I have been diagnosed with ADHD, anxiety and Posterial Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. I have faced many obstacles over the years due to my ADHD and anxiety that have impacted both my personal and educational journey. Being a child with ADHD has made it difficult for me to complete school-work timely, stay on task and stay focused requiring me to seek assistance from others to learn ways to overcome these challenges. Through years of hard work and dedication, I have learned how my brain works differently from others to combat these challenges with the help and support of my teachers, my mother and most recently, my mentor Didier. To add to the obstacles that I have from ADHD, my anxiety has impacted my personal life, making it hard for me to stand up for myself when others try to take advantage of my kindness, and what may appear to be shyness which is actually the fears brought on from my anxiety. While it is still at times hard for me to express my opinion, my feelings or stand up for things I believe in, through encouragement from the people in my life that matter the most and through Didier's encouragement, I have been able to step outside my comfort zone and push through my anxiety to achieve successes and become a board member of Belmont Against Racism where my thoughts and opinions do make a difference. The recent diagnosis of Posterial Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), added additional challenges combined with my ADHD and anxiety. With POTS in the picture, I get light-headed, dizzy and can pass out for what appears to be no reason, however, it is the result of the blood pooling in my legs and my heart not pumping fast enough to move the blood. It feels like my heart is going to jump out of chest when this occurs, which is yet another issue with being able to stay on task, focus on my work and get my work done timely. All of the challenges I have faced through the 17 short years of my life which would have discouraged others, motivated me more to want to continue my education and go into the nursing field to help others the way the nurses in my life have helped me so many times over the years. I know if I work hard, focus and don't give up, I can overcome any challenges I face in the future as a result of my learning disability, as well as my anxiety and POTS.

I always knew I was different. My situation was different from others. I suffer from ADHD, anxiety and now diagnosed with POTS. I come from a single parent home. My mom taught me compassion in how she first helped her mom care for her father who suffered from Alzheimer's Disease. Following his passing, my grandmother was diagnosed with B-Cell Lymphoma and Dementia. My mom never missed a beat and began caring for my grandmother, with my assistance as well. My mom could not do it all. Raising 2 young children on her own, me being the oldest and now caring for her sick mother, my mom needed help, although she was too proud to ask for it, so I stepped up to help my grandmother too. I helped my grandmother with her medicine, had breakfast and dinner with her daily and even baked for her as she had a significant sweet tooth. Almost a year ago, we lost my grandmother too. Over the years, I would see all the happy families on the playground with fathers pushing their kids on the swings which was heart-wrenching never having met my dad. It seemed as if life had conspired to isolate me, although I did have a grandfather and grandmother that loved me very much, it was not the same. There was never a father present to take me to father-daughter dances and do the things that a daughter yearns to do with her father. No explanation was ever provided. Preparing for my very first job in the spring of 2024 marked the beginning of uncovering the mystery of my dad. Providing proof of citizenship to my employer led me to my birth certificate with my father’s name. For the first time, his identify was known. My mom’s fear of my search for him was well-founded and Facebook seemed the most promising. After looking through a few profiles, there was one profile I couldn’t seem to stop looking at. An overwhelming feeling took hold of me that it was him, but no further steps were taken. In April 2025, my mom, my sister and I took a trip to Washington D.C. where we met up with my mom’s best friend, Jigna. While waiting in line for the Capitol Building tour, the conversation turned to how mom had been pregnant with me when she was Maid of Honor in Jigna’s wedding. It turns out, Jigna knew all about my dad. That day revealed so much, leaving me grateful for Jigna’s openness in speaking of my dad. After returning home, the conversation with my mom was the most candid we ever had on this subject. I showed her the Facebook profile, and she confirmed what I had felt, that he was my father. For the first time we talked about the next steps. It started with sending a friend request to him and viewing his recent posts about my siblings. Mistakenly a friend request was sent to my oldest sister, which was unplanned given the uncertainty of her awareness of me. It was a struggle to find the right words to connect. This was repeated with my new-found brother and other sister. It took my dad two weeks to respond to my friend request, but once he did, we started talking and building this beautiful relationship. Though the future remains unknown, what is certain, is that it includes the piece of me that was missing.

