Growing up I had dreamed about becoming an elementary teacher. I remembered so vividly that when I was in elementary school for Christmas I would get a big box filled with art supplies and tacky little things to "set up" my classroom. I would also receive a grade book and everything. This was my favorite thing to do when I had friends come over after school. For a while, I told my mom that I wanted to be a school teacher and she thought that I would be great at it.

As I became older, I gained a better understanding of what a teacher does. I realized that I didn't want to be a school teacher anymore maybe because here in New York we have the common core that teachers have to follow. Then I jumped to the idea of becoming a paralegal I have always loved history and at the time when I was considering becoming a paralegal my oldest brother TJ was getting ready to graduate from University of Michigan Law School to become an attorney. I then shadowed a paralegal funny enough the paralegal that I shadowed her daughter was attending the same school as me. I knew her daughter because I was in two musical theater productions with her. After I shadowed the paralegal, I saw first hand that being a paralegal was not the right fit for me.

I then turned to not knowing what I wanted I to do. During my sophomore year of high school, I was able to slowly, but surely figure out what I wanted to do. I especially thought about it when I went on a mission trip in February through my church's youth group where we partnered with Next Step Ministries. We spent hours outside in -20-degree weather building a house for a family in great need and then the following year I went to the Dominican Republic where we again worked for hours outside in the hot and humid weather. We built a house and visited a center for malnourished children. I then realized that helping others was my true calling in order to help make the world a better place. When I told this to my parents they were all on board with it and they suggested that I look into social work. My vision of social work was the textbook definition where they come and take kids away from dysfunctional, dangerous or unfit parents and families. There are various types of jobs that are attainable with a social work degree.

Social work became my main focus and here I am a year later attending college and majoring in social work. I plan to work hard at college and then be accepted into a social work Master's program then move back to New York. My dream would be to work in New York City in a Children's hospital.