During the coronavirus, the entire world had their lives changed in a moment, including mine. My life changed when I was sent to stay with my grandparents for a week. A week turned into two weeks, and those two weeks turned into a year. Living with my grandparents during the pandemic was not only difficult because I was living in a place that I had only stayed in for short periods, but also because I was living with and helping care for my great-grandmother. My great-grandmother, Charlene, had severe Alzheimer's, which caused her to yell at family members, sporadically get violent, and oftentimes forget who you were. Before I moved in with my grandparents, I had already been helping take care of Charlene by bathing her and watching her while the rest of the family went to the grocery store. But living with her was entirely new. I got to see the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of what it was like. A few months into the pandemic, I had already moved in with my grandparents to a new house in the suburbs. Being in a new environment with mirrors all over the house, my great-grandmother’s condition got worse. She no longer recognized herself. Months after we moved into the house, my parents started to slowly move their belongings in by staying a few days at a time. During one of these instances, my father decided to stay home and help watch my great-grandmother. When he watched her, she got extremely violent with him. She tried to hit him and cursed at him. From that moment on, I was no longer allowed to watch her by myself, because if she hurt me, my grandparents would have to choose between putting her in a nursing home and losing the financial support that they were getting from my parents to pay for the house. After the incident, life continued as normal for years as her condition deteriorated until we could no longer care for her, and she was put into a home. When she was put into a home, my grandmother would visit her every day. I hated visiting at the time because I hated how far gone she was. The light in her eyes was gone, and she’d barely even speak or move. Then she passed away in March of this year. Her passing made me reflect on how I felt about her. I sort of resented her when she lived with us because most other teenagers didn’t have to do what I did. Living with that version of her caused me to block out all of the positive memories we had together. Her passing forced me to realize how much I loved her and remember all the memories we had. I still felt some anger towards her for the life my grandparents, my parents, and I lived because of her. But it did change how I thought of her as a person and as my great-grandmother. I truly did love her, even though sometimes I thought that I did not, and the part of me who resented her only felt that way because I resented how selfish I felt believing she ruined a part of my life. I hated that my other family members were part of the reason it happened. This experience made me reevaluate how I had been feeling about myself and my family. I promised myself to not put myself in a position that made me experience the feeling of caring for someone and resenting them at the same time, making me think I lost all the love I had for them until they were gone, and to prevent others from feeling that same thing by contributing research that would make it easier for mental health specialists to understand their clients. Studying to be a forensic psychologist and being able to experience many different backgrounds of people will allow me to contribute research and theories to the psychology field, helping others relate to their clients on an entirely level different than before. I want my research and experience to help all mental health resources be cheaper and helpful. I want to fight for those like my great-grandmother and my family to get the help they need without causing financial stress on themselves or their families.

Dr. Terry’s story is inspirational to me because he was able to become so successful in a foreign country after experiencing such a traumatic event and spread his knowledge to others before his passing, contributing to future generations understanding of psychoanalysis. During the coronavirus, the entire world had their lives changed in a moment, including mine. My life changed when I was sent to stay with my grandparents for a year. Living with my grandparents during the pandemic was not only difficult because I was living in a place that I had only stayed in for short periods, but also because I was living with and helping care for my great-grandmother. My great-grandmother had severe Alzheimer's, which caused her to forget who she was with and where she was. Before I moved in with my grandparents, I had already been helping take care of her.. But living with her was entirely new. I got to every part of what it was like. A few months into the pandemic, I had already moved in with my grandparents to a new house. Being in a new environment caused her condition to worsen. Months after we moved into the house, my parents started to slowly move in by staying for days at a time. During one of these instances, my father decided to help watch my great-grandmother. When he watched her, she got extremely violent. She tried to hit him, cursed at him, and called him slurs. From that moment on, I was no longer allowed to watch her by myself, because if she hurt me, my grandparents would have to choose between putting her in a nursing home and losing the financial support that they were getting from my parents to pay for the house. After the incident, life continued as her condition deteriorated until we could no longer care for her, and she was put into a home. My grandmother would visit her every day. I hated visiting at the time because I hated how the light in her eyes was gone, and she’d barely even speak or move. Then she passed away in March of last year. Her passing made me reflect on how I felt about her. I sort of resented her when she lived with us because most other teenagers didn’t have to do what I did. Living with that version of her caused me to block out all of the positive memories we had together. Her passing forced me to realize how much I loved her and remember all the memories we had. I still felt some anger towards her for the life our family and I lived because of her. But it did change how I thought of her as a person and as my great-grandmother. I truly did love her, even though sometimes I thought that I didn't, and the part of me who resented her only did because I resented how selfish I felt. This experience made me reevaluate how I had been feeling about myself and my family. I would want to use my studies to help lower the cost of mental health care and contribute research that would make it easier for therapists to understand their clients. Studying to be a forensic psychologist and being able to experience many different backgrounds of people will allow me to contribute research and theories to the psychology field, helping other psychologists and therapists relate to their clients on a level different than before. I want my research to help therapists help their clients.

