My whole life, I have always wanted to be a nurse. There has never been a "plan B" or another option for me. When I was a kid, something very traumatic happened to me. At about that time, my mom heard on the radio about a forensic nurse. I was in middle school. I started researching what that meant, what it was, and what it entailed. I was immediately enthralled and knew that was what I wanted to do with my life. From that point forward, I focused on getting my nursing career started. Working my way up the ranks. My first experience in the healthcare field was when I was 18 years old, I started working at a nursing home as a dietary aide. I then went forward and got my CNA certification. After about 2 years of working as a CNA, I went on to my LPN. I am now working on my RN BSN. Everyone has a story of why they want to be a nurse. Whether it be, they were diagnosed with a chronic illness as a child and the nurse was great to them, or they watched a family member die and want to be able to help people in their final days, hours, and minutes. My story, however, is a bit different. I was molested as a child. When my mom brought up forensic nursing, and after my research, I knew in my gut that bad things can happen to make your life make sense. I want to help those people who have become victims of domestic violence or sexual assault. Being a victim myself, I feel like I will be able to sympathize with my patients the way most people cannot. This is extremely important to me because I wanted someone to understand what I was going through, how I felt, and the emotions I was dealing with. I will be able to support these patients in a different way than typical patients who come into the hospital. Being able to relate to my patients is a skill I am very proud of. Being able to help those people will make my story make sense. It gives purpose to what happened to me. It gives me something to be proud of, that I have overcome and can help people at their most vulnerable times. I will be able to stand up for them in court and say definitively "Per the evidence this person did this crime against this person". I can get that person justice. They say nursing is work of heart, and I believe that 100%.

As a kid, you expect that you can trust every adult in your life. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. When I was a kid, I learned that sometimes things need to happen, so your future can be what it needs to be. Looking back, I have wanted to be a nurse for as long as I can even remember. When I was in elementary school, one of the adults in my life took advantage of my innocence and corrupted me in a way I cannot even begin to describe. When I told my parents, they did not want to believe that someone in our lives could do that. Since that time, I have wanted to be a forensic nurse. I want to be the person that is there at the worst moment in someone's life and believes every word they say. I want to be able to provide care for those people as they begin the process of everything that comes along with being sexually or physically assaulted, either by someone they should have been able to trust or a stranger. I believe that I will excel in this line of work simply because I want people to have what I did not have, a hand to hold to support me. Doing this in my life is coming around full circle for me. Being able to help people when no one helped me is therapeutic. I specifically want to focus on pediatric cases because it might have been there "someone" that hurt them. As an adult, it was only reinforced that this is what I wanted to do when my husband raped me. I did not know at the time that it was possible, but after a therapy session, I quickly learned that it did indeed happen. These experiences only made me want to do it more. Just because my attackers could not be held accountable, does not mean that I cannot get justice for other women. Part of being a forensic nurse means collecting evidence for victims to ideally get their attacker caught and punished. Being an integral part of that process, being able to connect to these people, because I was one, and being able to help them heal will be the most rewarding part of my life. Being someone advocate has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember, and I will achieve it. I have also used these situations as learning opportunities for my daughter, as a single mom I try to give her support and knowledge that I did not have growing up. I want her to be able to know that if something happens, I will believe her and I will be there for her.

My all-time favorite Disney movie is Lilo and Stich! I love it because the meaning behind the story is truly inspiring. Lilo being raised by her sister, with a single income reminds me of me and my daughter. I am a single mom to an amazing 6-year-old little girl. I also love the story about how Lilo falls in love with Stitch. She loved him because he was different then the normal "dog". The whole movie to me is about accepting people no matter what they look like, where they came from, and or how they were raised. To me, it is very inspiring and a great movie for little kids to learn it's okay to befriend the "weird kid". "Ohana means family, family means nobody gets left behind, or forgotten". Great words to live by. Family is who you make it. In the movie Lilo and Nani's family was each other and the other aliens. That proves family is not always blood-related, family is the people (or aliens in this case) that are there for you, support and love you. In any Disney movie, if you watch and truly pay attention, they all have amazing meanings behind the storylines. That's what I love most about Disney. The movies will make you laugh and cry but you also walk away with a new lesson that you will carry with you for the rest of your life. My daughter and I have movie nights, it's our special thing, and we always watch a Disney movie. I love to share my love of Disney with my daughter. I love to use the characters in her favorite movies to show her things in her everyday life. When she gets older I want to Disney World in Florida. I went when I was a kid and had the best most memorable time. The last time we went, I was 16 and they had just opened Harry Potter world. At the time I had never seen the movies, but it was a blast riding the Harry Potter rides with my dad and brother. I was also able to get a picture taken with Stitch and it is one of my favorite pictures from high school. I love being able to share and make memories with my daughter using both of our favorite moves. I am so excited to be able to share with her my love of Disney and when she's older create new memories going to Disney World.