Hard Truths and A Serendipitous Journey The firstborn child of a Ukrainian immigrant to the US, and following in her career father’s Military footsteps, Jessica gladly accepted and thoroughly enjoyed the challenges of Cadet life at West Point. While at the academy, she ran collegiate cross country, competed in three years of the Sandhurst competition, Officers of Christian fellowship (OCF), ski team and debate team. She also was an exchange cadet to the Coast Guard academy cow/junior year. Jessica didn’t graduate West Point; instead she served back her service obligation as a 91W/ combat medic in Alaska at Ft Richardson. After the sudden death of her mother and struck by the difficulties of working through assignments with her army orders and her husbands Coast Guard assignments, Jessica left the service and had some very cool and unique Alaskan jobs in security and project management following her service obligation. Jessica’s trajectory changed completely when the family moved back to the East coast/NC in 2012. A very different set of challenges remained for her there, as she faced divorce and a lack of employment options that correlated with the oil and gas industry. This is Jessica’s story on how she survived deep personal loss, being a new single parent, and becoming self aware enough to find her life’s professional calling as a top producing mortgage loan originator/mortgage broker. She credits the environment of West Point for her toughness, but also relied much on counseling, faith and familial bonds, for their role in her journey from “failure” to “success” Jessica knows that more is often learned and more personal growth is actually experienced and obtained from failure than success…and she hopes others can learn and benefit from her story. This is her story.