I was six years old and eager to go out onto that basketball court and become the best point guard. I walked onto the volleyball court and laced up my shoes, hoping to be half as good as my older sister. My coaches, friends and family all supported my new interest in little league sports. Fast forward five years and my life drastically changed. I was running in PE class just like any other day. Only, this day was the Pacer Test day, the day many of us dreaded but others lived to set new records or beat their old ones. I was just trying to outlast my classmate next to me. I touched the line and it all went black in an instant. I had awakened to several people screaming and crying over top of me. I didn't remember what happened, I remembered touching the line. The weird thing was, I couldn't hear any of them, I couldn't move my arms or legs and I was speechless. I was picked up and hauled off to the hospital like some broken toy. Many vials of blood were taken, several IV bags changed and an endless amount of time spent taking my blood pressure. I spent the next three years in and out of the hospital. I was diagnosed with an incurable heart disease. Told I would never be allowed to play sports again, I couldn't run for extended periods of time and adrenaline rushes might just make me pass out yet again. Four surgeries later I had lost all hope to play sport. I would sit on the side line of my PE class and watch as others were living my dream. A couple years later my family was forced to move to another town and completely start our life over. I was still trapped in a realm of living a life I didn't want. My brother was a four sport athlete our eighth grade year. I tried to stay involved, I managed both the football and wrestling team. I continued to manage for the last five years. Although many people may not see showing livestock as a sport, to me and many others around the world showing livestock is just like any other sport. I spend almost every day of the year practicing and perfecting my skills. Traveling and missing school. FFA and 4-H provided me with an avenue to find a new passion that I can be successful in. Balancing a successful academic career as well as putting forth the effort to be successful in any given sport is challenging and a constant struggle. Throughout being a student athlete I have learned the value of hard work, dedication, integrity and time management. Not only have I learned how to balance the two lives well enough but, I have been able to learn sportsmanship, hospitality, helping the community and the extra value of support. Although my chosen sport has brought so much joy and meaning to my life. Managing the wrestling team taught me how to be organized, tape injuries as well as being submerged into a varsity sport within my school. The many coaches and professionals I have had the opportunity to interact with have shown me how a single person can completely change the course of someones life. Past sports, my interests include mentoring and coaching others. I love to line dance as well as raise livestock for youth members to exhibit. I strive to advocate for our education and the agriculture industry. I love hunting, fishing, hiking and anything involved with the outdoors and traveling.

Throughout my high school career, I’ve been involved in many extracurricular activities. Since I can remember I’ve been involved in 4-H, currently, I’m President of the 4-H Junior Leaders and the Show Kids 4-H Clubs. These leadership positions allow me to work with younger youth and contribute to projects that benefit my community. Examples of community services projects I’ve done in 4-H include serving food at the Comea Homeless Shelter, made hygiene kits, and assisted with the Month of the Military Child Celebration. One of the most impactful projects, has been helping build a 4-H barn on a military base. This barn provides means for military kids to raise animals in 4-H. In 2020, I moved to Burns and joined FFA, which I am currently Vice President. My chapter focuses on the betterment of our members, other students and our community. This past year, I spearheaded a Farm-to-Plate project where I wrote two grants and received the funds that enabled our chapter to teach the 3rd graders about planting and growing food. It was then harvested in the fall and served in the school cafeteria. Other service projects I’ve helped with include caroling for the town during the holidays, food drives and cleaning up highways. Additionally, been a member of Science Olympiad, Skills USA and band. I just finished my fourth year as wrestling manager. Currently, I am Senior Class President. Beyond this formal type of involvement, I enjoy teaching young kids and have helped co-coach the 4-H juniors in livestock, wool and produce judging, livestock skill-a-thon, and livestock showmanship skills. Seeing their success walking across a stage or in the show arena has been very rewarding. When I was eleven, I was diagnosed with an incurable heart disease called Catecholaminergic Polymorphic Ventricular Tachycardia. Since then, I have had two heart surgeries and am part of six research projects. From my time in the hospitals I got to meet many doctors and nurses which led me to developing an interest and passion for medical technologies. Then in 2023, my family was involved in a sever vehicle accident that claimed the life of my cousin as well as several of my animals and injuring many more on the way to the Wyoming State Fair. Several people jumped in to help my family in this hard time, one of them was a Magna Wave Professional and a veterinarian that uses heat sensory to detect injuries. These two experiences grew my interest for regenerative technologies that help with muscle regeneration, blood circulation and the mental state of livestock and humans. I learned a lot about medical technologies that could be used on livestock. I can’t say one person helped me decide on my career path as all these people contributed. I plan to pursue a degree in agricultural business at Fort Scott Community College and upon graduation with my associate’s degree, I will advance onto senior college to pursue my interest in innovation muscle and physical health technologies, seeking a bachelor’s degree in Biomedicine. I will be able to contribute to both human and livestock medicine ensuring livestock and people can benefit from these new treatments. My long-term goal is to start my own business that allows for humans and animal athletes to be treated. Past my career goals, my personal goals are to continue to raise livestock and become a 4-H volunteer to ensure I can help play a role in the growth and awareness of 4-H and help younger students find their own path just as I was guided by many volunteers.

