A recent challenge I have faced in the past few years was the loss of my younger sibling, Evelyn. Evelyn was six years old at the time, during my freshman year, when she suddenly passed away due to sepsis. Evelyn went from a perfectly healthy kid to very sick within 3 days of her passing. As her older brother, this killed me, as I have always thought it was my job to protect her. It was very sudden, and there wasn’t a lot of time to react, so this put a lot of stress not only on me but on my family as well. Initially, I was heartbroken and still am to this day, but my first thought was to console and try to help my parents and my other younger sister. To me, trying to help my family was the best thing I could do as we were all trying to support each other. While proceeding throughout the week of her passing, I knew the entire process as a whole wasn't going to be easy. The support of my community in the small town of Huron, Ohio, made us realize, however, how important our community was to my family. Though my initial response throughout the week may not have been the best. This whole experience has made me grow personally, and it has made me resilient to many other scenarios I now face to this day. Smaller issues that I face day to day, whether at home or at school, are now easily controlled by the things I have learned from that awful experience. Evelyn was very energetic every day and never backed down from anything new or different. Knowing that she was like this, I try to take her view on life and use it in mine. Being outgoing, energetic, and brave are very useful traits to have in life. I now use her memory as motivation to not only do better in life, but also make a difference while succeeding in whatever I do. Not only that, but I have learned new coping mechanisms to help me get through everyday life. The experience has helped me learn to take a step back when I’m overwhelmed, take a deep breath, and then continue to work on whatever I am working on. I am now able to handle much more stress while still keeping a positive attitude towards life as a whole! Even though that situation may have been extremely sad, I have been able to use it to help propel me in a positive direction.