When I was little, I used to run around the neighborhood bandaging kids who fell off their bikes and skinned their knees. I discovered that my first love was helping people. Since then, that love has developed more intensely than I ever have imagined it could.

I was 13 when I witnessed my first trauma. I grew up with a major highway directly behind my house, and from time to time I would see your everyday fender bender. But on this particular day it was different. I will never forget the sound the car made as it was virtually destroyed. All I remember is seeing life flight touch ground, and wanting with every fiber of my being, to jump that fence and help those people live. But I was only 13. I didn't have slightest idea of how to save a life.

So I decided that very moment that I would dedicate my life to others. I would someday be the one on the other side of that fence making a difference and knowing what to do.

I spent most of my high school career volunteering and shadowing nurses in different specialties. My love for helping people only grew stronger, and my heart only grew bigger.

I look around and see so many people still struggling with answering the panic inducing question of "What do I want to be when I grow up?" And I feel very fortunate to have such an intense passion at a young age. I have never had to ask myself that question. I have always known who I wanted to be and I make no apologies for that.

Seven years later the fire in my soul has never been so wild. I cannot imagine doing anything else. I truly believe that nursing is my God given purpose in life. And I have never felt more proud of who I have become.