Growing up in Pennsylvania was a wild experience. I lived in Levittown, within Bucks County and right outside Philadelphia. This influenced my career aspirations because I was surrounded by people who were lower class and who struggled financially. I grew up going to the local food bank when the food stamps that were provided couldn't last my family the whole month and I also watched various members of my family struggle with addiction. My mom was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and I realized she was abusing drugs when I was in 4th grade which worsened her condition and turned her neglectful at best and abusive at worst, that same year I watched my grandmother and her friends snort cocaine on the kitchen countertop and later that same night I had to call the cops when her abusive boyfriend broke in and started harming her, meanwhile my father was in and out of jail and finally got put into actual prison as a registered sex offender when I was in 6th grade and this was the same year that I lost my childhood home and had to move into my aunts home. I lived in a room with my mom, my brother, and my mom's boyfriend and while I am grateful for the roof over my head, the living conditions weren't ideal because my aunt unfortunately had mice and roaches and a son who was addicted to drugs. One time I left my room to see him slumping to the floor with a needle in his arm and I was scared that he overdosed but when I ran to tell my aunt she treated it like a normal experience. I speak of these things not to "trauma dump" but to talk of the environment I was raised in. In my area, a lot of my peers were familiar with poverty, addiction, and what it was like to have a family member in jail. Despite everything, I still think I had a good and happy childhood but the environment I was raised in has influenced my career choice immensely. Ever since I was younger I wanted to be a teacher due to the woman who taught me in fourth grade Ms. Blanchard who treated me with such love and kindness that for the longest time I dreamed of being able to positively impact struggling children like she did with me, but during august of this year, I changed my major to accounting because many of the family members I have on my dad's side are accountants and they are all financially stable with happy families and ever since I was younger I have wanted the privilege of never having to live paycheck to paycheck with my main worry in life being how I will be able to afford all the necessities in life.

Similar to many children, there was a plethora of professions that I aspired to be in the future, including but not limited to a doctor, lawyer, SFX artist, and just about a thousand others; but, I never even entertained the idea of being an educator until 4th grade when I had Ms.Blanchard. When I was younger, life was complicated at home. My mom lost her job about the time that I was going into second grade and from that point on she was on a slow descent into drug addiction, which hit its peak when I was about eight or nine. Therefore, she was unable to do much of anything but sleep, and, unfortunately, for me and my brother, we only saw our father every other weekend and even then he was in and out of jail for most of our childhoods, and as for my grandmother, the only other adult family member, she’s an alcoholic, who was in an extremely abusive relationship. Consequently, there were not many people at that point of time that made me feel safe, except for Ms. Blanchard. She was everyone’s favorite teacher and also my confidant. I told her practically everything, and she always listened intently and was there for me with a hug if I needed it. At one point, I mentioned to her that I never ate breakfast before school, and the next day she came in with a box of toaster strudels just for me, and to this day, it is the most thoughtful thing anyone has ever done for me. It’s been 8 years since I was in her classroom and still, I can say with ease that out of anyone in my life she positively influenced me the most. Another important figure came into my life when I was in 7th grade. While Ms.Blanchard taught me how to care for myself and also how to love learning, Mr.Wilson taught me street smarts and how to distinguish a good friend from a bad one. He treated all of his students with utmost respect and kindness. It was from him that I learned my self-worth, and also my essay writing skills. He has influenced my journey of being an educator in the way that I will never teach middle schoolers without a very large bribe. After only about 3 years of being a middle school teacher, coincidentally after my younger brother was in his class, Mr.Wilson stopped teaching full time and instead took on the role of vice principal. In High School, I finally realized the subject I was passionate about and would one day like to teach. When I was in 10th grade,I had Mr. Sleppy and he taught me US history, and something about this man is that he is just about the grumpiest person that I have ever met and I loved it. Unlike the other two teachers that were mentioned previously, I didn’t have any sort of special relationship with him and I rarely ever talked to him or participated in his class, and this is in large part due to the fact that I was very scared of him. Nonetheless, he was an incredible teacher, and each day I went to school I was always excited, specifically for his class and the historical events learned in it. It is because of teachers like Ms.Blanchard, Mr.Wilson, and Mr.Sleppy that I strive to one day be an educator, and it is my highest hope that I will one day inspire students as they did me.

