Name: Torri Perry
College:Michigan State University
What Excites you most about going to college? The adventure, I’ve never been away from
Home. So, learning something new and the new responsibilities for myself.
What does BLM mean to you as a new student: At the moment we just have to
Remember. Black lives have been treated as less than. I’m excited for This movement
As long as it continues safely and responsibly.
Advice to Current Highschool Student: Stay focused, be prepared for any changes and have fun!
Personal Statement
My mother was an artist. She danced for the Charles H. Wright Museum, created paintings and wrote poetry. The way she created everything she loved was by using her heart and soul. She was angelic and beautiful. Not only was her artwork incredible, but she was also a kindhearted person who spread love everywhere.
The world truly lost a heaven-on-earth angel when my mother died on May 27, 2007. This was the day my life changed. I had just awoken at my grandparents’ house when I went to wake her but she was still asleep. My mother died that morning, from a seizure in her sleep. Her death helped me realize that everything happens for a reason but one’s attitude is what determines the impact of the situation.
Although I never truly knew my mother because she died when I was only four years old, she still impacts my life every day. I wake from my bed every morning with the same thought in my head, “Today’s a new day, make it a good one!” I make sure that everyone I come in contact with is just as euphoric as I try to be. Even when I am not, I do not let that stop me from spreading joy to others. My mother was a ray of sunshine and I always want to live up to that part of her. The truth is, I’ve always felt out of place or in a cocoon waiting to come out when it is safe for me to fly. I feel like there has always been a part of me that’s not present, but rather floating in the abyss of my mind.
My father and my grandmother are my sole providers. My father is unfortunately disabled, years after being involved in a rollover SUV accident injuring his back. He had back surgery a few years ago but sadly can not return back to work. My grandma has been a live-in caretaker for dozens of families around Michigan. She, even as an older woman, offers help to elderly people in need of daily care and upkeep. Although my grandmother only earns enough to pay the bills, she shows me what true dedication is for a passion.
My mother’s death and my grandmother’s joy for helping others has sparked an interest in me to enter the medical field. I worked with Beaumont’s Medical Scholars during the winter phase of Cranbrook’s Horizons Upward Bound program in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, which helped me to find my future career as a pediatrician. I’ve always wanted to make my family proud, especially my mother. I want to help others by being a doctor. I belong to a volunteer club, which goes to soup kitchens and helps pass out clothing donated to the Salvation Army. My mother opened my eyes to the true gift of life–caring for others.
Life is filled with dangerous, and sometimes deadly, sandstorms. Therefore, life is about overcoming obstacles. Even though I take my sandstorms with me–I don’t run, I don’t hide, and I don’t give up, the sandstorm that was my mother’s death has defined me.
Favorite Quote
“Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts.” -Haruki Murakami
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