My journey started when I was 6 years old entering 1st grade. I became ill and developed Type 1 Diabetes. It was a life changing time for me; by 4th grade I became really ill. I was not able to go to school most days I had Vertigo so bad, I could not walk or concentrate on my school work. I worked hard to maintain my work with memory loss. Finally a new doctor figured out what I had, it was an illness that 40 year old develops. There is no cure for my illness just maintaining it. When I am in a flare my schoolwork is very hard, but I worked through it. I have been on Honor roll since 6th grade with a GPA of 3.7 and in the top 20% of my class. Colleges were giving me direct admittance without even applying. I have gotten in my dream school. I am very proud of my academic achievements. My career goals are to become a K-9 unit officer, with a psychology major. This will help me in the training of the dogs and understanding the criminals thought process. In 11th grade I took animal science in a trade center. I connect with the animals. My goal was to join the air force and join NASA but with my Diabetes I could not join the armed services. I have always wanted to work and train dogs. A police officer came to my school and we connected. He told me I could join the police force. That became my goal, serving and protecting my community. If I cannot become a police officer I can train dogs for the hearing and seeing impaired or even help war dogs with PTSD. My passion is working with dogs. I am a trumpet player; I play Taps every year for the past 4 years at Memorial Day and Veterans Day, to honor our Veterans for their service. This is something I do on my own, going to places in my town to honor them by playing. I have gone to cemeteries, parks in our town that honors our Veterans. I have helped serve our Veterans dinner the past 2 years at our school Veterans concert along with playing Taps for them. I did a bike build for needy family at Christmas, along with the Christmas project in our town to help families in need for the last 2 years. My family is just an average income family with all the increasing prices these days; they do not have extra money for my college expense. I am going to work while in college to help with the cost. However it is very expensive. Since I was not just the average student I have had to work very hard to keep my grades up when my memory loss was so bad, I had to study twice as hard. I just love dogs and I want to train dogs. I will give back to society by helping to keep our communities a safe place to live in by being a k-9 unit officer.

When I was 6 years old I developed Type 1 Diabetes, 2 weeks before I started 1st grade, we went in to the school to speak with the school nurse. It almost seemed like they had never dealt with diabetes before they were clueless. The teachers did not know what to do, I would get a pencil everyone else would get a piece of cake. One time a teacher brought in donut holes the nurse told the teacher just give her the plain one; all donut holes have the same carbohydrate count. We worked hard with the school to teach them just a little of planning I could eat and do what all the rest of the students did. My grandmother would go along everywhere with my class so I could be as normal as everyone else. She would sit in parking lots in the cold for hours so I could go on field trips and still give me the space to be "Normal" The teachers were really scared to have me with them, so we just made them feel safe knowing we have me covered for everything. Throughout high school, the teachers would be so nervous to have me in their class, my grandmother and I would go in and teach them every year before school started what to look for, what to do. How to used Baqsimi nose spray and so on. I played Lacrosse in school, my alarms would go off the coaches would get nervous, but we had cue cards, my grandmother would hold up. They are bright colors with numbers on them for how many ounces to drink of apple juice to keep me going for the whole game. I wanted no special treatment. It worked and I was able to play the whole game without going low. I am very active in my life; I played Lacrosse as a goalie for 4 year during my schools regular season. Then I would do fall, winter lacrosse at a place about 1 hour away from my home. During the summer I would play Lacrosse summer club traveling team. I started this season playing Ice hockey as a goalie in a traveling club outside of school. I am in the school band, which includes Concert, Marching, pep band, Jazz Band and ensembles. I am also a bagpiper with a local band near me. This is not part of my school. We start in March and go through September doing gigs, festivals, parades and performances. We practice 2 days a week after regular school and practicing nightly on my own. I go to a trade school during junior and now senior year of high school for classes in animal science learning about animals. I go and volunteer at the humane society, horse barn and goat barn. We also groom dogs for outside people during our class time. I have been selected in the year book as an animal whisperer. I try to be friendly with everyone, sometimes it is hard with the drama that comes with it. I try to stay out of it. I work during the summer to take the place of school time and I save my money. I work, play and just live very hard. I want to accomplish so much. I have a GPA of 3.7. I have applied to 8 colleges around my home and have been accepted to each. I need to pick one. Sometimes my diabetes gets in the way. It hurts when friends, classmates and adults do not understand I have to take some time to be a diabetic.

