When I graduated from college, I was terrified the entire world would dim. I spent four years in another state building a life there and it was finally time to return to my home, Chicago. Everything in me wanted to cower away, but I knew hat my best chance would to trying to prioritize my mental health. The amazing thing is working on my mental health built my emotional health and gave me the courage to try things that would benefit my physical health. As if my body were an ecosystem, each individual system began working harder to raise to the challenge of leaving my life in Massachusetts. My initial choice to seek help through therapy and yoga practice was not easy. My first therapy session was terrifying because it required admitting that I had struggled and need help. My therapist Kalen told me directly, "I'm sorry that happened to you. You didn't deserve that. That sounds incredibly heavy." It made me feel like a weight had already been lifted off my shoulders simply because someone acknowledged without bias that they understood even a fraction of what I have experienced. Around ten sessions in, we began to discuss hobbies that would be able to enhance my life. In this moment, I knew that therapy was just the first step. Kalen told me this time, "If you can allow yourself to just enter the studio, then you have done the most difficult part. Just show up." Since then, I have attended 35 yoga sessions. Every time I show up, I know I am showing up for the version of me in the past that was so scared to be seen and allowed both my mental and physical health to fall toward the back burner. I continue to prioritize therapy and yoga because they are my ways of showing up for myself. As I look toward the fall where I will be moving back to Massachusetts for law school, which I feel incredibly lucky in order to do, I know that I can continue with both of these methods that have truly helped me to turn this scary year into one of the best years of my life. After graduating and feeling filled with fear, I know that I bring a different version of myself into the office and I am trilled to be a better version of myself when I arrive to law school. The world did not dim, instead it has become so much brighter, knowing I have so many avenues to pursue in order to prioritize my health.

When I applied for law school, I could not help but imagine what it will be like to sit among intelligent peers and learn from talented professors. I spent time estimating how difficult it might be to both fit in and stand out in such an environment. My plans to promote equity, justice and diversity in the legal profession originate from everyone in my life who told me to imagine the possibilities for my future as endless. I grew up relying largely on my parents’ encouragement to see my racial and socioeconomic differences as a way to inform my understanding of the world, rather than as a limitation. This encouragement was especially necessary when I began at a private high school after eight years of public schooling. I saw a widening gap between the environment I was coming from as a member of a low-income African American family and the upbringing of my classmates. In my college years, I experienced something very similar. But my father always wanted greater opportunities for me. During both of these periods of my life, he always reminded me that education is an investment. With great conviction, he explained that education was worth the sacrifices it required him to make in order to give me the best chance at succeeding. In addition to his generosity, I also relied on the generosity of strangers through financial aid, which supplemented the tuition payments my family could afford. In understanding the collective efforts that allowed me to gain the education I have, giving back through volunteering became my favorite way to express my gratitude. As a sophomore in college, COVID-19 restrictions began to ease and in person volunteering was permitted again. I decided to become a tutor at the Nativity School of Worcester. I knew it was a great chance to connect with the wider Worcester community, but I was most drawn to Nativity because it is a private Jesuit school, just like my high school, that did not require its students to pay tuition. I looked around at our first meeting, seeing the other volunteers chat amongst themselves. I quickly recognized I shared more similarities with the students we would serve than my fellow Holy Cross students. It was then I felt more concretely my presence could be of value. I saw the positive difference that any volunteer might hope for as the students started consistently alluding to their expectations that I would show up for them. By the end of my first semester as a volunteer, I still felt surprised when I received holiday cards from the students I worked with. Tomas wrote, “Thanks for helping me with my civics homework and also thanks for making me laugh. You should come back.” It was the most genuine sentence I could get from a thirteen year old boy. Sitting there as a college student, I recognized that I had an opportunity that other equally deserving people might never imagine. It was every difficult and calculated decision that my family made and the contributions from donors I might never meet that allowed me to graduate from high school, college, to study abroad, and now believe that I can succeed as a lawyer. In sum, my background has shaped my desire for a world where everyone has an unbounded expectation of what can become of their future with the support of the people who will help them get there. As I prepare to enter my first year of law school, I continue to imagine the possibilities of my future as endless and I know that I will be able to promote the same values as I continue on in my legal career.