My name is Nazly Salgado and I'm the first person in my family to have NF1. We weren't quite sure how this happened, but my parents tried their best to meet my needs. Growing up I hated being sick all the time.I felt as if the hospital was my second home. I was either going in for a planned check-up or unexpectedly rushing to the ER. Most of my time at the hospital feels like a blur, but the feeling of loneliness stands out. I didn't really realize how impactful having NF1 was until I was in eighth grade. During eighth grade, I was going to get braces but my orthodontist found a tumor in my jaw. Even at that time, I don't think I took it as seriously as it was. My parents had two options: either scrape the tumor and hope that it doesn't grow back, or remove part of my jaw and get a bone from my left leg and shape that into a jaw. My parents decided to go with the more simple option: scraping the tumor. Unfortunately, the tumor grew back and that's when my parents decided to do the more complex one. Recovery was terrible for me. I went from playing soccer, volleyball, and cheerleading to not being able to walk on my own. I was stripped of my coping skills and connections to people my own age. My mental health was at its worst. I felt very insecure about how I looked. At the time I felt as if my life was over. I wish I could say that those two surgeries were my last, but they weren't. Last year I had to get surgery on my right knee. I fell down some stairs at my house and I immediately knew something was wrong because I just couldn't stand up. Once I got to the hospital reality hit me and I started to cry my eyes out. I really was hoping that the most that would happen were that I would need a cast. It took a while for me to get a room and once I got to my room I was told the very unfortunate news. They found a tumor on my knee and that they had to remove it. This time around I felt a bit more prepared just because I knew what was going to happen. After the surgery, I had to start physical therapy all over again and I had to go to school in a wheelchair. I honestly felt like people were going to laugh at me. But once I got to the school everyone was concerned and asking if I was okay. I felt very loved and it made me feel happy that I was wrong about the reaction I was going to get. Dealing with the second surgery was so much calmer and it helped me in so many ways. This time around my mental health was so much better than the last time As a first-generation immigrant, I want to pursue higher education in order to create generational change and make the most of the educational opportunities my family moved here to get. Notably, I hope to pursue law or medicine, acting as an advocate for immigrant families (like mine) or providing culturally sensitive medical care to children and families (also like mine!). These goals as well as the financial burden my family has taken on due to my NF1 diagnosis make me a prime candidate for this award.