Like Jack Terry, what I thought would be the end of my story turned out to be the start of an even greater chapter. While I didn't go through the horrors of the Holocaust, I tried to kill myself by driving into a tree last February. Although the severity of these events contrasts, they both represent parts of our lives that were painful in the moment but allowed us to grow more than the "easy" path would have. Seeing how Jack Terry made his life so great and meaningful after going through such terrible things fills me with hope that I can do the same thing. To go into more detail, my suicide attempt was not a random event but rather a culmination of years of struggling with mental health and loneliness. I have a long family history of depression and anxiety, so poor genetics combined with growing up gay in a rural, extremely religious Midwestern town both played huge parts in my irrational decision. Yet, the most important lesson I have learned from my struggles is that I need to keep pushing myself to be better and not let myself become hopeless, but instead feel bad about my situation. Even something as simple as watching the news and seeing how much worse many other people in the world have it than I do motivates me to realize that my life has purpose and that I can achieve amazing feats if I truly try. Simply put, I now know that I am the author of my life and I have control of what I want to do with the amazing gift of life. Looking at another aspect of the lessons I have learned, I am now excited to use my studies and training in college to bring about the change I want to see in the world. My dream job is a Human Resources (HR) manager. This is because bringing others happiness, whether through listening, validating, or fixing problems, truly fulfills me. Thus, I feel that if I were able to fund my education, I could make a huge impact on the world by ensuring that no one, or at least the people I come into contact with, ever feels the way I did on that fateful day. I wouldn't wish the mental state I sadly had on that day on my worst enemy, so if I had the opportunity to oversee a company's workers in order to make each and every one of them feel safe, seen, and heard, happiness would flood my heart, and I could rest easy knowing that I was doing good in the world. To summarize, Jack Terry's heroic story of overcoming such a terrible fate to become an incredible, world-changing figure gives me hope that I can do the same. Even though I haven't gone through nearly as many hardships, I have dealt with difficulties in my life like mental health struggles and feeling alone from being queer in an unaccepting area. I am so excited to use my studies to make a change in the world for the better, to bring others hope, safety, and comfort. I pray that I will have the opportunity to do so on a larger scale than I currently have access to, whether through managing HR or completing more volunteer work.