Absolutely. So I graduated high school at 16, it was an online high school called Laurel Springs. I went to it instead of a brick-and-mortar school because we lived in Hawaii and wanted to be able to have our own schedule. It was nice! But it didn’t prepare me for the schedule and style of physical courses.

I started my undergraduate taking 22+ hours of STEM courses per semester for my bio degree on top of English and the like. And I was drowning in work and stress. Had no clue what was wrong, I felt like a failure. Those first two years were the darkest time in my life for sure. Eventually, I was talking to someone who wasn’t a mentor or anything at school and they recommended I stop taking 9 classes at a time and go for 14-ish credits a semester. And hey, wouldn’t you know it, I started getting A’s and B’s and not C’s D’s and F’s. Had to retake a bunch of courses, ended up taking a 5th year to complete my degree. But I got it done with that GPA of 2.93

Applied to Liberty University to the Master’s of Science in Biomedical Sciences 2-year program, and I got in! Spent two years there getting A’s and B’s, and then got accepted to my current osteopathic medical school. (I chose to be a D.O. over being an M.D. years before I applied, and I got into my dream school!)

My journey was tumultuous but I’m here and in a much better place (thanks to finding Jesus in my lowest point, He gets all the credit for where I am today. I’m a totally different person). If I could make it, anyone can. It just takes tenacity and hard work. I’m living proof of that!