My journey started when I was 6 years old entering 1st grade. I became ill and developed Type 1 Diabetes. It was a life changing time for me; by 4th grade I became really ill. I was not able to go to school most days I had Vertigo so bad, I could not walk or concentrate on my school work. I worked hard to maintain my work with memory loss. Finally a new doctor figured out what I had, it was an illness that 40 year old develops. There is no cure for my illness just maintaining it. When I am in a flare my schoolwork is very hard, but I worked through it. I have been on Honor roll since 6th grade with a GPA of 3.7 and in the top 20% of my class. Colleges were giving me direct admittance without even applying. I have gotten in my dream school. I am very proud of my academic achievements. My career goals are to become a K-9 unit officer, with a psychology major. This will help me in the training of the dogs and understanding the criminals thought process. In 11th grade I took animal science in a trade center. I connect with the animals. My goal was to join the air force and join NASA but with my Diabetes I could not join the armed services. I have always wanted to work and train dogs. A police officer came to my school and we connected. He told me I could join the police force. That became my goal, serving and protecting my community. If I cannot become a police officer I can train dogs for the hearing and seeing impaired or even help war dogs with PTSD. My passion is working with dogs. I am a trumpet player; I play Taps every year for the past 4 years at Memorial Day and Veterans Day, to honor our Veterans for their service. This is something I do on my own, going to places in my town to honor them by playing. I have gone to cemeteries, parks in our town that honors our Veterans. I have helped serve our Veterans dinner the past 2 years at our school Veterans concert along with playing Taps for them. I did a bike build for needy family at Christmas, along with the Christmas project in our town to help families in need for the last 2 years. My family is just an average income family with all the increasing prices these days; they do not have extra money for my college expense. I am going to work while in college to help with the cost. However it is very expensive. I feel deserve this scholarship, since I was not just the average student I have had to work very hard to keep my grades up when my memory loss was so bad, I had to study twice as hard. I just love dogs and I want to train dogs, to help keep our communities a safe place to live in.

I have chosen to major in Psychology in college. My dream has always been to go to NASA and to Mars. Then I wanted to go to the air force and train dogs for the military. I am a type 1 diabetic so all this was taken from me. So I had to rethink what I could do that was close to my dream. So many things are not available to me since I have Diabetes, that's not fair but I do understand the reasons why. So I started going to the job fairs at my school. A police officier came in, I was talking to him about my passion, my goals. Then I told him I couldn't because of my diabetes. We started talking and he told me I could join the police force. We talked about how I could train the dogs for the k-9 unit. I have also talked with other officers since then. They told me to take Psychology instead of crimminal justice, since I will learn that in the police academy. I want to make an impact in the community I live in. Being a police officier I can attain that. With a schology degree I can be a higher ranking officer,I could help in hostage situations in a stand off. If for some reason I can not be a police officer with my degree I can also train dogs to help the hearing and seeing impaired. I can even work with War dogs with PTSD from the war. My professional passion is to train dogs to help people. My passion can be done in many different job titles. All these job fields would make an impact. I have already started with my training by taking Animal Science in my 11th and 12th grade of high school at a technical center. I have always been able to make dogs trust me, we just connect. I love animals so using it in my proffessional life to me is a good choice.

