Your vision is not ahead of you, it lies within you; this has been a resounding revelation that I had acquired as I continue my studies at UTD. Growing up with immigrant parents I watched from afar as they accomplished their goals for the sake of themselves as well as their loved ones. To this day, they help people the best way they possibly can. They have two orphanages, bring medical aid, and assist widows in their home country of Nigeria whilst raising a family and helping those who wish to immigrate get a stable foundation by giving them a place to stay. Through all of this, I have come along with them but with not much regard as I did so due to them doing this even before I was born. I came with them to Nigeria for a great portion of my life and helped when they asked, and I donate my clothes to the children there. But I was in a bubble, all of these things were just something that I do because its always been this way. I’m not ignorant of the fact that this did in fact help others, but I never truly went any deeper than that. I simply went with the flow with no true passion behind it up until I graduated. My goals for life were to get a high education, get a good paying job so that I could live comfortably, and have a family of my own. But either through age or being exposed from my bubble once in university, I came to a realization that all the things I’ve done and all my plans for the future could be more than what I thought they could be. I realized through my studies, as I am a criminology major, that there’s so much that I can do to help here with my own will behind it. Doing good things is all well and good, but until you have a passion behind it you can only do so much. And I have realized that my will to help lies within law, especially when it comes to those who are not able to fend for themselves. I want to continue in a way that my parents were not able to help others because I was blessed with an opportunity to receive an education and I love to see people get what they rightfully deserve as human beings. Even through the financial strain of continuing school, I truly believe that this is a privilege given to me so that I may give back to others.

Your vision is not ahead of you, it lies within you; this has been a resounding revelation that I had acquired as I continue my studies at UTD. Growing up with immigrant parents I watched from afar as they accomplished their goals for the sake of themselves as well as their loved ones. To this day, they help people the best way they possibly can. They have two orphanages, bring medical aid, and assist widows in their home country of Nigeria whilst raising a family and helping those who wish to immigrate get a stable foundation by giving them a place to stay. Through all of this, I have come along with them but with not much regard as I did so due to them doing this even before I was born. I came with them to Nigeria for a great portion of my life and helped when they asked, and I donate my clothes to the children there. But I was in a bubble, all of these things were just something that I do because its always been this way. I’m not ignorant of the fact that this did in fact help others, but I never truly went any deeper than that. I simply went with the flow with no true passion behind it up until I graduated. My goals for life were to get a high education, get a good paying job so that I could live comfortably, and have a family of my own. But either through age or being exposed from my bubble once in university, I came to a realization that all the things I’ve done and all my plans for the future could be more than what I thought they could be. I realized through my studies, as I am a criminology major, that there’s so much that I can do to help here with my own will behind it. Doing good things is all well and good, but until you have a passion behind it you can only do so much. And I have realized that my will to help lies within law, especially when it comes to those who are not able to fend for themselves. I want to continue in a way that my parents were not able to help others because I was blessed with an opportunity to receive an education and I love to see people get what they rightfully deserve as human beings. Even through the financial strain of continuing school, I truly believe that this is a privilege given to me so that I may give back to others.

Your vision is not ahead of you, it lies within you; this has been a resounding revelation that I had acquired as I continue my studies at UTD. Growing up with immigrant parents I watched from afar as they accomplished their goals for the sake of themselves as well as their loved ones. To this day, they help people the best way they possibly can. They have two orphanages, bring medical aid, and assist widows in their home country of Nigeria whilst raising a family and helping those who wish to immigrate get a stable foundation by giving them a place to stay. Through all of this, I have come along with them but with not much regard as I did so due to them doing this even before I was born. I came with them to Nigeria for a great portion of my life and helped when they asked, and I donate my clothes to the children there. But I was in a bubble, all of these things were just something that I do because its always been this way. I’m not ignorant of the fact that this did in fact help others, but I never truly went any deeper than that. I simply went with the flow with no true passion behind it up until I graduated. My goals for life were to get a high education, get a good paying job so that I could live comfortably, and have a family of my own. But either through age or being exposed from my bubble once in university, I came to a realization that all the things I’ve done and all my plans for the future could be more than what I thought they could be. I realized through my studies, as I am a criminology major, that there’s so much that I can do to help here with my own will behind it. Doing good things is all well and good, but until you have a passion behind it you can only do so much. And I have realized that my will to help lies within law, especially when it comes to those who are not able to fend for themselves. I want to continue in a way that my parents were not able to help others because I was blessed with an opportunity to receive an education and I love to see people get what they rightfully deserve as human beings. Even through the financial strain of continuing school, I truly believe that this is a privilege given to me so that I may give back to others.

