Growing up surrounded by people who do nothing but give back to their communities really sparked that desire to help within me, and that desire was accelerated once I was living in the shoes of a lost and confused patient. I have experienced what it feels like to be unheard and unseen in the eyes of medicine because of a sleeping disorder I have called narcolepsy. Having to live with narcolepsy was a new, strange, and scary world that I was not stepping into because I have never heard of it and nobody around me had never heard of it before. Being diagnosed at such a young age, all of the fancy big medical terms that the doctors were saying to describe what disorder I had were very confusing and I was racking my brain to try and figure out what was happening to me. I was scared, worried, embarrassed, and fearful not knowing what was being talked about since I couldn’t comprehend what I was being told. Thankfully, the nurses around me came to my aid once the doctors left and explained to me in very simple terms what having narcolepsy means, which had put my nerves at ease. Instead of having kids and adults feel unheard just how I did when I was first diagnosed with narcolepsy, I want to be there for them as the nurses I met through my journey with narcolepsy have been there for me. Looking back and remembering how I felt in those very moments is something that I never want anyone to experience and ever since then I knew I would be one of those nurses when I grew up. Stepping into college was nothing compared to high school and it caught me off guard the moment I went to my first class. This was the first time academically where I really had to study and learn the information on my own because there was no “one on one” teacher time for me to utilize like there is in high school. I was struggling with not being able to keep up with my prerequisites to get me into my major focused classes. This life change set me back a lot within studies and I didn’t know what to do, everything I tried just didn’t work for me and I gave up my dream of becoming a nurse for a while. I realized that I needed to make a change for myself and the possible future that I was giving up on, so I decided every day I would take the time to study for an hour to try and catch up on some work I was missing. This turned my academic career around. I started to get A’s and high B’s on all quizzes, exams, and assignments which finally made me believe in myself again. By the end of my first semester, I was able to achieve a GPA of 3.78 that earned me a spot on the dean's list. Through the success I was seeing, I was starting to realize how expensive textbooks I would need to purchase for my nursing classes were with prices totaling over two hundred dollars a semester. On top of the four hundred dollar nursing lab fee I would have to pay, I didn’t realize how expensive this aspect of college was because I had no prior experiences like this. Currently, I'm facing the same challenges financially as my first semester, but as I approach sophomore year, I feel confident. My goal to become a nurse motivates me to stay focused on my path!

Becoming a nurse for me is the idea of advocating for and supporting all of the men, women, and children in underrepresented communities in the medical field. Growing up surrounded by people who do nothing but give back to their communities really sparked that desire to help within me, and that desire was accelerated once I was living in the shoes of a lost and confused patient. I have experienced what it feels like to be unheard and unseen in the eyes of medicine because of a sleeping disorder I have called narcolepsy. Having to live with narcolepsy was a new, strange, and scary world that I was not stepping into because I have never heard of it and nobody around me had never heard of it before. Being diagnosed at such a young age, all of the fancy big medical terms that the doctors were saying to describe what disorder I had were very confusing and I was racking my brain to try and figure out what was happening to me. I was scared, worried, embarrassed, and fearful not knowing what was being talked about since I couldn’t comprehend what I was being told. Thankfully, the nurses around me came to my aid once the doctors left and explained to me in very simple terms what having narcolepsy means, which had put my nerves at ease. Instead of having kids and adults feel unheard just how I did when I was first diagnosed with narcolepsy, I want to be there for them as the nurses I met through my journey with narcolepsy have been there for me. Looking back and remembering how I felt in those very moments is something that I never want anyone to experience and ever since then I knew I would be one of those nurses when I grew up. Allowing patients to be accurately informed about their diagnosis and what the future holds for them in a way that they can know they are not alone is all I’ve ever wanted to do for others because it's what all the nurses who've inspired me to take this career path had done, and continue, to do for me. I plan on making this positive change and impact on the community around me by becoming a nurse. I have always known that I wanted to be in a profession that helped people because, all my life, I have been surrounded by people within those professions such as my mom being a substance abuse therapist. I also knew I wanted to work in healthcare because I have always been very interested in human anatomy and the process of discovering things about it. This interest heightened when I had got my narcolepsy diagnosis, I really began to dive deeper into the world of human anatomy and especially the brain and how it functions. Whenever I had gone to Yale for any of my doctors appointments, the nurses and doctors really helped me understand what they were doing and why they were doing certain procedures. I was drawn towards the nurses because they were the people helping me through the procedures, such as the multiple sleep studies that I had to do to receive my narcolepsy diagnosis. Overall, I want to be the person that people look to for comfort and guidance in their moments of stress or pain because I want them to feel how I felt when I first interacted with nurses around me.

