My life growing up was rough as I grew up in foster care. I was physically abused in the first home and in the second, my permanent home, I was emotionally, mentally, verbally, and physically abused. My birth mother was heavily into drinking/drugs when I was born and as a result lost custody of not only me but my two other sisters as well. After some deliberation, the courts determined that my mother was capable enough to take care of all her children-except me. Thus, I remained in foster care for over 17 years and left when I was 21. With no direction pointing me the right way in life, I embarked on this journey all by myself. I enrolled myself in my local college and began taking general education classes towards a degree. It took me about a semester before I finally figured out what I wanted to do with my life. I chose a criminal justice major. It took me a while to obtain a degree as I had to drop to part time or take semesters off in order to work and make money, but I am proud to say that I DID it and hold not one, not two but THREE associates degrees in my hand. But I am not planning on stopping there. I want to keep going. The sky’s the limit. My life goal is to do good by others. My passion in life is helping others; I enjoy lifting others’ spirits up when they are down and just giving them an ear that listens when others don’t. I hope to one day impact as many lives as I can through various outreach programs, starting with former foster care youth. Every life is deserving.