It is cliche to say that I want my future self to be happy; however, I want my future self to have more good days than bad ones and to maintain progression and peace.

As I sit in a room full of patients 70 years old and older, I notice that there is a drastic difference between those who led a healthy life and those who could not. One of my 70-year-old patients is agile, charismatic, and nimble. She does not look a day over 50. Last week, she completed a 5k run in support of cancer awareness. I just had to ask her what she did to keep herself so young, and she responded by saying, "It's simple. I eat a clean plant-based diet and I work out at least 30 minutes every day." I am a natural-born caregiver. I was my grandmother's caregiver who was diagnosed with chronic heart failure and diabetes, for several years until she passed in 2020. Diabetes and chronic heart failure are both chronic conditions that exist on both sides of my family. My father would pass from these conditions in 2021, and he was only 56. Seeing my loved ones succumb to these health conditions prompted me to take care of my health but also the health of others. I joined the medical field in 2020 shortly after my grandmother passed, and started graduate school for Healthcare Informatics and Information Management a few months after my father passed. With this degree, I can utilize data analysis and visualization to uncover trends in medical data, and use that knowledge to develop solutions to complex medical problems like diabetes and chronic heart failure. I hope that one day I can improve patient outcomes exponentially. As for improving my health, I have transitioned into a plant-based diet and exercise at least three days per week. I was motivated to make these changes by my dad and grandmother, but also after seeing how healthy and strong my patient was. She showed me that it does not take much effort to create better health outcomes for myself. All it takes is discipline and perseverance. I hope that remaining strict with my vegan diet and disciplined in my workouts will prevent me from having health problems in the future. I also hope to break the generational curses of malnutrition and lack of exercise. When I am older, I hope that I will have the strength to continue aiding my patients, the strength to care for my mother in old age, and the strength to constantly support my loved ones. When I am 70, I want to be able to run marathons and enjoy what life has to offer me. I want to inspire my future children and grandchildren to make healthy choices throughout their lives.

Before starting my master's program, I had to overcome the death of my father and grandmother. My father and grandmother were my support system. Whenever I needed life advice, they always knew exactly what to say. My grandmother died from complications of chronic heart failure in February 2020. Losing her was like losing a long-time friend. I truly loved her more than I loved myself. A year later, my father died from a heart attack in February 2021, due to chronic heart failure. When he died I felt my heart break. He was the most resilient person I knew. At times the grief was unbearable, and I still have moments when I break down, but something within me strives to make them proud. Before he died, my dad urged me to go back to school, so I am obtaining a master's now to honor him.

They say that the mind is not fully developed until age 25, and this progression is so gradual that a person is completely unaware that his mind was underdeveloped until she reaches that age in life. I spent the first 25 years of my life trying to figure out what I wanted to give to give to this world. I thought that by 25 I would be sure of who I wanted to be, but I can assure you that it would take more time. I was raised by my mother, father, and primarily my grandmother, so I am often told I have an old soul. My father was an engineer and an artist, my mother was a social worker, and my grandmother was a nurse. My parents taught me the value of always treating people with respect and kindness because everyone I meet is battling something unseen. I grew up volunteering in shelters for homeless persons and abused women and children. My mom wanted me to experience the harshness of life at a young age so that I would learn to be thankful for the blessings I had. Between 2020 and 2021, I suffered a great amount of loss. My grandmother and father both passed away from complications of chronic heart failure, along with several of my aunts, cousins, and uncles from COVID-19-related illnesses. I would receive a phone call at least once a month to inform me that someone I loved had passed away. From my losses, I understood that life is temporary. I lost friends while grieving because they could not comprehend my pain. I was even laid off from my teaching position, which would change my career outlook. Reflecting on the circumstances, I can say that the grief was unbearable at times, and I struggled with anxiety and depression, but something within me motivated me to strive. Amid tragedy, strength emerges, and I could not let my family down. I decided that I wanted to help those who were impacted by the global pandemic in a grandiose way, so instead of teaching, I decided to work as a front-line healthcare worker working exclusively with cancer patients. I was 27. While working with cancer patients, I was introduced to healthcare informatics through a colleague of mine. She introduced me to data management, data analytics, and informatics and explained how data is powerful enough to solve a range of problems in healthcare. I saw healthcare informatics as an opportunity to aid my patients by solving large-scale problems related to cancer screening and diagnosing using big data and to a career that combines my creativity, ethics, technical abilities, and passion to serve. I immediately fell in love with informatics so I applied to East Carolina University (ECU) graduate school for the Healthcare Informatics and Information Management master’s program. I was accepted into the program when I was 27. I hope that by completing the Healthcare Informatics master’s program at ECU I will be able to better understand data analytics software, create models using data, and solve problems within the Carolina Medical System. Upon completion of the program, I hope that I will be able to find trends in healthcare data using data analysis tools and machine learning to solve problems that impact the patients I serve today.