Throughout my four years of high school I was always asked, what do you want to do when you're older? For my first two years it was either athletic training or studio music producing. When I was going into my junior year of high school I saw the movie When the Game Stands Tall. Whenever I think of that movie I go back to the scene where their coach takes them to see wounded veterans rehabilitating. That was one of the moments I knew what I wanted to do with my life.

I grew up with the notion that these men and women don't have to do what they're doing; they want to. They make it their mission to protect and serve the United States of America fully knowing that they may lose their lives. That, to me, is a person I aspire to be.

This notion came to life when I was in middle school and my mom knew someone that was in the Marine Corps and lost both his legs fighting for our freedom. My softball team would make cards for him and my mom would take him some of his favorite things whenever she would visit him. I saw how moved she was by his strength and from then on I had the idea in the back of my mind that I wanted to do something revolving around the military. I learned from this experience that sometimes our greatest ideas and aspirations don't come alive until we're ready to handle them.

My life was never the same from the time I realized what I wanted to do with my life. Halfway through my junior year, all within a month, I was cheated on, I faced an extreme tragedy on my end, and I was diagnosed with a dysautonomic illness. I struggled to find people that accepted me and I struggled to figure out who I was. The thing was, that was never the problem. The biggest problem, was that I doubted myself. I doubted I was strong enough and I doubted that I could handle the medical struggles.

I've always had a Chris Kyle point of view. Everyone was betting against me and it really made me mad, so I pushed myself no matter how much it sucked. Multiple times I wanted to give up but it was either too hard to give up or I was too stubborn to give up. Throughout this whole time I wondered why I was so hard on myself. I mean, there were people out there losing their lives for my freedom and here I am moping about some illness. So I put my selfishness aside and decided that it was my duty, as a civilian, to give back.

My goal isn't to get these veterans back to where they were before, but instead better than they were before they were injured. If they were running a 5.2 I wanted them running a 4.2. My freedom is too valuable not to pay it back.

So, maybe I can't get a set contract with the Army. Maybe I won't be able to serve. But I can help the people who have helped me live the life I truly deserve.