My name is Jayden Simank. I am one of three boys. I have a passion for baseball and would do anything to keep playing the game. I am a first time college student for my family. I would have to say my biggest road block in life for my future is me. I have had a hard childhood in life. My dad was addicted to drugs and this illness left him absent from a lot while I was growing up. It’s not something that I bring up or talk about or even want anyone to know about. I’m not ashamed of my dad at all. He was the best loving funniest dad anyone could have when he was good. Those are the memories I choose to hold on to. Because of this, I harvested tons of anger in life for so long. Life was hard living like this. I wanted a change, started reading and listening to inspirational blogs and going to church. God has given me a light to a new way to look at life. He is definitely my way to remove the negative block that wasn’t slowing me to grow in life. I now look back and realize that I was living in darkness. I never understood until this past year, but my mom would always tell me words that my life- my choice on what to do with it. I understand now. I choose happiness! I choose to live with a purpose. Loosing my dad five years ago changed me. There will forever be an emptiness inside of me that I want filled. Filling that void with good to make both my parents proud is important to me. Filling that with success for myself is even more important. Life is just full of roadblocks. I feel like I’ve had to learn how to overcome these at a very early age. I didn’t always make the exact right choices when any kind of disappointment came my way, but over time I’m learning how to handle the roadblocks in life. First try to illuminate any negativity from life or hanging around the wrong people. Mindset of where and what I want to become is so important in my journey. My hard times are still there, but I choose to find good in my days. I choose to be successful and ga good person. With these changes and illuminating my negative mental roadblocks I have been able to get in college, have a goal for life.

I believe in working hard for what you want to accomplish and not giving up no matter how hard life gets. Baseball has always been a passion of mine. I have been playing since the age of three. I just love the game and love the competition. I love being able to push myself to do something I love. This has followed me to be a life motto. Life is tough but I will always push to be and do better. At the age of eight years old I have a vivid memory of a doctor telling me that I could no longer participate in the game I had grown to love. I had found out that I have a missing left coronary artery. This was something that athletes just simply drop dead from with no warning on the field. In that moment we were told that we were lucky to have caught this and needed open heart surgery to correct. My parents prepared for this life changing surgery, but the more research that was done realized that I had never had a symptom or complications. They pushed for a second option and asked for others to be contacted. A specialist was contacted and after many test and screens I was released for sports again. In that moment I promised myself I would do no less than my lest in everything I touch. School hasn’t been easy for me me but I am determined with my second chance to push myself to be better. I worked hard in baseball and made myself noticeable for being a small Hispanic kid that needed to stand out. I pitch and an excellent outfielder. I was able to walk on for a tryout at Blinn college to make the red- shirt program. I will keep pushing to make that team and make a name for myself. This is just an added bonus to be able to get the education my mom had always pushed for me to have. I lost my dad five years ago and she does her best to give me all she can. In all odds people would expect me to be an angry kid who gives up because of life being u fair, but I choose more. I want more. I would really appreciate this help to cover the cost that we can’t afford to get to my finish line.

I have had a love for baseball since five years of age. At the age of eight this was taken away from me. The one outlet for forgetting all the family trauma I was going through. I had a father that was addicted to drugs and was often absent from my childhood. At the age of eight years old at a routine child well check at doctor, my family was told that my blood pressure was high and advised us to go see a cardiologist. A couple weeks later we went for the pediatric cardiologist appointment and I met Dr. Goldstein, from Austin pediatric cardiologist. He listened to my heart, took my blood pressure and thought he heard a heart murmur. The doctor then asked my mom to let him get a sonogram to appease him. He told us that the sonogram would be no more than ten minutes. I watched an entire movie while the lady just kept clicking away. I knew no better, but my moms face said it all. I could see the panic on her face. After one long hour, and watching the entire movie of Nemo. Dr. Goldstein came in to tell us that I did not have a heart murmur, but we would have a long road ahead of us. From that day on, my life changed forever. I was told that I needed to go to Dell Children’s hospital to have a contrast cat scan and mri. He suspected I was missing my left coronary artery. My mom had millions of questions and then asked to speak to the doctor alone. I knew something big was happening. We got in the car to go home and right away the hospital card to tell us to be there the very next day. The only main clear thing I remember is being told that I could no longer participate in baseball. I was playing club select baseball. I couldn’t even participate in pe class at school. I was shoved around to so many doctors within the next couple of years. Depressed was something I was learning the feeling of. My father was addicted to drugs and it took him away from so much of my childhood. I was angry but determined to not let it affect my success. This is where baseball came in. For a couple of years I was forced not to play, then after many many visits to doctors and specialists and no signs of my health being compromised I begged my mom to let me play again. Dr. Goldstein made us sign off on this, but soon I was back on the field. This second chance to do something I love has made me push hard for the things I love. I have a goal and will accept nothing less. I continue to work hard. I have even made the red-shirt program with Blinn. My goal in life is to be successful and to make my family proud. My fad has since passed away, but I still would love to show him and my mom what I’m capable of. I would very much appreciate the opportunity to help me with funds to make this happen.