The lyric “And I try to be tough, but I want to scream” from Olivia Rodrigo’s song The Grudge perfectly encapsulates the internal turmoil and emotional volatility that accompanies the teenage years and how we feel as teenagers. Being a teenager is filled with self-discovery, big changes and you can be very emotional. Olivia’s lyric shares how complex feelings can be by trying to appear and strong and composed on the outside while on the inside we are dealing with emotions that we don’t know how to deal with very well. It represents the constant tug-of-war battle between putting up a fake face and expressing your vulnerability this is something not only myself but many teenagers can relate to. At the heart of being a teenager and trying to find myself there is a struggle with independence and self identity. Teenagers are often expected to to navigate the rocky roads of peer pressure, academic stress, and social expectations. We want to be seen as confident and in control but underneath the surface, a lot of us are dealing with doubt, fear and insecurities. The lyric “I try to be tough” speaks the desire to meet social expectations and to be resilient and not to show your emotions and to face the toughness of older generations telling us that we messed up this world. Us teenagers are still figuring out who we are and what we want and the pressure to “be tough” is a reflection of how they often try to present themselves in a world that is all about strength over vulnerability. However, the next part of the lyric, “but I want to scream” reveals the internal conflict that teenagers have. Even if there is a desire to remain composed, there is an equally powerful urge to release built up emotions. Teenagers are still learning how to deal with their emotions, and often they can become overwhelming. The frustration, confusion, and longing that come with growing up can lead to moments where the only thing that feels right is to scream, to let it all out. This line captures the emotional intensity of adolescence, where one can be laughing one minute and crying the next. The need for release, for an outlet, becomes urgent, as if the weight of the world is pressing down, but they are unsure how to express it in a way that others will understand. The complexity of emotions during the teenage years is often exacerbated by the fact that teenagers are still trying to fit into the world around them. The desire to be tough might stem from societal norms that equate strength with success or maturity. "I want to scream" signifies the urge for a release from this internalized pressure, a longing for freedom from the emotional confines that they feel are expected of them. This lyric embodies the universal experience of feeling torn between two opposing forces: the desire to maintain composure and strength, and the need to express raw, unfiltered emotions. balance these opposing desires, It is a reminder that even when we try to be strong or put on a brave face, it’s okay to feel vulnerable. It’s okay to scream when life gets too overwhelming. The song speaks to the growing pains of realizing that the process of becoming who we are meant to be is messy and emotional, and that’s all part of the journey.

Alex Morgan is a well-known soccer player and might be considered to be written about in a lot of these applications. She holds a special place in millions of fans hearts including myself. As a dedicated follower of women's Soccer, I have admired Morgan for her athleticism and skill on the field but also her leadership, determination, and advocacy off the field. One of the primary reasons I like Alex Morgan is her talent. Her speed, agility and goal scoring ability from some of the hardest places to score goals on the field made her one of the best forwards in international soccer. She has established herself as one of the team's most consistent and impactful players even after her recent retirement. Her ability to play the games in the way that she does and to be the best to do it is incredible to watch. Watching her play In the 2019 FIFA Women's world cup, her critical performance helped lead the U.S. to victory, as she scored in the final, this has put her in a place as being one of the best strikers in the world. However, it's not just Morgan's skills on the pitch that I admire Her leadership is equally inspiring. As a player, she evolved into the biggest key component for the USWNT, showing both leadership and composure when the team needs it the most in the moments where they might seem difficult and unable. Her experience that she brings to the team and shares with them to help them become better and her determination to win that she shares with the other players on the team. She can also be seen as a mentor to all of the younger players on the field that got a chance to play with her. Alex Morgan stands out because of her advocacy for gender equality in sports Throughout her career, she has used her platform to push for equal pay for female athletes, particularly in soccer. Her involvement in the USWNT's lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation for equal treatment and pay has made her a powerful voice in the fight for gender equality in sports. Her advicicy has inspired many fans and young female athletes that they deserve the same recognition because they work twice as hard as the men to be seen in the world and to make people want to watch their sport. Her commitment to shows that she is a great athlete along with a great role model. Another reason I admire Alex Morgan is her positive and approachable personality. Although she is a global sports icon she is one of the most down to earth and relatable people out there, if that is through her engaging social media presence or her ability to connect with her fans after a game. In conclusion, my admiration for Alex Morgan stems from her incredible talent, work ethic and unwavering determination on and off the field Her ability to consistently person at the highest level while being a role model for aspiring athletes is truly inspiring. Beyond her athletic prowess, she represents strength, leadership, and resilience. Whether it's her impact on the soccer world, her advocacy for equal pay, or her ability to balance family and career, Alex Morgan embodies the type of althelte and person I deeply admire and the person that I hope I can one day become.

