Managing your finances early in life is like a puzzle. It takes time, requires careful strategy, and you may or may not be able to see what the final picture looks like. Once you complete the puzzle, the final product is satisfying and pays off all the hard work. As we lay our puzzle out, we must consider the pieces and classify them. This is akin to planning out your future. You must consider what type of job you will have and how you will get there. Some jobs require more schooling but pay more. Some jobs require risk. Some jobs even require flexibility. One needs to consider how to plan out these, laying a solid foundation by analyzing their pieces. Understanding your goals and aspirations is crucial to your future success. Next, establish your frame. These are your retirement and saving plans. Take advantage of compound interest and save early. For example, if an individual invests $10,000 at a 5% interest rate and leaves it to grow for 30 years, it will be worth over $47,000. However, if that same individual waits 10 years before making the same investment, it will only be worth about $32,000. By starting to invest early, individuals can harness the power of compound interest to make their money grow faster and farther than it otherwise would. This is essential to retirement, emergency funds, and goods that require saving up. To help yourself further, as you fill in the frame, keep in mind the debt or pitfalls that may come. When you are young, you often have many financial opportunities and temptations, such as buying a new car or taking out student loans. If you don't manage your finances carefully, you can easily accumulate a lot of debt that can take years to pay off. By managing finances early, individuals can make sure they don't take on more debt than they can handle and that they are using their money in the most efficient way possible. My final piece of advice is to get a reference for the final puzzle. It can be a parent, a mentor, or a leader; this will help you be able to look at what your definition of finical success can look like and how to achieve those steps. Plan your finances well, as these are foundational years - helping to establish how the rest of your life will look, and thus the puzzle of your life, may be successful.

Under privilege students can come in all shapes and sizes. Some you don't even realize. One of these conditions that many don't consider is health conditions. Hello, I am AnDrew Carlson, a sufferer of seasonal allergies. As seasons change I get terrible allergies. A nose that either is completely stuffed in the fall and winter and I can't breathe through it or a snot faucet in the spring. Eyes that grow red, puffy, and itchy. And a throat that is so sore it hurts to talk or drink water. How has these medical conditions affected my education you might ask? Well, while I am trying to pay attention to class and understanding the material being taught I am torn away mentally by my condition. Trying to pay attention while I am either trying to close my snot faucet or heavily gasping for any air I can retrieve. It isn't that I don't want to pay attention, but my conditions make it so difficult. While my allergies haven't effected my current dream of the future, it has affected my previous goal. When I was very young I wanted to be a sports photographer. I dreamed of being on the side lines, snapping pictures and helping to promote major teams. But my seasonal allergies are made worse while outside and so this could never be a reality for me. While the allergies I suffer come and go as the seasons change, they will always be a bother and I dream that one day they just go away, although they likely won't as they have impacted my father and my grandfather since their birth.

Through yearbook, through kids ministry, through S2S, I have been an active leader in my community. Starting off Middle School with enormous self doubt and anxiety over if people actually wanted me around, I made it my mission to be a leader and to forge a legacy. I began serving in kids ministry, thinking that kids don't judge and to help any child struggling at an early age. I have been serving in Kids Ministry for nearly 6 years now and exploring numerous positions. I have been serving as a small group leader with my same group for the last 5 years. I have seen them grow from meek 3 year olds, to confident 2nd graders. I have helped with everything from a child with depression with a child from anxiety and these children have saved me from depression and self-doubt, even saving my life through their love for the scriptures. I started yearbook so that my work could be widely dispersed, but I have feel in love with it. I have made impacts from reorganizing a dysfunctional staff to leading a staff of 4 to publish a 320 page book. The public may not know of the leadership hand I have in the publication they adore, but the passion I have shows and they adore the memories we have preserved. What started as a way to conquer anxiety about my work and help with self-doubt turned into a publication praised nationally. I started S2S to help military connected students like myself. Helping military students get adjusted is a struggle I have gone through in my 5 moves. Each of these time, I have struggled with depression and fitting in. It breaks my heart to move and I know it does for others, so I have devoted my time to helping these students. This is how I have been a leader. More than the direct ways I lead, are the indirect ways. Having anxiety about showing off to much skin and looking unkempt, I started wearing business clothes to school. Little would I know this would cement myself to my community. My community knows me as the student in a suit (despite the fact I rarely wear a suit). As a result, students are easily able to recognize me. With this influence I have made myself a hub for students in need. Whether it is homework needs, mental health struggles, relationship advice, or a friend to talk to, or anything else, my community know to look for the student in the suit, and the help will be found. Despite struggling from mental health issues I have rose from the ashes to provide a legacy that helps and lifts up others. While I am far from past my issues, I wouldn't give them up as my anxiety, my self-doubt, and my fears made me who I am.