Your vision is not ahead of you, it lies within you; this has been a resounding revelation that I had acquired as I continue my studies at UTD. Growing up with immigrant parents I watched from afar as they accomplished their goals for the sake of themselves as well as their loved ones. To this day, they help people the best way they possibly can. They have two orphanages, bring medical aid, and assist widows in their home country of Nigeria whilst raising a family and helping those who wish to immigrate get a stable foundation by giving them a place to stay. Through all of this, I have come along with them but with not much regard as I did so due to them doing this even before I was born. I came with them to Nigeria for a great portion of my life and helped when they asked, and I donate my clothes to the children there. But I was in a bubble, all of these things were just something that I do because its always been this way. I’m not ignorant of the fact that this did in fact help others, but I never truly went any deeper than that. I simply went with the flow with no true passion behind it up until I graduated. My goals for life were to get a high education, get a good paying job so that I could live comfortably, and have a family of my own. But either through age or being exposed from my bubble once in university, I came to a realization that all the things I’ve done and all my plans for the future could be more than what I thought they could be. I realized through my studies, as I am a criminology major, that there’s so much that I can do to help here with my own will behind it. Doing good things is all well and good, but until you have a passion behind it you can only do so much. And I have realized that my will to help lies within law, especially when it comes to those who are not able to fend for themselves. I want to continue in a way that my parents were not able to help others because I was blessed with an opportunity to receive an education and I love to see people get what they rightfully deserve as human beings. Even through the financial strain of continuing school, I truly believe that this is a privilege given to me so that I may give back to others.

Your vision is not ahead of you, it lies within you; this has been a resounding revelation that I had acquired as I continue my studies at UTD. Growing up with immigrant parents I watched from afar as they accomplished their goals for the sake of themselves as well as their loved ones. To this day, they help people the best way they possibly can. They have two orphanages, bring medical aid, and assist widows in their home country of Nigeria whilst raising a family and helping those who wish to immigrate get a stable foundation by giving them a place to stay. Through all of this, I have come along with them but with not much regard as I did so due to them doing this even before I was born. I came with them to Nigeria for a great portion of my life and helped when they asked, and I donate my clothes to the children there. But I was in a bubble, all of these things were just something that I do because its always been this way. I’m not ignorant of the fact that this did in fact help others, but I never truly went any deeper than that. I simply went with the flow with no true passion behind it up until I graduated. My goals for life were to get a high education, get a good paying job so that I could live comfortably, and have a family of my own. But either through age or being exposed from my bubble once in university, I came to a realization that all the things I’ve done and all my plans for the future could be more than what I thought they could be. I realized through my studies, as I am a criminology major, that there’s so much that I can do to help here with my own will behind it. Doing good things is all well and good, but until you have a passion behind it you can only do so much. And I have realized that my will to help lies within law, especially when it comes to those who are not able to fend for themselves. I want to continue in a way that my parents were not able to help others because I was blessed with an opportunity to receive an education and I love to see people get what they rightfully deserve as human beings. Even through the financial strain of continuing school, I truly believe that this is a privilege given to me so that I may give back to others.

Right now, I'm working on my understanding of myself; my likes and wants, my ambitions for the future. Ever since I was a freshman in high school, I concluded that I would become a lawyer because they make a good income and my parents would be proud if their daughter was a lawyer. Due to the pandemic, I have spent a lot of time alone with my thoughts as the world around me is burning. This brought about a thought that I was too scared to face while living at home, "Do I really want to do this with my life?" With that thought in mind, I decided to look outside of my criminology course load to other subjects that brought a new perspective and a possible solution to my new found dilemma. I would love to go in a new direction, but I'm barely scraping by tuition wise; working and not being able to find a second job due to so many businesses having to let staff go, taking out loans for the first time, and being embarrassed to have to ask family members for help because we all know FAFSA doesn't help as much as we would hope it did. Though if I were to receive this grant then I just might be able to focus less on job searching and finally be able to give my all to school.

https://www.instagram.com/p/3JLutYqnvT/?igshid=14u17adnqw61w Caption: I’m never doing this to myself again (mark my words piano 1!) @icepuppy831

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJajEvBb/

The biggest failure I have experienced thus far in my life was the inability to accept people the way they are. I grew up in a sheltered world in which I was only able to see one point of view; I attended the same Christian private school for 14 years with a graduating class of 70 students, I attended the Church that owned said school, and my first job was a special events assistant at that same Church. To say that I was unable to see the other side of the tracks when it came to a different way of life would be an understatement. This was directed particularly to the lgbtq+ community, I had made previous assumptions about people in the community without ever interacting with them to see whether my assumptions were correct or severely flawed. I was pleasantly surprised and ashamed at the same moment once I began my third job, because nearly half of my co-workers were in the community and they were by far the best people I have ever associated with. This started an inner journey for myself to understand why I thought the way I did and if I should continue to do so. A great source of information came from the university that I decided to attend (which so happened to be the most accepting university of the lgbtq+ community in Texas), and a personal look into the Bible to see if what they taught me in my youth was as true as they would like for Christians to believe. Through this research I came to find that I myself am in this community as well (asexual)! Through more understanding, receiving a greater amount of education, and much needed self reflection, I hope for myself to accept that how I once perceived the world is probably not correct and to grow from said revelation.