Growing up as a Midwestern girl in a relatively small town, mental health was always something I knew about as a young child. I had to deal with the cold hard reality of what it's like to struggle with mental health my entire life, as my mom's brother, my uncle, committed suicide a few years before I was born. I was very lucky to have such an incredible mom that not only grew from her hardships and struggles with her mental health and her mothers mental health, but she also taught my brothers and I how to advocate for it, how to check in on our friends, and how to honor those that we've lost to it. My personal struggles with my mental health began in middle school, when I lost my great grandma, who I was very close to. We shared a birthday, and she died two days before it. We held her wake on our birthday, and that day shaped the rest of my life. My struggles with mental health truly came to light a year later when my maternal grandma committed suicide, just as her son had done. It was a hard time of my life, and even harder having to see my mom go through that. In high school I lost one of my close friends to a tragic accident, and the loss of her truly catapulted me into a very odd time in my life. I was creating art and making so many things to channel my grief, and in some way losing her was what gave me the push to truly fight for my dreams. My junior and senior year of high school however, were very difficult. I was in and out of inpatient facilities for a long time, trying to keep my head above the water and push through my mental health problems, because I realized at some point that I refuse to be another statistic. I refuse to let my struggles define me, and instead I became determined to be the best person I can be every single day, and strive to reach my goals, so instead of becoming another statistic on a chart, I'll write my own story and make my dreams of being an artist come true. No recovery is linear though. The issues I've had since middle school aren't going to go away, and I'm okay with that. Because I've learned how to manage my stress, how to overcome certain symptoms, and how to push on simply because I don't give myself any other choice. I had a particularly rough time after I had to move back home from college to take some time to work and earn more for my savings. I had to come to the difficult realization that life is unfair, and with no federal assistance and no help from my family, I have to work my tail off to earn every cent of my education. But in the year that I have had off, and as I prepare to return to class in two months, I truly learned so much about myself. I overcame my mental struggle again, I prevailed, and I know I have grown so much as a person, and really, for the first time, I feel like an adult, and like I am prepared for the world. I am so filled with excitement to be returning to college in a few months, and to continue meeting new people, trying new things, and most importantly, further my education. I dream to make art, to bring smiles to people's faces through what I create with my own two hands, and I am so excited to make that dream a reality as I go back to school to finish my animation degree.

My first ever experience with art was at the ripe old age of three. Yeah... okay, that's not considered old to most people, but needless to say, art has been a part of my entire life, or as much as I can remember for that matter. I can even dig through my closet and find my old drawings from preschool and kindergarten, and no I'm not a hoarder, I just find it interesting to look back on, trust me. One of my favorite things to do as a young adult with no social life is to look back at old drawings all the way back from elementary, through the dark ages of middle school, and all the way through to my not-so-distant past four years of high school. I find it so interesting to look back at my art style and the way things have changed, and the way some things... really haven't changed at all. I still find myself drawing pretty much the same stuff, mermaids, fairies, and all sorts of fantasy creatures, but now I do it with hopes and dreams for more in my future. My main goal in life is to bring others the same joy animation studios have brought me throughout my childhood. Watching cartoons and Disney princess movies as a young girl truly shaped my perspective on the world, and my perspective on art. At some point in my young life, my thinking shifted from "I want to be a Princess", to "I want to draw the Princesses", and from that point on my life became centered around my dream of becoming an artist. I'll be completely honest, I've jumped around a lot about what exactly I want to pursue for higher education, but art has been the one true constant in the back of my mind for all these years. I have been told by many people in my life that art is not a sustainable career or a good idea to go to college for, and I personally started to believe it as the years went on and I narrowed my college search. When I started getting older and doing my own research was when I realized that art and animation in particular is a very good career, both for college and after college. For the first time in my life, I realized I could do what I wanted to do for the rest of my life and be well and truly happy with my career. The only issue with going to college is obviously, the money. I was taught from a very young age to work hard for my money, to get a job and start saving as soon as possible so that I don't have to rely on my parents for help. While I did work hard, college is still not affordable to me, and I want to set my future up in the best way possible by taking out as few loans as I can, and relying more instead on scholarships and working. I am hoping that with the use of scholarships and working as hard as I can, I can lower the number of private loans I take out, better prepare for my future, and pursue my dream career!

