“You are enough, go after what is yours, you are loved.” Little did I know what those words would mean to me. Those were the last words spoken to me by my godfather and Uncle Clay. My name is Cole Carnahan and I am a 2nd year student at Saint Mary’s College of California. I’m pursuing a BS in Biology in hopes of becoming a doctor someday. I chose to apply for the Cat Zingano Scholarship because my family has been fighting for victory over death for the better part of 20 years. I come from a line of immigrants that came to America in hopes for a better life and a hope for tomorrow. My great-grandparents and grandparents harvested fruits and vegetables in the fields of the Central Valley of California. Education has not been at the heart of our family. My family picked in the fields because there were very few jobs uneducated immigrants could do in America. Poverty was all our family knew. My family planted, toiled and harvested foods so that others could eat. But what we did not realize until many years later is that although my family was planting the seeds of life for others, that work would also be planting the seeds of death in our family. Young bodies being exposed to pesticides and dangerous chemicals would later be the poison that plagued our family. My grandmother was the first to be diagnosed. Her cough would not subside and she continued to lose energy. She died of a rare form of lung cancer that took over her body and brain. She died just a few years before I was born. Next was my grandfather, he had a terrible burning sensation in his throat and would later be diagnosed with a rare form of esophageal cancer. He died just a few months later. Their deaths have truly taken so much joy out of my mother’s life, an only child and both of her parents gone. I know that my birth brought her out of the gloom that she felt for so many years of her life. I could never understand this pain that she was enduring. But that all changed my senior year of high school. I lost my uncle, my god father. He was larger than life! He was the heart of our family, our community. On so many occasions it was his voice that I heard from the stands during my baseball games. “You are enough.” What do those words mean to me? So many times I felt that I wasn’t enough, just a face in the crowd. But, something changed my perspective. God was whispering to me, go find him, you are enough. That was the day that I saved a friend’s life. He left our classroom, looking distraught and so many minutes passed. I looked at the clock, he had been gone for what seemed like an eternity. Something in my heart told me to rush up the three flights of stairs of our building. He was balancing on the edge of our building, ready to take his life. I yelled “You are enough, you are worth more than you know, you matter to me.” I prayed, he fell into my arms like a wet pair of jeans, I could feel his heart racing. That day changed me forever! Life is precious. That day I decided to change my life’s path, to help others, to be a changemaker. My family’s cancer journey is not over. My Uncle John had to have his stomach and part of his esophagus removed. I’m not sure how long he will be with us. I am not sure how our family will recover from this news! I find myself wondering who will be next in our family and think about preparing my heart for loss yet again. I feel in my soul that it is my destiny to end this pain in my family and others’ families. I am fighting to become an oncologist. Cancer has knocked out my family too many times! I feel in my heart that a cure for cancer is in my medical future. I know that my dreams are a HUGE sacrifice for my family. I am taking on a job at Saint Mary’s as a Resident Advisor. My commitment to others is why I was chosen to help our newest members join our college community. Please consider me for the Overcoming Loss Scholarship. I will make you proud, I will work hard and will FIGHT for my future! I am enough!