healthcare.

Life is a game of "give and take" and a little bit of luck. Over the past year, I would have this reaffirmed to me through people, experiences, failures, and books I have read on my journey of pursuing a degree in Dental Hygiene. As my first successful undergraduate semester finally comes to an end, there were two books that I read that guided me. Those two books were, "Winning" by Tim S. Grover and "12 Rules for Life" by Jordan B. Peterson. Here's how they helped formulate the impact I want to make on the world. "Winning" by Tim S. Grover, is a book showcasing the skills it takes to know how to think like a winner. It examined some of the most common household names in the athletic world (and even business) in what mentality it takes to be considered not just competitive, but a "winner". One of the rules in this book that helped me grasp the concept of "give and take", was "Winning takes you to hell. And if you quit, that's where you'll stay." (Grover, 137). That concept, of sacrificing something, is one that I would want to teach to my peers, loved ones, other students, etc. Accomplishing anything requires more of you than sometimes you'll be willing to give. It calls out your name, as it did mine, to push through the days that I didn't want to complete coursework after a 12-hour shift. I work full-time at a factory and I take courses part-time. I knew that if I wanted to win and pursue being a Dental Hygienist, "hell" would be staying up until midnight a lot of nights, turning in work, just to be up in 5 hours again. Sometimes it meant saying no to the weekend invites downtown, the house parties, and hearing the stories about it the next day. If you want to accomplish anything, you must be willing to go through your own personal "hell" and find your way out. "12 Rules for Life", by Jordan B. Peterson, is a book that I have a more intimate connection with. Jordan Peterson, a clinical psychologist from Canada, made a significant mark on my life after I first encountered his lectures through Youtube as a 20-year-old, 4 years ago. He became more than a guy I would watch for psychology lectures. He became a father figure to a 20-year-old who grew up fatherless. He subtitles this book, "An antidote to chaos", which quite literally, the 12 rules laid out remedies in each chapter that offer order to our lives. The one that impacted me the most was, "Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping." (Peterson, 31). The "give" here, is that you have to keep promises you make yourself and have a vision or "why" and seek that out in life. This principle helped turn me into my own father figure just as I considered Jordan Peterson. It made me responsible for myself and helped me realize that where I end up is a result of my actions. In conclusion, the impact that I would love to leave on everyone I meet is that life requires something of you, to get anywhere desirable. Want to go out? You need gas and money. Do you want a degree? You need to stay up and complete the work and put the hours in. Do you want to win? You have to be willing to do what no one else will. Life itself is a game of "give and take", and maybe a little bit of luck.

I have read many books over the course of my life. Most entailed adventures, fictional mysteries, and plot twists that fueled my imagination as a child. As a teenager, I got lost. I had spent my life putting on charades for others and had forgotten who I was. It was in books that I really felt the freedom of being one’s self. After starting my journey to self-discovery, I found out about self-help books. In February, 2023, I purchased my first one. I went from the Bones graphic novel series to The Power of Your Subconscious Mind. I’ve long believed that in order for me, and anyone else, to change the world, I must learn what changes I need to make to myself. In the words of J. Cole, “The only real revolution happens right inside of you.” Books took me from a world of wonder and adventures to a world that shows me how to heal myself. Joseph Murphy took his research of the human mind to build his novel, The Power of Your Subconscious Mind. I got it to figure out why and how I think. I am currently reading it and I’m sure there are more important lessons to come in later chapters. So far, the most significant lessons I’ve read are the power of affirmations and improving your present moments through gratitude. Implementing these lessons into my daily life I have already learned to unlock pieces of my subconscious mind and how I view my life as a whole. First is the power of affirmations. So, how did saying positive messages over and over help improve my impact on the world? Well, it didn’t. It helped improve my impact on myself. More specifically, it improved how I see myself. And that, in turn, improved how I see the world, because I see the world through myself. I used to look at myself in the mirror and think about everything I have done so far, and think that it wasn’t enough. Staring into my own tired eyes, I said “I am enough. I’ve done some pretty awesome things. I am enough.” I would repeat those words in my head, and out loud, even if I didn't believe them. Until, I looked in the mirror at those same tired eyes, but this time there was a light inside them. “I am enough. I’m doing some pretty dope stuff.” This time it was like a reminder, a checkpoint so I could keep going. Joseph Murphy’s book taught me that just repeating a simple positive affirmation can really benefit my view of self and improve how I see my impact on the world. Finally, the most essential of Murphy’s lessons, utilizing the expression of gratitude. I have a hard time living in the moment because my brain is often running at high speed in a million different directions. The book teaches that by appreciating the moment, being present can become a beautiful experience. Maybe sitting in traffic or standing in a long line doesn’t sound like much of an experience. I learned that taking things from the moment itself and being grateful for them makes being present easier and more gratifying. Sometimes, while sitting in traffic on the way to school, I’ll look over to see the sunrise coming into view. It’s those things that made me appreciate life more and also have the desire to make it better. The Power of Your Subconscious Mind showed me how to better myself as a persona and helped me see the world through new eyes. Eyes full of optimism, self-love, and capability.