It's still hard for Dr. Nancy Young to believe she is the mayor of Tracy, even two years after her election."We're still making first as people of color, we're still making first as women. It seems like we would have come such a long way by now. So right now, for me, it's still surreal," she said.Young is the first directly elected female mayor for the city, only the second African American city council member in the city's history, and the first African American ever to be elected mayor."It's still an awe that I feel every time that I walk into City Hall," she said.The second child born of five, she spent her early years in Compton during the height of the Bloods-Crips gang war. The violence that surrounded her, in her neighborhood and at school shaped who she is today."They were just certain ways that we carried our self. I learned how to look people in the eye. I learned how to talk to people right away to make them feel that I'm not a threat to you and I don't want to feel that you're a threat to me. I went to school, I was in class with Crips and Bloods. Many that didn't even make it, that didn't live to see high school graduation," Young said. Then when she was 13, after a tragic drive-by shooting on their street just days before school started, the family moved."When we moved to San Fernando, interestingly enough, I left from a population of 99% Black, a really caste system, when I got to San Fernando, I was the only Black kid in my classes," she said. It was there that her love for politics began.She was on the student council in middle school and was student body president in high school.Young even aspired to take the nation's top job."I was going to stop and be an anchorwoman, then I was going to be president of the United States. That's not my goal now, I don't want to be president of the United States. I've been to DC too many times to see all the layers of bureaucracy," she said. Young is a minister, a wife, mother and grandmother. She has authored seven published books.Despite her three degrees and extensive community involvement, she won't soon forget some interactions as she worked to get support for her campaign. "Some people would stop me and say, 'Are you running for real? Do you think you can make it as a Black woman? We already have one Black on council. One and that's it.'"But it didn't stop her.Since her election, the city council has become more diverse.Young is looking forward to what the future holds. "Being in this role for me has really heightened my ability, I feel really, to do some really good things for our city," she said.