My education plans are to attend Colorado State University in the fall of 2024 to get my bachelor's degree. Then I will attend CSU College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences for my DVM. My career plan is to become a veterinarian. Not sure yet what kind, more than likely a dog and cat or wildlife vet. A hardship I encountered in my life was I was adopted twice before the age of 7. Once when I was born by my grandma and the other when I was six by my forever family. Some steps I took to overcome it would be talking to people I trusted about it. I was also in counseling for a couple of years. I also talked to my twin sister who went through it all with me. Service is important to me because it can help people who are struggling with far worse than we are. It gives us a chance to give our time and dedication instead of just money. Serving has impacted me through a bunch of different ways. I have been serving at this one place called Beautiful Feet Ministries for 11 years now. It is a place where the homeless can come to church and be fed. My family and I go there once a month to cook for them. I have seen the changes in some of the people and how much better they are. I have seen how it's grown and how many new homeless people come to get better, clean, off the streets. I got to see Beautiful Feet Ministries move into a new and cleaner building. I recently got to see where some of the homeless people live and the houses of the ones who are now clean. Serving also impacted me with my career choice. I volunteered and eventually worked at an animal shelter called Apollo Support and Rescue. It was the hardest thing I have ever done but it was worth it. I worked 8-hour shifts on weekends during my junior year in high school. I helped get about 100 or more dogs adopted out. Two of those dogs I helped get adopted I adopted myself. Watching those dogs and there forever families find each other was the best thing ever. There was this one family that the son hadn't met the dog yet and when he met it it was love at first sight. That little boy loved that dog and they adopted that dog the very next day. It was the best thing ever.

My goals are to become a veterinarian and open my own veterinary hospital. In my family, there is my mom, dad, little sister, and twin. Of those, my little sister and me and my twin are all adopted. My mom and dad adopted my little sister as a baby. My and my twin weren't so lucky. We were adopted at the age of 7 and before that when we were babies. Our grandmother adopted us when we were babies because my parents couldn't take care of us. They were both married and had their own lives. We lived with our great-grandparents because my grandma didn't have a house. The main problem with that is that they would always get into fights. Their fights would get so bad that they would kick her out of the house and we would go with her. We moved so many times that eventually, I stopped making friends and talking to anyone except for my twin. I have lived in apartments, garages, shelters, and many places that I can't remember. My grandmother knew that this was not a good life for us so she tried to find someone to take us in. She had good intentions but the way she executed her plan was awful. She tried to give us to everyone she knew. At one point she met some random family in another state and made a plan. She was going to leave my grandparent's house at night and drive there to give us to them. My grandparents had the police stop her before we there. We used to go to a church that we were near sometimes. That's where I met my future adoptive family. When we finally got adopted it was the right way through fostering and the law. I was overjoyed. I even had a new little sister and my first dog. I had had cats before but never a dog. I wanted to know everything I could about dogs. Years after this dog we got another dog. Then another after that. Then I got my dog. After all of my experience with different kinds of dogs, I realized I wanted to be a veterinarian. I wanted to help animals, especially dogs and cats, and make sure that they were healthy. I wanted to perform surgeries, wellness checks, and everything else that vets do. I learned a little about what vets do in middle school when I did a research project on them. I am now a high school senior and am taking a class called practicum. It is a class that is two hours and three days a week we go to our site for an unpaid internship. The other two days are in-class learning. I chose to go to a local veterinary hospital. It is my favorite place in the whole world. I love watching everything they do and getting to help.

I know most people don't count their pets as a family but, I do. My family dog passed away a couple of weeks ago. My dad was out of town and couldn't get home in time. She seemed perfectly fine when he left but then she slowly got worse. She went blind in less than a week and then started to become disoriented. She then couldn't stand and needed help getting up to do things. Then she lost control of her bladder. Then she couldn't stand, walk, or sit up. She died on the way to the vet with my mom. My mom, Aunt, my sisters, and I all watched as the life drained out of our dog. My and my family adopted her about 7 years ago. She was probably older than they told us and she developed breast cancer. She lived with cancer for two years which is more than we were expecting. It still surprised us because of how quickly she got sick. This dog meant so much to us and it hurt us to lose her in our lives. Her death is what reminds me why I want to be a veterinarian. I want to help animals like her. I want to make sure that I can do whatever can be done to save the lives of all animals. Especially animals in emergencies and animals with cancer.

If I could have everyone in the world read one book I would have them read the book Cinder by Marissa Meyer. Cinder is a book that is a part of the Lunar Chronicles. It is a spin-off of Cinderella hence the name Cinder. Cinder is the name of the main character who like Cinderella has two evil stepsisters and an evil stepmother. The twist is she's a cyborg mechanic in a dystopian world where there is a deadly disease spreading around called Letumosis. Later in the book we find out that she is the lost princess to the people that live on the moon, who are being ruled by the evil queen named Queen Levana. It is the best book ever and has a little bit of everything for everyone. There is romance, cyborgs, princesses, evil rulers, mystery, suspense, cliff hanger, and so much more. When I first got this book I didn't think I would like it but then it quickly became my favorite book. I bought the entire series after reading Cinder. I have been reading them and reading them and reading them over and over and over again. Because Cinder has a mystery in it the second time you read it you catch hints that you didn't get before. When I read it the second and third time I loved it even more than the first time. I really love this book and I want the world to love this book as much as I do.