faithhopeandlovejesus.org BLOG

2011.
I was nine.
Life was fun.

Ballet, gymnastics, ice skating – an activity everyday of the week. My right leg began swelling gradually. In a month it was twice its normal size.

Tennis was first to go: then hip-hop.
Soon, doctor appointments ran my life.

Consultations.
Tests.
Biopsies.
Then more consultations, tests, and biopsies.

One day a stranger separated me from my parents. The brunette led me into a circular room and handed me a book about children with cancer. “You have a big word called cancer,” she said. That single ugly term exploded like a bomb inside my nine-year-old mind, slamming my sensibilities as jolts of shivering fear racked my body.

And so it began.

One chemotherapy after the next.  Within a week I needed help with simple tasks like eating and walking to the bathroom.  I began losing hair in clumps; my arms shrank to the size of my bones.

Osteosarcoma defined who i was for the next two years of my life.

The catheter in my chest became a part of me.  Vomiting was a daily ritual.  The severed nerves in my right leg – surgery that narrowly prevented amputation – left me permanently disabled.

Finally, the tumor was shrinking.

Then, my CT scan showed the osteosarcoma had spread to my lungs.

Over the next year, I underwent nineteen additional treatments and two surgeries.

My perception of eternity changed – it now marked the time when a nurse drew my blood until my doctor walked in to tell me my  scans were clear.

December 24th, 2012, marked the last day of treatment.  Finally, it might be over.  I could breathe again.

On June 6th, 2013, I was invited to my friend Melanie’s birthday party, but my parents would not let me go.  My immune system was weak.  I did not care.  I started yelling at my dad, begging him to let me go.

“Why don’t I just die,” I screamed.

“Don’t talk like that,” Dad shouted back.  He strode into the house and started crying.  I had never seen him do that before.  Suddenly, I realized how serious my situation was and how much my parents suffered with me.

***

Nine months later I set out to visit Rady Children’s Hospital.  Walking the aisles of the cancer ward, glancing into rooms – some full, others empty – I witnessed a new sea of faces caught in the fight for survival.

I sat next to a patient as she laid her pale face on her pillow, sharing with her the support of positivity that helped me survive.  I sat with many patients that day.  Their spirits high, their will to persevere unwavering, inspiring me, reminding me of my own battle with cancer.

In retrospect, cancer took a great deal from me–it left me disabled, yet it gave so much in return.  Now I am strong, confident, driven to succeed and socially instep with peers ad adults alike.  Now I welcome life’s challenges.  I am a survivor.

~~Giorgia Nicolaou

I believe that in order to build character, one must be challenged and overcome a difficulty.  This is the start of my journey, a journey that opened my eyes to qualities in others and qualities in myself that I had no idea existed.  I am a childhood cancer survivor.  The two years of treatment tested my patience, stamina, grit, and made me grow up fast.  At the age of nine, I was diagnosed with T-cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma.  This is a somewhat rare childhood blood cancer.  The news was tough on my family.

My mom, dad, and sister (then seven years old) rallied around me, and we began to walk the difficult road ahead.  At the time, I didn’t really comprehend the weight of Dr. Ziga’s words, as I was only nine, but all too soon it became very real.  I endured several surgeries, two years straight of chemotherapy, twenty puncture procedures in the small of my back and weeks of radiation therapy.  Some people may like time off work or school, but the long hospital stays truly began to tear away at my being.  The equipment was really immobilizing and stifling.  I would have fluid pumped into me at all times, including chemo.  The medicine was curing my cancer but made me feel like dirt the whole time.

Moving around was difficult, but I still wanted things to do.  I still wanted to be a kid, so we had to get creative.  I would have my mom read books to me; we basically went through the entire Harry Potter series in one hospital stay.  I got Lego sets from friends and family to build to pass the time, which really kept my mind off of the ordeal.  I also played a fair amount of video games as well.  I won’t ever forget the strong support from family, friends, doctors, and nurses.  During my hospital stays, I even got to meet a few celebrities, like Cardinals baseball pitcher Chris Carpenter, and (then) St. Louis Rams quarterback Sam Bradford.  It was very nice to meet them both.  The kindness of others made these stays better; something I will never forget.

