My Road to Success If you had asked me 10 years ago how I envisioned myself at 28 years old, I probably would have answered, “famous.” My future plans included microphones, tour dates, and sold-out concert halls. I never would have imagined that I would find a deeper calling and a desire to devote myself to the medical field. In this paper, I will share details of how my life’s road has led me to my current place of success. I will also share my future goals and the path I choose to take to reach them. When I entered the world, all odds were already stacked against me. My mother had me at the age of 13; she was unmarried and had an eighth grade education. I grew up in rural Mississippi in a family that had no college graduates. There were no financially successful role models for me to follow. I could have ended up as another statistic. According to Witt and Mossler (2010), in the first stage of development, children must master the task of trust versus mistrust. I had little in my environment that gave me a sense of security. My biggest security then and now is my grandmother. In an environment filled with uncertainty and chaos, my grandmother was my anchor. I moved in with her when I was very young, and she took care of me until I graduated college. Although my grandmother does not have a formal education, she taught me the value of attending college, setting goals, and managing my money properly. She encouraged me to pursue every dream I ever had, including the dream of becoming a singer. In the rural South, the church is often the center of the community. As I grew up, I attended church several times each week. I fell in love with the music of the church at a very early age, and I discovered early that I was musically talented. At five years old, I was already doing solo performances for large crowds in the church. By the time I was in high school, I had started a choir at my school and had begun teaching others to sing. At the end of my high school
