My passion for cosmetology began by wanting to provide beauty related services to un-housed and low income families. I always felt like my purpose was to give back to people who have fallen on hard times as my family and I have experienced it first hand. Scrolling on tiktok one day I came across a women named Shirley Raines and her account was under the name "beauty2thestreets". Her account is solely dedicated to videos of her and many others helping the people of skid row in Los Angeles, California. They offer many necessities to these people but also a plethora of services and items ranging from hair cuts to hair color as well as wigs and makeup for the girlies. Seeing these different men and women receive these types of things and treatment brings a tear to my eye because you can see the their eyes light up. Who knows the last time they were able to pamper and feel good about themselves and thats something thats always over looked. It is amazing to watch her videos and to be able to see the impact she has on her community. She is real and raw and truly someone I look up to and aspire to be. I have watched the effort and love Mrs.Shirley has put into her community and she will always be my #1 role model and one of the biggest reasons I decided to pursue cosmetology. During my time in cosmetology I have volunteered at multiple charity events that my school has been able to take part in. One being "The Charity of Hope" in which the city of Pueblo, CO hosted an event giving back to people in need. Several stands were set up ranging from clothes, shoes, food, health/first aid services, family portraits, as well as our booth which offered free haircuts. It has always been something I've wanted to do for a while so being offered the chance to help the people of Pueblo at such a huge event was an absolute honor. Some people like to somewhat discredit what the beauty community has to offer to the world but I truly believe we have the ability to send people onto the road of success. You would be surprised how much a haircut could change someone's life. There's plenty of things that I want to delve into in my near future as a cosmetologist. One thing that has always stuck though is to one day own my own eco-concious salon. I want to be able to provide my beauty services to people in the most clean, environmentally friendly way possible. I plan to do so by a multitude of ways ranging from energy-efficient lights, managing water use, installing a water recycling system, as well as using only vegan/cruelty free products and ammonia free hair color. As someone who's lived with an auto-immune disease I believe in being able to make people feel beautiful and better about themselves but in a way that doesn't harm them or the environment. And lastly I want to be able to host events and chairites to be able to once again provide services and necessities to the un-housed people of my own community at least twice a year as well as give discounted services to students K-12 full time.