Graduating college with a BSN and debt free is what success means to me. Becoming a nurse has always been a dream of mine and my number one passion in life career wise. However, I knew this would be troubling because financially, we are not strong due to my mother being the only provider in a household of twin girls. Therefore, I knew college was going to be difficult, but not as hard as I thought it was. Stepping into college was nothing compared to high school and it caught me off guard the moment I went to my first class. This was the first time in my academic life where I really had to study and learn the information on my own because there was no “one on one” teacher time for me to utilize like there is in high school. I was struggling academically with not being able to keep up with my prerequisites to get me into my major focused classes. This life change set me back a lot within studies and I did not know what to do, everything I tried just did not work for me and I gave up my dream of becoming a nurse for a while. I later realized that I needed to make a change for myself and the possible future that I was giving up on, so I decided every day that I would take the time to study for an hour to try and catch up on some work I was missing. This change had turned my academic career around. I started to get A’s and high B’s on all quizzes, exams, and assignments which finally made me believe in myself again. By the end of my first semester, I was able to achieve a GPA of 3.78 which earned me a spot on the dean's list because my GPA was over a 3.5. Through the success I was seeing, I was also starting to realize how expensive textbooks I would need to purchase for my nursing classes were with prices totaling over two hundred dollars a semester. On top of the four hundred dollar nursing lab fee I would have to pay, I did not realize how expensive this aspect of college was because I had not had to experience this before. This semester all of my courses required textbooks that were essential to the in lecture learning process and if I did not purchase them, I would not be able to complete any assignments. This meant I would be spending over five hundred dollars on textbooks and this realization was very stressful for me to think about. Thankfully, I had acquired a part time job last semester as a lifeguard which has greatly helped me with the majority of my textbook expenses but not for all of them. Fear, concern, anger, and worry are slowly entering my mind and again is creating much stress to me because I do not want to go through the rollercoaster of emotions I experienced within my first semester. Overall, the help that this scholarship would provide me would be an amazing help into furthering my nursing endeavors for the fall semester. Winning would allow me to purchase all of my textbooks and some of the clothing and equipment requirements for my clinicals I start in the fall. Just the idea of being chosen to win this scholarship gives me hope that my upcoming semester will have just as many successes, without the struggles, that I had in this semester and the previous one. My main goal and success in life would be achieved through winning this scholarship by helping me pay for my textbooks, nursing lab fees, and classes in general. More importantly, it would be a tremendous help financially for my mother which is a huge factor in my path to nursing!

As a student, I was, and still am, very interested in human anatomy and the process of discovering things about the human body. This interest especially heightened when I had got my Narcolepsy diagnosis and I really had begun to dive deeper into the world of human anatomy and especially the brain and how that works. Whenever I had gone to Yale for any of my doctors appointments for my narcolepsy, the nurses and doctors really helped me understand what they were doing and why they were doing certain procedures. I was drawn towards the nurses because they were the people helping me through some of the procedures like the multiple sleep studies that I had to do in order for me to receive my narcolepsy diagnosis. I liked how interactive and informative the nurses were to me and the other kids that had to do their sleep studies, it made me more fascinated with the nursing profession and what consisted of it. After my sleep study, I began to research all the different medical professions and how they helped people in their day to day lives, which is something that I knew that I wanted to do when I grew up. I did not want to have an office job that kept me in a tight space from nine o’clock to five o’clock and not have any interactions with people, I wanted an interactive and social job that would always keep me on my toes but I knew that I also wanted to help people. I soon narrowed down my lists of potential careers to either being a nurse or a doctor that specializes in neurology because those were the two most impactful healthcare careers that had helped me, and continue to help me, with my journey with narcolepsy. I had to weigh the pros and cons of each, and finally decided that becoming a nurse was the right career choice for me because of how interactive and helpful that nurses are with all types of patients. I then began to ask a lot of questions to people in my family and in my school about nursing and what the job actually entails. I had asked my cousin, who is a new nurse, and she said that she loved her job and the people that she had met while she was taking care of them. This really sealed the deal for me because it was most important to me that I was able to work with a wide variety of people to allow myself to have many life experiences, whether they are good or bad. I had finally come to the obvious choice that nursing was the career that I wanted to pursue in the future because of all of my positive experiences I had with them during any check up for my narcolepsy, and even just talking to the nurses had calmed my nerves if I was ever nervous at a doctor's appointment with getting a shot. I want to be the person that people look to for comfort and guidance in their moments of stress or pain because I want people to feel how I felt when I first interacted with nurses around me during that very hard and confusing time of my life.

