"I struggled a lot last semester with school. I’ve always had a 4.0. Last semester I had a lot of financial struggles. I had a lot of emotional struggles. I had some family issues. I was also taking a bunch of classes that I hated. The thing I learned is that you are only responsible for your own actions and feelings. You just get to be a leader within yourself. You don’t need a big group. You don’t need a big title. You don’t need anything. Just that confidence and that self-awareness of being a leader.

Being from Idaho, I don’t have family down here, so I think it’s so instrumental to find a support system. I didn’t move down here with a bunch of my buddies. I moved down here, rented out a room in some apartment, they set me up with some roommates. It’s not like I came down here with a game plan. I just came down here to find myself and figure it out. A year and a half in it’s finally really starting to happen. That’s why it’s so important for people to have some form of a support system.

My best friend Jennifer is the most amazing person on the planet. She’s an instrumental part of my support system. We’re really different. She’s really shy. I’m really obnoxious, loud and outgoing. She kind of helps keep me grounded. My favorite thing to do with Jen is just driving her to work. We’ll listen to music and sing songs together. It’s good to know that we like the same things, we feel the same way. I’ll purposely be really annoying and obnoxious when we’re listening to music. I’ll turn the music down and sing really bad, but it’s okay because I know we both think it’s funny. It’s something I can only do with Jennifer."