Over my high school years I have devoted my time to volunteering, having performed 757.50 volunteer hours for various organizations throughout the community, including my most recent position as a Board Member of Belmont Against Racism (BAR). While volunteering with BAR, my ambition for social justice has grown exponentially. I have succeeded in getting the younger generation involved. I’ve assisted in the planning of events including last years' Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration. I volunteered and learned many extremely valuable lessons. These lessons will assist me in my pursuit of my future academic goals in the nursing field. When I was 12 years old, I was at a Greek festival with my friend when a person started choking. Where most people would have panicked, I knew what to do because the Heimlich Maneuver was something taught to us during health class in school. I immediately ran over to the person even though I secretly hoped someone else would run over faster and someone bigger than me. Nobody moved and did anything. Although I was so scared that I would not do it correctly and end up hurting the person, I was more terrified that if no one got there fast enough that the person would be seriously hurt or even die. I ended up being the first person to get to them and without hesitating, I executed the Heimlich Maneuver perfectly. The way it felt after helping the choking person who needed my immediate help was something that had no words. At that moment, I felt so proud and knew helping people was what I was meant to do, changing my career path. Becoming a nurse would allow me to be able to help people every day, including being able to provide strength and reassurance to people who are hurt and scared, like I was that day and like the nurses I have encountered over the years have done for me through my whole life. For me empathy reaches into the human aspect. The compassion, the humanity, and care needed when treating a person. Empathy includes human touch which not only means physical touch but how we make things seem more simple and less complicated. Treating a patient with a gentle gesture to calm someone down, make them feel more comfortable and help ease their nerves is just a small aspect of empathy, albeit an important one. Being able to support someone emotionally by adding a human touch to treating a patient in order to make the patient feel seen and heard, respected and valued is just as an important aspect of treating a patient with empathy. When caring for a patient, the ability to build trust can ease anxiety and create a better experience for the patient. A patient can come in with all types of fears, whether it be hospitals in general, needles, or even visiting the doctor. Nobody knows what a patient's past history with doctors, hospitals, needles or other medical professionals is prior to their first interaction with the patient, and even sometimes after multiple interactions with a patient. Knowing how to show compassion and kindness can help to combat those fears as they are happening in the present and can help set aside the patient's fears for future visits to the doctor or hospital. Being compassionate, kind and understanding is so much easier than being mean, rude and disrespectful. Giving every patient the time needed to listen to them, make them feel comfortable and explain things to them in a way that they will understand without making them feel stupid is another aspect of empathy that can go a long way to helping a patient who may otherwise be resistant to treatment or receiving the help they need. By treating a patient with empathy, one can make for a much better and safer environment for the patient and everyone else around them that can have a life-long effect in changing the experience for the patient not only for this interaction, but all future interactions with doctors and medical professionals.

