I am a Milt, through and through. Milton Hershey School is home to me and it is what I identify as my hometown on security questions. I own my life to the school that has fostered me to grow into the woman I am meant to see in the mirror.

For those of you wondering what Milton Hershey School is, here is a (sort of) brief description. So imagine you were living in a home where money is sometimes tight. Okay, maybe not sometimes in my case but still. Now imagine the feeling of hunger. Not just until you get food, but because you don't have food. Imagine the dream of college. But for most, if not all of the kids that I graduated with, that is all it could have been for any of us. A dream or fantasy that could never really be attained unless Milton Hershey School intervened. My life was a single parent home with frozen pipes in the winter and always have a sweat stain in the summer.

I was living in a double-wide trailer on a hill, about to be evicted because money was tight. I was lucky I had a good friend cause that was sometimes the only way I got dinner. My breakfast was the cupcakes that my mom got for free from her work, the ones with loads of sprinkles on top of even more loads of icing. I was growing out of my clothes faster than I got hand-me-downs and my favorite hiding spot was in an abandoned boat in the side of our yard. I think I got more skinned knees on that thing than I ever did doing anything else. My elementary school wasn't great and at that time, my attendance was something to be desired- aka I didn't go to school. My dog was my best friend and her name was Elly. I needed Milton Hershey School-bad! Milton Hershey is a private, residential school for income-eligible families whose main purpose is to provide a way out of the financial struggle cycle.

Before I start to get mushy about graduating this past June, let's back up almost 8 years to October 24, 2010. I enrolled at the Milton Hershey School on this day, entering a house of 11 other girls that I didn't know. It was insane. I was used to living in my own home, with my own huge bed and my own clothes. Everything that I was used to was replaced by the uniformity and structure that comes along with being apart of the Milt family. I had to learn to make my bed with hospital corners, do my own laundry, even fold it. It was something I was not used to and the fact that I was learning all of these things was overwhelming. It was at Student Home Parma that I learned the basics of a semi-normal life. Where I came from wasn't the best place to learn those things and I didn't get to foster them there.

Through a span of just 7, almost 8 years, I learned the value of my life and the value of my education. Our class was known as the Infinite Class and through the stages where we thought we had it all to the moments where we were at our worst, we held true to that because we knew we were a Milt Family and I grew to call it mine. I was raised by my houseparents, I call them mom and pop to people who may not understand. I have relationships that are so deeply rooted in my life, I'm not sure that I can find anything better than that. On June 10th, I left a place that I've called home for years. I've gone back to visit one time and I plan on going back even more.