I would say I enjoy a decent spread of creative outlets. I love to bake new things, draw new designs, write expressive works, and vibrantly play music. But I would say my largest outlet for creativity is creating new products. I love being able to sketch up a quick drawing of what I want, make low-grade prototypes, design them out in CAD, and then 3D-print, carve, fuse, and create those products. It is such a fullfilling adventure to be able to hold something physical that was a mere concept not that long ago. And the loveliest part about it is how much you learn from failure. It takes a long time to have to retweek certain aspects, so it is always fun to see the different failed attempts and how it brought me to where I am. And everytime I fail, I learn a new way to improve, and so each product made becomes more unique, more detailed, and more expressive of the concept that I was trying to convey. So, I would say inventing products has always been how I enjoy to express myself creatively.

Comics and animation have always been a fairly strong influence on my life. From Iron Man and Spider-man getting me into technology and wanting to be an inventor/engineer to shows like Ben 10 that gave me hope that there was more out of life than just school (and no, I am not expecting to be able to turn into aliens because of a watch). Through my parent's divorce and the countless moves, these mediums gave me a sense of community and made life not feel so lonely. They made my imagination run wild and caused me to make things out of cardboard and duct tape, like the Masquerade helmet from Bakugan. These shows and comics allowed me to break away from reality for a bit and made my problems feel small since my town wasn't being overtaken by villains.

In 2013 (when I was 13) my father passed away suddenly in his sleep after a week-long sickness that the family was unaware of in terms of severity. My parents had been separated since I was about 6, so I was unfortunately unable to see him before his passing as my mother had custody and we only saw him every other weekend. In some regards, it was good because my last memories of him were of a healthy father. My father was a pediatrician and tried extremely hard to get where he was in life. My siblings and I got some money from him, but since he had no will or spouse, the money was oddly sifted through the court, and since I was 13, my mother had legal oversight of my money, which she put in a trust that I am unable to obtain until I am 24. Since I had no say in my money, my mother put me through an expensive private school purely on that my step-dad went there and they wanted a good Christian education for me even though I wanted to go to public school since it was free and had a LOT more opportunities for me in several different fields. My siblings put the money to bad uses that would take more than 800 words to explain, so I decided to use what little I had after high school to further my education in college. I figure that is what my father would want me to use it for anyhow. I am applying for scholarships because FAFSA doesn't help our situation and the money is depleting rapidly and I will inevitably be in debt. In 2019 (a 19-year-old college student) my brother died suddenly in an automotive accident. He was only 30 and was working 2 jobs, working as a full-time student, and trying to expunge his criminal records from a bad past so that he, his new wife of 6 months, and their two kids would have a brighter future. Right as he finally got his records expunged, finished his credits, and was so close to being able to finish his dream of becoming an airplane mechanic, he died. That death hit me extremely hard because it left me feeling that no matter what I did, it would inevitably not matter; I could be so close to death and could be wasting my time for nothing. I have been set back in my schooling quite a bit and basically am stuck at uni for an extra 2 years on top of the initial 4. It doesn't help that my alcoholic sister has tried to kill herself multiple times and the stress has caused a 21-year-old to look like a 45-year-old with hair loss and white hair strands. It feels weird talking about my issues like this, and I am sure it may seem like a lie since it all seems crazy, but it is the truth. Even though these family members have caused my education to faltering, I have kept pushing on and have tried my best to keep my composure. My GPA dropped a lot when my brother died, but I am getting it back up slowly. I try my best to connect with people and make lasting relationships that are not just surface. I have come to realize how fast life can be and I try my best to hug my loved ones whenever I say "hello" and "goodbye". It does at times make me come off as needy to people who have not experienced loss, but it allows me to know that they know they are loved. I make sure to take more photos so that I have more memories to cherish. I speak up more. I try to experience more if I can. And with all else, I try to strive to be the best version of me that I can be. I never feel as though I deserve any scholarship, especially one like this since it is a lot of money since I know there are others out there that can use it more than me, but I know that it would make a significant impact on my life and allow me to further my education more and ease my stress. I think that a scholarship like this is a wonderful thing and I am extremely pleased to see that people are willing to help in such situations.