Science is all around us, and for me, science has always been a big part of my life. For myself personally, I always felt drawn to not only art classes but to science classes, and learning more about the world around me and how it works. From a very early age, I've loved animals, and specifically have loved learning about anatomy and how their bodies work. In more particular relation to animation, science plays a massive role in animation, and can't be overlooked. Science is the sole reason the world of art and animation has been exploding recently, without science's role, we wouldn't have such amazing new software and continued advancements in the area. Science and computers, in general, are the key building block to animation, and without them, there would be no animation for me to pursue in college. Personally, I love science, and seeing how closely science and technology work with animation and graphic design, it really inspires me and impacts my drive to want to be an animator even further. The ability for two seemingly opposite things to work together is so inspiring and intriguing to see. Science is something that shapes the entire world around us, and even though it is a relatively simple idea, without science we wouldn't have a world to portray in animations. Science and the expansion of science and technology gives us a better world around us, that allows us to be able to create movies and games for entertainment. Our country in particular is lucky to be so far advanced that we are able to do things such as animation and graphic design. The advancement of science allows us to understand things better, and then allows us to better portray things in animation, and understand how things work. Science is truly shaping the entire world around us and changing how people view things and the entire fabric of our existence. The advancement of science also opens up more jobs in animation entirely. As our idea of the world progresses and we learn more, animation is an important tool that can be used to describe new discoveries and also to learn more about the discoveries by better visualizing them with technology. Animation can be used not only to educate people, but to discover even more about our world, and is an incredibly useful tool in the progress of our world and country. In summary, the use of science and animation together inspires me to go out and pursue more art, and animation in particular. Science has a crucial impact on animation and how animation works as a whole.

Over the years I have created a lot of pieces of art, almost too many to count. One that really sticks out to me personally is a painting I did almost two years ago now. I wanted to do a portrait of a woman, a woman that is the personification of mother earth. Climate change and protecting our earth is something that is really important to me, and I decided I wanted to show that in this painting. I depicted a very sick-looking woman, and instead of having hair, I gave her almost a sort of crown of flowers. The flowers only extend partially down her head, and crawling up her neck are dead black thorns and vines that represent the death of our world, and how we as humans are killing our planet. My goal was to spark lots of emotions with this painting, so I gave her a very sad, forlorn look on her face, and had her crying and bleeding as well. I was extremely proud of this painting and how it turned out, it really came out even better than I had pictured it in my head. This was my first ever portrait painting, and I think I did very well with it, and depicted the character just how I wanted her. I spent a lot of time on the portrait, and I estimated I spent approximately 60 hours on it, which for a full time high school student was a very long time, almost an entire quarter. I also earned a few state awards on the painting, which felt really good to have my accomplishment recognized. My art for me has entirely shaped my life and my life experiences. I have met some incredible people through my art and formed connections that will last me a lifetime. I truly feel like art and my introduction to it has shaped my ability to communicate and be a better human being. I know how to truly express my emotions and feelings because of my involvement in art, and I am so incredibly grateful to have it as part of my life. As for after college, I want to become an animator and inspire and change the world around me, and the younger generations. I want to create work that not only entertains people, but evokes emotions and shapes people's lives in the way some animated movies have shaped my life, particularly my early childhood.

My love of art started at a young age, for as long as I can remember I've had a colored pencil in one hand, and a marker in the other. A lot of my inspiration and love for art comes from the world around me, and the natural beauty of this planet. I find so much inspiration from nature and the impressive symmetry that life creates around us, in the way that leaves curve so perfectly, and the intricate twisting way vines sprout from the earth. There is something so magically beautiful about the world around us, and it inspires me to create something as beautiful as the life around me. I also find a lot of inspiration in the people around me. I find looking at people to be so very interesting, as humans themselves are very interesting. Most of the time we don't see it, and we don't look hard enough at the faces that pass by us every day, but if you stop to truly look at people, you'll notice little things in their appearance, in the way their face is shaped, in the light and glow in their eyes, everyone is so different and being able to capture that in art is challenging, and what makes it so fun and engaging. I was always supported when I was young in my art and had many people helping me, from close family and friends to teachers at school that pushed me to become an even better artist than I thought possible. Some of my favorite artists that inspire me are the classics. In particular, Vincent Van Goh inspires me greatly. I love looking at art that was created hundreds of years ago and being able to see the resemblance to my modern life. It's fascinating to me that although the world has changed around us significantly since such great artists were around, the way we view the world and transfer our view to a canvas rarely changes. Somehow over the years we as artists have found beauty in the smallest, most insignificant of things, like a simple bowl and fruits sitting on a table. Somehow over and over throughout the years we have recaptured the same views, the same average-looking people, and created beautiful art that will be treasured for years to go. In summary, art has always been part of my life, it has been something that drives me to be a better person, and make the world a better place by sparking chain reactions of good and kindness. Nature and the people around me inspire me most of all, as well as classical artists.