Motivation Every Day by CHARITY

Motivation Every Day by CHARITY - April 2024 Scholarship Essay

Most of my adult life, I’ve been trying to find my place in the world. A product of two abusive alcoholics who abandoned me into foster care at age 14, being adrift is an understatement. I was one of countless others in the world who are lost because of no familial roots to give them stability. A thirst for the love I wanted from my parents led me to seek love in many wrong ways until I found two of the most powerful loves on earth: unconditional love and self-love.

The birth of my daughter Liberty brought me unconditional love, and losing a love through divorce helped me to understand self-love. I was fortunate to realize at a very young age a hunger for knowledge. The world around me is a curious wonder, and I ached to consume and experience everything I can. This constant drive for knowledge has led me down a winding road, from Mary Kay consultant and entrepreneur to office administrator to author to financial advisor and insurance agent to realtor, trucking company CEO, publisher, and finally after a horrible car crash in 2015, certified paralegal. It’s this last one that has led me to what I feel is my true life’s calling and my motivation.

On Father’s Day 2015, an uninsured, unlicensed, exempted driver in his father’s car badly injured me. I was stopped for traffic on I-35 in Dallas while taking a friend to the airport when his world and mine collided with literal violent and life-changing force. His vehicle rear-ended mine at approximately 75 miles per hour, driving it forward over three feet. I would discover six months later this caused disc bulges at every level of my neck, multiple disc bulges in my mid-back (and five years later a spontaneous herniation), damaging half the discs in my low back as well as causing damage to my left hip and the occipital nerves in the back of my head. I settled with my own uninsured motorist carrier, Fred Loya, for $21,000 on what are multi-million dollar permanent injuries. Even today, after substantial rehabilitation and medical treatment, I deal with daily pain throughout my body, migraines at least 50% of the month, persistent 24/7 neck pain, and regularly walk with a limp on my left side.

The attorney firm poorly represented me but it would take me a year to learn that I had a bad faith claim against my insurance carrier that was never pursued. It would have removed the policy limits of $30,000 for my claim, allowing for full pursuit of my damages. I threatened them with legal malpractice a year later and he gave me half my fees back, a paltry sum for an enormous injustice but I made my point.

I promised never again would a lack of knowledge victimize me in the legal field. I went back to school to get my paralegal certificate. A law firm hired me during my first semester to be a Case Manager. Three months later, they promoted me to Office Manager while handling 80 cases. For the next two years, I ran the fastest growing office in the state for the company. We had so many cases coming in that other case managers in offices around the state helped manage them. I settled over $2 million in cases, most of which were policy limits cases like mine. That firm molded me into something I never could have imagined: a personal injury victim advocate. I left for a high level catastrophic case law firm where I learned to handle commercial value cases and catastrophic injuries.

Seven years later, I relocated from Texas to Nevada to play poker more professionally and in a job interview; the attorney asked why I wasn’t an attorney yet. It would take another seven months, combined with numerous cases mishandled and being unable to prevent it before I would finally accept what was right in front of me. I left that firm and joined the largest plaintiff personal injury law firm in the country. They promoted me to a High Value Case Manager ten days after I finished training. Working at this higher corporate level, I know there are not enough attorneys for victims. We have over 1,000 attorneys and need double that number plus case staff to help. Los Angeles alone needs to double their staff to handle the volume.

My path is to become a lawyer and fight fully for victims. I can’t fix the world, only my little part in it. Being a Case Manager, as much as I love it, isn’t enough. I need to lead and inspire a team to change the largest number of lives and tip the scales toward justice.

My focus, finally, for the first time in my life, is easy. I’m doing what I love every day and making a difference. I’m driven to do more. I have watched countless lives changed by their injuries through the negligence of others. I want to help them get justice in a way that was never achieved for me. Every time a client cries on the phone with gratitude after I tell them they’re getting policy limits for their injuries, I have all the motivation I need with every life I help put back on the right track.