Born and raised in Jamaica, the land of wood and water, a lot was expected of me at an early age. Raised in a household where men were said to be the money makers and women degraded to cooking, cleaning, and tending to children, I was “force grown.” Instead of watching Disney Channel or playing with toys, many days whether weekday or after school, I was either cooking, watching someone cook or doing more work on my tablet. I was expected to pass all my classes with excellence or even score higher than the maximum score because I was “smart enough to do so";I was placed on a pedestal. When I moved to America, living up to the standard was not difficult considering that during my 7th and 8th grade year, I had already learnt the topics and was getting high honor roll quarterly. When I entered high school however, all my motivation and interests in school decreased terribly but following the path set for me, I focused on cooking and decided my career path would be culinary. With all that lost motivation I started making terrible decisions and picking up unpleasant habits, one of which was giving up the moment I felt stressed. Giving up so easily encouraged me to start skipping classes and using my phone to cheat instead of learning the material. During this unmotivated phase, I came across a cold case YouTube video and got hooked on forensics and crime ever since. Discovering something I am interested in, I signed up for both forensic science and psychology my junior year, steering away from the path set for me. I was motivated again but I continued to give up easily and started to skip classes again which ended up hindering my chances of graduating.Disapointed in myself I took a makeup class and extra credit classes to not only ensure my graduation, but to graduate with an above average grade and honors. Being in the situation that I am and my lack of papers,the college application process and even simple loan applications are not yet available to me yet.I am applying for as many scholarships as I can to not only show that nothing can hold you back from your education but to fulfill my future career path. I plan to study psychology and possibly double major in criminology or even forensics in hopes of becoming a forensic psychologist in the future.