Well, as you may already know my name is Erin Martina Johnson and I’m 17 years of age, turning 18 on June 24th. My life is kind of hard to write out on a piece of paper because there is so much that has occurred in my 17 years of living on this earth that has lead me to where I am today. I was born in Quincy, and I lived there until I was 5/years of age, and then we moved to New York where I was pretty much raised. For most of my life, the only family I’ve had is my mother and my little brother, so I never really had family that I was involved with or had family gatherings with. Growing up with my little brother, I did a lot of moving from different neighborhoods, and switching schools, so my brother and I never really had a set place we could call home, because before you knew it, we were moving to a different apartment. Life was really difficult for us. My mother was and still is a single parent so we struggled a great deal because my mother was trying to do things that required both parents. My little brother wasn’t doing anything my mother said, and you can tell that he needed his father around but my father didn’t want to be around us. After a while things go to the point where my mother had to make some changes for the better for her children, and we were just in luck to come across an apartment where we felt comfortable living, and settled there for a while, until I started doing better in school. Once I finally got adapted to the whole school thing I was making honor roll. My mother was doing better financially, and my little brother was listening to my mother more. From there things started to get better for my family, and as I started to get older,  I realized that if my family and I had not struggled the way we did, then we wouldn’t have so much drive, and determination now.

 The best thing that ever happened to me was when I applied for BCLA and got chosen out of many kids to begin as a freshman. From there things went up hill, and there were many changes happening. Things were somewhat hard for me at first, starting this high school where they set high standard for students, but I took that risk and did my best, and look where I am now. A hard working senior about to graduate in two months, and go off to fashion school in New York City to become the next big fashion designer. Growing up, I was a young girl always into fashion, and clothes. I always wanted to go shopping or go to the mall to see the latest outfits that were in the stores. Fashion has always been a major aspect in my life growing up. I always thought about designing this or being apart of this fashion show, and I feel BCLA has opened that door for me, and pushed me to strive to be a leader and never to give up.