Bold Bucket List Scholarship

Some people may say they achieved traveling around the world, rock-climbing, or even exercising. Now, for me? My achievements have been walking for four-seven minutes. Although this may seem minor and unimportant, walking for this long has been a major contribution to my bucket list achievement. For approximately nine-ten years I have been diagnosed with Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder, Left Ilioinguinal Nerve Entrapment, Insomnia, and Visceral Hyperalgesia. With all of these medical diagnoses, I have had difficulty doing activities others would not have to think twice about doing. Additionally, I do functions at pain levels other people would not even consider moving at, which brings me determination and confidence to be mentally strong. This is why walking for less than ten minutes is a major achievement for me. Other activities on my bucket list are to have the ability to perform daily functions such as folding/making my bed sheets, standing up while taking a shower, and getting through a full day of school. I also have activities such as expanding my knowledge of medical terminology, college-level courses, and human anatomy. Currently, I own a Netters Human Anatomy Book and Coloring Book, which I enjoy to take notes and learn more about the physiology and anatomy of humans. My bucket list contains actions of daily functions and the expanding of medical information. I have and will continue to be strong through everyday, especially the bad days because those are what matter most. This is my bucket list and what I have achieved so far!

As so many people before me and so many people after me are going to say, traveling is a huge part of my bucket list. I was given the opportunity to live in Germany when my father was stationed on a base in Bavaria for the United States Air Force. This allowed me to experience much of European culture and learn most of my history through first-hand, in-person experiences. In the future, I am looking forward to being able to travel to any Asia country to be able to see the difference between western and eastern cultures. Most specifically, it would be amazing to be able to go on a mission trip to Thailand to help people that are involved in human trafficking rings. Human trafficking and domestic violence awareness are other items on my bucket list. In my small city, I hosted a human trafficking awareness dance that ended up having over 100 students attend just before the COVID-19 pandemic. I have also hosted speakers from the county attorney’s office to discuss the problems of human trafficking in teens. During the epidemic, I hosted two drives for the human trafficking shelter nearby, the Phoenix Dream Center. The first drive was for notebooks with notes of encouragement in them, of which I collected over 60 journals. The second was for Christmas cards, of which I collected over 500. In April of 2021, I ran a city-wide hygiene drive to aid the local domestic violence shelter, Against Abuse Inc. After the month was done, I collected 4,053 items, totaling a value of roughly $13,000. In the future, I hope to raise more awareness about these taboo topics and run more drives to aid the local shelters.