I grew up in rural Orangeburg, SC with seven siblings and often moved from house to house living with family members. Due to my mother being young and making minimum wage working at Taco Bell. While my father worked long night shifts at a manufacturing plant called Allied Air just to ensure me and my brother were taken care of. Eventually, my mom and my stepfather saved up enough money to rent a home of our own in a trailer park. Even though some nights my mother would have to scrap together pocket change or make small meals just to ensure me and my siblings ate, we were still blessed to have a roof over our heads.
 

While sometimes I would cry for the simple fact that even though my siblings ate that she would not be able to eat because there was not enough food, or she did not have enough money on her ebt (SNAP) card to buy more groceries. As time went on, we ended up moving to Charlotte, NC in June 2012 for better opportunities and a better life.

On November 4, 2012, my mom made me stay up and watch the presidential election results come in on CNN. At the time I did not know what the electoral college was or even how voting took place. But when President Obama won and said in his victory speech that “ It does not matter who you are, or where you come from or what you look like or where you love It does not matter whether you are Black or white, or Hispanic, Asian, or Native American, young, old, rich, or poor, able, disabled gay or straight you can make it here in America if you are willing to try “(Obama, 2012). At that moment I knew politics was something that I wanted to pursue. Just for the simple fact that I want to be the change that I wanted to be in the world and to improve the lives of others so no parent or child would have to deal with the obstacles I faced growing up. 

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