When I was 12 years old, I was at a Greek festival with my friend when a person started choking. Where most people would have panicked, I knew what to do because the Heimlich Maneuver was something taught to us during health class in school. I immediately ran over to the person even though I secretly hoped someone else would run over faster and someone bigger than me. Nobody moved and did anything. Although I was so scared that I would not do it correctly and end up hurting the person, I was more terrified that if no one got there fast enough that the person would be seriously hurt or even die. I ended up being the first person to get to them and without hesitating, I executed the Heimlich Maneuver perfectly. The way it felt after helping the choking person who needed my immediate help was something that had no words. At that moment, I felt so proud and knew helping people was what I was meant to do, changing my career path. Becoming a nurse would allow me to be able to help people every day, including being able to provide strength and reassurance to people who are hurt and scared, like I was that day and like the nurses I have encountered over the years have done for me through my whole life. I plan to contribute to my community as a nurse by bringing a special human touch to my practice as a nurse. The compassion, the humanity, and care needed when treating a person. Human touch not only means physical touch but how we make things seem more simple and less complicated. Treating a patient with a gentle gesture to calm someone down, make them feel more comfortable and help ease their nerves is just a small aspect of human touch, albeit an important one. Being able to support someone emotionally by adding a human touch to treating a patient in order to make the patient feel seen and heard, respected and valued is just as an important aspect of human touch. When caring for a patient, the ability to build trust can ease anxiety and create a better experience for the patient. A patient can come in with all types of fears, whether it be hospitals in general, needles, or even visiting the doctor. Nobody knows what a patient's past history with doctors, hospitals, needles or other medical professionals is prior to their first interaction with the patient, and even sometimes after multiple interactions with a patient. Knowing how to show compassion and kindness can help to combat those fears as they are happening in the present and can help set aside the patient's fears for future visits to the doctor or hospital. Being compassionate, kind and understanding is so much easier than being mean, rude and disrespectful. Giving every patient the time needed to listen to them, make them feel comfortable and explain things to them in a way that they will understand without making them feel stupid is another aspect of human touch that can go a long way to helping a patient who may otherwise be resistant to treatment or receiving the help they need. With the right human touch, one can make for a much better and safer environment for the patient and everyone else around them that can have a life-long effect in changing the experience for the patient not only for this interaction, but all future interactions with doctors and medical professionals.

The Parent Trap is the movie that has had the greatest impact on my life. I always knew I was different. My situation was different from others. Seeing all the happy families on the playground with mothers and fathers pushing their kids on the swings was heart-wrenching. Coming home alone and never having met my dad, it seemed as if life had conspired to isolate me. There was never a father present to take me to father-daughter dances and do the things that a daughter yearns to do with her father. No explanation was ever provided, nothing was ever said about it. Friends without a father growing up became a source of comfort, a bond we had in common. We connected in a way that eluded others. One major difference defined us, their fathers had passed, mine was never there. Truth eventually surfaces, and the full story emerged, at least my mom’s side of it. Prior to my birth, my mom was in an awful marriage with a husband that treated her poorly. My dad was her friend during this time, and in a moment of vulnerability, I came to be. He was married as well, in a good marriage with a family whom he loved very much. At that time, nothing else was known. Preparing for my very first job in the spring of 2024 marked the beginning of uncovering the mystery of my dad. Providing proof of citizenship to my employer led me to my birth certificate. Now right there on my birth certificate stood my father’s name. For the first time, his identify was known. My mom’s fear of my search for him was well-founded. After looking through a few profiles, there was one profile I couldn’t seem to stop looking at. An overwhelming feeling took hold of me that it was him. In April 2025, my mom, my sister and I took a trip to Washington D.C. We met up with my mom’s best friend, Jigna. While waiting in line for the Capitol Building tour, the conversation turned to how mom was pregnant with me when she was Maid of Honor in Jigna’s wedding. It turns out, Jigna knew all about my dad. That day revealed so much, leaving me grateful for Jigna’s openness in speaking of my dad. After returning home, the conversation with my mom was the most candid we ever had on this subject. I showed her the Facebook profile, and she confirmed that he was my father. For the first time we talked about the next steps. It started with sending a friend request to him and viewing his recent posts about my siblings. Mistakenly a friend request was sent to my oldest sister, Lindsey, which was unplanned given the uncertainty of her awareness of me. It was a struggle to find the right words to connect. In actuality, there were no right words, only of my recent discovery and my interest in forming a relationship with her. This was repeated with my new found brother Matthew and sister Ashlyn. It took my dad two weeks to respond to my friend request, but once he did, we started talking and building this beautiful relationship. Since that time, my siblings and my dad talk with me all the time. We even reserved time every Sunday night to Facetime and catch up on the past week. We’ve talked about him coming to Boston, and my going to Houston to meet my grandmother. Though the future remains unknown, what is certain, is that it includes the piece of me that was missing.