I have always been interested in how the human mind works, like why we have a natural fear of certain animals, and why dreams are such odd versions of reality. Concepts like those are what makes me interested in Psychology alone. However, I have a vested interest in a specialty within psychology, forensic psychology. This is because the law and psychology intersect in a way that I have been interested in since I was in middle school. An example of one of the interesting ways the law and psychology mix is the difference between first, second, and third-degree murder. The difference between second and third is based on intention, and the difference between second and first is premeditation. Certain behaviors, speech patterns, and body movements, especially in ambiguous cases can be the difference between getting the first and third degree in a trial, and expert witnesses like forensic psychologists help sway the jury or the judge‘s decision. Being in mock trial has helped my love of psychology and law develop because I have been able to be both a lawyer and an expert witness, see a real trial, and speak to real lawyers and judges. One of the ways mock trial has influenced my love of forensic psychology was when we had a murder in our case last year. The defendant of the case could either be charged with first-degree murder or manslaughter. When we had to prosecute the defendant we had to argue that the murder was planned and was done with ill intent. When we had to defend the defendant, we had to argue that there was no possible way that he could have murdered them on purpose and put doubt into the jury’s head that he was the person who murdered the victim in the first place. Having this experience showed me exactly how intention could sway the verdict on a person’s life, and how having a forensic psychologist as an expert witness could have swayed the case. Another experience that furthered my love for forensic psychology was seeing the expert forensic psychologist in the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard case. The forensic psychologist who assessed Amber Heard introduced the jury to the possibility of her having an unmedicated and undiagnosed personality disorder. Hearing this testimony would push the judge towards having Amber seek treatment while also causing them to feel pity for her family and Johnny because untreated personality disorders can be mentally and physically dangerous to both the person themselves and their loved ones. Going to college and having psychology as my major while minoring in criminology or law and society would allow me to take my first step toward my ultimate goal of being a forensic psychologist with a Ph.D. and enough post-doctoral experience to be considered an expert in my field.

I have always been interested in how the human mind works, like why we have a natural fear of certain animals, and why dreams are such odd versions of reality. Concepts like those are what make me interested in Psychology alone. However, I have a vested interest in a specialty within psychology, forensic psychology. This is because the law and psychology intersect in a way that I have been interested in since I was in middle school. An example of one of the interesting ways the law and psychology mix is the difference between first, second, and third-degree murder. The difference between second and third is based on intention, and the difference between second and first is premeditation. Certain behaviors, speech patterns, and body movements, especially in ambiguous cases can be the difference between getting the first and third degree in a trial, and expert witnesses like forensic psychologists help sway the jury or the judge‘s decision. Having psychology as a major would allow me to take my first step toward my ultimate goal of being a forensic psychologist with enough experience to be considered an expert in my field. Being in mock trial has helped my love of psychology and law develop because I have been able to be both a lawyer and an expert witness, see a real trial, and speak to real lawyers and judges. I also love creating things for myself, my family, and my friends like drawings, paintings, sculptures, jewelry, food, and more! If I could start my own charity, I would want it to be an Alzheimer’s treatment and research based charity. This is because for most of my teenage life I helped take care of my great-grandmother with Alzheimer's. As someone who has had to experience the pain of watching someone they love slowly lose themselves and become an entirely different person, while also watching their family suffer because of it, I’d want to help lift the burden off of other families who experience the same thing we had to. The main purpose of the charity would be research based to help slow the progression of Alzheimer’s and to make the patients as comfortable as possible throughout their lives. The other purpose of the charity would be to lessen the financial and emotional burden that comes with caring for someone with Alzheimer’s by offering a nonprofit caregiving service for those who have a family member who needs around the clock care that they cannot provide. Other minor services we’d offer would include therapy for the family members of our patients, lessons on small things that families can do at home to help patients retain memories, and lessons on the proper steps to take when someone with Alzheimer’s or Dementia becomes distressed or violent. These services are all important to families who live with Alzheimer’s patients, and they are all services that I wish our family had access to when my great grandmother was still alive and we could still care for her.

