My parents and I moved to the Dominican Republic when I was thirteen years old. Living there as a young American came with many challenges. One of the biggest threats against foreigners is violence. Within my first years of living in Dominican Republic, I had experienced two incidents at it firsthand. The first incident happen a week before school began, I was mugged by two assailants; man on a motorcycle and another man on foot. As I walked down the street I heard a motorcycle behind me but thought nothing of it. Before I could blink the man on a motorcycle drove in front of me; while his partner sprinted behind me and yanked my necklace off of my neck. I stood paralyzed as the man on foot jumped on the back of the motorcycle and the two rode away. I returned home petrified for a couple of days, but as time passed I had already gotten over it.
Then during my senior year I once again experienced the dangers right in my very home and one of the few places I ever felt safe. On this practical afternoon my father was not home and I was coming home from school. I was walking in the house; right before I could turn around to lock the door I had a gun pressed to the back
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The police were unable to help me, so there was no points in letting any incident take control of me any longer. I knew I had to stop being a victim so I simply willed myself to succeed. I decide to see a counselor, it was the only thing I could think to regain strength to empower me to return to the place of focus I had become so familiar with school. I grew an interest with sociology becoming obsessed with trying to understand human social relationships and institutions ranging from crime to religion, from the family to the state, from the divisions of race and social class. Trying to figure out why someone would internally harm a 17 year girl. I realized that without an understanding of the law, I was largely impotent in making a