My name is Marisa McDougald. I'm a sophomore at North Carolina Central University and a former nursing major. When I was a little girl, I always thought that I'd become a nurse just like my mother, Or perhaps even a doctor. I took allied health and CNA courses all throughout high school to prepare for the future I thought I wanted. I graduated from high school and passed my CNA course excited for the life I'd always pictured, headed off to college. And by the end of my freshman year, to my surprise, what I thought i'd always wanted, wasn't what I'd dreamed of at all. I realized that what i thought I'd always wanted to do was really what my mother wanted me to do. I'd pushed myself so hard to make my mother proud, I never stopped to think about what it was that I wanted.

Not only doctors and therapists have the ability to make people feel better. My passion and dream is to become a successful cosmetologist. I've always loved doing hair and makeup. Making people feel beautiful and building their self-esteem. Even though I'm not doing what my mother wanted me to do, I hope that doing what I love will make my mother proud.