I am a 20-year-old student pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience. I was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma and I continue to reside here throughout the remainder of my degree. It is a goal of mine to go through medical school after I complete my four-year degree. My grandfather piqued my interest in medical psychology when I was in elementary school by gifting me a medical dictionary. I remember reading the whole thing and taking notes of it in my head, fascinated by the content. However, it wasn't until high school that I had the chance to take psychology, and I immediately realized I loved it and couldn't see myself doing anything else with my life. Once I turned eighteen, I began volunteering for crisis chatlines and suicide hotlines locally; it was during this time that I realized I had a true passion for studying the brain and listening to others' stories. I wanted to help anyone I could and desired to branch out past local helplines. As a child, I caused a lot of confusion as I began to suffer from anxiety, which went unknown and undiagnosed until I was thirteen. At age thirteen, I was diagnosed with Emetophobia, Obssesive-Compulsive Disorder, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder, the things that had controlled my life and emotions since I was five years old. Emetophobia made it difficult for me to live life normally. This phobia is characterized as a fear of nausea, vomiting, and vomit, and goes beyond these three things for me. By the time I was thirteen, I was afraid to go outside of the house which resulted in me beginning online school in 2017, where I graduated in 2020. Performing daily tasks, such as eating, became fear-inducing and increasingly difficult as I began restricting my food intake for fear that I would vomit. Fear of motion sickness, food poisoning, and general illnesses began taking over my mind to the point where it became all I could think of. At this time, I began developing symptoms of OCD, a disorder that causes repetitive, obsessive behaviors that are done to relieve anxiety or anxious thoughts. Obsessive-compulsive disorder for me created scattered thoughts all pertaining to vomiting. Thoughts such as "If you don't clean your room every day, you will become violently ill" echoed through my head as I lay in bed at night, resulting in countless hours of my day being devoted to deep cleaning. My mind would not be satisfied until I made sure my walls and mattress were bleached and my carpets were scrubbed with disinfecting liquids. I had lost all hope in my battle with Emetophobia until I began brain wave therapy. This new technology truly changed my life by getting rid of my OCD, making it easier for me to complete everyday tasks. A year later, my mind had "rewired" itself, creating a more positive outlook on my life and giving me hope for the future. Although I still struggle with Emetophobia and anxiety, they aren't as controlling and debilitating as they once were. They still serve as motivation for me to continue my fight to find out how phobias work and how we can stop them at their root. My parents weren't hesitant to put me in therapy, counseling, and even pay out of pocket for expensive brain wave therapies. This leads me to my next major motivation: My family. I want to give back to my family for helping me although they were struggling financially. It is very important to me to retire my parents and give them the life they deserve since they still struggle with their finances and housing situation. Since I grew up with Emetophobia, and still struggle with it, I have always had the desire to continue studying the brain and the phobia response within it. Since brain wave therapy proved effective for the treatment of my OCD, I would love to continue using neuroscience technology and information to find an accurate and effective treatment and cure for specific phobias while educating people on the importance of knowing the beginning signs of anxiety and phobias. I feel it is my purpose to spread awareness on this matter and become a voice for those who are lost, scared, and uneducated as I was. At the peak of my career, I hope to own a private practice specifically for phobia treatment in people of all ages to give back to those who are scared and struggling with a potentially unknown phobia.

Abortion, women's rights, pro-life advocates... As a new teenager, I figured politics and social standpoints were full of drama and not worth the stress or attention they consumed in the media. I didn't care which side I stood on, being brainwashed by other online teens that life in the womb was nothing but a gooey substance with no rights. Just as my friends fell into this way of belief, so did I. I spent time debating the topic with others, researching pro-abortion sites, and advocating for this torture. While researching convincing pro-abortion issues, I came across a site 'Live Action' which, at the time, had pro-life OBGYNs showing diagrams of what truly happens during an abortion. The video of a D&E abortion caught my attention as I watched animated videos of an abortionist pulling a baby out with forceps. The moment I saw that video a wave of sadness and guilt came over me. 'How could I have advocated for this?' is one of the many questions I had upon viewing the truth. However, the truth is... The abortion industry will keep its followers from the truth if it leads to profit. The idea that an unborn baby is nothing but goo, a mass of bacteria, or a ball of nothingness is an encouraged mindset as thousands of abortionists working for Planned Parenthood refuse ultrasounds. As if abortion couldn't become more cruel, undercover videos of abortionists allowing women to choose death for their babies over discriminatory matters (race, sex, disabilities) have been leaked. Since uncovering Live-Action, I chose to become an ambassador for the unborn by joining their ambassador group through social media to take a stand. Events, debates, and educational information was offered through the FaceBook ambassador groups. My line of pro-life work wasn't done there. It was through that site that I wandered to 'Students for Life' where I became a pro-life group organizer for my campus at the University of Tulsa. Being pro-life in a pro-abortion university was intimidating at times and I didn't always know where to start. At the time, I felt it was best to recruit a group through BCM Church on campus and I found great success there. Many girls were openly pro-life and expressed great interest in helping me by becoming part of my pro-life group. One of the first tasks we performed were hanging flyers, help resources, and informational booklets around campus and on the dorm hall pinboards. Doing minimal tasks like these weren't always met with kindness... Our first set of flyers in women's restrooms were torn down and disposed of hours after being hung. Our first group project was a pro-life booth outside of a Tulsa Planned Parenthood. We had informational cards, diagrams of fetal development, resources, and goodie bags for women who backed out of their abortions. On this day we saved four lives, stopping women who were going into the Planned Parenthood for abortion clinic recommendations. Since my first choice of action, I have raised awareness on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter and have saved over hundreds of unborn babies by providing resources and starting Amazon baby registries that sell out within days! My work won't end once Roe v. Wade ends... my work has just begun.