I have a chronic sleep disorder called narcolepsy that has no cure and will never fade away; this has been and is the hardest obstacle I have ever had to, and continue to, overcome. Narcolepsy is a chronic sleep disorder which means I am constantly tired, even when I am doing the things that I love which is taxing to the body and especially to the mind. As difficult as it is living with my disorder, I will not and have not let it overcome me henceforth It has opened my eyes to my future career path in nursing that I will forever be grateful for. The people around me have helped me discover what type of person that I wanted to be without me even realizing it. I have always known that I wanted to be in a profession that helped people because all my life I’ve been surrounded by people within those professions, such as my mother working as a substance abuse therapist for over thirty years. I knew I wanted to work in healthcare because I have always been very interested in human anatomy and the process of discovering things about it. This interest heightened when I had got my narcolepsy diagnosis, I really began to dive deeper into the world of human anatomy and especially the brain and how it functions. Whenever I had gone to Yale for any of my doctors appointments, the nurses and doctors really helped me understand what they were doing and why they were doing certain procedures. I was drawn towards the nurses because they were the people helping me through the procedures, such as the multiple sleep studies that I had to do to receive my narcolepsy diagnosis. I liked how interactive and informative the nurses were to me and the other kids that had to do their sleep studies; I was fascinated with the nursing profession and what the job entailed. Soon after, I began doing tons of research about the different nursing specialties and which ones suited my goals for helping my community the best. I asked my cousin, who was working as an ICU nurse, and she said that she loved her job and the people she met while taking care of them. She told me all about the life experiences, lessons, and cultures she learned about while working these twelve hour long shifts. This really sealed the deal for me because it was most important to me that I was able to work with a wide variety of people to allow myself to have many life experiences, whether they are good or bad. As long as I knew that I was helping people in a positive way, I was secure with whatever field I would be going into; I realized that nursing was the right path for me. Overall, I want to be the person that people look to for comfort and guidance in their moments of stress or pain because I want them to feel how I felt when I first interacted with nurses around me. Day by day I face huge obstacles associated with my sleeping disorder, but I use the heavy emotions that my disorder brings me as fuel for my future in nursing. Narcolepsy is both a blessing and a curse in how it has shaped who I am and the passion I have for nursing, while also being very debilitating at times. I continue to strive for greatness out of respect for the people who have helped me get to where I am today and for my future self!