From a young age, I was labeled as defiant and reported to my mother that I was purposely ignoring the teacher and her instructions. This was not the case at all. I was hyper focused on another task and actually was not hearing the teacher, her instructions or the prompts. Living with ADHD has been a struggle throughout my schooling from elementary school through middle school and now through high school. My teachers claim that I am forgetful but that is not really the case. My brain works differently than others. My mom never understood this until recently. Where others work on an assignment from start to finish, that has never worked for me. If I am working on an assignment and get stuck, it works better for me to move on to another assignment and come back later. The problem with this, is that I didn't always remember to finish the item or go back and turn in my completed work. While medication assisted with some of this, I had to work hard with my guidance counselor, my teachers and other staff in my schools to come up with strategies to get my work done and turn it in. While many others have learned these executive functioning skills, I have struggled, first with COVID and remote education during the time that many of these executive functioning skills are learned and now with the pressures that high school puts on a person, such as myself, that has real difficulty with these executive functioning skills that I should have learned years ago. I have put in a lot of work with my teachers, my guidance counselor and my mom to develop strategies to get the work done and turned in on time. I am proud to say, as a senior in high school, I am working extra hard this year to make sure I am getting all my work done, many times working ahead so as not to fall behind. This is a new challenge, as in the past, I would always wait until the last minute finish things but I made a promise to myself this year, to work ahead and get ahead so I can meet all deadlines. I consider myself lucky. I am in a good school system with lots of support from the teachers, the administrators and my mom who has encouraged me to work hard even when I have doubted myself. This has helped me build confidence to overcome my ADHD and succeed in my endeavors this year.

When I was 12 years old, I was at a Greek festival with my friend when a person started choking. Where most people would have panicked, I knew what to do because the Heimlich Maneuver was something taught to us during health class in school. I immediately ran over to the person even though I secretly hoped someone else would run over faster and someone bigger than me. Nobody moved and did anything. Although I was so scared that I would not do it correctly and end up hurting the person, I was more terrified that if no one got there fast enough that the person would be seriously hurt or even die. I ended up being the first person to get to them and without hesitating, I executed the Heimlich Maneuver perfectly. The way it felt after helping the choking person who needed my immediate help was something that had no words. At that moment, I felt so proud and knew helping people was what I was meant to do, changing my career path. Becoming a nurse would allow me to be able to help people every day, including being able to provide strength and reassurance to people who are hurt and scared, like I was that day and like the nurses I have encountered over the years have done for me through my whole life. For me the phrase human touch reaches into the human aspect. The compassion, the humanity, and care needed when treating a person. Human touch not only means physical touch but how we make things seem more simple and less complicated. Treating a patient with a gentle gesture to calm someone down, make them feel more comfortable and help ease their nerves is just a small aspect of human touch, albeit an important one. Being able to support someone emotionally by adding a human touch to treating a patient in order to make the patient feel seen and heard, respected and valued is just as an important aspect of human touch. When caring for a patient, the ability to build trust can ease anxiety and create a better experience for the patient. A patient can come in with all types of fears, whether it be hospitals in general, needles, or even visiting the doctor. Nobody knows what a patient's past history with doctors, hospitals, needles or other medical professionals is prior to their first interaction with the patient, and even sometimes after multiple interactions with a patient. Knowing how to show compassion and kindness can help to combat those fears as they are happening in the present and can help set aside the patient's fears for future visits to the doctor or hospital. Being compassionate, kind and understanding is so much easier than being mean, rude and disrespectful. Giving every patient the time needed to listen to them, make them feel comfortable and explain things to them in a way that they will understand without making them feel stupid is another aspect of human touch that can go a long way to helping a patient who may otherwise be resistant to treatment or receiving the help they need. With the right human touch, one can make for a much better and safer environment for the patient and everyone else around them that can have a life-long effect in changing the experience for the patient not only for this interaction, but all future interactions with doctors and medical professionals.