I love people. Every person I've met has found a way to fascinate me, and nothing has satisfied that love more than helping those people. My lifetime dream has been to create a lasting positive impression on everyone I should come in contact with. By reaching a position in society where I can be a positive role model to youth everywhere, I've wanted to impact many, starting with the younger generations of the world. I've tried to create a better person in myself to present to others with confidence. Throughout this walk to round-out my life, I've dedicated my self at all ends of the spectrum. I've excelled in all areas of athletics, music, academics, leadership, community service, and church involvement.

      Taking a break from an invigorating late-night Calculus cram session, I read a letter I'd received from my Youth Director. "What do you love to do?" was the question written in bold. As I let my mind wander, my pen became alive in my hand, scratching down the deepest enjoyments of my life. "Meet people, teach people, be outside, trailblaze, camp, travel to new places, climb trees, entertain, moutain bike, play volleyball, ski, energize people by leading," just to name a few. From that brainstorm came the first ever future plan for my life. Once I got out of college, my goal was to operate a Christian "extreme" camp, including rafting, camping, backpacking, and possibly a future ski area. This plan is still number one in my book, but I'm starting to feel that it is not enough. Looking again at what I love to do, the "meeting, talking, leading, and speaking to other people, traveling, and proving people wrong" are beginning to stand out more on my brainstormed paper. I want to enter politics, creating a better life for people while still being visible enough for people to see a true-to-life strong-hearted leader ahead of them. I want people to have their own readily sought-after sense of pride.

      These activities were all drawn together on February 12, 1996. Standing in the fellowship hall of my church, I was approached by Dick Amundson, the President of Tentmakers Youth Ministry, a national institution concerned with the training and placement of youth directors nation-wide. After one minute of small talk, he just smiled at me and said, "How would you like to get up and give a speech in front of over 1000 people?" I swallowed, looked at him, and said, "Sure." He went on to tell me about Tentmakers Youth Ministry National Celebration Banquet in Minneapolis, Minnesota, held as a fundraiser each year for this non-profit organization. All I had to do to speak was write a short essay about how Tentmakers Youth Ministry had impacted both me and my church. When I began this feat, I was terrified, but ended up creating a 12 page mini-novel.

      The night of the banquet arrived. As I spoke on top of the platform that night about saving the youth of this world, I could sense a transfer of emotions from my heart right into the people. I felt the crowd begin to understand what Tentmakers Youth Ministry could do for the average kid, me.

      I affected hundreds of people that night. As I reopen letters I'd received after that night, I read, "thanks again...what you said will help...more than you realize," and "brought tears to my eyes as well as hundreds of others that night." Dick Amundson personally wrote that the talk I gave was "the finest that [he'd] ever heard...it was worth every minute [of preparation] in terms of the impact that evening." In addition, my story was published as a newsletter article and I spoke to college students during a retreat at the University of Northern Iowa. Upon the newsletter being completed, I received, "your story will reach the hearts of a lot of people."

      Never before have I done anything that meant so much to me. The impact I impressed upon the average Joe in society: from that night at the banquet and the hundreds reached by the article to each individual college student that came up to me with tears in their eyes wanting me to help -- I know I've changed people's lives. They want to reach out and change others like I've changed them. They want the cycle that I've started to continue turning.

      To keep myself truly happy for the rest of my life, I want to prepare myself for continuing work with people. Even going into college, I will enter the public realtions field, in business management, public communications, or political science. I will receive a bachelor's degree, then continue my education until I feel I'm prepared fully enough to go out into the world and make a difference. That difference will make people happy. I will make them happy by just helping them out, something I love to do.