I have experienced what it feels like to be unheard and unseen in the eyes of medicine because of a sleeping disorder I have called narcolepsy. Having to now live with narcolepsy was a new, strange, and scary world that I was not stepping into because I have never heard of it and nobody around me had never heard of it before. Instead of having kids and adults feel unheard just how I did when I was first diagnosed with narcolepsy, I want to be there for them as the nurses I met along my journey with narcolepsy have been there for me. I have always known that I wanted to be in a profession that helped people because all my life I’ve been surrounded by people within those professions such as my mother working as a substance abuse therapist for over thirty years. I knew I wanted to work in healthcare because I have always been very interested in human anatomy and the process of discovering things about it. This interest heightened when I had got my narcolepsy diagnosis, I really began to dive deeper into the world of human anatomy and especially the brain and how it functions. Whenever I had gone to Yale for any of my doctors appointments, the nurses and doctors really helped me understand what they were doing and why they were doing certain procedures. I was drawn towards the nurses because they were the people helping me through the procedures, such as the multiple sleep studies that I had to do to receive my narcolepsy diagnosis. I liked how interactive and informative the nurses were to me and the other kids that had to do their sleep studies, it made me more fascinated with the nursing profession and what the job entailed. Soon after, I began doing tons of research about the different nursing specialties and which ones suited my goals for helping my community the best. I had asked my cousin, who was working as an ICU nurse, and she said that she loved her job and the people that she had met while she was taking care of them. She told me all about the life experiences, lessons, and cultures she learned about while working these twelve hour long shifts. This really sealed the deal for me because it was most important to me that I was able to work with a wide variety of people to allow myself to have many life experiences, whether they are good or bad. As long as I knew that I was helping people in a positive way, I was secure with whatever field I would be going into; I realized that nursing was the right path for me. Overall, I want to be the person that people look to for comfort and guidance in their moments of stress or pain because I want them to feel how I felt when I first interacted with nurses around me. Unintentionally, I prepared myself for this career a little over two years ago when I became a certified lifeguard. Being a lifeguard has taught me how to think and act quickly on my feet, assess injuries and make the right call, be calm in the face of fear or nerves, and so many more traits that all nurses require when on the job. It has also taught me how to work with people sharing the main goal of keeping the people around us safe. These skills that I learned, and still use to this day, have prepared me for what the world of nursing has to offer!

During my time in high school I was a three sport varsity athlete for all seasons, a part of the top ten of my class, was a part of an honors program for accelerated students, and took college level courses. I was an active member of my student council and a member in the National Honor Society for two years. As you can tell, I was always busy but made it work, so I thought “college couldn’t be worse than this” but man was I wrong. Stepping into college was nothing compared to high school and it caught me off guard the moment I went to my first class. This was the first time academically where I really had to study and learn the information on my own because there was no “one on one” teacher time for me to utilize like there is in high school. I was struggling with not being able to keep up with my prerequisites to get me into my major focused classes. This life change set me back a lot within studies and I didn’t know what to do, everything I tried just didn’t work for me and I gave up my dream of becoming a nurse for a while. I realized that I needed to make a change for myself and the possible future that I was giving up on, so I decided every day I would take the time to study for an hour to try and catch up on some work I was missing. This turned my academic career around. I started to get A’s and high B’s on all quizzes, exams, and assignments which finally made me believe in myself again. By the end of my first semester, I was able to achieve a GPA of 3.78 that earned me a spot on the dean's list. Through the success I was seeing, I was starting to realize how expensive textbooks I would need to purchase for my nursing classes were with prices totaling over two hundred dollars a semester. On top of the four hundred dollar nursing lab fee I would have to pay, I didn’t realize how expensive this aspect of college was because I had no prior experiences like this. This semester all of my courses required textbooks that were essential to the in lecture learning process and if I didn’t purchase them, I wouldn’t be able to complete any assignments. This meant I would be spending over five hundred dollars on textbooks and this realization was very stressful for me to think about. Thankfully, I had acquired a part time job last semester as a lifeguard which has greatly helped me with the majority of my textbook expenses but not for all of them. Fear, concern, anger, and worry are slowly entering my mind and again is creating much stress to me because I don’t want to go through the rollercoaster of emotions I experienced within my first semester. The help that this scholarship would provide me would be an amazing help into furthering my nursing endeavors for the fall semester. Winning would allow me to purchase all of my textbooks and some of the equipment needed for my clinicals I start in the fall. I would love to honor Kalia’s legacy and life achievements through using this scholarship to help fund my passion, drive, and goal of becoming a nurse who incorporates the same values that Kalia represents.

