My greatest inspiration in life is my past life. I call it my past life because I have truly lived two lives. In my first life, I was born in Hebei, China, where I was an orphan until the age of five. At the time, I didn't know any different, thinking my life was great because I had so many friends to play with and I had good caregivers in the orphanage. To me everything was great but the truth of the matter is it wasn't. I didn't realize what kind of situations I was in until years later when my family told me. The orphanage I was in had children of all kinds of physical and mental problems that their birth parents didn't want or couldn't take care of. The few memories I have of that place was sharing a bedroom with all the boys from the orphanage and I was happy enough to have my own bed. I vividly remember how awful the scent of the room we all shared. Another memory I had of the conditions we lived in was the bathrooms. There were holes in the ground instead of toilets where we had to squat over to do our business. Looking back on it now, I know orphanages, in general, are not grand hotels but this is the reality of what many children in other countries have to go through. Needless to say, I was very poor, I lived in horrendous conditions, and I didn't have the love or care from a set of parents. Where my first life ended, my second life began. At the age of five, I was adopted by a Christian couple from Kentucky. I was welcomed to a loving family that treated me like I was one of their own. I was excited to have a new life in America but at the time I didn't know how my life would be without China. I became homesick and longed to be back in the orphanage. I didn't understand why I couldn't go back and be with all my friends and the life I once knew. It took me several years to get used to this new life and I haven't looked back. My life has changed for the better because I was saved by my parents out of the conditions I once lived in, I have formed relationships that will last me a lifetime, and I found my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Earlier, I said my past life is my greatest inspiration because it drives me to do something greater in my life now. I know what it's like to be unloved, lonely, and scared and I never want to go back to that. I believe God gave me a second chance for a reason and because he has greater plans for me. So, my story drives me to do whatever it takes to be successful in this life and to inspire others about my story of adversity and perseverance.

"If you ain't first, you're last". This famous movie quote by Ricky Bobby, played by Will Farrell, in Talladega Nights serves as a reminder that nobody in history will remember who finished second only those that win. This movie is a comedy about a Nascar driver who wants to win but he hurts others along the way but he doesn't realize it. Only by a tragic event that he has a change of heart and does the right thing. Although this movie isn't supposed to teach life lessons but if you look under the comedy aspect of it you can learn a thing or two. My favorite part of the movie is when he thinks he's physically disabled after a car crash when he really isn't. It was all psychological but he wanted to prove he was disabled so he sticks a knife in his thigh but then he realizes that he can feel it and is in sudden pain. His friends try to get the knife out with another knife and the whole sequence was just hysterical. It's my favorite movie for two reasons, it has Nascar and Will Farrell is in it. His comedic mind with the combination of hill billy Nascar is a true masterpiece that could never be replicated again. It truly is one of a kind. I recommend this movie to all my friends when they need a good laugh after a hard day or a rough week. The movie makes you forget about what going on in the outside world and it immerses you into the movie. That's what makes movies so great that you feel connected to the characters and it distracts you for the time being. This is why my favorite movie is Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

Buzz, buzz, buzz. That noise is all too familiar to the hundreds of millions of people that own a smartphone. When you hear that buzz you get excited knowing that someone or something on the other end is trying to connect with you. Your first instinct is to pick up your phone and look to see who or what it is. That feeling is well known to many people especially me. I've owned a phone since I was in the 6th grade but back then it was just a flip phone that my parents gave to me for emergencies only. As smartphones became more popular in my school I followed the crowd and got an iPhone. This was a huge step up to what I had previously because it combined the ability to talk and text from my flip phone and the ability to listen to music and play games from my iPod Touch. I was very fortunate to have an iPhone because they were really expensive and it meant a huge responsibility to make sure I take care of it. So, like any new product you want to test it out and play around with it. I began to look up YouTube videos online to see all the capabilities that my phone had. Learning all the ins and outs of that iPhone made me fall in love with technology. So, since I know a lot about smartphones I became the repair guy in our family if there was something wrong with our phones. I enjoy this role because it makes me feel appreciated that something that I love to do is being used to help others. Smartphones have advanced so far in the small period that it has been around. It's a general consensus that they make each user's life a lot easier. What I mean by that is smartphones are very efficient and convient because you can look up anything on the internet in a matter of seconds. I know that it has made my life a whole lot easier. My day-to-day activities consist of a lot of time using my iPhone. I am a college student so I use my phone for a variety of things like school work, social media, connecting with friends, and different forms of entertainment media. Although these things sound great smartphones also have a negative impact on my day-to-day life as well. Sometimes I spend way too much time on it for entertainment use when I should be doing homework or something active outside. It can take up a lot of your time throughout the day whether you know it or not. So, I try to manage my time on it wisely so I can focus on the real world. Like anything, there are positive and negative effects. The biggest issue that has been plaguing our society since the introduction of smartphones is the distractions it causes while driving. It is against the law in most states to text and drive because it can impair the driver. A lot of car accidents happen because of distracted drivers on their phones. I have broken this law several times and I am ashamed of my actions every time but it's an addiction that people have to always look at their phones when it buzzes. That's no excuse to do it but we are humans and we make errors all the time. I would advise those with smartphones to not be distracted by them when driving. Put your phone into drive mode so it silences all notifications. This single action could save a person's life.

