My primary intention for pursuing social work is to encourage people to embrace and allow the full extent of their humanness. Throughout my life, I was taught that ignoring my mental, emotional, & physical health while not prioritizing obtaining & maintaining healthy & meaningful relationships and not centering joy & pleasure was necessary for my survival. After living this way for so long, I realized that being fully present with my mind, body, and spirit made my life worth living, that it created an innate sense of purpose, which for me is to “be” without performance. The pressure I felt and still feel sometimes to strive for perfection removes the beauty of being alive and robs me of the autonomy that comes with it. Once I discovered that within myself, I understood others much better. Navigating my own challenges while watching everyone around me struggle with the same things made me feel like I owe it to myself and others to be brave enough to witness all of me without judgment in hopes that individuals whom I come into contact with would take on the courageous task of seeing & being themselves fully. To a certain extent, we are all afraid of what we’ll see if we decide to do so. We are human no matter how hard we try to divest from it, and when our humanness begins to shine through, we reject it because we are taught and eventually believe that it serves no purpose. I used to feel so much shame around being emotional, sensitive, loving, and caring. I was taught that those qualities made me weak and something was wrong with me. For years, I struggled with abandoning those parts of myself but not being fully able to because those are the things I like the most about myself. Those parts ultimately make me who I am, and abandoning them meant abandoning myself. This deep-rooted rejection discouraged me from meeting myself deeply enough to unlearn, heal, and fight for what is rightfully mine: my humanity. I desire to teach and help individuals understand that we are whole, worthy, and deserving of love, joy, happiness, and compassion from ourselves and one another simply because we exist. That is when we can begin to be in sacred ceremony with our lives. It does not ask us to be anything and anyone other than who we are at our core, which is human. Through my healing and transformation, I discovered that my humanity always brought me back home to myself. Strengthening my relationship with myself pushed me to prioritize my mental, emotional, & physical health. It caused me to obtain & maintain healthy & meaningful relationships, and it has made centering joy & pleasure a necessity & core part of my livelihood & identity. That has allowed me to radically accept all parts of and every version of me that has gotten me to where I am today. I have worked hard to create a sustainable life for myself and intentionally waited until I had room in my mind, body, and spirit. This expansion helped me see how full one’s life can be and how accessible this fulfillment is with the proper tools. I will always prioritize being human first and encourage those I meet to prioritize their relationship with themselves. Our relationship with ourselves sets a precedent for our relationship with our life, allowing us to determine and create our own sources of joy & fulfillment.

My primary intention for pursuing social work is to encourage people to embrace and allow the full extent of their humanness. Throughout my life, I was taught that ignoring my mental, emotional, & physical health while not prioritizing obtaining & maintaining healthy & meaningful relationships and not centering joy & pleasure was necessary for my survival. After living this way for so long, I realized that being fully present with my mind, body, and spirit made my life worth living, that it created an innate sense of purpose, which for me is to “be” without performance. The pressure I felt and still feel sometimes to strive for perfection removes the beauty of being alive and robs me of the autonomy that comes with it. Once I discovered that within myself, I understood others much better. Navigating my own challenges while watching everyone around me struggle with the same things made me feel like I owe it to myself and others to be brave enough to witness all of me without judgment in hopes that individuals whom I come into contact with would take on the courageous task of seeing & being themselves fully. To a certain extent, we are all afraid of what we’ll see if we decide to do so. We are human no matter how hard we try to divest from it, and when our humanness begins to shine through, we reject it because we are taught and eventually believe that it serves no purpose. I used to feel so much shame around being emotional, sensitive, loving, and caring. I was taught that those qualities made me weak and something was wrong with me. For years, I struggled with abandoning those parts of myself but not being fully able to because those are the things I like the most about myself. Those parts ultimately make me who I am, and abandoning them meant abandoning myself. This deep-rooted rejection discouraged me from meeting myself deeply enough to unlearn, heal, and fight for what is rightfully mine: my humanity. I desire to teach and help individuals understand that we are whole, worthy, and deserving of love, joy, happiness, and compassion from ourselves and one another simply because we exist. That is when we can begin to be in sacred ceremony with our lives. It does not ask us to be anything and anyone other than who we are at our core, which is human. Through my healing and transformation, I discovered that my humanity always brought me back home to myself. Strengthening my relationship with myself pushed me to prioritize my mental, emotional, & physical health. It caused me to obtain & maintain healthy & meaningful relationships, and it has made centering joy & pleasure a necessity & core part of my livelihood & identity. That has allowed me to radically accept all parts of and every version of me that has gotten me to where I am today. I have worked hard to create a sustainable life for myself and intentionally waited until I had room in my mind, body, and spirit. This expansion helped me see how full one’s life can be and how accessible this fulfillment is with the proper tools. I will always prioritize being human first and encourage those I meet to prioritize their relationship with themselves. Our relationship with ourselves sets a precedent for our relationship with our life, allowing us to determine and create our own sources of joy & fulfillment.

