Life is a precious gift. One we don't all cherish, and some don't get to fully experience. I've struggled with many things throughout my life, and while each one left an impact on the person I am today, nothing compares to the loss of my mother. A year ago, my mom got diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, and five months ago, she died. Losing my mom has completely changed the person I am, as well as the way I see the world and the people around me. After loss, your community is supposed to surround you, support you, and uplift you during this treacherous time of need. However, I did not receive that. While there were people around me, they were not really there for me. Everyone treated me like an inconvenience, because for them this was just another sad story of a young girl who has to live the rest of her life without her mother, but for me it was my life. During my junior year of high school, I had taken a CNA course and even obtained my license, however, I had realized during the course that CNA work was not something I wanted to pursue. Little did I know that the skills I had obtained would be put to very good use. At just nineteen years old I became my mom's primary caretaker. I dropped out of college and put everything I had into taking care of my mom, just like she had done for my brother and I. I am incredibly grateful to have had the ability to care for my mom the way I did, but that also means that I watched her slowly die. I was the first person to notice every decline. It started with her memory, then her ability to use her left side well, then her voice started changing, and then before I knew it, I watched her slowly lose the ability to walk. After she became bed bound, I watched her slowly slip away mentally and physically until her last breath. And then, I had people who had never experienced what I did tell me that I needed to move on from the death of my own mother. I have never felt more alone in my entire life. When I opened up to my therapist about how I felt, she too made me feel like I was wrong for how I am grieving, but at one point I credited my therapist with helping save my life as she's the one who helped me leave my abusive relationship. I still think fondly of my therapist as she has helped me get through many overwhelming battles and she is also the one who got me interested in social work, but my reasoning as to why I will continue to strive to become a social worker has changed. I want to honor my mother's life, and I know no better way to do that than to help others just like her daughter. There is very little good that I can find amidst all the darkness that has consumed my life, but the one good thing is that I will do my best to never allow someone to feel alone no matter what they are going through. As individuals, we can only fully understand what we ourselves have been through, and while that sucks, I have grown to possess a lot of knowledge that others do not have, knowledge that will serve me well throughout my career. I just hope to always have grace, compassion, and empathy, for everyone I meet.

At 15, I began my fight against chronic illness. At 18 I found myself trapped in an abusive relationship. There were many people who helped save my life, but the individual who started it all was my therapist- a social worker. I've had dreams of helping people since I was 5, but finding a career path that felt right was ominous. It wasn't until I sat down one-on-one that I realized social work was not just my future profession, it was my purpose. I met my first social worker my junior year of high school, but it wasn't for another year to come that I truly understood the inner workings that come with the title of social work. Seeing first hand how one person could completely change a person's life created a spark inside my chest that I didn't know could be ignited. As I've grown up, I've become a person I'm proud to be. While I'm not a perfect example of characteristics a social worker should have, I do pride myself in the knowledge that I am a soft hearted individual with enough life experiences that set me up for success in my career path. I was raised being told by my mom that empathy is not something you're born with, it's something you're taught, and while that may be true, I don't remember a time when my heart was not full of empathy, even for those who arguably “do not deserve it”. Social workers are so much more than what I was taught as a child. Social workers are individuals with a mass amount of emotional strength and softness. Social workers stand alongside people in the hardest, most vulnerable times. But within hardship, there is purpose. Nobody wants to go through emotional trauma, but traumatic experiences can lead to greater emotional intelligence and empathy towards others. My own experiences- specifically over the last 4 years- have reshaped how I see the world and the people in it. I know that if you asked me 11 months ago what my thoughts were on women who stay in toxic relationships, I would have said that I don't understand why they don't simply leave because I would never let a man treat me like that. But now that I have lived through it personally, I understand the complexity of the question and how healing and moving on from traumatic experiences is painful and messy- but it also builds understanding. That understanding is something I will carry into every interaction as a social worker. Within the future I hope to be working with individuals who are also navigating through trauma. Whether it's abuse, illness, or other mental challenges, I want to be there to catch each client when they don't feel strong enough to hold themselves up. Social work gives me the opportunity to use my story to empower others, to create real change, and to offer hope where it feels lost.There are many ways to save a life. For me, that way is through social work. I’ve faced and overcome obstacles that once felt impossible. Now, I want to help others do the same. If I can offer someone even a fraction of the support my therapist gave me, then I know I will have made a difference.