My experience with mental health has been a long, emotional rollercoaster of events. The impact my mental health journey has on my life changed my goals and outlook on life forever. At the age of five, I developed a phobia known as Emetophobia, the phobia of nausea and vomiting. Throughout grade school, this impacted me heavily as I started to suffer from contamination anxiety, worrying about my peers and what germs they may have attracted throughout their day. My anxiety peaked in a classroom setting, scanning everyone, attempting to analyze their feelings and whether they were feeling sick. Eventually, everything I did in life began to revolve around Emetophobia, although therapists couldn't find a diagnosis for me, attempting to say I had outbursts so I didn't have to sit in class. I began to skip meals and fear everyday things such as sleeping and brushing my teeth in fear that if I opened my mouth for too long, I would become ill. Online schooling became my alternative to public classrooms upon becoming a danger zone to my mind. Despite anxiety controlling my thinking, I was determined to graduate from university. At last, I received a diagnosis of Emetophobia at the age of thirteen from a therapist that suffered from this fear herself. It was then that I learned coping mechanisms, relaxation techniques, and even understood more about my brain and the way it processed triggering things around me, such as someone gagging or coughing. Therapy and experiencing Emetophobia firsthand led me to the field of neuroscience to try to understand my brain and the way a phobia presented itself. Neuroscience had the answers, treatment, and research relating to Emetophobia, touching on the vast topics of the brain and fear responses. I began keeping notes about the functions the amygdala, the fear control center in the brain, carried out and how to treat it when the responses become 'overactive', leading to an anxiety or panic disorder. At age 18, I enrolled as a freshman at the University of Tulsa. My goal was to start out in pre-med neuroscience, eventually earning a Medical Degree in Neuroscience and Psychology. I have made it a goal to conduct Emetophobia research and pursue an effective treatment plan for phobias. Emetophobia is one of the top 10 most common phobias in the world, affecting about 1 million people in the United States, yet it is the most underresearched phobia out there. After I graduate with a Medical Degree, I intend to open a behavioral clinic specializing in phobia treatment in a variety of patients, ranging from pediatrics to adults. In the end, Emetophobia has brought its fair share of downs... but a proper amount of ups as well. This phobia has encouraged me to speak up about phobias and how unrepresented they are in the media, medical articles, and mental health blogs. I have become an advocate for those children that are unaware of these anxious feelings building inside of them to the teens who can't quite understand their anxiety pertaining a normal illness response. My goal is not complete until I have established my own treatment method for phobias.

My future goal is to be a Medical Doctor Neuroscientist that specializes in anxiety and phobias within pediatrics. Majoring in Neuroscience is important to me because of my own experiences as a child. From age 5, I began suffering from anxiety relating to a phobia, Emetophobia, a debilitating phobia of nausea, vomiting, and vomit itself. Emetophobia made attending school difficult for me, being around other's without knowing their feelings or wellness statuses caused me to panic and leave class, raising concern with others. It wasn't until I was 13 that I was diagnosed with Emetophobia, primarily because my therapist suffered from the same phobia all her life. Emetophobia affects about 1.6 million people in the US population alone, making it one of the top 10 most common phobias. Despite it being one of the most common phobias in the world, it is rarely discussed or mentioned within the mental health field. After finishing with a Medical Degree in Neuroscience, I hope to study behavior within children and adolescence to come up with a plan, or potentially an effective treatment, for phobias and anxiety disorders. It is very important to me to finish this so that I can help the community of children who are suffering with anxiety-like behaviors in the way I wasn't helped as a child. Giving back to the pediatrics side is a goal of mine once I attain my degree and begin working in the research neuroscience field. Once I have come up with an effective treament plan for phobias, I have achieved my career goals.

I like to describe of my life as the popular mobile game, 'BitLife'. It has so many unexpected ups and downs, so many random events, and we've been in the midst of a pandemic for nearly two years already. The pandemic brought inspiration towards fighting for my goals in the future. Mental health during the pandemic reached an all time low. I noticed how much isolation and the fear of sickness could effect those around you. Although, my end goal of achieving a medical degree in neuroscience didn't grow from the pandemic. For most of my life I have suffered from a debilitating phobia titled, 'Emetophobia', the phobia of vomiting, vomit, nausea, and gagging. It wasn't until the years of 2019-2021 it got seemingly worse. I suffered from terrible eating habits, panic attacks, and frequent nausea from all of the stress. Phobias are one of the most common anxiety disorders worldwide, yet I went undiagnosed for 13 years through my childhood and some of my teen years. These experiences birthed a new passion in me. A passion to help children that suffered in silence, that weren't understood, or overlooked as a hypochondriac as I was. My hope for the future with this degree is to jumpstart research on Emetophobia so that psychologists can better assist sufferer's of this irrational fear, suggest lasting treatments, and fund research for a long-lasting, effective cure to Emetophobia and the prevention of developing it.