During middle school, I discovered I had a chronic sleep disorder called narcolepsy; this diagnosis had changed my life and completely twisted me, and who I thought I was. At first I only had to deal with being labeled as one of the twins all my life because of being a part of the only set of twins in my community. I was terrified to get another crippling identity label of only being known as the girl who is constantly tired. People would come up to me and ask "hey you are the twin that's got that sleeping problem, right?". I was very wrong with this fear of being labeled with this because this had helped educate me with a new world I had never known about. Constantly educating myself on the topic of narcolepsy, this education had helped shape a new part of me that formed new perceptions in peoples minds about the topic of sleep disorders or disorders that do not have cures yet. This has helped shape me into the person I am today, and furthermore drives me to want to change the world's opinions on sleep disorders for the better. I plan on making this positive change and impact on the community around me by becoming a nurse. I have always known that I wanted to be in a profession that helped people because, all my life, I have been surrounded by people within those professions such as my mom being a substance abuse therapist. I also knew I wanted to work in healthcare because I have always been very interested in human anatomy and the process of discovering things about it. This interest heightened when I had got my narcolepsy diagnosis, I really began to dive deeper into the world of human anatomy and especially the brain and how it functions. Whenever I had gone to Yale for any of my doctors appointments, the nurses and doctors really helped me understand what they were doing and why they were doing certain procedures. I was drawn towards the nurses because they were the people helping me through the procedures, such as the multiple sleep studies that I had to do to receive my narcolepsy diagnosis. I liked how interactive and informative the nurses were to me and the other kids that had to do their sleep studies, it made me more fascinated with the nursing profession and what the job entailed. Soon after, I began doing tons of research about the different nursing specialties and which ones suited my goals for helping my community the best. I had asked my cousin, who was working as an ICU nurse, and she said that she loved her job and the people that she had met while she was taking care of them. She told me all about the life experiences, lessons, and cultures she learned about while working these twelve hour long shifts. This really sealed the deal for me because it was most important to me that I was able to work with a wide variety of people to allow myself to have many life experiences, whether they are good or bad. As long as I knew that I was helping people in a positive way, I was secure with whatever field I would be going into; I realized that nursing was the right path for me. Overall, I want to be the person that people look to for comfort and guidance in their moments of stress or pain because I want them to feel how I felt when I first interacted with nurses around me.

Stepping into college was nothing compared to high school and it caught me off guard the moment I went to my first class. This was the first time in my academic life where I really had to study and learn the information on my own because there was no “one on one” teacher time for me to utilize like there is in high school. I was struggling academically with not being able to keep up with my prerequisites to get me into my major focused classes. This life change set me back a lot within studies and I did not know what to do, everything I tried just did not work for me and I gave up my dream of becoming a nurse for a while. I later realized that I needed to make a change for myself and the possible future that I was giving up on, so I decided every day that I would take the time to study for an hour to try and catch up on some work I was missing. This change had turned my academic career around. I started to get A’s and high B’s on all quizzes, exams, and assignments which finally made me believe in myself again. By the end of my first semester, I was able to achieve a GPA of 3.78 which earned me a spot on the dean's list because my GPA was over a 3.5. Through the success I was seeing, I was also starting to realize how expensive textbooks I would need to purchase for my nursing classes were with prices totaling over two hundred dollars a semester. On top of the four hundred dollar nursing lab fee I would have to pay, I did not realize how expensive this aspect of college was because I had not had to experience this before. This semester all of my courses required textbooks that were essential to the in lecture learning process and if I did not purchase them, I would not be able to complete any assignments. This meant I would be spending over five hundred dollars on textbooks and this realization was very stressful for me to think about. Thankfully, I had acquired a part time job last semester as a lifeguard which has greatly helped me with the majority of my textbook expenses but not for all of them. Fear, concern, anger, and worry are slowly entering my mind and again is creating much stress to me because I do not want to go through the rollercoaster of emotions I experienced within my first semester. The help that this scholarship would provide me would be an amazing help into furthering my nursing endeavors for the fall semester. Winning would allow me to purchase all of my textbooks and some of the clothing and equipment requirements for my clinicals I start in the fall. Just the idea of being chosen to win this scholarship gives me hope that my upcoming semester will have just as many successes, without the struggles, that I had in this semester and the previous one.

