I remember living in Newport News, Virginia in the summertime at the age of 14 years old. I volunteered as a candy striper in a nursing home, combing the elderly resident’s hair, painting their nails, filling up ice pitchers, reading to them and attending activities with them. It was at that nursing home where the seed was planted for me to take care of people. With that seed planted, moving to Houston, Texas, I became close to my grandmother who worked as an LVN at the old Veteran’s Hospital in the 70’s.

I used to watch her iron her all white nursing dresses and pants for work, including using white shoe polish to shine her all white SAS shoes. That image of her never left me and has been implanted in me still to this day long after she passed away when I was 19 years old.

That seed began to manifest in me so greatly that I worked odds and ends jobs and paid my tuition at San Jacinto Community College in Houston, Texas in 2003, enrolling and graduating from their LVN (Licensed Vocational Nurse) nursing program.