Have you ever felt like a burden? Like your problems are too much and so instead of reaching out you shut yourself down? Thats how I felt when I had my first and second Crohn’s Disease flare. I couldn’t eat a lot of the foods that I liked which made it hard to go out with friends. I always had to go to the bathroom and was scared if I didn’t know where the bathroom was or if it was available that I would inevitably soil my pants so I always had extra just incase or I would just isolate myself and stay home. Living with a disease can be hard and lonely but I found that with the right support it has made it an interesting journey. I first had a Crohn’s flare up in my junior year of high school and then again in 2020. I definitely had days where I would ask why me? I cried lots of tears and definitely had some panic attacks. I pitied myself for a long time but then one day decided I wasn’t going to let this disease take over my life. I did a lot of research and found a diet for people with IBS. This helped me go into remission and it was one of the hardest things I had done. Stress seemed to be the ultimate culprit for me coming back into a flare. It was different the second time around because I had dealt with it before so I knew what I had to do. This scholarship would help relieve some of the financial stress for the program I am looking to get into. I am applying to the Physical Therapist Assistant Program at College of DuPage in Illinois. I currently am a Massage Therapist coming up on six years. I find a career in health and wellness to be very rewarding and am excited to move forward in the Physical Therapist Assistant Program to expand my knowledge. With my growing career I always look into expanding and plan on opening a spa of my own within the next 10 years. I feel becoming a Physical Therapist Assistant will help me get more experience in health and wellness. Then I will financially be able to start up a spa without going into huge debt to start it up. Thank you for your time and I appreciate the opportunity to share my story.