This disease also halted my traditional schooling for some time, which meant I had to be homeschooled and tutored.  I worked every week with my tutors to keep up with the rest of the third graders at Craig Elementary.  I struggled with math in grade school and I needed the extra help. After about ten months of constant and interruptive hospital stays, I finally could return to school.  I was now in fourth grade but had never spent any time with  my new classmates.  All this time away made me nervous about coming back, so someone from the Children’s Hospital staff showed a video to my classmates to explain where I’d been all this time.  It was a kid who left his school for treatment, just like me.  It explained what that kid had to go through and why his hair was gone.

I had to muster a lot of courage to go back to school and reconnect.  Deep down, I was hiding the fact that I needed them to understand what was happening to me.  The warm welcome at school made me feel like everyone knew me and my struggles.  Everyone was compassionate, supportive, and happy to see me back.  I learned that given the information about cancer treatment, the kids at school were incredibly compassionate and understanding.  The extra help in math makes me appreciate it more now.  Sometimes, just pure love and support builds character.

Practice and perseverance are building blocks for my personality.  I started learning violin in third grade with the rest of my classmates, which, due to my diagnosis, was cut short.  I really liked playing but was unable to practice daily with my classmates in the school orchestra.  This caused me to fall behind.  My parents arranged private lessons to help me keep up.  I still take private violin lessons to this day and have played and continue to perform with the Parkway North Symphonic Group.

Maintaining a routine while practicing made me really appreciate music, and I began to get even better than my peers.  This newfound skill gives me pride every time I pick up my violin.  I think back and remember all my time with my many private violin teachers and thank them for their valuable advice and guidance.  I feel like the years spent learning the violin and honing that skill was a special gift and a silver lining to a rough patch in my life.

I think patience was a key factor in my childhood that helped develop my character.  Nothing is done quickly in the hospital.  My family had an inside joke that we were on “hospital time;” everything takes 3 times longer than normal in the hospital.  When I finished up my treatment, I felt like I was on “Jack time” and was ready to take on the world with passion and dedication.  I believe this journey led me to be a more compassionate person and also taught me patience.  Sometimes, you have to show up for what life hands you and journey on.

This particular chapter in my life is behind me, but it helped me, but it helped shape the person I am today.  I matured fast, gained practice skills, reconnected with friends, and I’m more empathetic.  You never know when you look at someone what struggles life has shown them, so I feel this has made me be more understanding.  if life is easy and carefree, then a person can’t grow.  If I hadn’t gone through the cancer treatment, then I wouldn’t be the person I am today.

~~John Nimock

In the Fall of 2016, I was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare, aggressive bone cancer.  I had just turned 16, and I was far from ready for the burden that life handed to me.  I started having a bad attitude and feeling that part of my teen years were stolen from me and I hadn’t done anything to deserve it.  I was helpless, confused and even angry.  While cancer took much of my time, energy and physical ability, the life lessons I learned are priceless.

After just a few weeks of being diagnosed, someone recommended that no matter how difficult a day may seem, to try and find one thing to be grateful and happy about every day.  This advice hit me, and I tried to implementing the idea into my life,  At first, it was difficult, but after extensive practice, it became a habit,  On my darkest days, I was able to find the little things and produce a positive attitude which I carried with me to remission.  Around the same time, I realized I needed to bring my struggles to Christ.  I had grown up religious but I never really made my faith my own.

One particular day that I was feeling stressed and in excruciating pain, I cried out and offered all my sufferings to Christ.  When I did this, I had an immense feeling of peace wash over me.  I still did not know if I was going to make it out alive, but I did know that no matter what the outcome, I was in Christ’s hands and everything was going to work out.  With my new attitude, I worked to face every day with a smile to show others that I was facing my battle head on and there was no need to fear.  While cancer took my body and physical ability, I refuse to let it take my hope and joy.

Throughout my treatment, I found a passion for nursing which I intend to make my career.  I experienced many different medical fields but what intrigued me the most was nursing.  My nurses were so hands-on and always went above and beyond for each patient.  Their joy and enthusiasm were infectious and the care they gave me greatly inspired me.  I have a strong desire to change the lives for oncology patients.   As a nurse, I will be able to come to people at their darkest hour and give them their basic care,  I will be so much more than just a caretaker, rather a friend to people going through the worst parts of their life.

As a fellow cancer survivor, I will be able to understand the suffering of my patients and know the best way to serve them.  I have found that I get along well with children and I am most happy when I can put a smile on a little kid’s face.  I am very excited to start studying nursing next year to one day become a pediatric oncology nurse.

