Simply put, I am a small town girl working hard to complete my dreams. I grew up in the rural Smoky mountains of Nantahala, North Carolina. My mother raised my older brother and I, while attending college to become a cosmetologist. Growing up, my family moved from state to state until we finally settled in Greenback, Tennessee. Through those years, I have learned much I truly value my family. My brother was diagnosed with autism at the age of four, but it wasn’t until I was eleven that I realised how difficult it was for him to learn life skills. Many teachers gave up on teaching him, and his peers would often bully him to the point where he would rather run away than go to school. I had to become his protector during school, along with his