Throughout the many endeavors in my life, I have always strived to be a competitor as well as a quality leader. I show a spirit of excellence by always striving to be my best and bring others up alongside me. When I was eleven years old, I was diagnosed with an incurable heart disease that completely turned my life upside down. I was a student who loved to play basketball and volleyball. Like the rest of my middle school class, I dreamed of playing on the varsity team. Once I passed out on that gym floor those dreams were completely ripped from my hands and I felt lost for several months. I grew up in a family that had always raised and shown livestock, I found my love for agriculture. I decided to completely engulf myself in showing and judging livestock and I have grown to love that “sport” and competition. I feel that I have shown my doctors and the world wrong, it threw a huge curve at me and I was able to find another path and continue my life. Another way I feel that I have shown excellence is academically. Throughout middle school and high school, I have been driven to not only keep my overall grade at an A but I strive to keep it above 95%. Most students and teachers in my high school find this a high expectation that is stressful and hard to maintain. However, for me, I have seen this as a goal to accomplish that will build good habits. I have always been told that my leadership skills and competitive drive come with an infectious mentality that many others strive to accomplish as well. I have not been able to accomplish that goal however, I have learned from my mistakes and plan to maintain a 4.0 throughout my college years. Leadership is also another one of my biggest qualities. Throughout community service and high school, I have been able to step up into several leadership positions and help others grow personally and professionally. The last several years of my life have been one of the worst roller coaster rides I think I’ll ever have to endure. I can only hope that it gets better in life. However, throughout these bumps and turns in my past I have learned the value of community and helping others. I have grown an appreciation for helping out others just as much as they have helped me and my family through the many hard times. I am always giving back to my community through coaching and encouraging younger kids. I also strive to see success and growth within my community. I am heavily involved in 4-H and FFA and throughout these programs, I am able to do a community service project at least once a month. I have always found a way each month to boost spirits and morale if I can't directly help improve my community physically. Activities I have spearheaded and been a part of range all the way from a winter clothing drive to Christmas caroling to highway clean-ups and making dog toys for our local shelter as well as boosting morale at local nursing homes. But, truly, my favorite community service activities have been working with the younger kids and seeing them grow up and strive to accomplish large goals. I coach several kids throughout the summer and fall in showing and judging livestock. I was able to see where these kids start out with a shy and uncertain nature and then progress into a confident and competitive drive.