Caring for animals has been a passion of mine. My junior and now senior year I have been going to the trade center called FLTCC for animal science. I have been learning to care for all types of animals. I go to the horse barn to take care of the horses from feeding to cleaning their pens. This year we have been going to the humane society to help care for the pets there. We also groom dogs at the tech center. We learn about traits, care and training of many types of animals and pets. I have really enjoyed my time in this course. I plan to become a K-9 police officer and to train the dogs. I have two crested gecko's my two dogs have died, but for graduation I am getting a golden retriever. I am so excited. I just really seem to get along with pets, dogs mostly. So while thinking of a career goal, I decided training dogs would be great for me. I want to be a police officer with a dog. There are many sides of this. I will finish a 4 year college with a Psychology degree, and then enter into the Police academy, when I become a police officer I have to wait three years to apply for the K-9 unit. I decided on a Psychology degree so I can get into the minds of the suspects and into the minds of the dogs I am training to understand them more. With the suspect, knowing their minds make up could help understand with what they are thinking to be able to talk them down out of the situation they're in. The dogs, I can understand how to correctly train them to be the best they can be as a police dog. If for some reason I cannot join the police force. I can always train dogs for the hearing impaired or the blind. I am a Type 1 diabetic, I could also train dogs to be companions since these dogs can alert diabetics of Blood glucose high's and Low's. There will be always farm animals and domestic animals around. However dogs trained to help people with needs are very expensive, even if I get into the police force, my I could volunteer my time to help train dogs or other animals, I have seen monkeys, pigs even miniature horses can be trained to help. Animals just seem to like me, and I like them. So why not let this become my passion and have a career in animal training at the same time. What could be better!

When I was just a small child, around the age of 6, That night was surely strange, it all started when I was constantly running to the bathroom every 20 minutes or so. It felt like you drank 100 cups of water. My poor grandmother was so concerned that night. My grandma ended up calling my doctors telling them my symptoms and my doctor told my grandma that I needed to be rushed to the hospital ASAP. I was told I needed to pack my favorite stuffed animals and a blanket. The car ride was long and tiring like a never-ending highway with 5 o’clock traffic. When my grandma and I got to the hospital, I had no clue why we were there in the first place. After the wait, I was sent to a room and got poked, jabbed; you name it, that experience was horrifying. As a small child mostly everything is cool, boring, or scary. This was scary. For the next few hours, I had blood urine, and ketone tests; it took too long in my opinion. Life was good for a child my age, to eat, play, go to school, work a little, play, eat, etc. Well, I thought that until the most horrifying, confusing, boring news of my life crashed right into me. Like some sort of crazy driving mad man ran into me and both landed into the ditch! My grandma’s face was red and full of confusion, tears, and horror; all she ever wanted was the best for me. Well day after day and book after book my grandma managed to have one book left to study. I’m so proud of my grandma, she is so strong. Later that same night I was diagnosed with one of the world’s deadliest diseases. Diabetes Type 1, I know scary. When you thought as a kid your life is difficult, well for me I just hit level 100 on difficulty hard. As a diabetic my life just got harder, I was treated unfairly, never picked for gym, kids thought you were some sort of contagious monster. Several long years went by I’m 12 now, and life got a little simpler. My blood sugar levels have gotten steadier, counting and guessing carbs is not as hard. Unfortunately, one day I came home crying and felt like I couldn’t do anything and angry that I couldn’t be “normal” like other kids, I felt powerless, I was put down, You know what my family told me, they told me I’m special and stronger than other people because they don’t know what kind of things you had to go through. They told me I’m unstoppable and I believed it. I’m seventeen now, and I went through a lot in the last eleven years of my life. Throughout my life with diabetes I have made some good achievements. Survived several doses of bullying, got accepted on the lacrosse for four years straight, learned the trumpet and got promoted to first, learned the bagpipes and got bumped up to grade 4, and now I’m starting to learn hockey to be able to join a team. I’m very happy that I didn’t let my diabetes become a cage surrounding me and not letting me do anything awesome in life. Now as I am looking for colleges, My hard work is paying off. But the cost is sky high. But I will not let that stop me. Like my family said I am unstoppable, so I will look at my future as a k9 officer with the mindset I can do anything I want!