STEM is my past, present, and future. I have always been interested in STEM and am so excited to work within the field. Science has been my favorite subject for as long as I can remember and cannot wait to start my career in nursing. I have always wanted to help people and this is the perfect way to execute my dreams. My mom is also a nurse and I cannot wait to follow in her footsteps and make her proud. When I finally got to college I was elated to find that my prerequisites were specifically for my career choice. I have excelled in anything and everything STEM that I have set my mind to, including Anatomy and Pathophysiology. My classes have been the highlight of college so far, as I get to focus on something that pertains to my future career rather than classes that are a filler like in high school. After my dad passed away I promised that I would dedicate my life to helping others and bringing happiness and hopefulness to those around me. I strive to be as positive as possible in everything I do and I can only hope that that will translate into my career when I finally start. I am about to start my first round of clinicals and am so ready for the opportunity to finally be at a hospital getting to know the ins and outs of what my everyday life is going to look like. I am going to help in any way I can and continue to intake knowledge with the mixture of classes and clinicals that I am participating in. I have been thinking of specializing in OB work when I start my career. I want to watch new life being brought into the world and see the hopeful looks on new parents' faces when they see their child for the first time. I believe that it would be an other-worldly experience and a perfect job for someone like me. I also want to be there for the mothers while they are going through something that is obviously very painful. Helping others while also getting to witness pure hope and beauty is something I want to spend my life doing. The only roadblock that I am experiencing with my degree is the cost. I am currently relying on loans and even with those I am having trouble paying my tuition. I cannot stress enough how thankful I am for any help that I may receive toward my tuition. I have applied for many scholarships on this website and unfortunately have only been a finalist for one. Furthering my education and setting myself up for my future career in STEM is my number one priority and will continue to be my number one priority until I am successful. It would mean the world to me if I was able to complete school and be able to work in a career in STEM. I would be able to help people like I have always wanted and watch new hope and love be brought into the world.

A plain and simple answer to why I want to be a nurse would be that I want to help people. But this is not the only reason. I have been intrigued by the medical field ever since I was young. I would watch all the medical dramas just utterly entranced by the procedures and the environment. It started with me wanting to become a veterinarian. I stayed on this career path until my junior year of college when I decided that I actually wanted to be a nurse. I decided that this career path was more fit for me, and it even allowed me to dream of making a real difference in the world. After Covid hit, I was not at all prepared to be a senior. I had less than three months to decide what I wanted to do with my life and where I wanted to pursue my higher education. This threw me off because I had been dreaming of moving out of the state for college since I was a little girl. Unfortunately, due to financials, I was not able to and instead had to find the cheapest option available. This brought me to Grand Canyon University. Growing up in a single-parent household for most of my life was tough. But my mom did everything in her power to make sure I had the best life that she could offer. I would not be the woman I am today without her, and I owe her everything. She taught me to go after what I wanted no matter what obstacle was standing in the way. She went to nursing school and even worked with firefighters for a while. With my interest in the medical field mixed with the influence of my mom, I decided to follow in her footsteps. It means a lot to me that she is proud of me, and I even plan to continue my education after my bachelor’s degree to become a Nurse Practitioner. I want to help people, I want to further my education, and I want to make people proud. I want to become a nurse because I want to better the world. After Covid, nurses got the recognition that they deserve. We worked through a pandemic and now there is more of a need for us. It can be a dangerous job working with such an array of patients and I think that this career field needs brave and bold people. I want to be brave and bold.

A plain and simple answer to why I want to be a nurse would be that I want to help people. But this is not the only reason. I have been intrigued by the medical field ever since I was young. I would watch all the medical dramas just utterly entranced by the procedures and the environment. It started with me wanting to become a veterinarian. I stayed on this career path until my junior year of college when I decided that I actually wanted to be a nurse. I decided that this career path was more fit for me, and it even allowed me to dream of making a real difference in the world. After Covid hit, I was not at all prepared to be a senior. I had less than three months to decide what I wanted to do with my life and where I wanted to pursue my higher education. This threw me off because I had been dreaming of moving out of the state for college since I was a little girl. Unfortunately, due to financials, I was not able to and instead had to find the cheapest option available. This brought me to Grand Canyon University. Growing up in a single-parent household for most of my life was tough. But my mom did everything in her power to make sure I had the best life that she could offer. I would not be the woman I am today without her, and I owe her everything. She taught me to go after what I wanted no matter what obstacle was standing in the way. She went to nursing school and even worked with firefighters for a while. With my interest in the medical field mixed with the influence of my mom, I decided to follow in her footsteps. It means a lot to me that she is proud of me, and I even plan to continue my education after my bachelor’s degree to become a Nurse Practitioner. I want to help people, I want to further my education, and I want to make people proud. I want to become a nurse because I want to better the world. After Covid, nurses got the recognition that they deserve. We worked through a pandemic and now there is more of a need for us. It can be a dangerous job working with such an array of patients and I think that this career field needs brave and bold people. I want to be brave and bold.

When I was fourteen, I lost my dad to suicide. This was something that changed the trajectory of my life forever. He was the most loving and caring father that one could ask for. He always said that the best thing in his life was “his girls.” My sister and I were his everything, and I think this is why he tried so hard to overcome all of his faults. It happened two weeks before the start of my freshman year of high school. So not only was I dealing with that large social change, I was also trying to overcome the hardest thing that someone can go through. I remember in the first week of school I got called into the office because there was an issue with my forms. I got scolded by the office lady because I had crossed out my dad’s address on my official forms. She was mad that I didn’t replace it with his new address. The wound was so fresh that the only thing I could do was break down in this office, sobbing uncontrollably. One thing that I had to overcome was trying to realize that it was no one’s fault. That it was his own decision, and no one was to be put to blame. Sometimes you blame yourself. Asking questions like “What were the signs?” or “Could I have done something different to change the outcome?” Ever since my parents divorced, I took on the “father” role within my household with my mother and sister. So, when he passed, I shouldered the brunt of it. I felt like I had to be strong for them. They would break down and I would stay stone cold in order to be that shoulder to cry on. This ultimately stunted my grieving process. My mother would reprimand me, saying that I didn’t have a heart or that I didn’t even care at all. I didn’t want to talk to anyone about it, that just wasn’t how I wanted to grieve. I didn’t feel like I needed to explain myself to anyone, this was my hurt and I wanted to deal with it in my own way. My mother turned to therapy and still goes to this day. This just wasn’t something for me, so I tried to find a way to process everything in a way that would solely benefit me. This is when I turned to writing. I had been a big reader my whole life, so writing seemed simple enough. I started to write poetry. I needed to get all of it off my chest, to find an outlet that would allow me to excise the wound so it wouldn’t get infected. It took a very long time for me to realize that people could actually help. No one is going to have the same experience as you, as everyone’s situation is unique. But finding people that you are close to that have gone through something similar is a tremendous way to work out the issues. As of now, it will be six years since his death. I feel the sting of it every day. Like a throb from a wound that didn’t heal properly. I will always feel that ache when I think of something that he will miss out on, or when I do something I know he would have been proud of. It is all a process, a process that I am still in the midst of. But it has taught me that I can overcome anything and that I am stronger than I realize.