~~Michael Reese

My goal for the future is to become a Pediatric Oncology nurse. I chose pediatric oncology nursing because for the past 4 years, in addition to being a full-time high school student, I have been a full-time cancer warrior. In the past three years, I have also performed over 950 hours of volunteer service in our community working with kids who have cancer and working with preschool children as part of the Early Childhood Teacher Academy at Wlliam T. Dwyer High School.

I was diagnosed with a very aggressive Primitive Neuro-Ectodermal Tumor that had metastasized throughout my abdomen” I immediately began a full year of chemotherapy and also had a thirteen hour surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. After 13 months of treatment I was healthy enough to begin classes at Dwyer High School for the first time in the second semester of ninth grade. My volunteer service has provided me with an opportunity for my own growth and development. The majority of my volunteer hours have been working in local preschools with
children under the age of eight. I have loved the opportunity to help teach children and grow their minds. I have also volunteered with my American Sign Language class to teach sign language to children at an elementary school and put on a holiday show entirely in American Sign Language.

My most rewarding volunteer role began when I was on a day cruise as a cancer patient called Freedom Waters Foundation. I was invited to go on a yacht for an afternoon with my family and other pediatric cancer patients and their families. I was having a nice time, but I was bored I asked if I could play some music and I set out to get music going and get everyone dancing. I got out my iPhone, hooked it up to a speaker on board, and once we started dancing, everybody was happy, I’ve been a cruise director ever since. I am in charge of playing the music for the children and teaching them dances to the songs like the “Cupid Shuffle” and “The Macarena.”

The children really enjoy it and they live in the moment. Since I have survived cancer, it has given me a new perspective on life: don’t give up, anything is possible, and live each day as though it is my last day, I believe that kids with cancer need a nurse who knows what they’re going through to encourage them to stay strong. When I take care of them, they will know that there is an adult they can talk to who really does know how they feel. I plan to use my past experience$ to continue to help kids with cancer just like I have been doing since I finished my chemotherapy treatments. I feel that I will be able to continue to teach and inspire children to live their dreams even if their time here on Earth is short!

~~Riley

It began when I was in North Wales Elementary School.  Thousands of juice bags were thrown away daily.  This inspired me to research and find a company willing to recycle if I collected them.  My gifted teacher helped get permission from the school.  Making collection bins with friends for the cafeteria and teacher lunch rooms, along with many posters to hang was the easy part.  Teaching, encouraging and supporting my peers to keep our planet clean was the hard part.  We were exceptionally successful.  Leaning leadership at a young age impelled me to help the program remain.  it is in place to this day.

The outcome of that project motivated me to research topics which inspired me to absorb information and share it.  Future collaborations helped me and my Kinex team win a bridge building competition; i was able to get my community center to start the chess club; my church to create a giving tree where together hard enough to repeatedly win the District First Aid trophy.  Individuals working together always accomplish a greater goal!  We expand community by example.  These accomplishments taught me perseverance, communication, and the confidence to connect with others.

In 9th grade I was diagnosed with a life threatening inoperable malignant brain tumor.  At fourteen you don’t think anything will happen to you.  Inpatient at CHOP I met many nurses, doctors, therapists, and social workers.  It was the biggest collaboration of educated, learned minds I had witnessed.  I was part of that team. explaining it all to me in conversations and including me in decision making.  My best weapon was myself, becoming an informed fighter to obtain survivorship.  I was amazed with each doctor’s expertise yet their knowledge was more powerful when united.  Positivity through treatments, hope for good news after tests, smiling in adversity became my new normal.  I learned bravery.

I told my parents I wanted to host a blood drive and the entire town showed up.  We had to add a second collection day.  My classmates wanted to help so I designed & sold TEAM RYAN wristbands to raise money for childhood cancer.  A drone flew overhead capturing the entire school population with arms raised wearing the bland and signs that said, “No one fights Alone.”  Watching this video in the hospital, tears fell as I realized the time I had given to friends, family,and community was returned to me in my darkest hour.  Luckily I achieved remission and post treatment recruited many to join TEAM RYAN for CHOP’s Parkway fundraising walk.  We have raised $20,000 for childhood cancer over the past several years.  My community and I, 300 strong raising funds donated to children fighting cancer taught me usefulness and trust.  The experiences I have had taught me to have integrity.  Giving back is its own reward!

