Countless things happened during the 2020 Covid pandemic, including my parents thinking I was depressed. This was not unheard of for teenagers during this time as the isolation and worry were huge factors in the uprise in depression. For me, this was extremely uncommon, I have always been an energetic and happy kid. When my parents expressed their worry to me I really started to take into account how I felt. There was unquestionably only one way to describe it- awful. I was constantly dizzy, losing weight, and passing out. Not only was my mental health deteriorating, but my physical health was too. I seemed to be in poor health all the time. Finally, I could not take everything that was happening to me and my mom started to notice that something was wrong. She thought maybe I was hypoglycemic like herself, my dad had a blood sugar meter and when I took my sugar the numbers were through the roof. After my blood sugar was not going down I fled to the doctor's office and recieved blood work. They filled tubes and tubes with my blood, running every test that they could. When I saw the deep red color filling the tubes everything became so surreal, I was really sick. The results came back and my A1C was extremely high for my age and body type. Turns out I had a rare form of genetic diabetes called MODY 2 which stands for mature onset diabetes of the young. This was something me and my parents never wanted to hear. We had no way of knowing how to treat this rare disease and the doctors did not have much information either. I ended up having to go to a specialist at St. Louis Children's Hospital to get some answers. While I was there, and all the times I have been back, I had the best nurses' and doctors possible. They helped me learn about my disease, how to navigate it, what to eat, and what my future would look like. These incredible healthcare professionals is what inspired me to go to school to become a nurse. I got the chance to understand how much effort healthcare workers put into their jobs and the change that it brings to people's lives. I want to be apart of that change. To be there for a scared little girl just like they were there for me. I am not one hundred percent sure on what area of nursing I want to go into yet. Right now I believe I want to go into the ICU. Some of the sickest patients go into the ICU, but some of them also have the best outcomes. I want to be there for the people that need it most. My goal is to take care of my patients in the best way possible and truly listen to them. I want to make them comfortable, happy, and not just be their nurse, but be someone they can communicate with and know what they want will be done.

Becoming a nurse has been something I have wanted to do for a long time. I will be able to make a difference in people's lives and get to see the amazing impact of healthcare on individuals. Going to college to get my BSN is the pathway to my goals of a better future and finding my place in the healthcare field. I am very excited about the route that I am on, and being able to make an impact on other people's lives has weighed heavily on my heart for many years. I truly believe God has led me on this journey of college and healthcare to be a light for others and to help save his children. As I grow older into my professional career, I plan to go back to school to receive my Master’s Degree. By doing this, I will be able to practice as a nurse practitioner and help my patients even more than before. I want to become a nurse that is willing to do whatever it takes to help her patients. In eigth grade I was diagnosed with a rare form of type two diabetes called MODY 2. This was a very scary time for me and my family but the amazing nurses that I had shed light on my disease and trult made me think everything was going to be okay. This is the type of nurse I want to be. One that makes everyone comfortable with the outcomes at the hospital and one that truly helps people to understand their diseases. One way I was to help my community is through volunteer work as a nurse and through diabetic research. Having diabetes has shown me that in today’s society, we still know so little about the disease itself and how it appears in different people. When I was getting diagnosed, it took until my sophomore year in high school to receive a formal diagnosis. I want to help do diabetes research to hopefully help kids like me and even older adults. I have been connected to the military for most of my life. My dad, grandpa, and great-grandpa are all veterans and currently my sister is about to graduate college as a Second Lieutenant in the Air Force. I have been raised to respect our country and the one who have fought in my whole life. Over the summer I volunteer at our local Veteran Affairs facility and I put in approximately 60 hours of volunteer service. While there I made so many amazing connections and learned so much from Veteran stories. My job at the VA was to help get Veterans to and from their appointments. I also worked at the front desk many days and helped call rides for Veterans to get to the facility. Volunteering here has made me realize that I eventually want to work at a VA as a nurse to help support and take care of the ones that have taken care of our country all those years.