Kindness is something you don’t realize you need until you’ve been without it for too long. For all the things I wished for as a child, all of the dreams left untouched of my youth- I believe more acts of simple kindness towards me could have saved me from many forms of grief in my life. When I was seventeen, I owned little to nothing to my name, a handful of clothes and trinkets. I had a single comforter for the floor I slept on that served as both my blanket and the barrier between the floor and a sweatshirt for a pillow. To say the least, there was very little that I had. For my birthday each year I tried my hardest to get rid of the excited childlike feeling of a special day meant all for me. Because each year, I was reminded of its insignificance, and each day I was reminded of why. But as the days creeped up, I could not escape the hope- that maybe, someone had thought of me for my birthday. The day off, I asked my aunt if I’d have a cake, to my delight she said I would. So I asked to borrow some of my cousins clothes and did my hair to prepare for what seemed like a fairly great day. While I did get my cake, everyone decided to go to bed early due to a fight that had happened between my aunt and her daughter. So, for my seventeenth birthday, I stood in a completely silent house, with the only light being my candle that I lit myself, as I cried and sang happy birthday into the empty darkness. It felt, like everything that had been my life. It felt like the proof of how little I truly meant and how small my existence seemed. A very dark and lonely day, for a very lonely kid. But, to my delight, a friend messaged me towards midnight and asked if I’d wanted to go on a drive for my birthday and to sit at the park. We listened to ridiculous pop music and laughed until I looked down at the clock and realized I’d be smiling and laughing for so long in this small beat up car, that my birthday was already gone from me. I didn’t mind anymore though, because despite the better part of the day being awful and wasted, for those few remaining moments of the day- someone took the time to acknowledge me. To celebrate my life, however small and full of strife it had been. To stay with me and give me simple companionship. This meant the world, and still does to this day. Now, I make it apart of my intentional actions to always notice those of which many would not. From a simple “how are you?” To warm plates of thanksgiving food for someone sleeping on the streets, to a random act of kindness at my job every week where I buy someone’s coffee, to a kind comment under someone’s internet post, to a helping hand when someone is carrying something, to a door being opened. The acts are many, and wherever I can place them, because I’ve learned it does not matter how grand or how small the gesture, your ability to be kind to others, may just save their day and possibly their life. Kindness is the bread of the soul, it is the gentle warm breeze on an autumn day, it is truly essential and we are all better for it- whether we realize it or not.

@a_freefall_life Please please please!!!!! It would mean the world!!!!

Fleeting Remain Life is fleeting, Our moments in time ceaselessly retreating. One after the other We dance the tune of life In and out of great happiness and strife Standing close to one another We are all that we can hold As with fleeting life, we grow old. Like a simmering candle of light We burn fiery, wild, beautifully, and bright. Mine and yours, etched intricately together In this world of fleeting, I’ll hold you forever. Let’s make magic in the pauses of our finality Let’s hold our eyes open and brave this reality. And when like inked pages, our lines fade and disappear. Know that I will hold you close, far from worry and fear. As we go upwards, beyond all we’ve ever known- As we look back, smile gently, and reflect on how we’ve grown Your hand I’ll keep firmly grasped in mine As we search together, the vast Devine. -A.D.M.

There is little else more important than the love and kindness that we can give to each other. At the crux of life, is the warmth of another persons experience with yours. The chance to change even just one day of someone else’s life in their time of need is something I believe is not taken as increasingly important as it is. There are so many people in my community alone when are struggling each day, I know because I have been and am also one of them. You can never understand the strife of another person but you can stand beside them even for a little while and show them that they matter. That is what community outreach can do for people in need. I desire to help people from my community and my family one day. I want to be the person I always wished would magically show up in my own times of need. Especially the underrepresented children in our communities who are so desperately in need of the warm embrace that outreach can give to them. I chose to get my education so that I can be apart of that outreach. I plan to one day sponsor and head up a massive outreach center and community building for all ages in my community. A place where the old and weary can receive and be recommended to proper care, a environment where teenagers from rough lives can find positive and healthy hobbies to put their minds and hearts towards. A place for free childcare and tutoring services for kids who need proper care, warm dinners, and mentors to talk to. Community service is so much more than just the act of doing, it is the chain reaction that you can inspire in the people you sit with, talk to, and interact with. It’s the hope that can be found in dark circumstances that surround the lesser known pieces of our communities. Community service is the catalyst of change for families trapped in dire moments and hopeless circumstance. It is also as rewarding as taking care of our roads and playgrounds, tending to the veterans of our communities, donating to the less fortunate. There’s so much that goes into the act of service. While some may be unable to understand just how much of an influence it can have, I know first hand how monumental a paper bag of food and a trash bag of necessities from church give outs can be. It is the differences between being able to keep fighting and giving up completely. It is my firm and undying belief that there will never be an end to the outreach and the hand we can offer to others around us. It’s the love and light that makes the world brighter on the darkest of days. Education is important to this cause, because with success and funds you can help to make these changes happen. You can be a voice for the countless people who have lost theirs or have never been given the chance to have one at all. It is our responsibility to see to it that the displaced, disabled, and vulnerable persons within our community receive as much kindness and care that we can offer. Because truly, a moment of kindness on your worst day- can make all the difference.

