In my community, a need that is very important and a need that is destined to get attention is people wanting to better themselves and their education. I go to a school located in the Kansas City Public School District. I live about 6 minutes away from my school so in the greater Kansas City area. A significant amount of students and peers around me, rather than in my school community, home community, or work community, lack that drive to want to go into the world and explore more of what’s out there. Being the only girl out of 3 boys and growing up around boys who bullied me for being the “goody two shoes” or the “nerd,” I have always had a passion for going on and pursuing my education in as extreme avenues as I could and more. 

People in my community have developed a feeling and idea of being entitled and looking for shortcuts. This idea has produced an outcome that has resulted in people being less driven and motivated to grab life by its horns and shake and grasp everything they can out of it. With most of, if not all, of my community, being African Americans, that idea of things being handed to you or you getting to certain success by doing nothing gets you nowhere in life. The first step to bettering this misconstrued idealism or even trying to make small differences in this community is to step out and be one, if not of many young adults to show them differently. Success, happiness, and even wealth can all be achieved and attained, but not if you’re not willing to give any effort, so I plan to show people in my community how one action plan or way of attaining those goals can be reached, without the entitlement and lack of drive.

In the fall of 2025, I plan on attending the University of Missouri-Columbia. I intend to study physical therapy and possibly a minor in social psychology. I am hoping to become an athletic trainer one day and social psychology to understand the minds of everyone and possibly bring awareness to athletes who are struggling mentally. I have always had a passion for helping people and being able to personalize to help people, so that is what I want to further my career in. For the last 4 years of my high school career, I have played volleyball, club (outside of high school), and varsity high school volleyball. In my 4 years of playing, I have accumulated an injury each season, and it has yet to fail. From an Achilles sprain, knee displacement, muscle tears, elbow popped out of place, broken thumb, and more. I am just a clumsy person, apparently, and very injury-prone. Throughout this experience, I have been to the physical therapist more than my orthodontist, and that spoke value to me. I loved going to the physical therapist because all of my doctors were either current or past athletes, and they knew exactly what to say to help me and even calm down my nerves. I want to be that for a little kid, teenager, or even adult because I know the feelings they’re going through, and I want to help them feel better. 

With this plan that I have set for myself, I plan to go through with it and possibly return to my community and be a first-hand example of success for them to see. Returning to my community after I have built a life and attained success for myself to show them that having plans does work, and mine work this way, so find a way that works for you. I plan to be the Simone Biles of my community for little kids and even kids my age to look up to as a role model and a person to reference when talking about achieving their goals.