My Personal Story

I think that I would be a good candidate for getting this scholarship. My name is Erika Higgins and I am a single mother of four. I have a set of twins that are seventeen years old, a girl and a boy. And also I have a five year old daughter and a two year old son. My seventeen year old son is severely disabled. He was born with hydropheleus and cerebral palsy. He cannot talk or walk he is confined to wheelchair. I had them when I was twenty-one. I had a lot to learn on how to take care of him. I learned how to change his feeding tube. I learned a lot from taking care of him. That is why I want to become a nurse. I love helping and taking care of people, who cannot take care of themselves. I was doing fine taking care of him and his twin, until I started getting social security for him and working as a medical assistant making money. I also was helping my family out.

Until I put my foot down and told them no and it went downhill from there. If my mom asks me for money I said no she called department of children and family services on me so many times that I gave up guardianship of him to her but it still did not stop. She was getting his checks but he was living with me. So after a while I decided to move in with her so I can save up and buy me a house. I do not know why I did that because it really turned out worst. In 2005 I was living there and she tried to ask me for money and she called me every foul name in the book. Her and my daughter left to go out and I was left alone with my son. I was crying horribly so I said that I cannot take it anymore. I went into the bathroom and took a handful of pills. I tried to commit suicide, when I came out I looked over at my son and he start smiling at me. I said to myself, what I was doing this stupid thing for so I ran into the bathroom and vomit up the pills. I cannot do that I have children that I have to take care of, and they mean the world to me. I called a friend of mine and told her what I did and she called the ambulance. They came I told them that I was ok and I vomit them up they still took me to the hospital.

I lost custody of my children because of that horrible mistake that I made and regret for the rest of my life. I thought by they being with my sister it was going to be better but it is worst for him. They leave him in the basement by himself sometimes they use to leave him in the house by himself. I go over to visit him; he is always in the basement by himself. The other kids outside playing they would not let him sit outside in the front in his wheelchair. I tried to go back to court to retrieve guardianship but they would not let me because I was pregnant with my 2 year old at the time so I understood. My sister got mad at me because I was doing it and she told my daughter if she leave she could not come back and that if she live with me that. I was going to let someone molest her. My daughter believed her so that was out the door. She turned my daughter against me tell her I do not love her that I love my other two children. I tell her every time that I love all my children the same. I do not love them any different. I told my daughter ask her auntie if she was not getting a check for her, would she let them stay with them. I had my struggles and I still manage on back to school and finish my schooling for getting my bachelor’s degree in nursing I overcame a lot. I think that is what makes me a strong person that I am today. In May I will be graduating with my Associates in Science from Malcolm X College. I will be transferring to Resurrection University in where I start in January finishing up my bachelors in Nursing.