I originally hadn’t planned to be writing an article this week, due to multiple exams for Chemistry, Mind and Brain, and Genetics. After learning about the attacks that occurred on Nov. 13, 2015, in Paris and Beirut, an enormous sense of accountability and gratitude overwhelmed me. I faced the contemplation of the mortality of life and stared into its abyss. I concluded how each moment we have with one another could be the last, or the first of many, but each is equally imperative. Whether these moments are good and bad, they sculpted my current position, passions, and character that I communicate to the world.

So with my privilege to communicate my thoughts on a free platform, as I recognize not many have this privilege, I’d like to use this article as an open, personal and public message to those who have helped me grow in infinite forms. In turn, I hope to initiate a response among others to examine their personal progress and seek for the faces that were there or are still there for their individual journey.

To my teachers:

Ms. Steneken (Sparta Middle School, Life Science), Ken Scognamiglio (Sparta High School, Comparative Anatomy, AP Biology), Frank Setlock (Pope John High School, Honors Biology) and Jeremy Teissiere (Muhlenberg College, Mind and Brain): I want to extend my respect, admiration, and gratitude for your roles in my life as a teacher in my educational institutions. During my first day in Life Science in the seventh grade, I was awestruck in how eager Ms. Steneken was and how passionately she'd told us, “I have the best job in the world.”

Until that point, I’d been terrified of science and fallen under the myth that it was cold, unchanging and quantitative. I immediately became excited about the subjects simply as a result of her love and dedication to the class. She helped me understand that success was not measured by position in the world socioeconomically, by salary or by authority, but it is measured in the fulfillment of what makes you happy. If you are happy with what you do, you will be successful.

For achieving my fullest potential regardless of the adversities I faced, I thank my professors Mr. Setlock and Mr. Scognamiglio for the position I hold now as a college neuroscientist and aspiring graduate school student in neuroscience. In my high school years, they were the ones who pushed my newly discovered interest in science by expressing the relativity of scientific knowledge to my everyday life, the importance of keeping a constant, conscious effort in my studies until the point it was nearly embedded in my skin, and for inspiration to continue my studies as a scientist beyond the classroom.

And to Jeremy Teissere, someone who has significantly impacted my life — not just in my studies as a neuroscientist, but in understanding myself as a human being in this confusing world. In a class I am taking this semester, Mind and Brain, I’ve yielded not only deeper insight into the phenomenal workings of my mind but also into other people around me. I am more conscious of the times I hold judgment of others and ideas. As a result of this not only with other people and my environment but with myself, I have learned and am still learning how imperative and central listening is in our world.

Without these experiences, I wouldn’t be where I am today — a neuroscience major, an inquisitor, a listener and a determined soul seeking out the multiple layers of truth in each aspect in my life.

To my family:

I owe my life to you. I mean this in every literal way one can. I live a life of love because of my parents, my brother, my grandparents, my aunts, my uncles and my cousins. When I strip my thoughts to their primitive skeleton and purest intentions, I find you. My existence is a reaction, representation and motivation of my family, whether some are explicitly or physically present in my life; it is all because of you.

Specifically, I will never be able to truly express how much I thank you for your open arms and minds as I confronted, and still confront, clinical depression and anxiety. When there were times I felt the world would be a better place without me, the strings I held onto and fought for were you all, and in turn because of your love and support through this, I now fight for myself. I fight because you have all shown me that life is worth it; I fight because some of you have lost your way in life and I don’t want to travel down the lonely, dismal path you walk; I fight because I want to show you that when you’re having a tough day, I can be an ally to you with an open heart just as you have been to me. You revive me when I feel I’m drowning and are ultimately the reason why I am able to write this article today.

To my friends (near and far):

Life without you all wouldn’t be a life at all. Though I’ve lost some of you along the way in conflict, distance, death or other ways that life works — I thank you for each of your presences despite the outcome. To the friends who still reach out to me even with physical distance over college, to my friends who are still explicit and active in my lives and to anyone who’s been a friend to me even for a moment, never underestimate the immense appreciation I hold for each and every one of you. You’ve taught me lessons in life that I’ll never be able to replicate, and ones that will never lose their impact of my daily life among all people. Each experience I share with you all enlightens and inspires me every single day of my life. I always learn something new from you, even if it angers or disturbs me. You facilitate me to express myself in the ways I choose, resulting from your supports, beliefs, concerns and criticisms, and I like to think each day I grow because of these.

Writing this article has been an extremely humbling and spiritual process in helping me to cope with my position in the world in these times of a globally dark abyss of violence and pain. I encourage others to take a moment in their day today, expressing explicitly or having a personal reflection, on the mentors of your experience. Think about the different perspectives, whether difficult or simple to acknowledge, that these mentors have presented to you. Strip your experiences, intentions, memories, and decisions to the summation of these mentors. In doing so, I believe that this type of meditation can not only aid oneself as an individual, but as a member of society. We can recognize and acknowledge our progress and in this view, see how each and every action with one another influences ourselves on a moral, societal and obligatory macro level.

"I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better." -Maya Angelou