Growing up, my goal every week was to collect $2.50. My brother was responsible for collecting the other half, including tax because he was older. If we managed to get enough together, we'd walk after school to Little Caesars to get a $5 pepperoni pizza and split it. Sometimes, especially when we were younger, there'd be enough left over to have for lunch on Saturday. These pizzas were a brighter part of my childhood, my brother and I against the world. My parents were less than kind to me, which led to a world of fear and mistrust of everyone and anyone. Despite this, I craved validation and support, which I received in school. I worked hard to gain approval and ended up above my grade level by a large gap in all subjects by middle school. The first time I fully understood what college meant, I made it my number one goal immediately. Moving far away to live at a school independently where I could absorb knowledge to my heart's content was a dream to my 11 year old self. It was around this time that my grandma had gone fully blind due to a genetic degenerative eye disease and moved in with us. While I had liked science before, this sparked a newfound interest and I dove into research about her condition. I read countless studies and clinical trials, going beyond just vision loss, and fell in love with the science of genetics. There are endless explanations and potential solutions for a number of different health problems in studying the human genome and stem cells and I became encapsulated with finding one that could help my grandma and others like her. I would talk with her for hours, her telling me stories about her life in Puerto Rico, and me rambling about new studies that I thought had the potential to restore her vision. She would allow me to explain my ideas and findings, and go beyond just listening to offer her own thoughts and input. Beyond my brother, she was the first one that ever truly listened to me. Her giving me the space to discuss my passions encouraged me to continue learning and pursue a career in the medical field. I want to help develop new technologies that are specific to the individual genome so that treatment can be specified and even more accurate and effective. Despite not being able to restore my grandma’s vision, I’m extremely grateful for the inspiration she gave me and I hope to use it to impact the lives of others. Now that I have achieved my dream and am pursuing a degree at Wake Forest University, my new dream is to pursue a career in genetic research in order to learn how the genome can be used to create cures and help those with genetic illnesses. Though it may seem far off and in the future, so was the idea of me being at college and I am ready to work hard to make sure this dream happens too.