Picture this - you're a sixth grader, and all your dreams consist of is to play basketball and volleyball on your junior high school team. You're always pushing yourself in PE, challenging yourself to out lift the others. Your competitive nature drives you to learn how to play volleyball and basketball to the best of your ability. You’re currently playing on the community recreational team. Suddenly, one day, your foot touches that black line and you can’t feel your body. Everything goes black. When you open your eyes, you’re lying on that black line, surrounded by people. Their mouths are moving, but you can’t hear them, you can’t speak, you can’t even feel your body. They stand you up and walk you down a hallway as your whole PE class is staring at you. The stretcher is brought in, and you're loaded into an ambulance with blaring sirens before you even know what has happened. This was my sixth-grade reality in March of 2019. The day that completely changed my life. Little did I know, at the time, that when my body went limp, I would lose control of my life. Three operations later and several clinical trials, I was diagnosed with Catecholaminergic Polymophic Ventricular Tachycardia CPVT. Only, they said, “This is the closest we can diagnose you with”. Meaning that my heart condition doesn’t exactly fit the parameters of CPVT, but it is closely related. This completely explains why none of the operations worked. My hope for a cure was gone. “What if it could turn out better than you ever imagined?” I knew this was a quote from a movie, but I didn’t realize how right he was. I grew up raising and showing livestock. It is a part of my everyday life. At the time I just wanted to play sports and show livestock on the side. However, that all changed when I realized that I had to accept the fact playing sports wasn’t in my future. I threw myself into showing and judging livestock as a distraction, but soon it meant much more to me. Showing livestock gave me something to work for again. The dedication, effort, skill, knowledge required were the same values I had loved about sports. I started spending most of my hours in the barn training my animals. Instead of playing on a court I was in the showring learning how to become the best athlete in that arena. Livestock judging emerged as another one of my passions. The same competitive drive that pushed me to be successful in sports now pushed me to be the best in a judging contest. One of my biggest personal achievements came to me when I won the Western National Roundup Livestock Judging Contest in January 2025. I had gone from feeling like I had lost everything in 2019 to achieving something I never thought was possible in 2025. My disease reshaped my future and gave me new goals. I have committed to Fort Scott Community College where I will be a member of the college livestock judging team. Something I didn’t plan on in sixth grade, but it is all I wanted the last five years. I plan to major in Agriculture Business for two years and then transfer into a Biomedical degree. My interest in the medical field began when I spent those weeks in the hospital watching and learning about technology. I want to start my own business that helps not only humans but livestock through chiropractic work and innovation/regenerative technologies. I thought I had nothing when life showed me something even greater.

The Summer of 2023 forever changed my family. My brother and I show livestock competitively. On the morning of August 14th, my cousin and brother headed out to Douglas, Wyoming for the state fair. My mom and I followed a couple of miles behind them. Ten miles outside of Douglas, my cousin and brother ran out of gas forcing them to pull off to the side of the road. It wasn’t twenty minutes later, my mom got a call that someone had crashed into the truck and trailer. Most of our animals were gone. So was my cousin, Brooke.  The days and weeks that followed were a blur. Denial was my first stage, which lasted for weeks. Grief settled on my family like a thick fog that never lifted. The following days were filled with endless “I’m sorry for your loss” messages and many offers of help. These words were kind but never truly could change the reality. My family quickly made changes to ensure nothing like this could happen again, gas cans were put in every vehicle, phone chargers were always on hand, and, a new sense of fear and worry.  Several people told me there is always meaning to a tragedy and that it was God’s will, so it’s meant to be. Those words hurt me the worst. I didn’t want to find the meaningful part or learn the lesson. Now when I step back, I realize that I was changed in ways I can’t ignore. I found ways to turn my pain into purpose. Brooke also showed livestock and loved showing goats. Spy Club Lambs and Goats became more than just our family's business, it has become a way to remember Brooke and keep pushing forward.  Brooke never got the chance to fulfill her dream job. She struggled to manage her finances and bounded between degrees but never could find a permanent love. But in the months before she passed, she had finally found a career teaching elementary kids and she loved it. The gradual realization that she was just starting to figure things out in her late twenties has made an impact on me. I now know I don't want to wait to chase my dreams. I don’t want to look back and regret what I didn’t do. I have set my goals high and I am determined to accomplish them in her name.  Immediately after the crash, the animals that survived were rushed to a veterinary clinic, where the people there tried their best to save them. I watched as they tried to save the ones they could and humanely put the others down. I have always had an interest in the medical field since I was diagnosed with a heart condition and spent several weeks in the hospital. This, however, was different. Several innovative technologies were used that promoted healing, Magna Waves, Red Light Therapy, and even a heat sensor gun to directly pinpoint the injury we can’t see. Now, I am going to pursue a degree in Ag Business before transitioning into a Biomedical path with a focus on regenerative technologies.  I have made sure to give back to our community in the same way Brooke did. She attended Burns High School and in her honor, we used some of the funds to support the school wrestling team and give out books to those who can’t afford them. Whether it’s contributing to FFA and 4-H programs or helping younger kids get started in showing livestock, my family wants her impact to last beyond us. I want to build a lasting legacy.