My interest in the game of chess began when my mother introduced me to it when I was around 12 years old. Both my mom and stepdad knew how to play and they would teach me whenever we had boardgame nights. Like most people starting out in anything, you don't know how to play to win. I would get so angry that I kept losing all the time but I knew I wanted to keep playing and learning more so one day I could beat my mom. I would watch a lot of youtube videos of professional chess players and they would talk about strategies and how they would think before each move. Once I got that mindset of knowing your move and your opponent's moves before they even make it then you control the game. I started winning a lot more against my mom and stepdad so then I decided to join my middle school's chess club. That's where I learned the most of my skills because the other students were really good because of our teacher who taught them all. Chess and any other game have key components that anyone playing it can apply to their everyday lives. For starters, chess is a gentlemen's sport so you act and present yourself in a mannerly way when playing. You politely say hello when sitting down and during the match, you wait patiently and in silence so the other person can think. I took what I've learned about being gentlemen like in my life when I talk to others, I sit quietly and listen to what they have to say and then I respond when they are finished. Another example that I've learned from playing chess is that you have to take risks to win. In chess, someone has to make the bold move to attack a piece to try to take it but sometimes it backfires and you end up losing your piece or worse. My life is like that sometimes. I take risks each and every day to further myself as a human being. Whether that's financial risks like my investments in the stock market or even driving out on the road because you never know what could happen out there. Life is all about taking risks because that's what pushes society forward to the future. My career/goals in life are to be a doctor and be financially wealthy so I can help as many people medically and economically. Growing up that's all I ever wanted to be because I was fortunate enough to have the medical treatments to help me with my problems but there are millions of children around the world that are way worse off than I was. I think I was given a second chance in life by my doctors and nurses that I want to dedicate my life to serving underprivileged children with their medical needs. My goals and aspirations tie into the game of chess because you have to have the patience to play the game and becoming a doctor. Chess isn't something that you can speed up to finish faster because you take out all the strategies and thinking that are required to make the game enjoyable. Just like my journey to becoming a doctor I have to take it one step at a time. I can't rush things or I'm going to miss out on a lot of information that could be vital to helping someone in need. I will forever be grateful that I learned how to play chess and all the things this sport has taught me about life. I think the greatest thing I've taken from the game is that you should take each moment in life one step at a time just like you would move a chess piece so you can see the bigger picture.

My interest in the game of chess began when my mother introduced me to it when I was around 12 years old. Both my mom and stepdad knew how to play and they would teach me whenever we had boardgame nights. Like most people starting out in anything, you don't know how to play to win. I would get so angry that I kept losing all the time but I knew I wanted to keep playing and learning more so one day I could beat my mom. I would watch a lot of youtube videos of professional chess players and they would talk about strategies and how they would think before each move. Once I got that mindset of knowing your move and your opponent's moves before they even make it then you control the game. I started winning a lot more against my mom and stepdad so then I decided to join my middle school's chess club. That's where I learned the most of my skills because the other students were really good because of our teacher who taught them all. Chess and any other game have key components that anyone playing it can apply to their everyday lives. For starters, chess is a gentlemen's sport so you act and present yourself in a mannerly way when playing. You politely say hello when sitting down and during the match, you wait patiently and in silence so the other person can think. I took what I've learned about being gentlemen like in my life when I talk to others, I sit quietly and listen to what they have to say and then I respond when they are finished. Another example that I've learned from playing chess is that you have to take risks to win. In chess, someone has to make the bold move to attack a piece to try to take it but sometimes it backfires and you end up losing your piece or worse. My life is like that sometimes. I take risks each and every day to further myself as a human being. Whether that's financial risks like my investments in the stock market or even driving out on the road because you never know what could happen out there. Life is all about taking risks because that's what pushes society forward to the future. My career/goals in life are to be a doctor and be financially wealthy so I can help as many people medically and economically. Growing up that's all I ever wanted to be because I was fortunate enough to have the medical treatments to help me with my problems but there are millions of children around the world that are way worse off than I was. I think I was given a second chance in life by my doctors and nurses that I want to dedicate my life to serving underprivileged children with their medical needs. My goals and aspirations tie into the game of chess because you have to have the patience to play the game and becoming a doctor. Chess isn't something that you can speed up to finish faster because you take out all the strategies and thinking that are required to make the game enjoyable. Just like my journey to becoming a doctor I have to take it one step at a time. I can't rush things or I'm going to miss out on a lot of information that could be vital to helping someone in need. I will forever be grateful that I learned how to play chess and all the things this sport has taught me about life. I think the greatest thing I've taken from the game is that you should take each moment in life one step at a time just like you would move a chess piece so you can see the bigger picture.