When me and my siblings were younger we were all really into the Spy Kids movies and each night for about 3 months we would try and sneak out of our rooms and into the living room without our mom knowing, it got to the point that my mom had to start sleeping out on the couch because we would try and sneak out of the house. I was 9, my older brother was 12, and my little brother was 7. We would sneak out of the house and run and hide from any cars that would for some reason be out on the streets at 2 in the morning. As a child I loved to wear my mom's winter jacket, it was huge, fluffy, and warm. On this particular night, I was wearing my mom's jacket when I and my brothers tried to hop the fence near this apartment building. Since I was wearing my mom's humongous jacket, when I tried to hop the fence the hood got stuck on the top of the fence. I forget why we were in a hurry, but my brothers didn't realize they left me so I was just left hanging there until they came back. Another story, my neighbors had these really big dogs and they were really nice except for this huge fluffy one named Nola. For some reason, Nola had a massive issue with me and I in turn had a massive issue with her. I was still about 8 or 9 at the time when one day all of my neighbor's dogs got out of the house. Normally I was on good terms with the other dogs, but Nola was in charge that day. I stepped out of my house to grab something from my mom's car when suddenly all four large dogs took chase after me. Thankfully, I made it to the end of the street when one of the neighbors on my street chased them away from me. Yet another story, this one happened when I was 10. I was over at my best friend's house and we were playing Bee Simulator on Roblox when her family computer suddenly turned off and started talking and acting weird. It was saying that somebody who was using the computer was watching inappropriate things and they contracted a virus and that the only way you could fix your computer was to call the number that was given and to send a bunch of money. So my friend called them all the while in the background the computer was still talking and my friend was freaking out because she didn't want her dad to know. Another story, I was 12 and me and my friends were being general nuisances, so we toilet-papered someone's car and then egged somebody else's house, we thought we heard someone so we all ran, and as karma for my bad deeds I ran in the complete opposite direction in a neighborhood I didn't know with a dead phone. My second to last story, when I was about 6 and I was riding the quad my parents got me and I went too fast while going in a circle and flipped upside down. There is a picture of me somewhere where I'm upside down with a thumbs up directed to the camera. This last story is probably only funny to me, but when I first got my license, I was driving with my friend at night and she said "Don't hit the curb!" I said "what curb" right as I hit it in my mom's poor car.

Similar to many children, there was a plethora of professions that I aspired to be in the future, including but not limited to: a doctor, lawyer, SFX artist, and just about a thousand others; but, I never even entertained the idea of being an educator until 4th grade when I had Ms.Blanchard. When I was younger, life was complicated at home. My mom lost her job about the time that I was going into second grade and from that point on she was on a slow descent into drug addiction, which hit its peak when I was about eight or nine. Therefore, she was unable to do much of anything but sleep, and, unfortunately, for me and my brother, we only saw our father every other weekend and even then he was in and out of jail for most of our childhoods, and as for my grandmother, the only other adult family member, she’s an alcoholic, who was in an extremely abusive relationship. Consequently, there were not many people at that point of time that made me feel safe, except for Ms. Blanchard. She was everyone’s favorite teacher and also my confidant. I told her practically everything, and she always listened intently and was there for me with a hug if I needed it. At one point, I mentioned to her that I never ate breakfast before school, and the next day she came in with a box of toaster strudels just for me, and to this day, it is the most thoughtful thing anyone has ever done for me. It’s been 8 years since I was in her classroom and still I can say with ease that out of anyone in my life, she positively influenced me the most. Another important figure came into my life when I was in 7th grade. While Ms.Blanchard taught me how to care for myself, and also how to love learning, Mr.Wilson taught me street smarts and how to distinguish a good friend from a bad one. He treated all of his students with utmost respect and kindness. It was from him that I learned my self worth, and also my essay writing skills. He has influenced my journey of being an educator in the way that I will never teach middle schoolers without a very large bribe. After only about 3 years of being a middle school teacher, coincidentally after my younger brother was in his class, Mr.Wilson stopped teaching full time and instead took on the role of vice principal.