My primary intention for pursuing social work is to encourage people to embrace and allow the full extent of their humanness. Throughout my life, I was taught that ignoring my mental, emotional, & physical health while not prioritizing obtaining & maintaining healthy & meaningful relationships and not centering joy & pleasure was necessary for my survival. After living this way for so long, I realized that being fully present with my mind, body, and spirit made my life worth living, that it created an innate sense of purpose, which for me is to “be” without performance. The pressure I felt and still feel sometimes to strive for perfection removes the beauty of being alive and robs me of the autonomy that comes with it. Once I discovered that within myself, I understood others much better. Navigating my own challenges while watching everyone around me struggle with the same things made me feel like I owe it to myself and others to be brave enough to witness all of me without judgment in hopes that individuals whom I come into contact with would take on the courageous task of seeing & being themselves fully. To a certain extent, we are all afraid of what we’ll see if we decide to do so. We are human no matter how hard we try to divest from it, and when our humanness begins to shine through, we reject it because we are taught and eventually believe that it serves no purpose. I used to feel so much shame around being emotional, sensitive, loving, and caring. I was taught that those qualities made me weak and something was wrong with me. For years, I struggled with abandoning those parts of myself but not being fully able to because those are the things I like the most about myself. Those parts ultimately make me who I am, and abandoning them meant abandoning myself. This deep-rooted rejection discouraged me from meeting myself deeply enough to unlearn, heal, and fight for what is rightfully mine: my humanity. I desire to teach and help individuals understand that we are whole, worthy, and deserving of love, joy, happiness, and compassion from ourselves and one another simply because we exist. That is when we can begin to be in sacred ceremony with our lives. It does not ask us to be anything and anyone other than who we are at our core, which is human. Through my healing and transformation, I discovered that my humanity always brought me back home to myself. Strengthening my relationship with myself pushed me to prioritize my mental, emotional, & physical health. It caused me to obtain & maintain healthy & meaningful relationships, and it has made centering joy & pleasure a necessity & core part of my livelihood & identity. That has allowed me to radically accept all parts of and every version of me that has gotten me to where I am today. I have worked hard to create a sustainable life for myself and intentionally waited until I had room in my mind, body, and spirit. This expansion helped me see how full one’s life can be and how accessible this fulfillment is with the proper tools. I will always prioritize being human first and encourage those I meet to prioritize their relationship with themselves. Our relationship with ourselves sets a precedent for our relationship with our life, allowing us to determine and create our own sources of joy & fulfillment. Every crisis we have ever faced as a human race can be attributed to individuals actively abandoning the parts of themselves that make them humans capable of ethical decision-making and critical thought. We are all born with the innate gift of imagination, which empowers us to alter our environment based on our wants, desires, and needs. For centuries, this gift and power has been acknowledged by all, but very few are allowed to engage with it in a way that will enable them to create a life of their choosing. Instead, through the process of social stratification, cisgender, straight, white, and non-disabled people have heavily guarded this innate truth for themselves, creating barrier after barrier in hopes that the rest of the human race will ignorantly adhere to their vision for humanity, which consistently fails to consider how these manufactured barriers make that impossible. Deciding that one’s worth and ability to contribute to society is based solely on categorizing people into groups based on socioeconomic factors like wealth, income, race, education, ethnicity, gender, occupation, physical ability, and social status eliminates the need for imagination. I believe there is a solution for this that requires all of our participation. The field of social work has an opportunity and a social responsibility to balance the scales. Transformative justice asks us to operate from an abolitionist, trauma-informed, anti-oppression & anti-capitalist lens. This means cultivating environments for healing, accountability, and safety. To accomplish this, we must no longer engage with current systems and institutions that are inherently violent and only exist for social control. When our desires, wants, and needs are being decided for us, it makes it almost impossible for humans to access this innate power to determine the quality of our lives, especially individuals who are not cisgender, straight, white, male, or able-bodied. Feeling powerless in pursuing a free, happy, and sustainable life can leave you feeling hopeless, disempowered, and constantly seeking purpose. That is no way to live. As social workers, mental health workers/clinicians, counselors, therapists, etc., it is imperative that we evaluate how we’ve abandoned our humanity while extending ourselves kindness, grace, and compassion. Only then can we truly engage with our work in a way that allows us to respond to and reduce harm while increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the field.

