Who Am I?

My name is Nasia ... I'm 18 years old and I'm from Queens. My neighborhood, my family, my friends and my values make up who I am and still becoming as a person. My biggest influences in my life would have to be my mother and my best friend that past away last year. My mom influences me because she is the definition of a woman in my eyes, she motivates me to do better in everything and she pushes me beyond my limit. My best friend is still an influence in my life because he touched my life in many different ways and everyday that I feel like I'm not important it feels as though he's right there encouraging me to continue. He always gave great advice and had a major impact on so many lives. I hope to make an impact on peoples lives just as he did. Some of my goals in life is to obtain my masters degree in social work and later become a social worker in a failing high school. I chose this career path because a lot of people have given up on the youth and I want to be the one to make a difference in someone's life. In my life I've always heard stories of people losing friends and loved ones to gun violence. One of my close friends associates herself with many guys that are in gangs and that live in our neighborhood. It seemed as though every other week she was losing friends to gun violence to the point where it became hard to believe and I became insensitive to her grief until it happened to me. On April 17th 2012 I lost my best friend to gun violence suddenly life seemed so much more real being that the week prior to his death I saw him. I understood the feeling of losing someone so very close I couldn't understand why life was so unfair and why it had to be my friend. I began to question the gun laws in New York and I suddenly became angry because I realized it was not only my friend but so many other young people that were dying to early. I feel personally guns should not even exist because my best friend would still be here but then I realized there are many uses for guns in society. Guns are needed for wars for defense purposes, police need guns to protect society, people keep them in their homes for the safety of their family. Although the loss of my friend hurts me deeply there is a bigger picture to EVERYTHING.