One of my most formative golf moments was when I was volunteering for an Optimist Club Golf Tournament. This event taught me a few meaningful lessons. I learned to be patient and understanding, offer myself and my abilities willingly, and always be mindful, tentative, and cooperative. These three things are core elements of my life that I can attribute to one special day at the Rogers City Country Club with my fellow high school golf team members. For this event, in order to raise money for the golf program, the members of the team would help hand out hot dogs to the players who came by the clubhouse during their rounds. Immediately, I knew I would enjoy this, as I rather liked cooking and serving food. However, I’d still face a few struggles, mainly those to do with not knowing any of the players besides a select few. Despite the strangeness accompanied with talking to strangers, I knew this day would turn out grand. When our coach asked us a question was when the first core element of the day appeared, offer yourself willingly. He said, “I need somebody to set up a sign out front.” After a moment of silence, I offered myself to set it up. I did my job swiftly, and after I was done, the first few players started to drive up. Now, it was time for the first task of the day, grabbing the players’ bags and moving them to their carts. Here is where the next core element of the day took place. When the players drove up, I had to be patient waiting to grab their clubs and hear where they needed to go. I had to repeat this process for two hours. This exercise helped break the social block between myself and these strangers, as now I had talked with almost everyone who would be playing in the day’s event. At the end of this, I felt like I had left a good impression on these people, and that I made their day just a little better. After our first task, it was time to start making hotdogs. We cooked over 100 hotdogs, tinfoil-wrapping and setting them out for the players. However, I realized that the hot dogs were getting cold. To prevent this, I took the initiative and started stacking the hot dogs to conserve as much heat as possible. This is when I learned to be tentative and mindful of what I was doing, as well as how to be cooperative. One of my team members suggested we put the hot dogs on the grill to keep them warm. This was a great idea, allowing us to hand out all of the hotdogs while they were at a nice, warm temperature. The hot-dog-giving, and the event as a whole, were a huge success All the while we were handing out hot dogs, we were conversing with the players, wishing them good luck on their rounds, asking how they were doing, and such things that foster kindness and comradery among strangers. I really quite enjoyed talking with the myriad of faces that came by our hot dog stand. Many of them showed their appreciation through at-will-donations, exemplifying the great work we were accomplishing here. Overall, this event was an impeccable learning experience, one that I enjoyed every moment of. Getting to see all of these people brought together by golf was, in all honesty, beautiful. Through the efforts of our team, the event was a total success. I can’t wait to do it all again.

Throughout my life, my pillar to lean on in times of doubt and fear has been my father. He is the inspiration for my career, as well as the primary contributor to who I am as a person today. Through his constant dedication to his children, showing them what to do, guiding and nurturing their faith, he has proven to me to be the best father I could ask for. For many people, their mother is the one who they come to when the going gets rough. However, when I was a small child, around a year old, my mother left my sister, father, and I for another man. The most profound part of her departure was how she left one single day before my sister’s first birthday. This single action, along with many others, cemented my father’s place as the one I could trust and rely on. I honor my dad for this, for staying with us when she left, being there for it all, no-matter what. I don’t always succeed in showing him the full extent of my appreciation, but I try my best to make sure he knows just how grateful I really am. Regardless of how well I honor my father, he is always there to support me in all that I do. Whether it be through inspirational words, affirmations of faith, or thoughtful actions, he’s constantly reminding me that I’m not alone. One of the biggest things my father has instilled in me is to be constantly building up and pursuing a “personal relationship with God.” These simple words have had a grand impact on who I’ve grown to be. If I can’t bring something to my earthly father, I take it to my heavenly one instead. With this knowledge, I am never left to hold onto my doubts or fears; never left to tackle them on my own. I always have a place to unpack my woes. Like every parent, my father had to make money, so while my sister and I were under the watch of our Nana, he was out working. His work was actually what inspired me to pursue my chosen career, Occupational Therapy. Though my dad never directly did any sort of rehabilitation therapy, he did work in healthcare for a large portion of my life. His stories of his work always fascinated me, and my passion for healthcare only grew from there. As the time for college rapidly approaches, my dad stands right there by my side all the while. He’s been a big help in keeping the stresses of college prep from overtaking me. His voice of reason and conviction weeds out all uncertainty I may have. I can attribute all of who I am today to my father’s constant love and guidance towards me. He has set me upon the rock, a sturdy foundation from which to build a long and prosperous life. I hope that, despite the impossibility of the task, that I may show him my full appreciation for what he has done for me.

Just 2 days before my sister's first birthday, she left us, our own mother. When she left, the path of both our lives changed. After the divorce, it was set in stone that my life was going to be altered, permanently. Going through school almost entirely without a mother was incredibly difficult. My father had to pick up the slack at every part of my educational career. Despite my lack of a mother, I thrived in my circumstances, graduating top of my class from middle school and maintaining a high GPA throughout highschool. My father supported us through various jobs, though primarily through his nursing and geriatric aid jobs. These stood out to me as being fruitful and rewarding careers, inspiring me to study Physical Therapy. But, as with any job requiring a college level education, the classes are costly, and living in a single income home only made that fact more apparent. This scholarship would take some of the financial burden off of my father, allowing him to keep supporting the home while I seek a higher education.