Personal Statement

When people ask me who impacted my life, most people think that I’ll say my mom or dad. Not in this case, I mean it’s not that I don’t look up to them because I do, they’re the reason why I am alive and am how I am. It’s just that someone has impacted my life in a bigger way. His name is Father James Kieter. He is he current pastor at Assumption school, President at Assumption-Guadalupe school and also St. Peter Claver Catholic high school.

Father James Kieter is from a small town in Nebraska he told us that everyone knew everyone there. He told us one story that impacted me. He told us how he had been adopted because his mother couldn’t handle 3 kids and she gave him away. He got adopted and placed into a Catholic family. He had support from his parents to do whatever he wanted in his life. He was studying to be a doctor at UNL, but he said he wasn’t happy with his life. He explored the opportunity of being be a priest. He absolutely loved it, that empty spot that he had, had been filled. He later investigated about his birth mother and family and found out were they lived and everything, but the thing that was an impact on him was that his birth family wasn’t Catholic. He said “ God had it planned for me since the beginning”. I believe in that, I believe that God has a plan for all of us and if we listen to him we will be on that path.

I met Father James kieter while I was attending Assumption School. He took over the church for a priest who had left. Father Kieter was very involved in school, he also made mass fun and he would be strict if we didn’t sing at mass. As I once remembered when we were in 8th grade he made us stay after mass and he came out and yelled at us, don’t take it wrong way he yelled at us telling us that everyone looks up to us and we are supposed to be a role model. Then also while I was in 8th grade he kept on telling us about this new high school St. Peter Claver. How it was a great opportunity and we should take advantage of it. He’s the reason I am currently attending St. Peter Claver High School.

The reason why Father James is one of the people that I look up to isn’t just because of what he’s been through and how he’s been able to succeed. Its his determination, his determination to finish things. His courage, his courage of going out and doing things not knowing what to expect. Last but not least his faith. I admire the love and faith that he has for God. I wish I had those characteristics.

He once said “You need to be like Peter and step out the boat”, that makes me want to be different and take good risks. He’s a person that has gone through so much and yet he is so positive and amazing. He has accomplished so much in his young life. He has also accomplished the goal of young people looking up at him, and one day I hope to be just like him.