It is often not until we are faced with hardship, that we can appreciate the moments before then with true gratitude. Those who face health issues and bouts of sickness know well this feeling of lament over the health and well-being that is lost when you are diagnosed. Two years ago, I was diagnosed with thyroid disease and autoimmune issues that changed my entire outlook on life and how I was able to live and appreciate myself. I chose to study as a radiography technician because I want to be a cog in the wheel that brings aid and support and answers to those like me who desperately wish for an ear to listen and the heart to fight for our illnesses. Especially those of which who are financially strained and are unable to afford the high-end costs of "care that cares" Those in the radiological field bring comfort and aid to those whose voices are desperately desiring to be heard each day. With this degree, will be able to be a part of the support system and answers that so many people need, and with my health issues will be able to relate in a way that can bring comfort to those in which paths- I come across each day in my career. With this scholarship, I will be able to better equip myself as I study and provide myself with school supplies and help with my living situation as I come from a very economically strained background. I am currently a full-time student with no support system or financial help, I do my best to keep up with both my schooling and a full-time job to both go further with my education and also to make sure that I can feed myself. This scholarship would immensely aid me in that effort and bring ease of mind as I continue to get my degree; so that I may continue to become my best self to become a voice for those who struggle like me with their health each day. It would mean everything to me to be awarded this aid and to feel heard and supported as I work each day to provide the same eventually to those in need. I pledged myself to not be defeated by my struggles and setbacks, I pledged to overcome my adversaries and to use them for the betterment of myself and others who wish the same for themselves. I will make my desires a reality and I will become an ally in my field for all who have ever felt that they are disregarded and undervalued because of their health.

The true beauty of life comes not from the materialistic and tangible items in which we acquire in life, but rather the experiences and feelings that can be breathed to life through the expression of our human souls. Art has always been an expression of life, beautiful in ways that cannot be defined by the boxed term of “beauty” but rather in the raw truth that one can acquire and feel without ever having to say a word. There is something to be said about the magic that art can bring to thought and to be felt without any explanation or words to describe it. It speaks often times for itself, and often also- it is different for everyone. Art is so much more than just the word art, it is the liberation of your heart, a soothing method to the madness that comes with life, it is an identification to those who use it as their voice, or it is a call to justice for some who use it to give others- theirs. My favorite painting perhaps is “The Creation of Adam”, not only because of its biblical meanings but more so the feeling that is invoked by those outstretched hands. It is said that the painting represents the moment God breathed life into Adam, and I must admit that it encompasses that feeling wondrously. All of us have met individuals, who seem to almost breathe life into us as though God did for Adam. Individuals who take our lives and paint bright hues where dark shadows once crept. I think of those people when I look at that painting. I think of the desperation one feels sometimes to find anyone, anything, that can just breathe life into the moments we feel are dead and lost. Art does that for some, art assuredly does that for me. I believe there is something innately beautiful to be sought out of anything in this world that can turn tragedy into a stilled piece of speechless wonder. When your mourning, your battles, your losses, and your triumphs can be encompassed into art that inspires the masses; and with no inspiration uniquely the same. Those who can encompass that talent, people who are able to write stories and invoke emotion through the fleeting touch of a paintbrush or through the hastened stencil of a pencil, they are art forms in themselves. They are the creative scribes of our worlds stories.