I have been sick since birth, but most of my symptoms started in my sophomore year of high school. To date, I have been diagnosed with autonomic dysreflexia, gastroparesis, an immune deficiency, and peripheral neuropathy. At 15 I was an active member of the marching band and a straight-A student. My healthy quickly declined, and I was losing consciousness 4-5 times a day, nearly every day. It wasn’t long before my world came crashing down. I had to quit marching band which I loved and start doing online/homebound schooling. Just a year later in the fall, I was in the hospital during a bad flare-up and wound up having a stroke. This stroke rocked my entire world, it damaged my hippocampus severely. I lost a large percentage of my memories, educational foundation, and my own identity. I didn’t recognize my parents or my family. Thankfully with lots of help from my mom, I was able to eventually catch back up in school, and miraculously graduate with a 3.65 GPA. I took some time off after I graduated high school, my health was too unpredictable, and my confidence was gone. I was referred to a therapist and that is when everything slowly but surely started to improve for me. While she couldn’t help with my physical ailments, she helped me to heal mentally. The road to diagnosis, especially as a young girl with nothing but healthy friends was isolating. This led to lots of emotional turmoil. Thankfully after several years in therapy, I was able to regain my confidence, reframe success, and cope healthily. While the physical struggle and pain couldn’t be taken away, the improvement in my mental health made all of it more tolerable. Two years ago we found 8 nerve tumors in my t-spine, and two on my ribcage. We are still in the diagnosis stage, as the doctors have not been able to agree if I have NF2 or Schwannomatosis. What they do agree on is the pain they cause, and the effect on my ability to safely walk. This journey has taken a lot from me, but I am thankful for the person I am today. Facing that adversity caused me to do a lot of soul-searching, increase my emotional health, and build resilience. I know who I am today, something it may have taken me 15 more years to figure out if I were perfectly healthy. I have always wanted to go to college, and for a while, that dream included medical school. It wasn’t until my journey with talk therapy that I realized that I was meant to be a therapist. Over the years, I have begun to see the value of a holistic approach to health care. Too often my friends with chronic illnesses are not getting the emotional support they need, which only makes navigating the stress of the medical world harder to bare. I would be honored to help fill that gap. I am a good candidate for this scholarship because I am a very hard worker, and passionate about making a difference in the world. Should you choose me, I will promise to remember and honor Dylan as I move through the world. I will remember the contribution you have made to my education and thank him when I finally get to see my first client. I can only hope to honor his memory by being a wonderful student, and compassionate member of society. I have ruminated on this dream for nearly 7 years, and now I am ready to run with it.