I have had to face many challenges throughout my childhood. But what had the biggest impact on my life was my father. He was abusive, mentally and physically throughout my childhood. He left us when I was twelve and filed for a long three-year divorce when I was fourteen. After he left, I realized the impact that he’d had on my life and decided to cut communication and stopped visiting him. This was very difficult as he fought this extensively through the long divorce. He has always struggled with controlling his anger, and when I was young, it was standard for him to yell at and bruise my mom constantly. Because of this, I grew up thinking that this kind of behavior was normal and expected. I was lucky to not always be on the receiving end of his anger and violence, because I learned that if you talked back to him, he’d hurt you. My older brother would try to defend my mother and as a result, my father physically abused him too. It wasn’t until he moved out that I finally stopped enduring it. By the time he filed for divorce, we learned that he had been recording every conversation during their marriage for the last seven years. He would also surprise us and follow us and try to make a scene of having a happy relationship which led us to be very paranoid in public. From his abuse and unpredictability, both my elder brother and I developed severe anxiety. Throughout the divorce, we were forced to go to reunification therapy where we had to be in a closed room with him. This was very hard for us as both my older brother and I had cut off communication with him and had been trying to move on. During these sessions, it became clear that we had developed anxiety. My reaction to being near him was severe panic attacks and to hyperventilate for at least an hour. My brother developed an ulcer and would often puke. Later, as a result of the therapists and my father forcing him to stay in the room with them, he developed a nervous flinch as a form of PTSD where when he was near my father, he would experience uncontrollable jolts throughout his body. These physical developments took great tolls on both our healths. With my constant hyperventilation, I would often lose feeling in my extremities and my arms, hands, and legs would constantly seize up. One of the worst parts of this was that it was therapists that forced us to be in these unsafe environments where we developed our anxiety. Because of this, I don’t believe I will ever be able to go to therapy again to fix these problems caused by therapy without worsening my anxiety. We had Child Services and the police called for us multiple times but they never did anything. Due to all these events, I have lost faith in our judicial systems which were put in place to help kids like me. Because of my experience with these organizations that did nothing, I grow increasingly concerned for other children in my circumstances. And because of all this, I want to be an advocate for mistreated kids. In my state, divorce parents almost always get fifty-fifty parenting time with the children, regardless of abuse or mistreatment. If the systems that are supposed to help abused kids no longer does its job, I believe it is our responsibility, as witnesses to the ineffectuality, to fight for a change for innocent children to ensure they have safe homes.

Education is very important to me and has been a huge part of my life. I went to a rigorous, small college prep school where there were a lot of expectations for us and because of that, there was some competition with the students. I know that wasn't the best environment for many people, but I thrived on it. That competition and responsibility my teachers and peers gave me motivated me to try my best in school. But due to the pressure and challenge, many students left my school and my graduating class was barely more than thirty kids. However, as we entered high school, and the grades thinned out, school became less of a competition with other students and more of a competition with myself. I learned that I can't compare myself to others, whether that's over grades or other circumstances, and instead, I set my own goals for what I expected of myself. My changing environment at school taught me to work hard, learn self-discipline, to not judge others or myself too harshly, and to respect the efforts that others put in for me. Most importantly though, I learned to appreciate my own efforts when my hard work pays off, to be patient with myself and others above all, and to motivate my peers not to give up during tough times or to be too harsh on themselves. Francis Bacon said "Knowledge is power" which has been proven time and time again throughout history. Education empowered the ordinary man in countless ways. Johannes Gutenberg created the printing press which allowed for the Protestant Revolution and William Tyndale translated the Bible into English. This allowed thousands of ordinary people to be able to study and learn the Lord's gospel on their own, therefore empowering them. Throughout history, one of the biggest things that allowed religions, cultures, or ideas to be suppressed was the restriction of knowledge and education. I believe that making education accessible to all is one of the most important obstacles we face today. Without at least a basic education, many people would be unable to find a steady job or be able to support a family. Education opens up so many doors for us and can change countless lives. I think today, those of us with access, often take our education for granted. We forget that not even two hundred years ago, many of us would be illiterate. I hope to never forget or fail to appreciate how far we have come as a society in such a short amount of time and I hope that education will only continue to become more accessible. That is why one of my life goals is to be an advocate for those without education and work to make knowledge more attainable for those less fortunate. Without education, many people are easily taken advantage of, cheated, or mistreated. I want to work to stop this and thus create more opportunities for people without education. So, education, to me, means freedom, opportunity, access, and empowerment. I love to learn and cannot imagine what my life would be like without my education. Because of my own blessings and fortune, I want to help others to gain better access to education and see how their lives transform.