It was a long journey to find where I belonged. Although I was an honor student in high school, I did not go to college after I graduated. I did not think I could afford it since I was working at Wendy's at the time and living on my own. No one in my family had attended college before. It wasn't until I met my partner, whose family all went to college, that I had someone to push and encourage me to attend. I started out taking courses in early childhood development - I wanted to teach. After taking an introductory psychology course I learned about my love of research in addition to teaching. I then went on to complete a bachelor degree in psychology and applied for developmental graduate programs in psychology. At the time I could not move because I was a kinship caregiver to my niece and nephew, so I applied for the two developmental programs near me. One focused on childhood and adolescence and the other focused on adulthood and aging. I was fortunate enough to be accepted into both, but I choose a field in adulthood and aging because I loved the advisor I would be working with. She was my favorite undergraduate professor. In my current role as an Assistant Professor I am able to fulfill my love of both teaching and research. Further, I am able to conduct research on social inequalities and work to educate and develop interventions to work for social change.