Throughout my life I haven’t seen many acts of true love. When it comes down to it people don’t want to give what they have for someone else if it meant their quality of life is affected. Something happened; however, changing my perspective on life a lot. It seems like telling it, that’s a normal thing to do. While it might’ve been to some, to me it wasn’t until then. Background on what had happened. I grew up in a nuclear family. Brothers with different dads and a sister with a different mom. This story is about that sister. Her name is Kelsey. She was a teen mom and the birth of my nephew almost killed her. Later in her life she had some really unfortunate news, her kidney’s were shutting down. She had a degenerative kidney disease that did unfortunately take her mother’s life before I was even born. It ended up being a genetic issue and slowly her kidney’s began to fail. This is where I witnessed compassion. Everyone says they would do anything for their child. Myself, because I’m not a parent I didn’t think I would. I guess it’s different based on the narrative. My dad is currently fifty-six and thriving. This event took place back in 2020. My sister was an adult with her kid living independently. After it got bad she was placed on a port and could no longer support herself, she needed a transplant. They had put her on the list and tried finding a donor. My sisters and I were fourteen and sixteen and weren’t viable options. My dad, being the kind of man he is, didn’t even hesitate. He’s always been selfless. He was, however, overweight with high blood pressure issues. He didn’t care if that procedure killed him, so long as my sister could live to watch her kid grow up. Of course the hospital couldn’t accept it at the moment they had to run their tests and he did have to loose weight. He lost that weight within three weeks. He ended up being a match for her and donated his kidney to her. He’s a tough man, so as soon as the anesthetic wore off, he got up and went to go check on his kid. We have a photo with him and a drip tube, in a hospital gown, looking over her. It was just a funny, satire photo at the time, but now it’s almost like he’s her guardian angel in a way. I had never seen anything like that in my life. To this day, I still can’t believe it. Under my own circumstances, whether that was my twin or any family now, I wouldn’t even think twice. He changed my perspective on how I thought about my life. If you love someone so unconditionally, you would give them the world regardless of how it affects you. If your standard of living is a little different it doesn’t matter because you saved someone. As soon as I got my license, even though my mom didn’t agree, I’m an organ donor. If, god forbid, something were to happen to me I figured, why let my organs die with me? There are people who wait years on lists waiting to receive a donation and if I could help save a life I would. My dad taught me what true compassion is and I’ll bring that with me for the rest of my life.

The people that make up the foundations of our community might just not be who you expected. I’ve met some of the kindest souls throughout my high school experience, here’s how! My senior year I have realized I haven’t made the most out of the time I had. The intention was to just do more and become a greater part of my school community, but I ended up doing a lot more then just that. This year I’ve decided to do cheerleading for my school. My thought while doing this wasn’t much but something amazing came out of it. Not far into me starting I participated in a kid camp. We thought our future panthers cheerleaders different things. From that I realized kids actually look up to me. I have to set the example for them, so they can work towards a goal. Then there’s who I look up to. Christmas time we bought presents for every resident at a local nursing home. I met my hero. His name was Mr. Dave and I had the honor of gifting him a present I put much thought into. He was a veteran and I still think about him. I met tons of kids and grandparents from this experience, which is more than what I thought I would get out of a varsity sport. Next is something I’ve been doing since Freshmen year. I’ve been apart of our chapters FFA and have held officer positions including my present, president. We plan many things for our members. Things like fun trips to show that agriculture is fun, by also teaching its importance. Other chapters around the county, as well as ourselves, go to a local farm and do all kinds of activities. We talk to professionals in the field and get to help the farm get ready for its fall opening. We get to meet the people who make up the foundation of our nation and assist them in tasks, while learning about everything. Farmers help our nation grow, playing a very crucial part in our society and communities. While there is a lists of activities around the community that I have participated in like teaching kids the importance of art or attending pep rallies. I have given my time to Meals on Wheels and I cooked. I met this stern man from New York named Mr. John and these two lovely ladies both named Ms. Kathy. They cooked and prepared food at almost a full-time rate. The job wasn’t the most fun, but it was so worth it. While we don’t meet the people they call the “grandparents of our community” just being able to cook them meals with all the love I can makes it seem so worth it. I didn’t have to meet them to know I loved every single one of them and it was an honor helping everyone out to prepare food for them. So to answer that final question. So who does make up the foundation of our community? Our communities foundation relies on everyone taking part. Whether it’s the grandparents that can no longer afford to feed themselves, the countless members of the homeless population in need of food, the farmers who grow and provide the food we eat. From the smallest child with all their hopes and dreams, making up the future. To the Veterans who have just about seen and done it all living their lives retired they have all paved and will pave the path for us all. So we need to do our part and give back to them!