Faith plays a very critical part in my daily walk with God. I had to believe that faith can carry me through whatever trial that I may be facing in life because it allowed me to become mentally, emotionally and spiritually stronger when everything around me seemed to fall apart. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we don't see.” I believed in something that I couldn’t see and was given reasons why my beliefs was valid. My faith makes me feel like I have an assured promise that God is with me even when I feel like he isn’t. Whenever things began to get too difficult for me I look towards the sky and reassure myself that better days will always come because there is a tomorrow. My mother once told me “A teacher is always quiet during a test” and from that day forward i’ve never questioned God’s abilities nor presence in my life because in the Old Testament the Book of Deuteronomy 31:6, says: "Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you." A promise God made to his people and the God I serve never breaks his promises. My faith gave me a support system when I felt the most vulnerable. The older I got the more I began relying on my faith with God and trusting in his word. Although I was forced to grow up religious when I was younger , that is not the reason I personally believe in God. I believe in him because he’s done things for me that no other man could fathom, when I felt useless I still had some type of desire for a change. I felt like I had no purpose in life and God took that feeling and turned it into ambition and for that I know there is a God who sees, hears and knows everything. There are days where I question my faith because I feel like i’m trying to convince myself there is a bigger entity that i’m praying to who I believe can save us all. I believe it is normal to have doubts but I rather put my faith in God for the rest of my life on this earth and die with him not being real than live in denial and he is real and I spend eternity in the place of darkness without God’s presence. Everyday we wake up we are taking a gamble with our lives. I tell my siblings everyday your faith is your own. You cant live your life based on my faith but on your own, so My testimony cant get you into heaven but I do plan on using my voice and the trials God has put me through to strengthen me to be a voice for younger generations and continue to spread his word because we are in times where God is needed the most.

I am somebody, is something I often tell myself daily. I am only seventeen but feel like i’ve been here before, I often feel big in uncomfortable situations and belittled in situations where I should be thriving; like my life is backwards. When I was just 9 years old I watched the most traumatic incident in my life unfold right before my eyes. Frozen, is me when I watched my grandmother bleeding through her mouth being dragged through the hallway, into the kitchen begging and pleading for my grandfather to stop. Fear is what I became after getting a phone call that my childhood best friend mother was murdered by her husband whom I just conversed with days before. I immediately realized that I was surrounded by energy that ignored reality and lived through pain. I am from Little Rock Arkansas, and I knew if I didn’t get out I would become a product of my environment. I was often asked , “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I never had an answer for that question until this year(2023) when 7 of my closest childhood friends were being murdered and arrested. Is this what I want to be surrounded by when I graduate? An environment where drugs and guns were the only thing people thought could save them? I knew I wanted more out of life. I wanted to save people, save my kind, save people who didn't know how to save themselves. I never knew how hard life could be until I seen my classmate strung out on drugs, only seventeen years old asking for change to tend to his bad habits. I felt the same pain in my heart I felt seeing my grandmother at her lowest. A pain I never want to feel without having enough strength to fight back. I remember watching a docu-series “When They See Us” on Netflix based on falsely incarcerated minority young men whose lives were destroyed and taken away because of the lack of fair rules towards all minorities within the justice system. This is when I knew I had to make a change, not only for myself but for this world. My senior year of High School I graduated early and began working at a daycare with special needs children and infants. I volunteered at youth homes and churches just trying to help around my community as much as I could. I got accepted into my dream college Southern University in Baton Rouge where I plan on continuing to further my education in Nursing, So I can be able to continue to help others and leave a legacy behind.

I have always been attracted to any work concerning the healthcare field. I want to major in nursing and minor in dentistry at Southern A&M in Baton Rouge, Louisiana if I'm capable. I've always been fond of dentistry ever since my first dentist appointment. When I receive my bachelor's I want to go to dental school to become a dental assistant in Colorado. Something that inspired me was the setting of the dentist's office. I loved the atmosphere and how calm everyone was. I am overly obsessed with teeth. I love clean teeth, I love the process of cleaning teeth. I want to learn more about the mouth especially since I'm more interested in Otho work. I am very social and I know how to communicate with people very well. I know I'm good with people so my ideas were focused on healthcare. I wanted to focus on ER work or dental work. I noticed a lot of people are working in healthcare for the aesthetics but I want to work in healthcare because I genuinely love humanity. I love people, I am so interested in different personalities, different character traits, and different lifestyles. I just love learning about other lives. I've always had a superhero in my life which is my mother. She motivates me to strive for anything in life even when I know I don't think I'll succeed in it. Watching my mother do everything alone and never really having the help and support she needed pushed me to want to make something out of myself. I don't want to become a dentist for the money or for the cute scrubs they have, but to change lives and make people happier with themselves starting with their smile. I've always hated my smile. Ever since I was bullied in middle school for the way my teeth looked. I hated smiling and showing my teeth. I changed my smile and I love it now. The feeling I had when I finally smiled and loved it is the same feeling I want to give others. I know how it feels to just be insecure about something and want it changed so badly. I want to be the superhero with no cape. I want to make a difference in someone's life. Although dentistry is more than cleaning teeth and doing bone scans. I want to also help people mentally to give them an understanding of relief. Dentistry is not just a career but its also a lifestyle.

"Educated" By Tara Westover would be the one book everyone would read. Tara Westover was a Morman who grew up isolated from the world. She experienced all forms of abuse. I feel teenagers and young adults can relate to her because she showed different trials and tribulations everyone goes through daily. Tara never received a real education due to her dad's ( Gene Westover) undiagnosed bipolar disorder and harsh religion. He mainly gaslighted and manipulated her because he didn't believe in the power of authority which is why she was homeschooled until she was 17. She endured abuse not only from her father but from her brother (Shawn Westover) as well. Her father was very good at using reverse psychology on his children. He used their vulnerability to his advantage and pushed his fears off on them. Tara wasn't trying to make her family look bad in her memoir but she showed the harsh reality of what people go through behind closed doors. Tara knew her lifestyle wasn't normal but because that's all she knew that's all she felt was out there for her. She didn't feel she had meaning in life. "Educated" is so eloquent to our generation because there are many young adults facing problems similar to Tara. Although Tara was able to beat becoming another statistic other people weren't able to. I can relate to this book so much because I've seen people from my community set up to fail. They weren't given equal opportunity as others; Yes. You make your life but that's not always the case. I had a friend whom I've known since elementary. He lost his mom and dad to drugs and became angry. Unlike Tara he didn't use his anger to want more for himself he used it and became something we promised ourselves we'd never be. Tara never wanted to be like her parents. She didn't want to stay in the mountains and work in the junkyard forever but that's all her family showed her was possible. My childhood friend felt drugs were the only way. He was never guided correctly and because of where we're from he only knew what was shown to him. He died at 16 from a drug overdose. Tara graduated college and became successful. I strive to be like Tara because my past or my life will not define who I can become.