During middle school, I discovered I had a chronic sleep disorder called narcolepsy; this diagnosis had changed my life and completely twisted me, and who I thought I was. At first I only had to deal with being labeled as one of the twins all my life because of being a part of the only set of twins in my community. I was terrified to get another crippling identity label of only being known as the girl who is constantly tired. People would come up to me and ask "hey you are the twin that's got that sleeping problem, right?". I was very wrong with this fear of being labeled with this because this had helped educate me with a new world I had never known about. Constantly educating myself on the topic of narcolepsy, this education had helped shape a new part of me that formed new perceptions in peoples minds about the topic of sleep disorders or disorders that do not have cures yet. This has helped shape me into the person I am today, and furthermore drives me to want to change the world's opinions on sleep disorders for the better. I plan on making this positive change and impact on the community around me by becoming a nurse. I have always known that I wanted to be in a profession that helped people because, all my life, I have been surrounded by people within those professions such as my mom being a substance abuse therapist. I also knew I wanted to work in healthcare because I have always been very interested in human anatomy and the process of discovering things about it. This interest heightened when I had got my narcolepsy diagnosis, I really began to dive deeper into the world of human anatomy and especially the brain and how it functions. Whenever I had gone to Yale for any of my doctors appointments, the nurses and doctors really helped me understand what they were doing and why they were doing certain procedures. I was drawn towards the nurses because they were the people helping me through the procedures, such as the multiple sleep studies that I had to do to receive my narcolepsy diagnosis. I liked how interactive and informative the nurses were to me and the other kids that had to do their sleep studies, it made me more fascinated with the nursing profession and what the job entailed. Soon after, I began doing tons of research about the different nursing specialties and which ones suited my goals for helping my community the best. I had asked my cousin, who was working as an ICU nurse, and she said that she loved her job and the people that she had met while she was taking care of them. She told me all about the life experiences, lessons, and cultures she learned about while working these twelve hour long shifts. This really sealed the deal for me because it was most important to me that I was able to work with a wide variety of people to allow myself to have many life experiences, whether they are good or bad. As long as I knew that I was helping people in a positive way, I was secure with whatever field I would be going into; I realized that nursing was the right path for me. Overall, I want to be the person that people look to for comfort and guidance in their moments of stress or pain because I want them to feel how I felt when I first interacted with nurses around me.

I plan on making this positive change and impact on the community around me by becoming a nurse to be an advocator for the unheard and a supporter for the unseen. I have experienced what it feels like to be unheard and unseen in the eyes of medicine because of a sleeping disorder I have called narcolepsy. Having to live with narcolepsy was a new, strange, and scary world that I was not stepping into because I have never heard of it and nobody around me had never heard of it before. Instead of having kids and adults feel unheard just how I did when I was first diagnosed with narcolepsy, I want to be there for them as the nurses I met along my journey with narcolepsy have been there for me. I have always known that I wanted to be in a profession that helped people because, all my life, I have been surrounded by people within those professions such as my mom being a substance abuse therapist. I also knew I wanted to work in healthcare because I have always been very interested in human anatomy and the process of discovering things about it. This interest heightened when I had got my narcolepsy diagnosis, I really began to dive deeper into the world of human anatomy and especially the brain and how it functions. Whenever I had gone to Yale for any of my doctors appointments, the nurses and doctors really helped me understand what they were doing and why they were doing certain procedures. I was drawn towards the nurses because they were the people helping me through the procedures, such as the multiple sleep studies that I had to do to receive my narcolepsy diagnosis. I liked how interactive and informative the nurses were to me and the other kids that had to do their sleep studies, it made me more fascinated with the nursing profession and what the job entailed. Soon after, I began doing tons of research about the different nursing specialties and which ones suited my goals for helping my community the best. I had asked my cousin, who was working as an ICU nurse, and she said that she loved her job and the people that she had met while she was taking care of them. She told me all about the life experiences, lessons, and cultures she learned about while working these twelve hour long shifts. This really sealed the deal for me because it was most important to me that I was able to work with a wide variety of people to allow myself to have many life experiences, whether they are good or bad. As long as I knew that I was helping people in a positive way, I was secure with whatever field I would be going into; I realized that nursing was the right path for me. Overall, I want to be the person that people look to for comfort and guidance in their moments of stress or pain because I want them to feel how I felt when I first interacted with nurses around me.

