NE1 NE-Dream Scholarship

My dream in life is to make change and help people who might be having the worst day of their life. My aspirations are to become a police officer to help those in need, to influence policy change, and to be the representation that had I had as a kid, would have been given confidence so much sooner in life. I grew up in a religious environment till the age of 11, and until the age of 18 I was still battling the internal narratives I had been taught at a young age. As a kid others would tell me that God had made me disabled to inspire others, along with other anti queer narratives. When I reached 11th grade I started to question my gender identity and sexual attraction, and began unraveling all of the religious trauma and narratives that were stored away deep inside me. When 12th grade rolled around I was in the processes of starting testosterone and becoming more comfortable with myself. At the same time I met an officer who was the advisor of the local police explorers program who told me that as long as I could pass the physical test for the police department then I was set. There is not a single combination of words that can describe the profound impact of having someone, a police officer none the less, believe in me did for my self confidence. But there was still internal confliction, I was now a trans gay teenager, who wanted to be a police officer, and who was still spiritual but healing from childhood religious trauma. I had 3 identities that did not really fit into each other, and often one would conflict the others. But they did, they co-existed inside me and I was the only person who could decide if those identities co-existed inside me or not. After meeting friends that were supportive of my stance on police reform while being queer and religious, I was able to focus on what mattered. My dreams. My dream is to be a police officer, to help kids when they call for help. I want be queer representation on the force, bringing in a unique perspective and to help connect to the communities ill serve in meaningful ways. Im passionate about fulfilling my dreams not because I have something prove, but because upcoming generations need representation, support, and someone to believe in them, someone to guide them to become educated and empowered members of society.