Have you ever watched Amy Sherman-Palledino's hit show, Gilmore Girls? Having a single mother of my own, my experience is similar to that of Rory Gilmore, except I don't have insanely rich grandparents who offered to pay for my college in exchange for weekly appearances at dinner. Despite this fact, I managed to come out pretty well. While my mom was growing up, her parents always pushed for her to have the best opportunities possible at the time, and likewise, my mom is doing the same for me now, and I have to commend her endless and herculean efforts that it took for her to get me to where I am today. My mother has worked tirelessly to make sure I had the greatest upbringing and education possible. She ensured that I was always socialized, had tutors when I needed them, and even became the tutor herself during late nights, not to mention how many times she rushed me to the store after I announced a project that happened to be due the next day with very short notice. Although all the things that she would do for me, and still does, require her to go out of her way, she never stopped doing those things once, even when she was tired, because she knew that it mattered to me. I will never forget the time that I had just started at a new school—a small Catholic school. It was a K-8 school, and I transferred in during the beginning of the 7th grade, so one might imagine how difficult it was to fit in where most of the students had known each other since they were little. I somehow came to the conclusion that if I ran for student president in the Student Government Association and won, I would become well known and respected, so that's what I did. Making a campaign poster was part of the running process, and I was so excited that I asked my mother to take me to Joanne's to get some art supplies, and the two of us spent nearly all night on my poster; I was sure I would win. Orange, yellow, and white, with little bells and pom-poms on the corners—that's exactly how my poster turned out, and I couldn't be any happier with my flashy little poster. I hung it up that week, and by the next week the results were announced, and I lost, of course. After school, I trudged to the car and flopped into the back seat, humiliated. My mom saw her work was not done, so she took me to 7-11 for my favorite snacks and said, "I'll show you how to throw a pity party!" Her slightly morbid but comforting advice brightened my evening and gave me the courage to show my face the next day after my devastating loss. Even now, my mom always tries to give me her all because that's just who she is, and she did it all with nary a hand to help her, which still amazes me to this day. Now, I'm in college, and I'm studying to be an elementary school teacher. My sole hope is that I will be able to demonstrate to my students the same level of love and unwavering dedication that my mother has shown to me throughout my life. In the same way that my mother helped me become the best version of myself, I will attempt to help my future students become the best versions of themselves as well.

The characteristic in myself that I value most is my ingenuity. Humans are naturally social creatures who will prioritize their own survival before everything else. By following the crowd, we are fitting in and practicing strength in numbers, which leads our brains to believe that we are heightening our chances at survival. However, when does following the crowd go too far? In today's society, two words I hear a lot are "Cancel Culture". Cancel Culture, according to the Webster Dictionary, is "the practice or tendency of engaging in mass canceling as a way of expressing disapproval and exerting social pressure". This practice is very popular among a lot of people in Generation Z. Having said that, I do not believe that engaging in this behavior is beneficial to one's health. I am of the opinion that everyone should arrive at their own judgments based on the reasoning and evidence available to them, rather than relying on the opinions of others or hearsay. Too many times have I been accused of supporting some proposterous scandal just because I was caught red-handed with a bag from a fast food brand that was 'canceled'. I think that everyone, in some way, is supporting some 'proposterous scandal' whether they know it or not, but everyone is afraid of being pointed at, so they decide to do the pointing first. For example, if someone uses a smartphone or wears clothes from popular brands, they are inadvertently supporting sweatshops in China, yet they will accuse another person of supporting the latest canceled artist. The level of hypocrisy involved here is simply too humorous. In today's world, the ability to remain unswayed by rumor and popular opinion is a skill that is increasingly difficult to find. Even though it is beneficial to fit in with the crowd to a certain extent, I believe that it is always beneficial to have a solid understanding of who I am and what I believe in. A person who is easily swayed in any direction is a person who does not have a lot of self-confidence in themselves or their ability to think intellectually. As a young woman, my originality and ability to think independently and have self-assurance is something that is extremely important to me. It is unnecessary for me to rely on rumors or speculation that I find on the internet because I am confident in my ability to draw my own conclusions based on facts and research.