During middle school, I discovered I had a chronic sleep disorder called narcolepsy; this diagnosis had changed my life and completely twisted me, and who I thought I was. At first I only had to deal with being labeled as one of the twins all my life because of being a part of the only set of twins in my community. I was terrified to get another crippling identity label of only being known as the girl who is constantly tired. People would come up to me and ask "hey you are the twin that's got that sleeping problem, right?". I was very wrong with this fear of being labeled with this because this had helped educate me with a new world I had never known about. Constantly educating myself on the topic of narcolepsy, this education had helped shape a new part of me that formed new perceptions in peoples minds about the topic of sleep disorders or disorders that do not have cures yet. This has helped shape me into the person I am today, and furthermore drives me to want to change the world's opinions on sleep disorders for the better. I plan on making this positive change and impact on the community around me by becoming a nurse. I have always known that I wanted to be in a profession that helped people because, all my life, I have been surrounded by people within those professions such as my mom being a substance abuse therapist. I also knew I wanted to work in healthcare because I have always been very interested in human anatomy and the process of discovering things about it. This interest heightened when I had got my narcolepsy diagnosis, I really began to dive deeper into the world of human anatomy and especially the brain and how it functions. Whenever I had gone to Yale for any of my doctors appointments, the nurses and doctors really helped me understand what they were doing and why they were doing certain procedures. I was drawn towards the nurses because they were the people helping me through the procedures, such as the multiple sleep studies that I had to do to receive my narcolepsy diagnosis. I liked how interactive and informative the nurses were to me and the other kids that had to do their sleep studies, it made me more fascinated with the nursing profession and what the job entailed. Soon after, I began doing tons of research about the different nursing specialties and which ones suited my goals for helping my community the best. I had asked my cousin, who was working as an ICU nurse, and she said that she loved her job and the people that she had met while she was taking care of them. She told me all about the life experiences, lessons, and cultures she learned about while working these twelve hour long shifts. This really sealed the deal for me because it was most important to me that I was able to work with a wide variety of people to allow myself to have many life experiences, whether they are good or bad. As long as I knew that I was helping people in a positive way, I was secure with whatever field I would be going into; I realized that nursing was the right path for me. Overall, I want to be the person that people look to for comfort and guidance in their moments of stress or pain because I want them to feel how I felt when I first interacted with nurses around me.

As a student, I was, and still am, very interested in human anatomy and the process of discovering things about the human body. This interest especially heightened when I had got my Narcolepsy diagnosis and I really had begun to dive deeper into the world of human anatomy and especially the brain and how that works. Whenever I had gone to Yale for any of my doctors appointments for my narcolepsy, the nurses and doctors really helped me understand what they were doing and why they were doing certain procedures. I was drawn towards the nurses because they were the people helping me through some of the procedures such as the multiple sleep studies that I had to do in order for me to receive my narcolepsy diagnosis. I liked how interactive and informative the nurses were to me and the other kids that had to do their sleep studies, it made me more fascinated with the nursing profession and what consisted of it. After my sleep study, I began to research all the different medical professions and how they helped people in their day to day lives, which is something that I knew that I wanted to do when I grew up. I did not want to have an office job that kept me in a tight space from nine o’clock to five o’clock and not have any interactions with people, I wanted an interactive and social job that would always keep me on my toes but I knew that I also wanted to help people. I soon narrowed down my lists of potential careers to either being a nurse or a doctor that specializes in neurology because those were the two most impactful healthcare careers that had helped me, and continue to help me, with my journey with narcolepsy. I had to weigh the pros and cons of each, and finally decided that becoming a nurse was the right career choice for me because of how interactive and helpful that nurses are with all types of patients. I then began to ask a lot of questions to people in my family and in my school about nursing and what the job actually entails. I had asked my cousin, who is a new nurse, and she said that she loved her job and the people that she had met while she was taking care of them. This really sealed the deal for me because it was most important to me that I was able to work with a wide variety of people to allow myself to have many life experiences, whether they are good or bad. I had finally come to the obvious choice that nursing was the career that I wanted to pursue in the future because of all of my positive experiences I had with them during any check up for my narcolepsy and even just talking to the nurses had calmed my nerves if I was nervous at a doctor's appointment with getting a shot. I want to be the person that people look to for comfort and guidance in their moments of stress or pain because I want people to feel how I felt when I first interacted with nurses around me.

