Pain, it can be a driving force or it can be an obstacle. It's truthfully what you make of it, that allows you to strive for what you dream of or not. So what does pain have to do with following you're dream? The pain, and or suffering we feel, allows us as humans to be vulnerable. It allows us to truly think about our lives and we always seem to find a way to come back from that pain even stronger than we were before.

Again, it's what you do afterwards with that pain that can help you and be a driving force in your life or not.

In order for me to truly explain the depths of how pain can help, I first have to explain how I came about learning it. From a young age, I had been in and out of the hospital and barely saw my mother or my family. Shortly after getting better and returning back to a normal infant life, I was in a house fire while we all were asleep. Some time after that, I experienced more pain than I could ever imagine; my mother had been taken from my family and I.

Growing up I only had my Dad, and my Papa; in which I would lose my grandpa just before I graduated high school. Through my life and the situations I've been through, I saw something else from my past, something other than pain. I saw love and compassion. Through the tough times, we as people forget to remember the good that came before the bad.

But, if we take that situation we've been through or tragic past we've experienced, and see the good from it, we can truly make a difference in the people around us and ourselves.

In other words, by allowing yourself to feel the pain you've been through, it can ultimately be a drive to achieve something others may not see in you. For me, it's Criminal Justice. My dream is to become an officer and or agent, and use my past to help those who can't necessarily help themselves. I use the passing of my mother and the tragic events in my life as a motivation to help others in a way they can relate to and understand.

Evidently, I want to be the change in law enforcement; I want to connect and help those around me and around the world. So for me, I found how my tragedy can drive me. You just have to use yours and do the same.