What is your favorite story? Maybe it's a fairytale, a historical account, or even a funny family anecdote. One element that all stories have in common is that they should be shared. A story should not have only one person in the audience (change word here), they should enthrall and captivate many. Stories can bring the listeners together through a shared experience. Although you may have heard the story of "Cinderella" told a bit differently compared to someone else, it is a story that can bring strangers together by having that bit of common ground. This begs an important question though: how can I craft a story important enough to change the world? The answer is that I can't. The most extraordinary story ever told was written thousands of years before I was born. A love letter was written to us by the Creator of the universe about His Son's sacrifice for everyone ever made, and no other story can beat that. I may not be able to write something that will ever amount to that, but I can use my storytelling to further that message of selflessness, mercy, and overwhelming love. I want to continue to inspire to move people towards Christ through sharing the stories of the Bible in my blog posts, group Bible study, and hopefully, one day publish a book for young women talking about how God has worked through my personal story, even in the times that I can't see Him clearly. I want to share the importance of storytelling itself, and how young women can see themselves and their situations in the Bible, and use those stories to help further their lives and their walk with God. One other way I hope to use storytelling is through my career goals, which are to hopefully make a name for myself as an editor and publisher. I want to help other aspiring writers share their stories with the world, by not only helping them polish their work, but as well as giving them a platform on which they can be heard. While I may not be telling a story directly, I can help make room for so many others to have a voice and offer their talents, perspectives, and experiences with the world. Everyone wants to make a difference in one way or another, and I have hope that the Lord will use me as a vessel to further not only His Story, but the ones of His people as well.

The Book Thief is a prime example of a modern day classic. I first read Markus Zusack’s story about a young German girl’s voracity for words in the seventh grade, instantly enamored with a story filled with colorful writing, empathetic characters, and gripping threats of danger. Written by Markus Zusack, The Book Thief follows Liesel Meminger, an orphan living with the Hubermanns in Nazi, Germany. Throughout the book, Liesel learns about family, develops friendships, suffers loss, and discovers hope through stories. She discovers her love of books in a time when learning anything against Hitler’s regime is prohibited, resulting in Liesel stealing books and becoming “the book thief.” These books give her solace during extreme danger in which her family harbors a young Jewish man from inevitable death, and teach her she too has a voice for storytelling. In today's society, words and stories are seen as a means to an end, a way to convey information, instead of something to satiate a hunger we are all endowed with. Liesel portrays this hunger through her voracious desire to read. She works against odds in order to further her collection of words, as well as gaining them in unlikely places. All of the people in Liesel’s life represent different stories: Rudy, and his boyish dreams to be like Jesse Owens, and how they leads to the Nazi party’s desire to recruit him; her papa, Hans, whose promise to an old friend thrusts his family into danger; Max, a Jewish man who, even while on the brink of capture, writes stories for Liesel of German and Jewish friendship overtop a copy of Mein Kampf. Liesel’s story gives a voice of courage that can inspire defiance of odds in order to protect others, as well as teaching how to gain a voice in the world. One of the most poignant quotes from the book shows how powerful words can be and how important they are to Liesel: “I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.” Words hold so much weight in the book thief’s story; they have the power to create or destroy Liesel’s entire world, and it is in her hands to decide how she will use them. A poignant portrayal of hope amidst the darkest of times, The Book Thief is a testament to the importance of story and resilience of humans.

My mental health began to decline three years ago, but it tanked sharply last year. At the beginning of 2020, I moved away from my hometown to a one-stoplight town in eastern Tennessee. I moved nine hours away from the city I had known all my life, as well as my lifelong friends, church community, and any comfortable familiarities. 2020 was mentally taxing for a plethora of reasons, such as covid and political rioting, but the root of the damage to my mental health was personal. Two years later, I had lost most of my friendships back home to moral and political disagreements and had even faced online death threats and cyberbullying, but I had thrown myself into my work and studies. Although I was hesitant about the idea of getting hurt again, I began to reconnect with some of my childhood best friends. For a time, I was doing well mentally. I was accepted into my dream university; I had a strong friend group and excelled at my job. It was then that I reconnected with an old friend from junior high and he would go on to become my first boyfriend. My entire world began to be built around him. Every spare moment of my day was centered on him. My eating habits changed, I went to bed later, and every spare cent I earned was spent on gifts and plane tickets to my hometown. Very normal things to happen in a new relationship, I assumed. That soon became me not eating and pushing my limits at the gym to develop the body my boyfriend so idealized in models on social media. He worked all day and would spend hours with friends afterward, so I would stay up into the early morning hours after my day of work and school, only to get up three hours later to do it again. I missed bills and had to borrow money from my family in order to pay my tuition. My freshman year was spent in near isolation to respond to his every beck and call. Buckets of tears stained my face nightly from his comments or the absence of them. I neglected my family and brushed aside their concerns. My friends became my enemies due to his distaste for them. The morals I had previously worn proudly upon my chest, I pushed aside in order to give him the pleasures I naively believed would convince him to stay. I was spiraling into an anxious stupor that prevented me from making a solid decisions for my future. I changed my major four times and almost dropped out for the promise of a marriage that would have been filled with unfulfilled dreams and unbearable loneliness. I eventually reached the point that my hair had fallen out in handfuls, and was suffering from migraines so debilitating that I fainted due to the crushing guilt and anxiety I was subjecting myself to. When I finally gathered the strength to end it, at my parent's fretful urging, he was almost nonchalant. In the months since, I have gained pieces of myself back, little by little. I learned to once again find joy in the interests and passions I had before I lost myself. My friendships are slowly healing with time, and apologies, despite the damage I inflicted. I still carry anxieties and doubts into new ventures and relationships, daily grappling with the struggle to believe that there is value in me and reasons to feel genuine love toward me for reasons other than physical desire. My indecisive nature still affects even my most fundamental decisions, and I have developed an anxious attachment to those who love me and have promised to stay beside me. Despite my trust often waning, I still desire to give people the benefit of the doubt and love them wholeheartedly, and I believe it is a strength often taken for weakness. I am determined to grow and work through my anxiety with the support of people who love me unconditionally, even at my worst, and show them the love they so ardently give me every day.