My friend and I started a game called “Sherlock”. The goal was to infer what a stranger might be thinking or feeling. The two of us would scan the ice rink from the sidelines, picking out a person and analyzing their body language, their tone, even their skating style. Applying what we knew was fun together, but whenever we would play it felt like we were playing a game with only half the instructions. I found that one way to strengthen my Sherlock-deduction skills would be to start taking psychology classes at my local city college. With every week came a new topic and new questions, and I started to take interest in other facets of the mind that directly applied to me. The thoughts and actions surrounding me felt connected, and I started to become more interested in using the Intro to Psychology class as a jumping off point into other subjects: criminal justice, conflict perspective, symbolic interactionism, and functionalism. It charted an interest in a career in criminal psychology that would allow me to prevent as many crimes as possible, specifically by working with possible offenders to help them overcome the psychological issues that would lead to crime. I continued on this journey, and for an assignment for my Crime and Human Behavior course, I was tasked with developing an effective assault prevention program. My research found that countless existing assault prevention programs targeted victim protection and rehabilitation, not perpetrator elimination, which seemed counterintuitive to me: it was symptom solving, not problem solving. I sought a proactive approach that identified and corrected the root cause. I consolidated my previous notes from my Psychology and Sociology classes to create a program that would work to disassemble behavioral patterns that are inherent in criminals with a history of assault. I led conversations and discussion boards with my classmates about refining and combining ideas that wouldn’t just help the victim after the event, but would actively prevent these crimes from occurring. Though some of the topics for these classes (especially from Crime and Human Behavior) were unnerving, it was eye opening to see what many people go through. I persevered through the emotional upheaval to understand more about how to help and make a difference for these people by building programs that are designed not only to help the victim through recovery, but to also prevent future crimes from happening. I know it’ll be a long and mentally draining road, but my genuine fascination and need to help people where I can is what’s going to propel me forwards in this journey.