~~Ryan Matthew Naulty

I was born with a fatal blood disease, Familial Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis, and as a result have spent many days and hours in the company of highly specialized and trained medical staff. I am most happy to say that I underwent a successful Stem Cell transplant (Bone Marrow Transplant) at the age of six months (June of 2000) at Duke University Hospital under the care of Dr. Joanne Kurtzberg. The transplant saved my life and is a continuous reminder of how blessed I am. I will always be grateful for the opportunity of life this procedure gave me and my family.

I am a huge advocate of being able to put to use something that in a lot of cases would be disposed of. It is my belief that by studying stem cells, cord blood and developing new procedures, many children and adults, like me, might be able to medically benefit from this knowledge while improving and lengthening their lives. I encourage everyone to become a volunteer donor because when something tragic and/or unexpected happens, it can and does make a significant difference in someone else’s opportunity at  life. Almost immediately, it can turn a negative event into a more positive one and can help so many people.

Since I was a little girl, I have always wanted to become a nurse and to help people. During my long stay in the hospital and years of follow up care, I was lucky to have many special nurses in my life that cared for me. They always made sure I was well taken care of and emphasized and encouraged no fear to me and my parents regardless of any procedures that I had to endure. They made a lasting impression on me even though I was very young.

It is my hope to one day be able to do the same thing for other patients and their families. I feel the knowledge I gained thru my experiences will help me to become an exceptional nurse. I am outgoing and love to interact with all types and ages of people. I have always been a compassionate person and have helped take care of my family. My mother was diagnosed with MS when I was 9 years old and she taught and allowed me to give her the daily injections she had to take. My Grandfather was a diabetic and recently passed away with cancer. I spent countless hours helping him in any way I could. My paternal Grandmother is blind and I take her to the grocery store and help her as well. Becoming a nurse will allow me to take care of others which I feel is a very important and a necessary profession, as well as living the best version of myself every day.

I have really enjoyed all my Health Science classes and pushed myself to excel in them. This past summer, I was selected to volunteer at Mission Hospital. I spent two full days each week working in various departments of the hospital. I was able to work in the heart tower, the child care center, nutrition and imaging. I very much enjoyed interacting with the patients and on occasion their families. I also spent time volunteering at the Mission’s Children’s Hospital working with children with multiple disabilities such as autism.

I am currently enrolled in a Nursing Fundamentals class which will allow me to graduate high school with my CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) license. This will give me invaluable experience and will also be a means to assist with my college education and expenses. My parents have given me so much in my 18 years and I would very much like to help them with the funding of furthering my education in any way that I can.

~~Maisey Wells

Ask anyone and I am sure they would say being diagnosed with cancer is the worst thing imaginable. No doubt, that’s true. I still shudder at the memory of hearing the words “Emma, you have leukemia” for the first time. Yet, over the past several years, I have come to learn firsthand that it’s possible to tum life’s biggest challenges into something positive and life changing.

My life changed completely on January l7th, 2012, when I was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. As a high school student/athlete who had always enjoyed having good health, the diagnosis came as a complete shock. I immediately spent the next two weeks at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin undergoing intense chemotherapy. The effects of the chemo, the constant stream of doctors and nurses, and the numbing reality that I was now a cancer patient were terrifying. At the same time, I was flooded with the love of family and friends coming to visit, bringing with them gifts and comfort items, and keeping me company in a frightening and unfamiliar place. Looking back now, that overwhelming love and support was so important in helping me endure those first difficult weeks and the tough road that lay ahead.

While at the hospital, I also came to notice the other children and teens that had spent weeks and even months at the hospital, many of whom were not as fortunate as I was. I knew then I wanted to help these brave kids in some small way. I thought about starting my own foundation to help ease the pain and difficulty of my fellow patients. But due to the intensity of my chemotherapy I had to be patient with my “patient project.”

As I entered my maintenance phase of chemo, and my energy began to return, my Mom and I began brainstorming ideas for our “mission” and potential names for it. On a cold Saturday morning, at our favorite coffee shop, we decided to make it happen. Emma Rose – A Patient Helping Patients was born on the 10-month anniversary of my diagnosis. The foundation has two primary missions: We collect small comfort items such as fuzzy socks, lip balms, hand sanitizers, coloring books and games for the brave kids in the cancer unit at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. We also seek to raise awareness about a little known cancer statistic, namely that only 3.8 percent of all cancer-related funding nationwide goes towards childhood cancer research. That simply needs to change. I now have more than 12,000 followers on our Facebook page who continue to support my mission and we continue to bring in around 50 gift bags for the patients each month. It makes me so happy to be able to bring some joy to the patients who have to endure so much. I knew immediately how they felt.

