I personally think that the one of the most important finance lesson's I have learned is that credit card debt is a quick way to lower your credit score. So much of the credit score is based on available credit so it's not a bad thing to have credit cards, but carrying a high balance on those cards is detrimental to the credit report. So when having to put items and purchases on the credit card its extremely important to not good enough to simply just make minimum payments and continuously let the interest on those purchases just keep accruing, you should really be making larger payments to make sure that you get that balance back down to zero as quickly as possible. At the end of the day it is really just a part of responsible spending and a way to help ensure that at the end of the day you're not paying more for things then you have to.

My senior season was set to be a great one. It began with two record breaking games but then my Absence Seizures turned into full scale Grand Mal seizures. The escalation of my seizure activity forced me to miss games and I struggled mentally coming to grips with the idea that my season was not going turn out as expected. Worrying about letting my team down and losing college offers had me struggling. After talking to my coaches, I realized that I was still had a role to play to help my team. I began using my experience and to help others. On those Friday's I couldn't play I found myself assisting my coaches and being another set of eyes on the field and discovered that eventually, coaching is something I may want to get into. Throughout this process I felt as if I become more of a leader, but I didn't realize it until after the season was over when several teammates told me that they gained even more respect for me when they watched me handle the situation the way I did. Through all of this adversity, I could have easily just have said epilepsy won and let it determine the outcome of my life. But that's not me. I am a fighter and am not going to let epilepsy determine my life and that determination to make it back, work through my adversities helped me secure an offer to play DIII college football which I have accepted. This is my life, and these are my dreams. It's through persistence and perseverance that I am going to reach those dreams and some some misfiring brain neurons are not going to stand in my way.

As a person living with epilepsy, it completely turned my life sideways for a little bit. I was first diagnosed with Absence Epilepsy when I was a Sophomore in High School. Which made it really hard for me to focus on school and in normal conversation. During my senior year playing football I was having the year of my life with being 90 percent passing in the first game and then the next game I broke the school record for total yards recorded in a varsity football game. Two days after that game I had my first tonic-clonic seizure. I awoke from the seizure in an ambulance, and I had no idea what had just happened to me. I was confused, scared, and I couldn’t speak. It didn’t really set in until the next day what had really happened. This was the first time I had really dealt with this kind of adversity in my life as all I could think about was my team and letting my team down. Growing up, this was the time I had always dreamt of. Quarterback, my senior year, poised to be a great year and then all of that just seemed to be gone. During that time, I learned a lot about being a teammate and realized that even though I couldn’t take the field there were other ways I could help the team and decided to turn my focus to that. I took it upon myself to essentially become another coach and help my backup and other players on the team to give us the best chance to win on Fridays. Eventually I was cleared to return, got my position back, and came back like I had never left. That return was short lived. I had another seizure at practice in the weight room which caused me to miss another game. It was this point though that I came to an understanding. I finally understood that epilepsy was just a part of my life. I didn’t have to let it define me. I came to the realization I understood my body, began to consult with my doctor and beyond medicine, learned what I could do to mitigate the risk of my seizures, heal my body after I had them, and I decided I would learn to function despite my seizures. That seizure did make me miss another game but in the long run I was able to finish the season but what I learned over the course of that season was bigger than that. Football or any sport is not going to be here forever, and it can be taken away from you in a second. I also learned that in every dark situation there is light if you choose to see it. Regardless of your situation, you always have choices and one of those is the choice to help others. Above all, ultimately through all of this, that is the choice I’ve made. I want to help others like those around me helped me throughout my battle and escalation of my epilepsy. It also taught me to not take anything for granted to take advantage of every opportunity you have. So when asked what inspired me me, it was my circumstance and situation. Through all of my struggles and adversities, I found my true calling and that is to help others as a Sports Psychologists. I discovered that the mental aspect of recovery can be just as critical as the physical, and without my situation, I may have never known that.

I am choosing to pursue a career in sports because sports have helped me deal with some of the most difficult times in my life and I want to intern help people who are going through their own issues which I can do with a career in sports psychology. As a sophomore in high school I learned that I had Absence Epilepsy. That condition was under control pretty much but two games into my high school football season as a senior, my condition worsened and I began to have tonic-clonic seizures which ended up sidelining me for multiple games. During the course of the season I ended up having two of them, one of them in the weight room with all of my team mates there. Mentally this was extremely tough as I was set to have a record setting season as a QB and after two games was well on track as I had just been named player of the week in the state of Kentucky and all of a sudden I felt like it was all being taken from me. After a day or two though I decided that there was a bigger picture and that bigger picture was my team and teammates. Instead of pouting and worrying about losing my position, never playing again, or any of the other negatives that seemed to have me drowning I instead of turned my attention to other ways of helping my teammates. I began working with my backup that was filling in for me and helping him get in a position to help our team win. On Fridays our coaching staff put me up in the box to talk to them about what we need to run and what we can take advantage of. Through all of this I learned more about being a team player and what it means to be a teammate then I ever would have if all of these adversities wouldn't have come into my life. These experiences are what I want to share with others as a sports psychologists. Whether it is a player rehabbing from an injury, or someone grieving over loving a loved one I want to be that person that shows them that we can use sports as a healing agent as well. Throughout all of my struggles I was still able to get a offer to play collegiate football and have accepted that offer and know full well going into it that my experiences and struggles are not over, but I can without a doubt use my struggles to help others. I firmly believe that my experiences as an athlete will allow me to relate to the countless number of other athletes that will also one day need help.