Impact

I believe that a person's actions should be motivated by their power to impact another person positively.

I grew up in a household where money was put aside to be used for helping others. My dad often comes home after a long day of work, only to leave again to meet with a needy family who had come to our church seeking financial help. My mom never misses an opportunity to remind my brother and I of how blessed we have always been. She brings us with her as she buys up half of the grocery store, filling boxes for other families to use on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

My church provided opportunities to go on mission trips each year. I would travel on a bus that broke down without fail every summer to spend a week working with other teenagers on a project.

I saw how a creating a brand new baseball field could impact the lives of parentless children in North Carolina, or how a re-shingled, rain proofed roof impacted the life of a sweet widow in Michigan whose children had grown and left. 

Later I saw how my performances in musical theatre could have a positive impact on someone else, even if that impact was as small as letting strangers in the audience forget their troubles for a few hours.

Because of the example set by my parents, I learned to watch the effect my decisions had on other people, whether I was singing, building or simply taking time to talk to someone.

I had always wanted to be an astronaut. I visited the NASA Space Centers in Huntsville, Alabama and Cape Kennedy, Florida, and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. I studied books about shuttles, watched movies like Apollo 13, and idolized Sally Ride. On Saturday, February 1, 2003, I woke up early to watch the news and see the crew of the Columbia return home to their families. But as I turned on the news, I could hear the distress in the voices of the news anchors. Having woken up before anyone else in the house, and without a voice, I painstakingly wrote down every detail of the events taking place live on my television screen.

As I watched the families of the crewmembers learn that their loved ones would not be coming home, I discovered the impact these broadcasts could have on the lives of the television audience.

The news broadcast enabled these families to share memories of their lost husbands, fathers, wives and mothers with the people of America. Families were touched by the courage of the families of each astronaut. Children were inspired to try harder academically to realize dreams of building other spacecraft, or journeying to space themselves.

I decided that my love for telling the stories of others could have a greater impact on others than my love of flying. There is something so gratifying about doing something you love and seeing someone else benefit from it.