My entire life, I knew I'd join a career field that would help other's lives in a significant way. I want to work directly with my patients to ensure my impact is seen through their improvements. I love to help others, often altruistically. I consistently volunteer at the Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit. I occasionally sign up to assist in soup kitchens and nursing homes. I donate to drives whenever I have the means. In undergraduate, I joined organizations such as the Black Student Union, African American Psychology Student Organization, Black Convergence, and some other non-Black centered organizations. What they all have in common were the advancement of disproportionately targeted populations. I aim to represent the voices of students who had emotions and feelings about situations but no way to speak out on them. I've worked with children of all ages and have noticed the many areas of support they need emotionally, cognitively, and physically. I volunteer and advocate for children too considering childhood is a pivotal time for how the rest of one's life may go. From these experiences, I know service and care are my calling. Outside of helping others, a second major life aspiration is to travel. The world is so intricately created with endless sights to see. Each country with its own people, food, culture, and stories. How could I not want to experience it? I aim to see as much of the world as I possibly can while I am here. I have recently gotten my first international experience this year in March as I went to Amsterdam and Paris. Although there were a few mishaps, it is only the beginning of my exploration of the world. Experiencing other ways of living will promote my continuous journey of self-growth and self-discovery as my perspective on the world changes and broadens with each new encounter. Moving on, I am first-generation college attendee and graduate. Going through undergrad, I stayed motivated academically to ensure my future. I received my BA in Psychology in spring of 2024 and graduated with a 3.96. Initially, I chose to pursue a graduate degree in clinical psychology. However, after my research internship in 2023, discussing with some advisors and mentors, and some further online research, I decided this may not be for me. Currently I have my mind set on occupational therapy. I have applied to a few OTD programs and have received an admission letter from one thus far. I plan to accept the letter and begin in the fall. My biggest stressor through my college experience thus far are finances. Being the first in my family to go to college, I received minimal knowledge on effectively and sufficiently applying to scholarships that could help cover costs. I had little told to me about how hard it really is to cover costs. My family tried to help, but in the end I needed loans. Over the four years of undergrad, I took thousands and thousands of dollars. Several times I doubted my ability to continue simply because of paying for it. Seeing how much I will have to manage to pay back in loans makes me uneasy often. It will halt, or alter, many future plans I created for myself. Any money received would go straight towards paying for school. A couple hundred or a couple thousand dollars towards my tuition is a couple hundred or a couple thousand dollars I do have to worry about paying in the future, essentially providing a smoother transition to the career field and the rest of my life.

Over the past year, I grew by learning to accept myself while continuing to progress towards the goals I want to achieve and trying to learn to not stress about the many things that I cannot control. Before reaching such a point, I have gone on a long and tiring of battle with myself. I had never had self-confidence my entire life. I was overweight/obese and started to get bad acne in middle school. I never liked my hair or my teeth or virtually anything about myself. I was never a social kid in school either so I barely had friends. I started to get bullied in middle school, and it completely dropped my self-confidence to absolute rock-bottom. I cried every single day after school, while hiding it from my family. Even the thought of ending my life crossed my mind a few times a week. It was an extremely lonely and weak time for me. As I reached high school, the bullying faded away since I was surrounded by new kids from other. The stress and worry I felt in middle school lessened slightly. However, nothing else seemed to improve. I gained even more weight, my acne was worse, and I barely became any more social. In 12th grade (2019-2020), ever so slightly did I begin to feel myself change. I got on accutane to control my acne and I noticed slight weight loss without having tried to lose weight. These small moments were the start of digging up that self-esteem I never had, though I was digging with that seemed like the world’s smallest shovel. However, I became determined to change. Over the course of the last few years, my acne has gotten under control though my skin is not fully clear. Additionally I’ve lost about 50lbs. At this point, I still had low self-esteem but I felt tremendously less self-conscious and self-hating. These points in my life had led up to the past year of my life. Besides my self-proclaimed physical inadequacies, I never felt as if I knew who I was. I had no hobbies, no friends, and no job. My sophomore year of college (2021-2022), I got into weight lifting. I want change my body composition to achieve the body I want naturally. So I did a lot of research, and continuously go through trial and error. It’s not easy at all staying consistent with not only the gym, but especially eating. I have yet to give up and it’s something I am proud of. I used to give up on somethings too easily in the past because I never had a passion for anything. In the last year, I’ve even taken on the hobbies of embroidery and drawing. It allows me to have something else I can work towards. Both exercise and these hobbies teach me patience. It can be worth it in the end if I continue to work towards it. I want to be the person I always wished I was and to become someone who can help others. Now, I am not at the point where I wish I were in my journey of self-discovery. Some days I feel still feel self-conscious but to even have the rest of the days with me being even comfortable in my own skin, is something I never imagined. I have found hobbies I enjoy; I try to surround myself with others who provide positivity into my life; I continue to learn to gain knowledge; I show up for myself. This journey will never be over as continue to crreate milestones foy myself.

All my life, I’d hated the way I looked compared to my peers. I was always bigger. I loved eating all the highly processed foods including cookies, ice cream, pizza, fries, virtually every processed food that contributes to an “unhealthy” diet. I had no self control when it came to eating. I would eat far past my point of satiety and fullness. I also didn’t do sports or other physical activity. Going through dysthymia starting in middle school, my comfort was food and tv. Every year going to the doctor, they brought how I was overweight. My dad periodically tried to get me to exercise but I didn’t do it for long. He eventually gave up on me. The summer before 12th grade, my body felt off. I kept getting headaches, chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breathe for days in a row so I went to the doctor about 8-10 times through the summer. They found nothing wrong. At this point, I weighed about 197lbs. I told myself I felt like this because of my weight. Continuing, in October 2019, I started accutane and was told it would be best to limit or cut out dairy and red meats, so I did. From that little dietary change, I started seeing a few pounds drop off of me. I was amazed, so I continued with no dairy or red meats. To see more pounds go away, I slowly ended up altering my diet. I was eating much more veggies and fruit. I did very short exercises videos a few times week and began to see scale go down even more. I found workouts and weight loss challenges to do on youtube. I restricted my calories and tried my hardest to not eat any junk food. Now although this helped me see weight loss, I developed an unhealthy relationship with food. I was scared to even eat one cookie or one slice of pizza in fear of gaining everything I lost back. I knew that weight would not plop back on from one cookie but I just couldn’t take the risk. So I went into extreme calorie deficits, some days eating less than 600 calories. I would be hungry all the time and cried about it alone silently. I eventually lightened up on myself and enjoyed some deserts and other processed foods occasionally while still eating as healthy as I could and exercising. In January 2021, I reached my lowest weight of 131 lbs. I had never been so happy to see a number. In about April 2021, I saw the scale going up a bit due to getting a boyfriend and enjoying foods a lot more often than I did when I was by myself. Within the 11 months of us dating, the scale went back up to the high 140s. After breaking up, I tried to alter my eating habits again and exercise more but nothing seemed to get it back down into the low 130s. Even now as of July 2022, I haven’t seen the scale go lower than 140 lbs. I eat less processed food still and occasionally have a dessert, while working out several times a week. I still get frustrated over not losing the amount of fat that I want to lose and feel like a failure. However, I haven’t given up yet. I am relearning self-discipline and consistency and to not be so hard on myself when it comes to not seeing extreme body progress. It’s hard but I know in the end, I’ll come out with a healthier mind and body.