What can I take apart today? This question is what I ask myself most days. As a kid I always pulled things apart and put them back together, just to see how they worked. I got yelled at a few times for not putting it back exactly how I found it, or because I forgot where I placed it. However, I still ended up pulling everything apart when they weren't looking. During this time, even with my knowledge now. I think I would still be taking things apart. As a kid, I learned so much more from actually taking things apart than, then just playing with them. This way of interacting with everything helped me gain this way of thinking. By not just saying "Oh it works so what's the point of thinking about it" it turned to, " but why is it happing, what engineering is happing to make it work?" This mindset is what some people say is useless because what's the point of worrying about if it works? "There is no point trying to fix it if it already works. I would say no. this mindset gave me more ideas and made me more creative than any other way of thinking has ever let me. I can up with ideas that worked or barely worked to make something a little bit easier. Without it, I would have never come up with half of my ideas, if I did not have this way of thinking. If I could give some encouragement to anyone who wants to follow this way of thinking it would be, "lets go come up with a solution that no one has ever thought of and let go that fixes a problem that everyone faces." if you say yes to any part of that, then I want to say then STEM is the best choice for you. This problem could be as simple as stopping the microwave from beeping at you or to build an energy source that is cheaper than any other and less impactful to the environment than any other. The thought that I could be the person that can change the world or even make everyone's life easier drives me to work harder and learn as much as possible. STEM to me and hopefully others is a way to show off what you can do and what you are capable of. To solve something larger than just ourselves to fix a problem.