"So do you want to play college football like your dad and brothers?" Man, if I had $1 for every time I have been asked that. That was always my plan, but it wasn't God's plan for me. I broke my leg in the first quarter of the second game of the season in 8th grade, It was a bad break, requiring surgery and a year of physical therapy. I ended up with a super rare complication where my muscles and tendons became trapped in the healing process, causing my toes to curl under. It was thought I would never play football again until my physical therapist and his team found a case study that matched my symptoms. I was taken into surgery and they were able to release my toes. After lots of work, I was able to take the field again, eventually starting my senior year at center. What my coaches never knew is that I played those last four years without feeling in the bottom of my right foot. I never wanted them to doubt me so I never told anyone except my family. I still had dreams of playing at the collegiate level. My father, both brothers, uncle and grandfather all played division 1 football. I soon came to realize that that was not going to happen for me. My family has always been supportive but I never intended for them to play for my education. I wanted to earn it. I dove into my schoolwork and serving in our community. I graduated with a 101.28% GPA and 24 college credit hours. I volunteered with the Young Men's Service League (YMSL), National Honor Society, Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), PALS and the Senior Buddy Football program, totaling 261 hours of service. I also held leadership positions in YMSL (President, VP and Historian) as well as FCA (Officer and meeting speaker). The Bible says to serve one another humbly in love. I've learned that even on the days that I didn't really feel like getting up and serving, when the day was over, I was always glad I did. I feel like often it does just as much for me as the person I'm helping. From helping single moms move, playing BINGO with residents at a retirement home to being a friend to an elementary boy that didn't really have friends, it's all been worth it. I'll never forget watching one boy at Hilltop during my time as a senior buddy. You could tell he struggled socially. He loved to collect trading cards so I made that a really big deal in front of all the other kids. I talked about how I had a card collection too and how cool and fun it was to trade cards. All of a sudden all the other boys were interested in his trading cards since the senior football player said it was cool. It made me so happy to watch him go from the boy nobody talked to to the boy everyone wanted to be friends with because of his cool card collection. Serving is so important because even Jesus said, "Whoever would be great among you must be your servant....." I will be attending Oklahoma State University in the fall and majoring in Management Information Systems. According to US News most recent list, a degree in MIS prepares you for 15 of the top 100 careers in America. I plan to go on and get a master's degree as well. I would like to go into cyber security and eventually be the CEO of my own company.