I was just a young girl born in 2006 in Baghdad, Iraq, a country so rich in history, but its own people destroyed it. Saddam Hussein had just been executed and the country was in a great civil war. Due to Christian persecution and war, in 2009, my parents decided to leave the country as they saw it is what's best for them and for their little kids' futures. They ran away to Lebanon, a neighboring country, where we lived contently in a four story apartment of one small living room, a small kitchen, and a bathroom. The living conditions weren't the best for a family of six, but it was better than being in a war. Three years passed, when one day we got the news that we will be moving to the United States of America, the country of freedom and opportunities. I was nervous about the whole idea of moving again, but this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. In 2013, we had eventually made it to America in the great state of California. I reunited with a bunch of family who had also immigrated due to war and religious persecution. Although I was in a different country, California was a big melting pot of cultures and ethnicities that I felt at home. I met a lot of people who were Chaldean, just like me, even though we are such a small minority. The community was great and I wouldn't have had my immigration experience any other way. I eventually went to school and had a big culture shock on how nice the teachers were compared to the ones in Lebanon as the teachers there were allowed to assault you at the time. I used to cheat in school because I never understood anything and didn't want to be hit, but after moving to America, I became the top of my class earning awards every year. Now that I am an adult, I realize how I was welcomed with open arms and was surrounded by such a great community that now it is my job to take care of the people who took care of me. I aspire to become a registered cardiac ICU nurse and take care people who are in their most vulnerable times of their life. I hope I can give them the same warmth and hope that they gave me growing up, but in a healthcare setting. I don't plan on stopping there, I want to further my education to eventually becoming a certified registered nurse anesthetist. Becoming a nurse anesthetist comes with great responsibility when it comes to taking care of patients because they put their full faith in you to wake them up after surgery and I am fully committed to the role. I am immensely grateful for the opportunity I was given and I do plan to make something out of it to help my parents and help the people around me.

As a kid, you think you are invincible so you take on impossible and dangerous tasks. That is how my best friend and I were. Strong, inseparable, and reckless. She was very dear to my heart as she healed something in me until I got a call one day telling me she had a tumor in her brain. My heart shattered. I never thought cancer can get someone close to me, let alone my best friend. We were still so young and bright, but cancer ripped her shine away. I was angry, sad, and helpless. I cried day and night, praying to God to heal her and to take me instead. I made sure I was there every step of the way making sure she's alright. Although cancer made her severely ill, we were still those same reckless kids. I naturally want to problem solve everything, but this I couldn't and I just had to use my faith in God and her body to fight through. A year later, my lovely best friend was pronounced cancer free. I was beyond thrilled that my best friend got another chance at life. Her hair started to grow back and I could see the confidence in her return. Life was finally going back to how it used to be when a few months later I get sent pictures of a tumor in her chest. I was in class that day and ran out the classroom to go cry in the bathroom. Why? Why does she have to go through this again? Was her suffering the first time not enough? I ask myself these questions to this day as I still don't understand why it was her. My beautiful best friend fought hard but the malignant eventually won her over. I will never forget the day as I had gotten a call from her mom screaming and crying telling me she's dead and how much she loved me. In that moment I knew that I never wanted for anyone to go through that ever again and that I never wanted to feel that helpless again. I always knew I wanted to pursue a career in healthcare just didn't know which job to go for. During COVID, I noticed that there was a nursing shortage and decided to research more about nursing. I saw how versatile the nursing career was and in that moment I just knew. I knew I wanted to care for kids, specifically ones who suffer from cancer. I know how detrimental cancer can be and how it tears the life out of people as I have seen it first hand and I know that I want to help those who suffer to remind them to fight as hard as possible and that I am someone who cares. My best friend, Rana, never made it to adulthood, but she continues to live in my heart, in my passions each day and I promised her that we will be those wild, invincible kids once again.

I was just a young girl born in 2006 in Baghdad, Iraq, a country so rich in history, but its own people destroyed it. Saddam Hussein had just been executed and the country was in a great civil war. Due to Christian persecution and war, in 2009, my parents decided to leave the country as they saw it is what's best for them and for their little kids' futures. They ran away to Lebanon, a neighboring country, where we lived contently in a four story apartment of one small living room, a small kitchen, and a bathroom. The living conditions weren't the best for a family of six, but it was better than being in a war. Three years passed, when one day we got the news that we will be moving to the United States of America, the country of freedom and opportunities. I was nervous about the whole idea of moving again, but this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. In 2013, we had eventually made it to America in the great state of California. I reunited with a bunch of family who had also immigrated due to war and religious persecution. Although I was in a different country, California was a big melting pot of cultures and ethnicities that I felt at home. I met a lot of people who were Chaldean, just like me, even though we are such a small minority. The community was great and I wouldn't have had my immigration experience any other way. I eventually went to school and had a big culture shock on how nice the teachers were compared to the ones in Lebanon as the teachers there were allowed to assault you at the time. I used to cheat in school because I never understood anything and didn't want to be hit, but after moving to America, I became the top of my class earning awards every year. Now that I am an adult, I realize how I was welcomed with open arms and was surrounded by such a great community that now it is my job to take care of the people who took care of me. I aspire to become a registered cardiac ICU nurse and take care people who are in their most vulnerable times of their life. I hope I can give them the same warmth and hope that they gave me growing up, but in a healthcare setting. I don't plan on stopping there, I want to further my education to eventually becoming a certified registered nurse anesthetist. Becoming a nurse anesthetist comes with great responsibility when it comes to taking care of patients because they put their full faith in you to wake them up after surgery and I am fully committed to the role. I am immensely grateful for the opportunity I was given and I do plan to make something out of it to help my parents and help the people around me.

As a kid, you think you are invincible so you take on impossible and dangerous tasks. That is how my best friend and I were. Strong, inseparable, and reckless. She was very dear to my heart as she healed something in me, until I got a call one day telling me she had a tumor in her brain. My heart shattered. I never thought cancer can get someone close to me, let alone my best friend. We were still so young and bright, but cancer ripped her shine away. I was angry, sad, and helpless. I cried day and night, praying to God to heal her and to take me instead. I was there every step of the way making sure she's alright. Although cancer made her severely ill, we were still those same reckless kids. I naturally want to problem solve everything, but this I couldn't and I just had to use my faith in God and her body to fight through. A year later, my lovely, best friend was pronounced cancer free. I was beyond thrilled that my best friend got another chance at life. Her hair started to grow back and I could see the confidence in her return. Life was finally going back to how it used to be, when a few months later, I get sent pictures of a tumor in her chest. I was in class that day and ran out the classroom to go cry in the bathroom. Why? Why does she have to go through this again? Was her suffering the first time not enough? I ask myself these questions to this day as I still don't understand why it was her. My beautiful best friend fought hard but the malignant eventually won her over. I will never forget the day as I had gotten a call from her mom screaming and crying telling me she's dead and how much she loved me. In that moment I knew that I never wanted for anyone to go through that ever again and that I never wanted to feel that helpless again. I always knew I wanted to pursue a career in healthcare just didn't know which job to go for. During COVID, I noticed that there was a nursing shortage and decided to research more about nursing. I saw how versatile the nursing career was and in that moment I just knew. I knew I wanted to care for kids, specifically ones who suffer from cancer. I know how detrimental cancer can be and how it tears the life out of people as I have seen it first hand and I know that I want to help those who suffer to remind them to fight as hard as possible and that I am someone who cares. My best friend, Rana, never made it to adulthood, but she continues to live in my heart, in my passions each day and I promised her that we will be those wild, invincible kids once again.