All my life, I have loved animals, especially dogs. I grew up in a big family and we always had a few dogs running around, and when I was about eight years old, one of our dogs developed these lumps along her chest and stomach. We took her to the veterinarian and we were assured that they were nothing, simply just a few cysts that likely came from her old age. She developed more and began acting differently, so we took her to another vet. He told us that she was originally misdiagnosed and that she actually had cancer. By the time we took her in, it was too late, and there was nothing we could do. That was the day that I decided I wanted to help animals, and I wanted to do it correctly so that somebody else's pet didn't have to suffer. Ever since then, I have been working towards my dream of owning and working in my own veterinary clinic. I am currently in my third year of being an undergrad, working towards a degree in biology, and I will soon be looking at and applying to vet schools so I can obtain my D.V.M. Once I have gotten my degree, and worked for a few years, I know I want to give back to the community in some way or another. I currently do not have the details of everything will work completely ironed out, but I hope to be able to provide free pet care to the homeless. Often times, homeless people are on their own, but sometimes you see them with a dog. Whether it was a dog they had before or simply a stray they found and kept around to be their only companion. I have always thought to myself it is not fair that the animal should suffer from something easily treatable simply because the big price tag on supplies, services, and fees for treatment. I know that I have big goals ahead of me, and I look forward to what the future has to offer. Even if the world takes me on a different path than I set out on.

Last September, my oldest brother, Michael, was in a motorcycle accident and passed away. The loss has impacted my family in many different ways. Grief affects everybody differently and while some people continue to do the best that they can, I couldn't. I felt like I should have been a better sister and gone and seen him more, but I missed out on my chance and will never get the opportunity back. My grades took a turn for the worst, and my depression grew. The holiday season that year, won't be one that I can look back on happily. My brother wasn't perfect. He struggled with addiction and had a couple of kids with different women who he didn't stay with. He tried to chance his life many times. He had been to rehab multiple times, he even came home and stayed with my parents and me during my senior year of high school. It was never enough though, he's old friends, stress, or something else would pull him back in. However, at the time of his death he was doing really well. As anyone who has experienced it first hand knows, dying is expensive. Even more so when it was an accident and you had not planned for anything. My mom had been paying for my schooling with the money she had gotten from her sister when she passed, but when my brother passed, there were more important bills now. Funeral costs, cremation costs, cemetery plots, headstones, and everything else. The money had to come from somewhere and my college money was the only place there was any. I would never be mad at my parents for using it, but it has defiantly put me in a tight spot. Speaking of schooling, my brother was the proudest out of all my family that I was going to school and following my dreams. I am the first in my family to go to college, and I have wanted to pursue veterinary medicine every since I was a little girl. While everybody in the family has said they are proud of me going on and do bigger and better things than they have, he said and acted on it the most. Over the summer I kept thinking about how I was not the best sister to him and how I had really let him down, but that was when I came to the realization, that I am letting him down even more by running away and letting my schooling become obsolete and seem like it did not matter anymore was definitely going to be letting him down more. My goal is to get back on track and start studying more. I want to bring my grades up and finish out my education to begin working in the field that I have dreamed of. The field that my brother was proud to say his sister was trying to get into. I want to give my brother something he should have been proud of instead of just existing and wishing the past was different.

The pandemic gave me a whole new perspective on life. When everything shut down, everybody that I had on social media was talking about how they missed their friends and about how much their life had chanced. I couldn't relate. My life didn't change that much on a day-to-day basis, and it made me realize how isolated I truly was. The pandemic made me realize what I wanted to change in my life, and as we've reached the point where things begin to pick back up. I've started living life to the fullest that I can. I make time to go do things and I don't just lock myself up at home anymore. It's really helped me turn my life around and get a fresh start. I'm starting to feel more like the person I want to be, and it's all thanks to the world shutting down. COVID-19 opened my eyes and helped me realize how I can be myself.