Furthering my education is incredibly important to me because the past trauma that I have experienced in my life has made me want to have a successful life getting high education, degrees, and helping others in my career who are seeking justice. I strive to get the best education possible to become a criminal prosecutor and eventually a judge in court. My past trauma has made me want to pursue this difficult but rewarding career. When I was 14, just a Freshman in high school, I experienced the most horrific trauma that anyone could experience. I survived a deadly school shooting. It was a normal day, but then ended to having life long trauma. I was hiding in my classroom, listening to people screaming and being murdered right outside of my classroom door. I even had to see a classmate get shot. Afterwards, I went through all of the feelings and stages after such a traumatic event: Shock, Grief, Depression, but finally, acceptance and recovery. It has taken me four years of intense therapy and self care to get to a good place mentally, and I still have a long way to go. However, I am incredibly grateful for the certain things that helped me get through this event. Art and Music greatly helped me cope with this tragedy. Listening to songs about suffering was a comfort for me, I felt like I wasn't alone. My classmates that passed away from the shooting had a lot of art dedicated to them. Seeing these beautiful murals and art memorials of the students helped me cope with the event and their death. It helped me feel like they were still here, even though I knew they weren't. The music and art that I experienced helped my brain process the tragedy, and helped me focus more on helping myself recover. Experiencing such a graphic crime motivated me to pursue in a career about helping stop crime. I started having an interest in forensics and law. I found crime very interesting, and serving justice would help me feel like I am making the world a better place. Experiencing a huge crime personally created an interest in crime for me, and this interest only grew. I felt the importance of offenders and criminals being punished for their crimes and the victims and their families being served the justice that they deserve for experiencing such horrific grief. It has become my dream to use my trauma and turn it into something that will impact the lives of others. I know that it will be a difficult road of school, but I am ready for it. I am ready to help stop crimes, bring justice, and create more awareness of the crimes that occur in this upside down world.