My primary intention for pursuing social work is to encourage people to embrace and allow the full extent of their humanness. Throughout my life, I was taught that ignoring my mental, emotional, & physical health while not prioritizing obtaining & maintaining healthy & meaningful relationships and not centering joy & pleasure was necessary for my survival. After living this way for so long, I realized that being fully present with my mind, body, and spirit made my life worth living, that it created an innate sense of purpose, which for me is to “be” without performance. The pressure I felt and still feel sometimes to strive for perfection removes the beauty of being alive and robs me of the autonomy that comes with it. Once I discovered that within myself, I understood others much better. Navigating my own challenges while watching everyone around me struggle with the same things made me feel like I owe it to myself and others to be brave enough to witness all of me without judgment in hopes that individuals whom I come into contact with would take on the courageous task of seeing & being themselves fully. To a certain extent, we are all afraid of what we’ll see if we decide to do so. We are human no matter how hard we try to divest from it, and when our humanness begins to shine through, we reject it because we are taught and eventually believe that it serves no purpose. I used to feel so much shame around being emotional, sensitive, loving, and caring. I was taught that those qualities made me weak and something was wrong with me. For years, I struggled with abandoning those parts of myself but not being fully able to because those are the things I like the most about myself. Those parts ultimately make me who I am, and abandoning them meant abandoning myself. This deep-rooted rejection discouraged me from meeting myself deeply enough to unlearn, heal, and fight for what is rightfully mine: my humanity. I desire to teach and help individuals understand that we are whole, worthy, and deserving of love, joy, happiness, and compassion from ourselves and one another simply because we exist. That is when we can begin to be in sacred ceremony with our lives. It does not ask us to be anything and anyone other than who we are at our core, which is human. Through my healing and transformation, I discovered that my humanity always brought me back home to myself. Strengthening my relationship with myself pushed me to prioritize my mental, emotional, & physical health. It caused me to obtain & maintain healthy & meaningful relationships, and it has made centering joy & pleasure a necessity & core part of my livelihood & identity. That has allowed me to radically accept all parts of and every version of me that has gotten me to where I am today. I have worked hard to create a sustainable life for myself and intentionally waited until I had room in my mind, body, and spirit. This expansion helped me see how full one’s life can be and how accessible this fulfillment is with the proper tools. I will always prioritize being human first and encourage those I meet to prioritize their relationship with themselves. Our relationship with ourselves sets a precedent for our relationship with our life, allowing us to determine and create our own sources of joy & fulfillment.

My primary intention for pursuing social work is to encourage people to embrace and allow the full extent of their humanness. Throughout my life, I was taught that ignoring my mental, emotional, & physical health while not prioritizing obtaining & maintaining healthy & meaningful relationships and not centering joy & pleasure was necessary for my survival. After living this way for so long, I realized that being fully present with my mind, body, and spirit made my life worth living, that it created an innate sense of purpose, which for me is to “be” without performance. The pressure I felt and still feel sometimes to strive for perfection removes the beauty of being alive and robs me of the autonomy that comes with it. Once I discovered that within myself, I understood others much better. Navigating my own challenges while watching everyone around me struggle with the same things made me feel like I owe it to myself and others to be brave enough to witness all of me without judgment in hopes that individuals whom I come into contact with would take on the courageous task of seeing & being themselves fully. To a certain extent, we are all afraid of what we’ll see if we decide to do so. We are human no matter how hard we try to divest from it, and when our humanness begins to shine through, we reject it because we are taught and eventually believe that it serves no purpose. I used to feel so much shame around being emotional, sensitive, loving, and caring. I was taught that those qualities made me weak and something was wrong with me. For years, I struggled with abandoning those parts of myself but not being fully able to because those are the things I like the most about myself. Those parts ultimately make me who I am, and abandoning them meant abandoning myself. This deep-rooted rejection discouraged me from meeting myself deeply enough to unlearn, heal, and fight for what is rightfully mine: my humanity. I desire to teach and help individuals understand that we are whole, worthy, and deserving of love, joy, happiness, and compassion from ourselves and one another simply because we exist. That is when we can begin to be in sacred ceremony with our lives. It does not ask us to be anything and anyone other than who we are at our core, which is human. Through my healing and transformation, I discovered that my humanity always brought me back home to myself. Strengthening my relationship with myself pushed me to prioritize my mental, emotional, & physical health. It caused me to obtain & maintain healthy & meaningful relationships, and it has made centering joy & pleasure a necessity & core part of my livelihood & identity. That has allowed me to radically accept all parts of and every version of me that has gotten me to where I am today. I have worked hard to create a sustainable life for myself and intentionally waited until I had room in my mind, body, and spirit. This expansion helped me see how full one’s life can be and how accessible this fulfillment is with the proper tools. I will always prioritize being human first and encourage those I meet to prioritize their relationship with themselves. Our relationship with ourselves sets a precedent for our relationship with our life, allowing us to determine and create our own sources of joy & fulfillment.