Imagine being forty-one years old, with twin baby girls, in a large town, and all alone; this was my mother in 2005. All my life it's just been my mother, my twin sister Josie, and I taking on life together as one strong unit. My father was never around due to substance abuse issues which caused later issues in my family but that’s another story. With all these setbacks, my mother has always put us first in any aspect of our lives and will always be my biggest supporter academically. Ever since I can remember, I have been involved in at least two or more after school programs whether that was gymnastics, basketball, soccer, or girl scouts. We were always there. Life was not easy for her having it be “two against one” in the sense that she was the only parent; but that was never obvious to me as a child. She made sure that we got everything we wanted and needed without showing her children the hardships she was facing. I will always be in her debt for this because she had allowed her children to be children and not have to worry about where their next meal was coming from or if the light bill could be paid. From this, I grew up learning to always be self sufficient but to know when to ask for help through seeing my mom do such things. This ideology she was subconsciously placing within me led me to later become a part of the top five in my high school graduating class, being a three sport varsity athlete, all while having a chronic sleep disorder. I was always expected, but not forced, to be the best student I could be and of course with the support from my mother I was able to do so. I went from elementary school to middle school and finally at high school never having a final grade under a 90 percent. Through the countless hours she spent sitting at the dining room table helping me with math, to the long nights working on science projects due the next day, she never failed to amaze me with how willing and supportive she was. Being so young, the only way I knew how to give back to her was making sure I had the right grades to earn enough in scholarship money to pay off my “debt” to her. She had never made it apparent that I owed her any sort of money or labour time for all the things that she has done for me, but through that “work horse” mindset she placed within me, I was obligated to do as such. Entering into high school the only thing that was on my mind was to have straight a’s and get a high enough SAT score to impress colleges. With her support, time, and effort I was able to finish high school with a 4.0 GPA, over 200 hours of community service, and ranked number five out of three hundred of my classmates. I now, in my first year of college, continue to try and honor my mother by not letting any of my grades slip away which lead me to earn a 3.78 GPA during my first semester. Without my mothers inspiration, hard work, and dedication to me and my well being, I would be thousands of miles away from where I am now. All of my current, past, and future success would not have been possible without my mother and her willingness to let me try new things.

During middle school, I discovered I had a chronic sleep disorder called narcolepsy; this diagnosis had changed my life and completely twisted me, and who I thought I was. At first I only had to deal with being labeled as one of the twins all my life because of being a part of the only set of twins in my community. I was terrified to get another crippling identity label of only being known as the girl who is constantly tired. People would come up to me and ask "hey you are the twin that's got that sleeping problem, right?". I was very wrong with this fear of being labeled with this because this had helped educate me with a new world I had never known about. Constantly educating myself on the topic of narcolepsy, this education had helped shape a new part of me that formed new perceptions in peoples minds about the topic of sleep disorders or disorders that do not have cures yet. This has helped shape me into the person I am today, and furthermore drives me to want to change the world's views on sleep disorders for the better. I plan on making this positive change and impact on the community around me by becoming a nurse. I have always known that I wanted to be in a profession that helped people because, all my life, I have been surrounded by people within those professions such as my mom being a substance abuse therapist. I also knew I wanted to work in healthcare because I have always been very interested in human anatomy and the process of discovering things about it. This interest heightened when I had got my narcolepsy diagnosis, I really began to dive deeper into the world of human anatomy and especially the brain and how it functions. Whenever I had gone to Yale for any of my doctors appointments, the nurses and doctors really helped me understand what they were doing and why they were doing certain procedures. I was drawn towards the nurses because they were the people helping me through the procedures, such as the multiple sleep studies that I had to do to receive my narcolepsy diagnosis. I liked how interactive and informative the nurses were to me and the other kids that had to do their sleep studies, it made me more fascinated with the nursing profession and what the job entailed. Soon after, I began doing tons of research about the different nursing specialties and which ones suited my goals for helping my community the best. I had asked my cousin, who was working as an ICU nurse, and she said that she loved her job and the people that she had met while she was taking care of them. She told me all about the life experiences, lessons, and cultures she learned about while working these twelve hour long shifts. This really sealed the deal for me because it was most important to me that I was able to work with a wide variety of people to allow myself to have many life experiences, whether they are good or bad. As long as I knew that I was helping people in a positive way, I was secure with whatever field I would be going into; and I realized that nursing was the right path for me. Overall, I want to be the person that people look to for comfort and guidance in their moments of stress or pain because I want them to feel how I felt when I first interacted with nurses around me.