The Filipino and Filipino American community have shaped my educational journey and my desire to make the world better for others. As a Filipino I’ve been raised with values that emphasize hard work, respect for others, resilience and deep sense of community. This has helped me with providing me with the challenges that I have faced in my educational journey it has made me work harder to be where I want to be. I learned that success is not just individual it is working as a team. The value of working together at home has helped me in school as well. When I face a challenge in school if it is academic or personal I often will ask my friends or peers if I need help because I feel that we should all help each other if someone truly needs it. The sense of togetherness reminds me that I am not alone and that I should make others feel that they aren’t alone either. The Filipino saying utang na loob has shaped my desire to give back to my community. Growing up I learned no act of kindness should go unacknowledged and that if someone helps you that you should also help them. As I continue my education, I am motivated to pursue a career where I can contribute to a greater good. I want to go into psychology to help people understand themselves and understand the good change that they can also do not for others but themselves. My Filipino identity also teaches me the importance of resilience. The history of the Philippines is filled with struggles, from colonization to political turmoil but even though all of that they have always found a way to persevere and thrive. This reminds me that I can over come hard obstacles that I don’t think I can overcome with determination. The resilience of my community inspires me to stay focused and to turn every challenge into an opportunity for growth. In conclusion my Filipino heritage is central to my educational journey and my desire to make a positive impact on the world. It has made me want to achieve my goals and to achieve them with the best part of my ability to be the best or try to be the best. My community’s history and culture continually inspire me to strive for a future where everyone can succeed and find support.

Music has played a significant role in shaping my high school experience. It has changed my mood, relationships and personal growth. Throughout the years music has made me feel comfort and a way to express my emotions and feelings through music. As a violin player, music has shaped my high school journey in ways I am so thankful for. In the beginning, I was often unsure of where I fit in. Highschool added the pressure of having to find new friends and different people. I learned how much music could help me and give me relief after having a bad day. Being a violin player added a deeper layer to my relationship for music it made me realize the hard work that people go through to make the music that we get to listen to everyday. I joined orchestra in middle school but I have continued to play during highschool to grow my skills. Playing the violin has taught me patience, discipline, and resilience. When I first started playing I was scared to mess up and to not show my true skills but i learned how to take those mistakes and to make me better and I enjoyed the improvement that I have made over the years. One of my favorite things that i have gotten to do was play for my school musical when they were playing Wonka. I enjoyed going to all of the rehearsals and the music and how it helped me grow. I loved the people I got to play with and the community that I got to join. It made me learn how to play quickly and learn music and be able to change when I need to. As I have continued through high school my connection has grown. I started exploring different types of music not just fast up beat songs in playing but also playing slow songs. I have started also listening to more classical music being able to play as well just makes me listen and connect to the music on a much deeper level. Connecting to new people within music has been such an amazing experience something that I never thought that I would be able to get. Being able to share my passion and someone being just as passionate as I am was such a joy that I found when being able to share the music. Music has been such a big part of my high school experience. It has been able to help me relive my stress and it gives me joy when I am feeling down. Playing my violin in orchestra and being able to play in wonka has just made things even more greater for me.