Although it is a bit of a cliché to like him, one of my favorite scientists (because it is too difficult to choose one) is Albert Einstein, mainly because I have a semi-familiar relationship with him. My great-grandfather worked with Einstein in a thinktank for awhile. I never met my great-grandfather nor Einstein, but my grandfather has a lot of family line records and would tell me stories of Einstein such as how he owed his dad a lot of money because he would always forget to bring enough for the bus. Einstein, other than being one of the smartest people to ever live, worked well off of others, such as getting a lot of his knowledge of relativity from the works of Galileo. He also brought a chaotic life to his works that I find enjoyment in because it gave each discovery a lovely sense of humanity.

Being a student in design, I am placed in a wonderful position to turn a seemingly bland invention and craft it into something beautiful. Art is an emotional connection between me, the product, and the consumer. With every piece that I make, I persuade my own pathos into it and by doing so give the piece a sense of personality. A piece of engineering is usually blanketed with emotionless logic and systematic appeal, but my drive is to make that appeal more human and cause it to have a personal connection with the user. Perhaps a simple nightlight is designed to look like a teddy-bear to add a friendly appearance for the child, or maybe a metal based spoon could have a rubber handle for people who are hypersensitive to cold metal. Those human connection to the user need an artist to bleed their own humanity into the product, and I want to be that designer. I want to be an inventor that breaks the barrier between STEM and art by being a brain in both fields and attempting to appeal to both accounts. A simple brick building and a architectural masterpiece both have the same basic utility for a warehouse or factory, but the difference is that the architectural masterpiece will invoke creativity in the workers and add a subtle lift of serotonin, which will cause the workers to be happier during their days and inevitably allowing for a more productive work day. The art of design is not some unnecessary flamboyance as some brash employers might darken it to be, but it is a more than necessary physical display of creativity that will burn the flame of creativity in all who see it. Does that mean that you cannot go overboard with the art and be overly impractical? Of course not. There is a balance between the overly drab and the overly fab, and I want to consistently find that middle ground. With every new design and creation branches another, allowing the mind to be stimulated with all sorts of brilliant ideas for the future; so every new design that I create, I am potentially fueling a new design from the young user is protecting themselves from the dark with a teddy-bear nightlight. The cycle continues and the flame burns even brighter with each new invention. Humanity has the magnificent ability to liven up life with beauty and inspiring pieces by just allowing themselves to feel the emotions of the world and bring those emotions into their works. Art is a part of me, just as it is a part of the cosmos; and as we are all stardust, matter made from preexisting matter, the beauty of the universe is quite literally in every individual. Sometimes, however, people forget how creative they can be. That is what I would love to do, to remind people of how creative they can be with creations of my own that invoke creativity.

The goal, since I was a 4-year-old, was to become an inventor. I have always wanted to see what I could do to not only improve the lives of the consumer but also to improve the bigger picture. If at all possible, I would love to be able to travel the world with my team so that we can do first-hand ethnographic research on different people throughout the world and design for their needs rather than try to make products and solutions that only fit and fix a small worldview. With furthering my education, I am not only striving to learn what I need to to become the best inventor that I can be, but it also allows me to network and grows a community that I can work with to better establish myself as an inventor. To be an inventor, to me, means more than just making the "next best thing" or appealing to the consumer in a fiscally responsible way; it means that I want to aid the world that I inhabit in any way that I can. I am fortunate enough to live on this planet, and I do not intend to leave it with my negative footprint, but a footprint that allows for further growth and health. I do not intend to seek out the best way to make a profit, but the best way for the consumer to profit off of what I have made for them. Why do I do this to myself? Why am I so stuck on being an inventor? It is because I have always been driven by the idea of improvement and seeking the greatest efficiency for things. I want to see a life that not only works well together but does it with the beauty and elegance that comes from the design of my products. I want to focus my strengths on bringing the world to a singular point of functionality and poise. That magnificent point between complexity and simplicity. I have wanted this since I was a little kid, and although I know I will never be as good as most of my peers and that I often seem to fall behind in my education, I have always held strongly to my dream of becoming an inventor and working among other inventors. I am not saying that I want to be the top inventor, or the richest, or the most popular; I just want to be a part of improving the world for the better and allowing the inhabitants of this planet to feel the same betterment in any which way that I am able.