I finished my two and a half year treatment in May 2014, just a week before my high school graduation. For the next two years I came to clinic almost monthly to check blood counts and get a physical exam. I was cancer free, happy, and loving nursing school. I was finally getting to live a normal life that I was robbed of while I was in treatment. However, on December 27th of 2016, after a month of suspiciously low blood counts, I went in for a bone marrow biopsy to confirm what we suspected: relapse.

I was admitted that night and started a treatment protocol even more intense than the first time. I spent the entirety of the months of January, April, & June inpatient. I never had any complications during my first treatment but this time I seemed to get every complication possible. I had a blood clot, allergic reactions to several medications, developed idiopathic pneumonia syndrome, pulmonary hypertension, c-diff, & neutropenic pan colitis, and ended up
septic in the ICU twice. In order to kick this cancer for good, it was decided a bone marrow transplant was my best option. Fortunately, my brother was a 10/10 match. I had extremely intense chemo and total body radiation 2x a day to kill off my old marrow and I received my new life saving marrow on June 1st. I’ve been recovering at home ever since and am seen weekly in clinic to check blood levels. I still have side effects as a direct result of the treatment and
transplant but the doctors are very happy with my progress.

My disease, difficult as it has been, has opened many doors. “P4P”, as I call my page, continues to grow and reach more people every day. Through my Facebook page, I have also been able to share facts about pediatric cancer research and the desperate need for more funds to combat this horrible disease. Great progress has been made in treating the disease. But we could be doing so much more!

My disease has also impacted my career choice in a profound way. Before my diagnosis, the thought of being a nurse was the furthest thing from my mind. Medical treatments scared me. Very little scares me now. My dream is to be a nurse in the bone marrow transplant clinic at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. Someday I hope to make a difference at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, the hospital that helped me. And I hope to bring a little joy to other children
suffering from cancer, hopefully inspiring them to do the same.

~~Emma Paulson

I am an interesting case. At least that’s how someone once described me when I was six. That someone was an attending physician and he was speaking to a group of resident doctors, outside my room in the P.I.C.U. at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. I didn’t hear him call me that, because I was still incubated and heavily sedated, and attached to no less than eight machines at the time. My mom heard him though and it upset her. Now more than ten years later of being a Cancer survivor, I realize why people find my story so interesting. Turns out, I am an enigma. The Cancer I had was uncommon and aggressive, and mostly found in adolescents. Mom always said that I did everything ahead of schedule. I spoke young. I walked young. I even understood that kids can die, when I was very young. This understanding can really mess with a kid. I am lucky though, because I was never treated as a sick child, so I never acted as a sick child.

When all my hair fell out, my parents bought me a wig, so that I could look somewhat like the other first graders. I however considered it more of an accessory than a necessity. One time during treatment, I was at a party with a bounce house. After bouncing myself into a sweaty and nauseous mess, I hopped out of the bounce house, whipped my wig off, and handed it to my mother who was standing on the other side of the yard. Apparently, this caused many gasps and adults trying to hide their shock.  Some of the guests didn’t know I had Cancer, and nobody had ever conveyed to me that we shouldn’t just fling our wigs off when we get hot.

As I lived in the hospital every three weeks for a year, to receive chemotherapy, I never knew that many people did not expect me to live. They were right to think that I may die, because my friend Jasmine, who was also six, and also had Ewing’s Sarcoma, died toward the end of the year of my treatment.  Being a survivor has been a blessing and a burden at times. The blessing is obvious. I’m still here. Totally rebuilt inside, but alive. The burden comes when people reduce me to my diagnosis. I am more than a Cancer survivor. I am a teenager who loves going to the beach with girlfriends. I am a Nutella addict. I am a lover of all things to do with soccer. I take pride at beating boys in ping pong in gym class. I can’t imagine loving anyone the way I love my little brother, Braden.  And most of all, I believe that I was put on this earth to be a pediatric oncology nurse.

