My Auto-Biography

I was born June 30, 1989, in Bronx, New York, the first and only son of Cathy Galarza, and Javier Collazo whom I am named after. I have two younger sisters, Tiffani Collazo, who is the middle child, and Tonique Collazo who is the youngest. My parents we’re born and raised in NYC, but are of Puerto Rican descent. My mother had graduated from High school, and had gotten called to serve in the United States Air Force, which she was interested in, but had declined because by that time she fell in love with my father and became pregnant with me.

I grew up a fairly poor child, at first it became very difficult for my parents to provide for me, so they moved in with my grandmother, Alba Millan. My mother stayed home with my grandmother and took care of me, while my father went out to worked several jobs to try and make ends meet. The household income was very low, but there was always food in the house due to government assistance. We might have not had the strongest finances, but we always had the strongest love and bond.

Along with my sisters I attended public elementary school and junior high school; I dropped out of Grace Dodge Career and Technical High School for personal reasons, to get my GED later in 2010 and to continue working at the Intrepid Museum. At first I was hesitant to attend college but later came to the realization that I wanted more than what the museum was willing to offer, something where I can help or save people and serve my community at the same time, it was then I decided I wanted to join the police force. One requirement is to have 60 college credits or two years of military service, since I have no military background I decided to attempt to achieve a college degree in criminal justice. There were a lot of online colleges to choose from but I did some research and found that the University of Phoenix offered criminal justice, I enrolled into the university and begin my journey to become a police officer and the story continues.