Hi I am Brianna Whittaker. It all started September 27th, 2000. Me and my twin sister Brittney Whittaker were born in Solano County Vacaville California. I lived there the first eight years of my life with my mom, dad, sister, and two brothers. We moved to Sacramento California after my 8th birthday, because my dads job moved locations. We have been in Sacramento ever since. Around this time we had started the adoption process for my youngest sister Sarah (cousin) because she was in and out foster care homes. This was a big adjustment to our family but we were more then happy to take her in. After 3 long years we finalized Sarah’s adoption. In 2012 my parents had split up. This was really hard on our family because we were really close with both our parent’s. My dad moved back to Solano County and we stayed in Sacramento with my mom. The first 3 years of my parents separation was a bit rocky. I didn’t understand why my parents were no longer together and I didn’t know who was to blame. For a long time I would blame my mom and that affected our relationship. I argued a lot with my mom and was to stubborn to hear her out. After a few years my parents started to develop a better friendship and learned to co parent through each other and not their kids. This happened around my Junior year in high-school which helped improve my relationship with my parents and school. I was very involved in school. I took Ap classes, was active in our school BSU (black student union) club and later became the president. I also was involved in sports. Ive played volleyball for 6 years and Track and Field for 2 years. Sports was a big part of my life growing up. I have been involved in tons of other sports including cheer, basketball, cross country, and dance. When I got to high-school I was more focused on Volleyball and running. My senior year of high-school I became very obsessed with getting into college, which caused me a lot of stress and anxiety and eventually I ended up quitting track. while doing my college apps I wanted to get into good schools but I felt I wasn’t good enough. I ended up only getting into 3 of the schools I applied to and none of those were the ones I really wanted to go to. I ended up committing to Sacramento State University and went on to do my first semester there. I wasn’t in the best place to start college and it affected me mentally. I ended up becoming really depressed and my anxiety spiked and I felt like my performance wasn’t good enough for me to continue another semester. I decided to take a gap and I focused mostly on working. I eventually only worked and got promoted at my job. I decided that I wanted to continue school once I was in a better head space and that brings me to where I am now. Currently I am attending Sacramento City College. I am a biology major, and want to pursue nursing. I am very excited to see where this semester takes me !