My mother always warned me of the negative effects that drugs can have on one's life. But I guess my ant didn't warn my cousin enough. When I was a kid I used to look up at my cousin and admire him. After all, he was what some would call a golden child. Funny, kind, empathetic, and always serving and giving back to the community. But he too was not spared by the evil that is drugs. I don't know how but he mixed with the wrong crowd, and one thing lead to another and he ended up with not only an addiction but also incarceration. I remember that day like it was yesterday, the day he was sent the prison. I remembered being baffled and thinking "how could a guy like him end up in a place like this". he went from being a model student to being a criminal with an addiction. We kept in contact with him throughout the years, writing to him in prison and later visiting him often after his release. And I still remember what he told me after he got out of prison. "criminals and regular people" he said, "they aren't like those villains that you see on tv shows. but real people that you see every day". That shocked me at the time. At 10 years old you don't exactly have a nuanced worldview and learning that just about anyone could potentially do something "bad". I am not sharing this story with you for pity points but to answer your question. I had to confront incarceration and its effects early in my life. I understand the effect it has on the incarcerated and also on the family of that person. I saw the stigma that it carried and how it made living and being able to make a living harder. I also understand the dangers that drugs have and how it affects entire communities and ruin lives. This is why I made a promise to myself that I will be successful in life so that I can give back to the community and help those in need. One means of achieving that is through my education. By investing in my future I hope to be able to someday give back to the same group of people that had given me so much when I needed it the most. I hope that with my architecture degree that I will be able to give back to my community by giving jobs and offering low-cost housing to the people who need it the most. I saw incarceration and I decided to try and help people not be incarcerated.