My Mexican heritage has played a significant role in shaping me into the person I am today. Growing up in a household with the culture around me showed me the values that family has and what they should mean to you and the community. This value has been in many homes not just mine and learning new things about different families and learning about mine has wanted me to pursue a career in psychology. From a young age, I learned the importance of close relationships and how it can affect the relationships within a house hold. Family taught me to listen to people when they are talking about deep emotions and not just to step in when you want to but you should only step in if they ask for it. I grew up listening to stories from my grandma who shared her struggles of living here when she was younger and all the work she had to put into helping her parents and helping her support her other siblings because she was the oldest. Respect is also a big thing in the culture it is to be shown to everybody no matter what they went through before or what they look like. Sharing respect made me realize how some people don't do it and how the other person that is not being respected might feel and how it could affect their mental health. My Mexican heritage has shown me that I need to give back to my community. It has shaped my understanding of the importance of family and respect. these will guide me in my future as a psychologist. I will aim to support people from all backgrounds and help them navigate their personal struggles in my career as a psychologist.

To me, being Native American is about my identity. It understands that my heritage is not just a part of my family history it's also a part of who I am, it shapes the way I see the world and where I live, it changes my values to be different than others and to be grateful for things that they might not be grateful for and it makes me feel like I belong. Being Native American means that I am connected to so many beautiful things being the first people to be in America before others tried to claim it as their own. A language that I once wished to learn that is not spoken enough today that once might not be heard or understood because people won't teach it anymore. Being Native American is about community. It's about being a part of something that is bigger than just me. It's about being a part of a group of people who have their own stories, struggles, and the things that they have succeeded in. My culture isn't defined by just one tribe it is shared experiences that we have all gone through and it has brought us together. My strength and wanting to do better comes from the history of my ancestors having to fight for what they knew was right and what was theirs. Being Native American means holding on to traditions that reflect my roots. While things that I might wear or the ways I have "Americanized" to everyday Americans there are things that remind me who I am and that I keep close to me. The stories that I get to hear and just being in nature remind me where I came from. From a young age I have also loved nature and I never truly understand why but I know now its because it is something that they kept here for me so I honor the things in nature, the water, trees, animals. I try my hardest to take care of this land just as they once did picking up as much trash as I can trying to get my parents to make less waste and instead use that waste for good. Language is something in my culture that I hope to learn some day. Although I can not speak it I want to be more connected to my culture then I am and this is a good way that I can do that. Although there are so many ups to being Natie there are so negatives. The world today does not regonize or respect Natives. Although the land that they are standing on was native land they still don't respect what we do. Being Native American is a process that I will have to do more self-discovery with, I will need to learn to respect myself more when others don't and to not bring myself down because others don't feel the way I feel. I am part of something much bigger then I could ever imagine and I am so thankful.I will carry this with me with pride.

Getting over the fear was something I never thought I would do or have to face in taekwondo but this was the best time to do so. I needed that black belt. I wanted that black belt even if I didn't start doing this sport because I wanted to. I grew to love it and now can’t imagine doing something else. I've been trying to get this move down for weeks since I learned it but it's the most nerve-racking thing I've ever had to do. I have never had to do something like this before. I've been practicing this move since we've learned it but I can't get it down. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I don't think I’m doing anything wrong but I am if I’m not getting this move down. I've been practicing like crazy every day, during practice, when we practice the move, and afterward, when I get home. I've been practicing so much that I think I'm starting to get it. I go to class the next day and I break the board. I've never been able to do that before I celebrate and my instructor does the same. He knows how hard I've been working to get this down. The test to get my black belt is getting closer and closer and this is making me more nervous. My nerves have been taking over and I haven't been able to do it correctly for a couple of weeks because all I have been thinking about is the test and all of the work that is going into it. It's the day of the test and everything has been going pretty well so far but I don’t know what is going to go on during the board breaking. My heart starts beating faster and faster and It's my turn to step up there and try to get this done. I broke my first board on the first try but then it came to the one I was more scared of but I didn't do it. I got scared. I used all three tries and I still couldn't do it. This just made me work harder to get it on my retest. I’ve never worked to get something so badly before. I worked more than I worked the first time I did it over and over again more than the last trying different things to get better and when I finally thought I had perfected it to be the best I could I would find something that would make it better. I practiced every day before my lesson and before the test, I believed that if I got it down and I wasn’t scared to practice then I would be able to do it during the test. The test felt like it was so soon and I got a little nervous but not as nervous as I was the first time it was going to happen. It was getting closer to the time that I needed to break this board. The time was right around the corner. I got up to the front and I did my first break and I broke it on the first try. The second one I fixed it. I did everything I practiced. All I needed to do was commit. I committed and I did it. My parents were nervous and scared. They thought I was gonna forget what we worked to get me through this test and to get my black belt.