I believe God has a plan for each and every one of us. Although we might not know what those plans are yet he will reveal them to us when the time is right. His plan for me on Earth started out with me in China without my family. I was an orphan until the age of 5 when my parents came all the way from Kentucky to adopt me. I didn't know it at the time but God was working through my parents that lead them all the way to China to get me. They tried several adoption agencies in the US and none of them worked because he wanted them to have me. Thankfully my parents were Christians so they exposed me to that and let me develop my own faith in Jesus. Before I gave my life to him I was just a child that didn't understand fully what he did for me by dying on that cross but my life changed forever when I was at a church camp in the 5th grade. It was late one night and we decided to gather around a campfire and listen to our camp counselors give their testimonies. The one that stood out the most to me was this guy names, Seth who grew up in a really bad home and was abused by his mother's boyfriends but he always kept his faith in Jesus because he knew that there would be hard times in life where your faith is truly tested. That message spoke to me so much that all these horrible things could happen to someone yet he still loved God. So it was laying on my heart the whole week leading up to the campfire that I was ready to make that decision to come to the Lord and give my life to him. I talked it out with my camp leaders and then my pastor at home and I made that confession of faith and then had a baptism. My walk with Jesus continues to grow and I was really mature for my age but as I got to middle school my faith was being tested. The cool thing in school was to play sports, cuss, and talk about other people and that's not Christ-like. I was falling into sin and temptations and my faith slowly became less and less about him and more and more about myself. I still attended church all throughout high school but I wasn't being intentional with wanting to be there and learning about God. It wasn't till freshman year of college that I decided that my faith is the number one thing in my life that should matter the most. I found a great support group of other believers and we have great conversations about where our walk of faith is with him. So I decided to rededicate my life to him and have been trying my best to learn his words by reading my bible daily and by talking to others at my school about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are supposed to do his commission and to spread the word to all the nations so that they may receive his glory. Thank you for letting me share my personal testimony.

Jesus Christ is my everything. Before I am to love and accept his grace I was a sinner and now I am saved by his love and continue to be like him each and every day. I am a Christian and I go to a Baptist denomination church. I have always grown up in the church and I am thankful that I had wonderful parents that cared enough to show me who Jesus was. He is the reason that I and so many people live because we have received the message and we just want to spread it out to all the nations that are willing to hear. He has blessed me in so many ways. I wouldn't be in America if it wasn't for his guidance to help my parents come to China and adopt me. I was giving a second chance in life and it was all because of him. That's how I know he is real because he has a plan for me and each and every one of us. We just have to submit to his will and not ours and then we will truly understand what he did for us. My everything gave his life for the sins of the world so that I may receive his love. One day I will return to him and I will glorify his name forever and ever.

Disabilities come in all kinds of forms either physically or mentally. Those limitations are just minor setbacks for what's great to come. I, myself was born with a physical ailment where my spinal cords are fused together in two spots making my torso shorter. My adoptive parents came to China and saw that I needed surgery for it or I would be paralyzed as I grew. Luckily, I got the necessary treatments and have full control of all my motor functions. Unfortaentalty, there are many children in this world that were not as fortunate as I was to get the help they needed and that is why I want to become a doctor to give back. Growing up I always knew that I wanted to do something greater outside of myself. As I progressed in school and started to build up a love for the sciences I knew the next step would be if I wanted to go into the medical field. I job shadowed many doctors including dentists, chiropractors, cardiologists, and even a physician's assistant to see what they do. After getting a good idea of what this field is like I knew this was something I wanted to do. I want to especially help children with physical disabilities because I was once just like many of them. Children are our futures and if we want to inspire the next generation to do something greater than us then we have the responsibility to provide for their needs. For the longest time, I always thought of my disability as a curse because I didn't deserve it but now that I have matured I know that everything has a reason. I have come to love myself and accept who I am and I continue to build upon that each and every day. When I'm gone I hope I left that impression on the lives I've met. So, if you are feeling like the weight of the world is on your shoulders and that you don't have the strength to carry on just know that you are not alone and that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. The late Jimmy Valvano once said, "Don't give up. Don't ever give up."