Being a nurse is more than taking nursing classes and passing tests.  It’s about seeing your patients as real people with individual needs, and not just as cases. I believe that my experiences will allow me to be the kind of nurse who can change Tegaderm bandages, and flush Broviac lines, and then follow up with an impromptu hospital room dance party.  I’ll treat my patients as kids who happen to have Cancer. Don’t get me wrong, Cancer sucks! Daily shots, losing your hair and surgery are not fun. But it’s about the overall experience. I still go back to the floor where I was treated at RWJUH to visit and when I walk through the door, my nurses greet me like Norm from Cheers. I hope to get to be on their side of the door someday, and teach my patients that with hope, all things are possible.

If awarded the Faith Hope and Love Jesus, Inc. College Scholarship I would apply the funds to my outstanding tuition and/or books bill in my upcoming fall semester in order to lower my loan amount.  Thank you in advance for your consideration.

~Mikayla Helmond

I’ll never forget the day I found out about my disease. I was in the first grade at the time, and I was sitting in class when my stomach started to hurt. I went down to the clinic and the nurse said my temperature was 104 degrees. My mom and dad came to pick me up at school. When they saw me, they said I was as pale as a ghost. My parents took me to see our family doctor. The doctor ran a couple of tests and said they would have to take me to the emergency room at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland. Aside from finding out about my illness, I will remember this day because of my mom.

There was a huge line when we got there and we were told to sit down and wait. We had been there for quite a while, when I needed to use the restroom. My mom and I went to the restroom and when we came out, I almost fainted. My mom started to freak out. She went up to the receptionist and said we have been waiting for about five hours now  and I had to be seen by someone. The receptionist said there are still families ahead of us waiting to be seen. The receptionist then said we will take her in but if the other parents get angry, I’m sending them to you. My mom told the receptionist to send them to her and she’d take care of it.

They took me back into the ER and gave me a bed. The doctors said they got me there in the nick of time because my spleen was eating my blood, so my blood count was down to l When I heard that, I looked across the room to my mom who was crying. I often wonder what would have happened if my mom hadn’t had her little melt down that day. The doctors gave me a blood transfusion and began to run test on me to try and figure out what was wrong.

The doctors said they thought it might be cancer. My parents were starting to worry. It turns out that I have a disease called spherocytosis. I have a blood disorder where my body doesn’t know what a good red blood cell is and a bad red blood cell is. I was put on medication and sent home with a follow up appointment in six months. Unfortunately, I continued to get worse and after being in and out of the hospital for three months, the doctors removed my spleen. I now take medication to try and keep my immune system strong and there is a good chance I will continue on meds for the rest of my life, but thanks to my family and God, I still have my life.

By Katelyn Kundtz

Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education. As I developed from a small foundation of life, I was always told that “knowledge is power” and being in a society that is constantly advancing, education is a thriving component that results changes. I am dedicated to pursuing an education because I see how the different levels of knowledge correlates to the placement of an individual in society. In all honesty, I was blessed to be accepted into the University of Massachusetts Amherst and this struck my heart because this is an opportunity in life that does not come around easily.

I feel like I am a strong and solid young man with a head on his shoulders because I only want to continue projecting my trajectory in the way of success. The door of college has been opened for a reason and I am taking the initiative to control my future, although I do not have all the funds for college, but I will put forth the effort to find scholarships that support the small dreams of young minds trying to find a way toward success. I feel like I would be worthy of this scholarship because this would be an extra blessing supporting my thirst and strive to do better” I am extremely looking forward, to attending college right after high school because I want to nourish and secure my drive for knowledge. Also, coming from a small community I have been consumed of the same things for my entire life, I would love to, gain a new perspective of life, experience life-changing situations and network with amazing people who have common goals in life.

If I was awarded this scholarship, I would highly appreciate the people who recognize the drive and motivation in young minds, that understand the struggles of needing funds to spark the future. The common issue of not having becomes a barrier for young students aspiring to continue pursuing knowledge. I emphasize that, to illustrate how typically students are faced with uncomfortable factors surrounding debt, therefore they are forced to let money overwhelm them only to be a student. My goal is to overcome this economic hardship before it becomes a barrier to my education, because coming from nothing college is the security to my future.

The more wealthy something is, the more the value drastically increases. I understand that nothing in this lifetime is free and definitely not the value of education, but if I can come close to maximizing my potential no price can amount to that. Honestly, what makes it more severe is that, I deeply internalize and understand that you only have one chance to captivate or someone else will. I just want to make my path as clear as possible, minimizing as many obstacles as I can because once you are off the path, there is no turning back. A smart man learns from his own mistakes, but a wise man learns from the mistakes of others. I want college to be my foundation, not my downfall.

~Javon Freeman