I am looking to pursue a career in social work or clinical therapy. I have wanted to pursue this career since my freshman year of high school, and I am passionate about it because it is a career that we really need. I want to specialize in kids with autism because I am fascinated by how they think, how they adapt to their environment, and how to help their parents understand them better. This scholarship will help me cover some of the costs of my college years, which I will be in for five years, because I am looking to get my masters in social work. One obstacle I had to overcome was moving to a different state when I was in kindergarten. I lived in Massachusetts until I was six, and moving to Maine at such a young age was definitely a change. All of my parents' family was up here in Maine, so they felt it was best to move back up here to be closer to family. I already had friends down there, which took a long time to make because I wasn't a very social kid. When I moved to Maine, I had an even harder time making friends because everybody already had friends. I spent months playing by myself on the playground, watching people just look at me and walk past. I'd go home crying to my mom about not having any friends, and she just tried to encourage me to go up and talk to people instead of waiting for someone to come up to me. I've used that advice a lot in my life. As everyone knows, being a teenager and making friends is hard. but using the advise my mom gave me, its helped me make a bunch of new friends because I didn't wait for them to come up to me, which might not happen, I go up to them and initiate conversation because they could be equally as nervous as I was to talk to people. My personality has definitely changed since my freshman year of high school. I remember walking through the halls, trying to make sure no one noticed what I looked like or what I was wearing. I was very insecure about what I thought people thought of me, and that only led to my self-esteem being at an all-time low. Throughout the years, I've just thought to myself, who cares what others think of me? I'm my own person and shouldn't take anything anyone might be saying or is saying personally because some of them don't even know me. Thank you for your consideration