My name is Terrence West. I am a Detroiter from the East Side. And I care deeply about my community and that's why I continue to live here. How can I contribute my experiences in a meaningful way? That's what I'm thinking about, how can I have a significant impact? How can I say, you know, I come from humble beginnings. Right. But I have an opportunity to do so much more. My trajectory is so much higher. Well, when I remember when I was a child living on Faircrest, we slept... the gas got cut off and it was cold outside like a February, March... And so we were hovered around a kerosene heater in the living room and I remember the wick on it, which is burned so orange and red... And I was just fascinated with it. But I didn't understand that, by us being hovered around this, we could die. 

It's the idea that it actually does get greater later... and it's not just that, you know, just, you just let time pass. It's like you're actively working to get some things done. When I decided to go back to school, living on Joy Road and Southfield and going to community college on Curtis and Southfield, that's a few miles walk... That I had to do, taking night classes... Buses start running early. I just dedicated myself to that, and so while I'm making this journey, rain, sleet, snow, sunny, Monday, Wednesday, Friday at night, hearing gunfire. When I tried to cross 96, I had to slide down a dirt trail and hold on to the wall and scoot this way and make my way across. And I did the same thing on the way back, on this three, four mile walk. And it really just spoke to how much I really wanted it. This is a journey outside of the classroom, outside of studying, outside of just and it's really a how much do you want it? And I think that I want to show folks that if they really stay dedicated, if they stay committed, and then opportunities will open up. And that's the message that I want to give, through all of the trauma, through all the anger, through all the misplaced aggression... I always still dreamed and moved in a way that could potentially give me that possibility. I sit here today and say, I am my happiest, I am my most successful. My outlook is its most positive... and I believe that we can all, folks who come from similar backgrounds, folks who come from a similar struggle, folks who may feel like they aren't worthy. We can all find our worth.