A Purpose

I used to always wonder what my purpose was. I asked myself if I was doing enough and if not, where could I make myself useful. In high school I was always involved in extracurricular activities and knew I wanted to carry that over into my college career. When I came to UNI I had somewhat of an idea what Dance Marathon was, but it wasn’t really on my radar. I had no idea what I wanted to do, and it was so new to me and there were so many different options. I met wonderful friends coming into my freshman year and one of those friends had mentioned joining Dance Marathon. I had not yet decided what I wanted to do with my free time, so I decided to sign up for a committee last minute and went to my first meeting that same night. To sum it all up, Dance Marathon showed me my purpose and gave me a reason. It opened my eyes and gave life a whole new meaning. This was God showing me that the precious gift of my life has a purpose.

I came into UNI also kind of knowing what major I wanted to go into but ended up changing my mind a few times. I always have had a love for kids and knew I wanted to work with them one way or another. Dance Marathon made my love for kids grow even stronger and helped me realize I could use my passion and put it into a career. As I work on helping change the lives of sick and injured children, I also am working towards my dream of helping children with communication differences and difficulties as a Speech Language Pathologist. As I begin one of my last semesters of undergrad, I realize the amazing ways God has chose to use me, and for that I am forever grateful.

Going into my first big event I instantly knew I had to become even more involved. I spent

my sophomore year as a morale captain with 39 amazing humans and made lifelong friends along the way. When people ask me what my 'aha moment' was aka how I knew Dance Marathon is where I needed to be, I tell them it was listening to a miracle kiddos story, and that story was Austin Schroeder’s. I listened to his story through his amazing parents who help keep his story going, it brought an abundant amount of emotions over me as I listened. Knowing I do what I can to help families such as the Schroeder’s gave me the desire to want to do more. As my sophomore year came to a close, I chose to apply for a position on the executive board, now here I am serving as the Director of Campus Relations and spreading my love for this organization and its kiddos to students all over UNI’s campus. Just another one of God’s ways of showing me my purpose. I work with an AMAZING group of hard working, passionate, and loving people.

Dance Marathon is my reason. Being part of an organization that is one generation fighting for the next has been life changing and eye opening. I hope to carry all the lessons I have learned throughout my positions in DM through my life.

I will always live everyday FTK.

“Life is a gift and God gave you that gift for a reason. You have a purpose.”