During my sophomore year of high school, I battled with depression, anxiety, and an eating disorder. I have always had problems with anxiety but it got worse as I got older and developed my eating disorder. I struggled with my mental illness for over a year. I was in complete denial of it until I began to see how bad it was influencing me. I lost fifteen pounds due to my eating disorder. I was living with my father at the time and the environment around me was only making it worse. After battling for that period, I moved in with the best family I could ask for. With the help of them and God, I overcame my mental illness. Seeing with my own eyes just how great God works, helped my relationship with him grow stronger than ever before. I never realized just how many miracles God can create, until I had my own. It helped me build a relationship with my new family and begin to experience what true love from a parent feels like. As I was struggling, I desperately wanted one of my teachers to notice and help me. I was too scared to speak up for myself, so I never would do it. After my teachers not realizing and helping, I decided I wanted to become a teacher. Teaching has always been a dream of mine since I was a little girl. However, the need to feel noticed sparked something in me that I could never explain. I began to realize that so many people, especially young people, go through exactly what I was going through. This made me what to be a " safe place" for children who are struggling and have no one else to talk to. I aspire to be a light in a child's life that isn't getting that at home. I want to show love and compassion that lets them know that they are never alone in this cruel world. My mental illness has affected me in many ways, some of that I still struggle with. However, I have become closer to God and my parents. It has also shown me my purpose on this Earth because of all of the struggles I had to deal with. With that being said, I am proud of the things that I have accomplished, for they have led me into a path that I strongly believe is the reason God put me here.

During my sophomore year of high school, I struggled with a lot. I battled depression, anxiety, and an eating disorder. I constantly thought to myself, "How do these teachers not know? Why are they not helping?" I never want anyone to go through what I had to experience at such a young age. I never want another student to feel like no one sees them. While preparing the young adults for the world, I hope to pore into them in more ways than imagine bale. I hope to be that teacher that notices when a child is going through something and just wants someone to notice. I want to be that safe place, that comfort person. I never want them to face their fears alone, or go into the big world alone. I also think it is very important to educate and prepare the children for the outside world. Weather they are going to college or not, the adult life will be there. Every generation needs that extra push to be the person God created them to be, and me, I want to be the one pushing. I want to let them know everyday that they can and they will be something big one day. Tell them that they can do anything that they set their mind to. Most importantly, I want to help every student who will need it. I want to be the best teacher that they know and sprout them into the beautiful flowers that they are destined to become.

"Why am I passionate about early childhood education" is a very easy question for me to answer. I have always adored children and wanted to pour into their lives. I strongly believe that I can play a huge role in children's lives with my career of education. I love to see people grow into the person that God created them to be, and having the opportunity of being a planter in their seed excites me. I am a firm believer that everyone on this Earth was created for a purpose, I have never been more sure that God created me to shine my light and be a planter to young children. A lot of kids come to school everyday with a new struggle from home. I want to be that safe place where they know they can come to me and I will always help. Throughout my search of a career, I was unsure if becoming a teacher was what I wanted to do. I have been in and out of DHR cases since I was in the second grade, so I thought I was created to help children get out of the same things I went through. With that thought, I wanted to become a social worker. However, my dream has always been to become a teacher. I began thinking and I soon realized that I could help children in more ways imaginable if I was their teacher. They could lean on me and confide in my for help. That is my main goal.