I feel that others stories can have a huge impact on your own story and they way you view life. Personally, I love reading biographies because they are so insightful to how different people have different perspectives and different accounts regarding historical events. One story that has particular importance to me is when my sister was dealing with a seemingly unending sense of dispair during her eleventh year in high school. She had the impression that she wasn't beautiful and had nothing to add in this world. I insisted that she was both beautiful and quintessential in my life and our family's lives. After a few months she seemed to be getting better and life returned to its previous state in our household. This event had a significant toll on my life because it reaffirmed my belief in living only for the following day and trying to enjoy every moment because that is the only way to have any degree of satisfaction.

-Alex Cumming