My Mock Trial advisor, Mr. H has changed my life in ways he doesn't even know. When I joined his club I was very naive to the way the world works. However, Mr. H is one of those people who calls it how he sees it and explains things in ways you never thought of. In one of the first club meetings I had with him, he asked us a philosophy question, "If God can do anything, can God create a rock that God can't pick up?" The question is simple in theory, but it boggled my mind. That was just the start. The way that Mr. H influenced my life was through Mock Trial. Mock Trial is one of those clubs where you have to question and look at every alternative. Mr. H would never give us the answer. He would never willingly tell us what he was thinking. He forced our minds to expand. He forced us to think differently than we ever had before. He would ask us why this piece of evidence was important to our argument. We had to explain why. Sometimes he would even question our reasoning for that. We had to fight for our opinions and defend them. He'd always say, "Don't tell me something is so. Tell me why is it so?" As someone who was never allowed to question authority and was trained to just follow rules, it opened the world to me. It was simple. It was the simplest thing a teacher could do but he was the only one who pushed me. Before Mr. H and Mock Trial, I had always questioned why things happened to me in life but I never fought it. I always let it slide. However, since then, I took life by the reigns. It's my senior year and I am the president of Mock Trial. This team is different from all the past year teams. This was the first year we actually placed in the competition and I don't just accept it because I know why we placed. We placed because Mr. H forced to think outside of the box, to create doubt for the prosecution's argument for to answer the questions the jury had. He prepared us for when we had to go up on our own and fight for our side. I spent four years talking to Mr. H almost everyday. Now that it's my last year it's gotten to the point where I know what he's thinking before he does. Whenever he stumbles on something, I catch him on it. Sometimes it annoys the heck out of him, which is amusing, but sometimes, when he thinks I'm not looking, I can see that he's proud. Proud that I took control of the club and got us running. I'm going into law because of Mr. H and have gotten into one of the top 50 law schools in the country. Mr. H will never know how much he changed my life.

My mother was one of the first in our family to go to college. She understood the value of education and knew that she wanted her kids to be well educated. Due to this she had always been adamant that my sister and I do well in school and be on the track to go to college. This wasn't always easy because in my early years I struggled with learning. My mother never let me give up. She would stay up with me and even when we were both frustrated, she would always help me. I put so much effort into school that it ended up becoming my whole life and in almost everything I set my mind to, I did my best and rose above. I have my mother to thank for that because she made me who I am. I love who I am. The story of how I joined mock trial is a funny story. I have always had an interest in crime as my family has always watched true crime shows and documentaries. I still remember when in my second period one of my got an invitation from our schools advisor to join mock trial. My friend let me look at it and after reading it I thought it was like a musical I had recently watched with my mother. My mother and I watched Chicago and the song "Razzle Dazzle" instantly played in my head the second that I learned what Mock Trial did. I wanted to be a witness like Roxie Heart and give a "Killer" performance on the stand. As fate would have it a week later I received an invitation and I thought it was my chance. I went to talk to the advisor and after talking with him I was set on joining. In my first year, I actually played the defendant in a murder trial. It was the best thing that I've ever done. My advisor saw my potential and the next year, he put me in a position to be a lawyer. I honestly never expected to become a lawyer but it changed my life. I decided to not only continue Mock Trial, and later to become the one running the whole operation, but to change my future career to being a lawyer. I never felt so confident as I did when I was in the courtroom. I know that my advisor and mother and prepared me to pursue my passion into college next year.

Movies greatly impact society by teaching us life lessons, giving us thrills, a couple of hours of entertainment, and sharing events that we otherwise might not know. Films can inspire people and encourage them to reach for what they want. One movie that has impacted my life is Hacksaw Ridge. Hacksaw Ridge is a war movie set in the Western Theater of WWII. Before we get into the specifics, America was fighting Japan after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The military tactic in this war was island hopping. Troops would go from island to island and clear them of Japanese soldiers, a tedious and costly battle strategy that was making progress towards the island of Japan. As for the movie, it followed Desmond Doss, who was born and raised in Lynchburg, Virginia. Being a lower-class worker at the factory, Doss lived in a household with a drunk and abusive father. Despite this background, he was a devout 7th-day Adventist and conscientious objector. After falling in love with a local nurse, Doss began to find his interest and passion for the medical field and saving lives. On April 1, 1942, Desmond Doss enlisted in the Army, joining the 77th Infantry Division. The decision to enlist was questioned by everyone Doss knew, even by his love. Doss refused to touch a weapon and was a target of bullying in his infantry. There were several incidents where Doss was beaten up in the middle of the night, or his own platoon sergeant would wreck Doss’s sleeping quarters and make his life a living hell. Before he was able to go on leave and get married, he was court-martialed for disobeying his commanders' orders and not taking a gun. Facing time in jail and dishonorable discharge, Doss stood firm by his beliefs and continued to refuse to hold a gun. He was eventually allowed to serve. The 7th Infantry arrived at the 400-foot cliff known as Hacksaw Ridge, a Japanese-American battleground that lasted for 11 days. Doss's infantry went up the cliff but was thrown off not long after. However, one American soldier remained, Desmond Doss. In a twelve-hour period, Doss saved 75 injured soldiers by lowering them down the cliff. This included those who tried to sabotage him in training. When Doss came down, soldiers were amazed that it was Doss who saved all of those men. When they needed to go back up, they waited for Doss to finish praying before going up. That day, they ended up taking Hacksaw Ridge. On his return home, Doss received the Army Medal of Honor. He was the first conscious objector to earn the Medal of Honor. This movie is inspiring to me because, despite incredible opposition from the enemy and his fellow soldiers, Doss stood fast with his beliefs. He proved them wrong by being himself, and regardless of what he faced, he faced it with the grace of the lord. I took the lesson to heart. From then on, I worked to serve others in my community and family to the best of my ability. I strive to be a better person and not hold grudges against others who have done me wrong. This movie demonstrates who I want to be as a person, and I will try for the rest of my life to be as honorable, heroic, and humble as Private Desmond Doss was.

Thousands of inventions save lives in our modern society, from X-ray machines to stethoscopes. However, one invention started this healing trend: the syringe. This seemingly simple invention is a building block that allowed doctors to understand the human body. Now it is used every day in our medical system. The first known use of this device was in Greek, Roman, and Egyptian cultures for the ritual of anointing the body with oil and even as a plunger for changing pitch in musical instruments. In 1628, William Harvey discovered the existence of blood circulation in the human body. This idea, in the following years, was the basis for the syringe. This was the first invention that allowed for the injection of fluids such as blood into the circulatory system. At the time, this was typically used for animal-to-animal transfusions until 1818 when James Bundell was officially credited with the first human-to-human transfusion after saving a woman in the aftermath of childbirth. In 1853, the modern hypodermic needle was created by Charles Gabriel Pravaz and Alexander Wood. However, this life-saving tool was not always life-saving. The syringe was used when the existence of germs and blood types was not yet known until the 19th century. This caused many people to lose their lives because of infections, and their bodies rejected the opposite blood types. The deaths of these people are a tragedy that is recognized, but like all great things, the syringe evolved. From hollow reeds to glass to metal to plastic. The plastic syringe, which is now used today, allows for the inexpensive and sterile use that prevents infections and deaths. The history of this tool is fascinating, as our history still affects us years after they're all dead and gone. Similar to the needles used in the Red Cross, the needles and syringes allow the common person to be a part of the lifesaving process of giving blood and plasma. Blood that saves the lives of people in everyday car accidents or plasma that helps children fight cancer. This instrument is a perfect example of the inspiring idea about how the simplest thing can make the biggest difference.