Getting over the fear was something I never thought I would do or have to face in taekwondo but this was the best time to do so. I needed that black belt. I wanted that black belt even if I didn't start doing this sport because I wanted to. I grew to love it and now can’t imagine doing something else. I've been trying to get this move down for weeks since I learned it but it's the most nerve-racking thing I've ever had to do. I have never had to do something like this before. I've been practicing this move since we've learned it but I can't get it down. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I don't think I’m doing anything wrong but I am if I’m not getting this move down. I've been practicing like crazy every day, during practice, when we practice the move, and afterward, when I get home. I've been practicing so much that I think I'm starting to get it. I go to class the next day and I break the board. I've never been able to do that before I celebrate and my instructor does the same. He knows how hard I've been working to get this down. The test to get my black belt is getting closer and closer and this is making me more nervous. My nerves have been taking over and I haven't been able to do it correctly for a couple of weeks because all I have been thinking about is the test and all of the work that is going into it. It's the day of the test and everything has been going pretty well so far but I don’t know what is going to go on during the board breaking. My heart starts beating faster and faster and It's my turn to step up there and try to get this done. I broke my first board on the first try but then it came to the one I was more scared of but I didn't do it. I got scared. I used all three tries and I still couldn't do it. This just made me work harder to get it on my retest. I’ve never worked to get something so badly before. I worked more than I worked the first time I did it over and over again more than the last trying different things to get better and when I finally thought I had perfected it to be the best I could I would find something that would make it better. I practiced every day before my lesson and before the test, I believed that if I got it down and I wasn’t scared to practice then I would be able to do it during the test. The test felt like it was so soon and I got a little nervous but not as nervous as I was the first time it was going to happen. It was getting closer to the time that I needed to break this board. The time was right around the corner. I got up to the front and I did my first break and I broke it on the first try. The second one I fixed it. I did everything I practiced. All I needed to do was commit. I committed and I did it.

Getting over the fear was something I never thought I would do or have to face in taekwondo but this was the best time to do so. I needed that black belt. I wanted that black belt even if I didn't start doing this sport because I wanted to. I grew to love it and now can’t imagine doing something else. I've been trying to get this move down for weeks since I learned it but it's the most nerve-racking thing I've ever had to do. I have never had to do something like this before. I've been practicing this move since we've learned it but I can't get it down. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I don't think I’m doing anything wrong but I am if I’m not getting this move down. I've been practicing like crazy every day, during practice, when we practice the move, and afterward, when I get home. I've been practicing so much that I think I'm starting to get it. I go to class the next day and I break the board. I've never been able to do that before I celebrate and my instructor does the same. He knows how hard I've been working to get this down. The test to get my black belt is getting closer and closer and this is making me more nervous. My nerves have been taking over and I haven't been able to do it correctly for a couple of weeks because all I have been thinking about is the test and all of the work that is going into it. It's the day of the test and everything has been going pretty well so far but I don’t know what is going to go on during the board breaking. My heart starts beating faster and faster and It's my turn to step up there and try to get this done. I broke my first board on the first try but then it came to the one I was more scared of but I didn't do it. I got scared. I used all three tries and I still couldn't do it. This just made me work harder to get it on my retest. I’ve never worked to get something so badly before. I worked more than I worked the first time I did it over and over again more than the last trying different things to get better and when I finally thought I had perfected it to be the best I could I would find something that would make it better. I practiced every day before my lesson and before the test, I believed that if I got it down and I wasn’t scared to practice then I would be able to do it during the test. The test felt like it was so soon and I got a little nervous but not as nervous as I was the first time it was going to happen. It was getting closer to the time that I needed to break this board. The time was right around the corner. I got up to the front and I did my first break and I broke it on the first try. The second one I fixed it. I did everything I practiced. All I needed to do was commit. I committed and I did it. My parents were nervous and scared. They thought I was gonna forget what we worked to get me through this test and to get my black belt but I did it and it has taught me the best thing in life