I am a first-generation Haitian immigrant who lives in South Carolina. The South is not full of people like me, but found a way to have pride in who I am and who has come before me. I have spent my entire life loving school and the art of learning. This has led me to never having a true passion for any career. My love of school has also led me to excel in many of my classes (maths and sciences being my favorites). With my senior year coming to an end, I have decided to focus on a career as a pediatric occupational therapist. I've heard many opinions about this job, such as the physical and mental toll it may take on my body. Numerous times, I have considered the patience, motivation, and creativity required for this job. While researching all the careers I could find, I found particular interest in Pediatric occupational therapy for the pediatric part of it. I think that I really enjoy being with kids and would love to help them. develop. I find myself to be a very observant person in that I love to see change. Being an occupational therapist means helping your patients improve the skills that they will use daily. To me, helping the people I work for improve in their lives is also a win for myself. I know that the process of progress can be a slow, repetitive experience, but in my brain, change or proof of improvement makes the frustration something I could ignore. The very few pediatric therapists that I do know are some of the kindest people ever. They have inspired me to even consider this career. They tend to work with a variety of children who have struggled in different ways. The most well-known group of children pediatric occupational therapists work with is children with special needs. Many people tend to want to avoid this group of children to avoid taking the time to do more than the bare minimum. Children in general take much longer to learn things simply because they're not used to it. The genuine desire for success and improvement led me to want to see what it might look like in real time. I have a younger sister whom I've had to tutor since the beginning of quarantine in 2020. She has always had trouble learning new things with her mental illness. The celebrations and short lessons I've had to push through have told me I can find comfort in a career. The fact that my passions are fueled by the excitement of the outcomes from becoming a pediatric occupational therapist tells me that this is a career that can stay with me. My love of learning made me want to teach kids in a different way than a teacher. Pediatric therapists are very important people who can truly change the world child by child.

I am a first-generation Haitian immigrant who lives in South Carolina. The South is not full of people like me, but found a way to have pride in who I am and who has come before me. I have spent my entire life loving school and the art of learning. This has led me to never having a true passion for any career. My love of school has also led me to excel in many of my classes (maths and sciences being my favorites). With my senior year coming to an end, I have decided to focus on a career as a pediatric occupational therapist. I've heard many opinions about this job, such as the physical and mental toll it may take on my body. Numerous times, I have considered the patience, motivation, and creativity required for this job. While researching all the careers I could find, I found particular interest in Pediatric occupational therapy for the pediatric part of it. I think that I really enjoy being with kids and would love to help them. develop. I find myself to be a very observant person in that I love to see change. Being an occupational therapist means helping your patients improve the skills that they will use daily. To me, helping the people I work for improve in their lives is also a win for myself. I know that the process of progress can be a slow, repetitive experience, but in my brain, change or proof of improvement makes the frustration something I could ignore. The very few pediatric therapists that I do know are some of the kindest people ever. They have inspired me to even consider this career. They tend to work with a variety of children who have struggled in different ways. The most well-known group of children pediatric occupational therapists work with is children with special needs. Many people tend to want to avoid this group of children to avoid taking the time to do more than the bare minimum. Children in general take much longer to learn things simply because they're not used to it. The genuine desire for success and improvement led me to want to see what it might look like in real time. I have a younger sister whom I've had to tutor since the beginning of quarantine in 2020. She has always had trouble learning new things with her mental illness. The celebrations and short lessons I've had to push through have told me I can find comfort in a career. The fact that my passions are fueled by the excitement of the outcomes from becoming a pediatric occupational therapist tells me that this is a career that can stay with me. My love of learning made me want to teach kids in a different way than a teacher. Pediatric therapists are very important people who can truly change the world child by child.

Ever since I was a little girl, learning has been an insightful and enjoyable part of growing up. This made school one of my favorite places to be because I actually got to be around. A variety of people with different backgrounds. Learning helps me to prepare and gives me a sense of comfort while being in such an unpredictable world. A lesson that stands out to me after all these years is when I had to learn about people's reactions to the tragedy that happened on September 11th. With this assignment, I not only learned about the feelings associated with this tragedy, but I also got to see life through my mother's eyes. My mother is a Haitian immigrant who moved to the United States when she was just 19 years old. Even though 9/11 happened during my mom's fourth year away from her home country, she was still very early in her adjustment to this new life. I remember feeling not only connected to my mother but to my identity as a Haitian and the people before me. It is because of experiences like this that I want to try my hardest in school and actually use my love for learning for something great. Although I was born in Florida, most of my memories are tied to South Carolina because I was able to live there for 10 years. The community I live in is a predominantly white city, which is the complete opposite of the bottom of Florida. The stories I did get from my mother about Haiti shared the struggles she had to go through to get to this point in her life. I believe that I get all my motivation through having pride in my identity. The closer I get, the more I want to show the people around me that I, too, can become great. With not many people like me to look up to, I decided t o become the person I can look up to. The project I did in elementary holds such significance, specifically because it happened during a time when I was separated from everyone who was remotely similar to me. There was a point in my life when my mother had to live in a different state from me just to look for a better, more affordable life for our family. Learning a little bit more about her made me want to be strong and to accurately represent the people before me.