Hello, My name is Jason Cole, and my experience with sepsis comes from my Father who had type 2 diabetes. He was bitten by a spider on his toe and due to his diabetes his foot became infected and he got sepsis. His original treatment was an amputatio of his big toe and constant at home care, but it ultimately lead to a total amputation of his leg and constant required care for the rest of his life. He became wheel chair bound and needed escorted everywhere, and quality of life diminished rapidly as his body never fully recovered. He ultimately passed away about three years later from the injury via complications with his diabetes and cancer. Its direct impact on me is the loss of my father, but also the constant care, demands, and stress it put on me as someone who was already living pay check to pay check and trying to make ends meet. It some times feels that the rest of the world is out of touch with reality when it comes to the lives of those responsible for people with disabilities, or irreparable damage. My Father not only needed constant care at home, but it was my responsibility to get him to and from the doctor's office, or hospital anywhere from 2-3 times a week. Many places of employment find that unacceptable and will not give you that time off, or they won't hire you at all. At the time, I lived in Fairbury Nebraska, and was trying to find better work. The better work never came because of my responsibilities. These responsibilities were also unpaid and were an entire day's worth of activities going from Fairbury to Creighton hospital, one to two hour long appointments, and then a drive back. There were several nights I broke down and cried, or was at a loss of what to do. Many days I didn't sleep, or eat, and for all intents and purposes, was a zombie going through the motions. My Father was going through substantially worse problems, but it can still be difficult taking care of them. Something that didn't cross my mind until later is, sometimes, the individual going through these situations lean toward suicide or depression because they feel the ones they love may be better off without them due to the burdens placed upon them. So something I have come to take with me is to remain selfless as possible, because those experiencing these situations may take your words, emotions, and body language differently than you might expect them to. Attached is a picture of my dad and I. I typically leave it as my Facebook picture because I'd argue it was the last truly carefree and happy point of our lives together.

I'm a hodophile with a fancy for tackling anything the current area offers. In a rough summary, my favorite hobby is traveling and practicing the arts of everyday life. I've completed 49 states and six countries and intend to tackle more. From backpacking from Astoria, Oregon to Sonoma, California, Hiking the mountains in Korea and surfing in Guanacaste. I have a sense of wanderlust I will probably never be able to scratch. When I'm home, as fast as the cherry blossoms come and go, so too am I out the door to go somewhere else. My upcoming adventure is a trip to Morroco traversing up Portugal, Spain, Italy, and finally concluding in Greece. There's nothing more impressive to me than experiencing what the world has to offer and the stories people tell from all over the world in ways I would never have guessed to tell.

Depression is the comfortable sweater you always have on but can't find a reason to take it off. You sleep with it, walk around the house all the time with it, and leave the house unkempt because you don't care. This sweater has a familiar scent that makes you long for something that isn't there. You don't want to wash it in fear of removing whatever longing memory is attached to the scent or feel. The sweater in the heat is uncomfortable, but you don't care. You'd rather sweat and be miserable instead of removing the burden. It's a weight you can't relinquish. You can't let go, and in the end, instead of releasing whatever is holding you down, you embrace the weight and feeling and consider it a positive part of you. Fast forward six years, you don't know where the time has gone, you still can't sleep, your friends are calling you, thinking you're dead. You've deleted your social media and drunk or slept your twenties away at this point. At least your sweater is still kind of cozy, so at least that is a positive. Something happens. For one day, one brief instance, you take your sweater off and feel an odd sensation. The crisp, cold wind hits you. You don't like it very much, but then the sun's warmth caresses your face. The breeze warms up; you embrace all of nature's wonders around you. You ask yourself if this is what you missed out on experiencing all these years after you crawled into a hole when your father passed away. The answer is yes. You still wear your sweater around the house from time to time. It's too hot to focus on any given task. Going outside sounds miserable. You deliberately turn the air on and warp your surroundings to keep the sweater on; it is comfortable, after all. Once it gets too hot, you decide to take it off. You can feel the wood of your table, the soft sheets on your bed, and your pillows. When you go outside, it isn't as cold this time. You call your friends and socialize, one raspy sentence at a time. The brain fog that clouded your head dissipates, and words and goals take shape and have meaning. You look back and wonder what you have lost from the years that passed by. You attempt to throw away the sweater only to turn around and pick it back up. You try to put it on, but it's too hot and uncomfortable. It smells horrendous too. The hardest thing you do ends up being washing it. Your sweater doesn't smell or feel the same, but at the end of the day, it's still your sweater. As time heals the wounds, you realize you don't need to wear your memories constantly. You don't have to keep it unwashed, and you don't have to throw it away. You embrace it as part of who you are. Wrap it around your waist, slap it on your shoulder if you want, or don't wear it at all that day. If you see someone else struggling the same way you are, maybe they need to know it's okay to take their sweater off from time to time too.

