From a young age, I knew I wanted to do something in the medical field. My grandfather, who I call Papa, has Parkinson's and has had it all my life. He was diagnosed at the early age of twenty-eight and has been fighting this disease for over forty years now. I have watched him on different medicines, different devices, going in and out of numerous surgeries. I knew I wanted to do something with my life that would benefit people like him. I wanted my whole focus to be on making his life and people's lives like him easier. I wanted to go into nursing when I was younger and be upfront in the action to make people feel better. I remember watching Papa's face light up whenever his favorite nurses walked in to take care of him. I wanted to make people's faces light up, too, making them feel better physically and emotionally. At a young age, I only thought of the patient, making just one person feel better. I forgot that a family is usually also affected by the patient's physical and emotional disdain. Now that I'm older, wiser, and have seen more with an open mind, I changed my mind about nursing, but nothing changed about wanting to help people. I remember watching Papa on different medicines. Some made him sad, some angry. Some made him tired, some restless. He went through so many different medications trying to produce dopamine in the right amount, the hormone that Parkinson's affects. Dopamine is an essential hormone in our brains, it acts as a natural drug, a natural high when the adrenaline kicks in, but with Parkinson's, dopamine levels are never normal. So these drugs he was on tried to correct his levels; however, sometimes, they messed him up more. Papa also has batteries in his brain. I am not going to pretend to understand what those do precisely, but I know when they get low or die, he begins to get slower and more tired, and it gets harder for him to move and talk. Whenever he gets them replaced, however, he is vibrant. We can understand him better; he can move easier, his mood changes, and his bright personality shows. Through all the different medicines and different battery levels, my grandmother, Meme, is with him through it all. I have watched as she helps him through the most challenging and brightest times. And that's when it hit me. I can help patients, but I can also help their families if I go into medical or pharmaceutical sales. I can be the reason families are happier and have more good days than bad ones. I have recently decided to major in marketing and minor in sales in order to pursue my dreams of helping families like my own. Selling medicines I believe will help and not hurt. To sell medical devices that will make life for Parkinson's patients easier. My Papa is my hero for his bravery and smiles through all the tough times he has faced, but my Meme is my inspiration. Seeing her fight for her husband and her family every day for forty-plus years, she's the reason I want to go into medical sales, to make people's lives easier the way so many have tried to do for her.

I have read over fifty books just this year alone. I stay up for hours reading and diving into different worlds, different realities. I have read so many books that I wish everyone would read, mostly so I can talk about them, but the one book that has had a hold on me since the first page I read was Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. Whenever someone asks me for a book recommendation, I always tell them about Shatter Me. A book about a girl with a lethal touch, a dystopian world, and a love triangle between brothers (who happen to be the only people who can touch her). The Shatter Me series is composed of six novels and five novellas. The first book is about Juliette Ferrars, a girl who kills whenever she touches someone. She doesn't mean to hurt anyone; she can't control it. The story starts with her locked up in an insane asylum, put there by the establishment (the government of the dystopian society), and readers can see her mental state is all over the place. Mafi does a great job helping the readers understand the mind of Juliette, through repeated sentences and words, and dramatic imagery. Juliette is given a cellmate in the asylum, which she describes as unheard of, and she fears the establishment will soon kill her. Adam is her cellmate. She repeats how much she feels as if she knows him, his blue eyes familiar to her. They end up being childhood friends; well, friends is a relative term, but you would have to read to understand that. Adam ends up being a part of the establishment in a hoax to learn more about Juliette before bringing her into the home of their sector leader, Aaron Warner. Warner has been hunting for Juliette, wanting to use her powers to keep the civilians in line, but little known to the reader that is not the real reason. If I could convince everyone to read this series, I would. The setting, the drama, the chaos, the thrill, the romance, everything about the series keeps readers on their toes and wanting and craving more.