Similar to many children, there were many professions that I aspired to be in the future, including but not limited to a doctor, lawyer, SFX artist, and just about a thousand others; but, I never even entertained the idea of being an educator until 4th grade when I had Ms.Blanchard. When I was younger, life was complicated at home. My mom lost her job about the time that I was going into second grade and from that point on she was on a slow descent into drug addiction, which hit its peak when I was about eight or nine. Therefore, she was unable to do much of anything but sleep, and, unfortunately, for me and my brother, I only saw my father every other weekend and even then he was in and out of jail for most of our childhoods, and as for my grandmother, the only other adult family member, she’s an alcoholic, who was in an extremely abusive relationship. Consequently, there were not many people at that point of time that made me feel safe, except for Ms. Blanchard. She was everyone’s favorite teacher and also my confidant. I told her practically everything, and she always listened intently and was there for me with a hug if I needed it. At one point, I mentioned to her that I never ate breakfast before school, and the next day she came in with a box of toaster strudels just for me, and to this day, it is the most thoughtful thing anyone has ever done for me. It’s been 8 years since I was in her classroom and still I can say with ease that out of anyone in my life, she positively influenced me the most. Another important figure came into my life when I was in 7th grade. While Ms.Blanchard taught me how to care for myself, and also how to love learning, Mr.Wilson taught me street smarts and how to distinguish a good friend from a bad one. He treated all of his students with utmost respect and kindness. It was from him that I learned my self-worth, and also my essay writing skills. He has influenced my journey of being an educator in the way that I will never teach middle schoolers without a large bribe. After only about 3 years of being a middle school teacher, coincidentally after my younger brother was in his class, Mr.Wilson stopped teaching full-time and instead took on the role of vice principal. In High School, I finally realized the subject I was passionate about and would one day like to teach. When I was in 10th grade,I had Mr. Sleppy and he taught me US history, and something about this man is that he is just about the grumpiest person that I have ever met and I loved it. Unlike the other two teachers that were mentioned previously, I didn’t have any sort of special relationship with him and I rarely ever talked to him or participated in his class, and this is in large part due to the fact that I was very scared of him. Nonetheless, he was an incredible teacher, and each day I went to school I was always excited, specifically for his class and the historical events learned in it. It is because of teachers like Ms.Blanchard, Mr.Wilson, and Mr.Sleppy that I strive to one day be an educator, and it is my highest hope that I will one day inspire students as they did me.

Similar to many children, there was a plethora of professions that I aspired to be in the future, including but not limited to a doctor, lawyer, SFX artist, and just about a thousand others; but, I never even entertained the idea of being an educator until 4th grade when I had Ms.Blanchard. When I was younger, life was complicated at home. My mom lost her job about the time that I was going into second grade and from that point on she was on a slow descent into drug addiction, which hit its peak when I was about eight or nine. Therefore, she was unable to do much of anything but sleep, and, unfortunately, for me and my brother, we only saw our father every other weekend and even then he was in and out of jail for most of our childhoods, and as for my grandmother, the only other adult family member, she’s an alcoholic, who was in an extremely abusive relationship. Consequently, there were not many people at that point of time that made me feel safe, except for Ms. Blanchard. She was everyone’s favorite teacher and also my confidant. I told her practically everything, and she always listened intently and was there for me with a hug if I needed it. At one point, I mentioned to her that I never ate breakfast before school, and the next day she came in with a box of toaster strudels just for me, and to this day, it is the most thoughtful thing anyone has ever done for me. It’s been 8 years since I was in her classroom and still I can say with ease that out of anyone in my life, she positively influenced me the most. Another important figure came into my life when I was in 7th grade. While Ms.Blanchard taught me how to care for myself, and also how to love learning, Mr.Wilson taught me street smarts and how to distinguish a good friend from a bad one. He treated all of his students with utmost respect and kindness. It was from him that I learned my self worth, and also my essay writing skills. He has influenced my journey of being an educator in the way that I will never teach middle schoolers without a very large bribe. After only about 3 years of being a middle school teacher, coincidentally after my younger brother was in his class, Mr.Wilson stopped teaching full time and instead took on the role of vice principal. In High School, I finally realized the subject I was passionate about and would one day like to teach. When I was in 10th grade,I had Mr. Sleppy and he taught me US history, and something about this man is that he is just about the grumpiest person that I have ever met and I loved it. Unlike the other two teachers that were mentioned previously, I didn’t have any sort of special relationship with him and I rarely ever talked to him or participated in his class, and this is in large part due to the fact that I was very scared of him. Nonetheless, he was an incredible teacher, and each day I went to school I was always excited, specifically for his class and the historical events learned in it. It is because of teachers like Ms.Blanchard, Mr.Wilson, and Mr.Sleppy that I strive to one day be an educator, and it is my highest hope that I will one day inspire students as they did me.