I am a problem solver. An issue between friends? If someone is struggling to find something I'll help them. If a friend requires a service, I'll find a way to do it. Helping people; it's what I do. During the year 2020 cities shut down, attempting to accomplish services was next to impossible. What is not discussed but in demand? Around, but not fierce in competition. Food is often a staple go-to for the average individual, but I dug further. I did not want to create a supply chain for Etsy, nor did I want to compete with an abundance of individuals with an easy start-up cost. I looked around and saw dogs, cats, and various other animals. I called local grooming companies and discovered that all of the groomers in my area are backed up by months with hundreds of people on a waitlist. Even though the grooming shops were open, per covid, they could only hold so many employees and dogs at a time. The solution? Mobile dog grooming. Now, what separates it from the rest? Mobile Dog Grooming not only complemented covid regulations ((1 on 1, no contact.)) It also allowed the customer to stay at home and we come to them. What separated me from the other mobile dog groomers is my emphasis on working with high social anxiety animals. Most groomers in the mobile field did not want to deal with huskies, shepherds, huge 200 lb dogs. I embraced them and converted them into my niche. I specialized in high social anxiety dogs and wanted to get myself recognized. The average dog has gone over a year without a groom ((covid)) and other individuals were looking to purchase animals with their new stimulus checks. I called the local no-kill shelters to team up with them. I will groom the animals if they're adopted for free to show my work. I serviced Omaha and Fremont Nebraska. I've become recognized and provided charitable work to great causes. I have accomplished numerous goals with one task. Volunteer work, reputation, building clients, and rapport, but most of all, I got to help hundreds of animals find homes. The mobile dog grooming experience taught me that there is more than one way to accomplish a task and to operate a service. I will apply this knowledge to my upcoming goals and five-year plan. The world is moving into a digital age and so I have transitioned my degree to complement both the medical field and computer science so that I can transition into computer programming if I'm not accepted into med school. This is incredibly efficient because of how it transitions into my life outside of the military. I can take all of these skills and convert them into programming for my real estate and future blockchain designs. I intend to build programs to help me micromanage rental homes and my business. The beginning of this project will be purchasing starter homes and gravitating toward three-bedroom homes in military-focused areas. They're not looking to buy homes, want to live off base, and have good landowners. I like helping military service members.

Change. I believe our brightest stars come from within the mass deemed the most hopeless. As a highly influential figure, I encourage helping those communities/people. True grit is in those who are most unfortunate. These are also the people who get to see the result of our decisions and everything we ignore. The people who know what needs changing in this world aren't the individuals who never frequent the most desperate locations. Instead of building away from the impoverished, we should restore them and help them grow. I stand for better education in the forgotten communities, better clinics, better business opportunities within the area. I stand for better infrastructure and rewarding our community for cleaning up their homes. I stand for never leaving a fallen comrade.

Your father can't read or write, your mom left; you're 13 years old educating yourself because you cannot attend a public school. What do you do? The world changes as you dive deeper into the unknown. In a town of 800 people with books dating back to the 70s, no computer, and solar technology is still a concept. Solar panels already existed 100 miles west. Ignorance defines most of the rural mid-west and coming from a family with little to no educational background while being home-schooled did me no favors. It started with curiosity. How do I obtain a vehicle, how do I file my taxes? Why are these people being mean to this person who doesn't speak English? What is life outside of Fullerton Nebraska? Different, vast, complex, fascinating. Education inspired me to travel to 5 countries and 49 states. I now understand why my dad could not control his diabetes. It allowed me to be one of the only family members without chronic health problems. Education helps me know that if an influencer or a media source tells me a piece of information with misleading facts, I can decipher the content. If you understand that having multiple sources to reference and cultural background helps better inform you of whether the information was factual or publicity. Education helped me understand that if a person bows and says to me, "kamsahamnida." They are not wrong and do not have to learn English. Wherever I go, the culture and people will be different. Education allows you to appreciate these opportunities to explore views, ideas, habits that you may have never thought of or experienced. Education is experiences and concepts that help shape where you reside; inform your friends about the one-dollar recipes that you learned in Korea, or Mexico with your friends so that they can afford to eat. Education allows you to understand that you don't need to be a type-A personality to lead, educate, inspire, and motivate people into better lives or a more complex way of understanding the world around them. What if I told you there are children in Africa whose only world is an old soccer ball, a few rabid dogs, cheap meals fresh from the jungle, and the same 10 kids they see every single day? A large city gathering over there is 10 villages all coming in to see their kids play "football." In the U.S that is a town of 100. Knowledge allows you to understand that these people might be happier than you.