During the coronavirus, the entire world had their lives changed in a moment. For me, my life changed during the coronavirus because I was sent to stay with my grandparents for a week. Then, that week turned into two weeks, and those two weeks turned into a year. Living with my grandparents during the coronavirus was not only difficult because I was living in a place that I had only stayed in for short periods, but also because I was living with and helping care for my great-grandmother. My great-grandmother had severe Alzheimer's, which caused her to yell at family members, get violent, and forget who you were. Before I moved in with my grandparents, I had already been helping take care of her by bathing her, and watching her while my grandparents shopped. But living with her caused me to see the ugly parts of what it was like. A few months into the pandemic we moved to a new house in the suburbs. My great-grandmother being in a new environment did not help her condition. Months after we moved into the house, my parents moved their belongings in slowly by staying over for a few days at a time. During one of these instances, my father decided to stay home and help watch her but she got extremely violent with him. Then from that moment on, I was not allowed to watch her, because if she hurt me, my grandparents would have to choose between putting her in a nursing home and losing the financial support that they were getting from my parents for the house. After this incident her condition deteriorated until we could not care for her and she was put into a home. My grandmother would visit her every day, but I hated visiting at the time because of how far gone she was. The light in her eyes was gone, and she’d rarely even speak or move. Then she passed away in March of this year. Her passing made me reflect on how I felt about her. I sort of resented her when she lived with us because most other teenagers didn’t have to do what I did. Living with that version of her caused me to block out all of the positive memories we had together. Her passing forced me to realize how much I loved her and remember all the memories we had. It didn’t change that deep inside I still felt some anger towards her for the life our family and I lived because of her. But it did change how I thought of her as a person and as my great-grandmother. This experience gave me the ability to look past negative experiences with people and believe that they have the ability to be better than how they present. My great-grandmother was a victim of circumstance, and this helped me have more compassion and empath for those who have been accused. My career goals are to become a forensic psychology being able to testify and help defend individuals who are wrongly accused. I plan to contribute to society by allowing justice to truly to served in a society where certain individuals have access to justice than others.

When I was eight years old, I thought that I was the worst daughter in the world and that I shouldn't exist because of that. Once my mom found out that I believed that about myself, she got both my mom and myself therapy at our hospital. Even though I didn't enjoy my experience in therapy, I understand that it's something that my mom needed and still needs today. I also understand that it would have benefitted me if I had been more open to it. My mother was diagnosed as depressed but was not able to continue to get the help she needed because the hospital would no longer take our insurance and we couldn't afford to pay for it out of pocket. As someone who has gone through the process of needing therapy and having it taken away from me, I would want to help lower the cost of mental health care and contribute research that would make it easier for therapists to understand their clients. Studying to be a forensic psychologist and being able to experience many different backgrounds of people will allow me to contribute research and theories to the psychology field, helping other psychologists and therapists who haven't reached that same understanding, relate to their clients on a level different than before. I want my research and experience to help almost all therapists be good, understanding therapists so that no matter how cheap their services are, they will always be helpful.