I think a leader needs to be self-aware, confident, resilient, and a good communicator. I believe I'm a good leader because I see these traits in myself. with going through an abusive upbringing I think you have to have these traits so that you aren't letting yourself get pushed around. when I was about twelve years old my sisters and I were being physically abused by my father. I realized that nothing was going to get him to stop not the tears or the screams. but one day when my father pinned me to the wall and my step mother walked right past me like nothing was going on I finally realized that I wasn't safe. so the next time I went to my mother's house I told her about every single thing that happened. I felt like in that situation if I wasn't a leader my sisters and I would be in a very different situation. I went and had to sit in front of my father and look him in the eyes and tell him every single thing he already knows he did. not only 12 did I have to be able to communicate like an adult but I had to be strong for my sisters. with all the sleepless nights and panic attacks, I don't think that makes me a weak person but if anything it makes me stronger. I felt like being strong for my older sister in a time she couldn't be only brought more trust in a situation where three children just lost all trust in one of their parents. A few years later I joined my worship team at church and started sharing my story. I wanted to show people who were maybe even going through something like this and haven't spoken up that it's never too late. So I stood up on a stage in front of two hundred people and told them my whole story. I want to be a leader and an example that no matter what someone goes through you can always make it out. Nothing is ever permanent and now I'm trying to rekindle the shattered relationship with my father to see my baby brother. no kid should ever have to be in this kind of situation but I thank God for helping me find my voice and be a leader for my sisters when the people who were supposed to be taking care of us couldn't.

when I was younger my dad was abusive physically, emotionally, and mentally the big three is what I like to call it. I have two sisters who also went through this with me. we were all under sixteen, but I'll start from the beginning. when I was about four years old my parents came into my room to tell me they were getting a divorce. I didn't know what that meant, so I just said ok. Not until I was seventeen did I find out why they got divorced. I've always seen my dad as an angry guy he always had something to complain about and it never made me feel like I was good enough. But as my sisters and I started to grow up my dad would start doing weird things like pinching our butt out of nowhere or resting his hand on our thighs. Now looking back on that, people do things with their significant others. My older sister got more mental abuse saying that she was an embarrassment to our family when she would lose a softball game. my younger sister was the emotional abuse calling her fat and saying she wasn't skinny like me and my older sister were. But I got the physical like for example coming into my room and laying on top of me while I was sleeping. This lasted until was in eighth grade and I finally told my mother to which she got a restraining order against him. Now, when people found out about my father they would've never guessed because I lived in the mindset of being a light in someone's life. After all, you never know what they are going through at home. During eighth grade, I met my boyfriend of four years now, and he took me to youth group. I wasn't a Christian so he was taking a chance on me. I never felt so out of place yet so welcomed in my life. I decided to become serious in church and grow my faith so I joined the worship team and shared my story with youth groups. I wanted to show kids with a story like mine that no matter how dark it becomes there truly is always a light at the end of the tunnel you just have to keep going. So my message with this is that no matter what you're going through you will always make it out just find your voice and be brave.

My whole life I've had parents who tell us to love everyone no matter the differences between the two people. For the last two years, I've been working at a nursing home that takes the most patient and caring people out there. With death and family heartbreak little eighteen-year-old me would be a shoulder for those families to cry on. Not only is it just me but I come from a background of kind and caring people. My mom worked doing musical therapy, hospice, and then Memory care nursing home. People around me all I've known is being kind and loving people because you never know what they are going through. When someone passes away we do something called an angle walk, and now since I've been working there for the last two years I've become the singer of the angle walks. I come from a background of being on a worship team at my church and I love showing and sharing the love of the lord. I'm going to share a story that stands out to me the most and the biggest act of kindness and love I feel like I've ever done. With working in a nursing home we have residents with all different kinds of backgrounds. We had a lay who had dementia and she was passing away a lot faster than we thought she was going to. But her kids never showed up to visit her which broke my heart. So I felt like I couldn't sit there and let her live her last few months alone. So every single day even when I didn't have work I showed up and visited her. where she started calling me her daughter's name I didn't correct her because I wanted her to feel like her family was still there for her. On Christmas, I would bring her presents. When her Elvis CD broke I had to do a scavenger hunt for the same one As much as it broke my heart on the hard days I'll never forget my Mimi. She was and will always be my 3rd grandma after my biological ones of course. When she passed away I was sitting with her singing You Are My Sunshine and trying not to cry. Now to this day, it's hard for me to get that close to residents anymore. If people would spread more sunshine in this world it might all just work out.

When I was ten years old I had to do something I pray no other ten-year-old has to do. I had to tell my mother that I was being abused at my father's house and no one knew it was going on. I have two other biological sisters who were going through the same thing I was, but I had it the worst. Let's start from the very beginning and how this all happened. When I was 4 years old my parents got divorced and when I was younger I didn't know why. But let's say I understand why now. every time before going over to my dad's house I cry, and I mean grabbing onto her mom's shirt and my dad having to rip me off her. And when I was younger all my mom thought was like I was just a momma's girl. Then I turned seven, and then I turned eight and I was still doing the same things but I now would hide before my dad showed up. My dad started to get very mad that I was doing this and when we would get to his house I'd always get spanked or had to sit in time out for an hour or even two. When I got out of "timeout" I was ignored for the whole rest of the day. Then things started to become physical he would touch me and my sisters on the butt like a pinch or a slap but I was eight years old. well, this went on for two years until the worst happened. I got in trouble for talking back which led me to getting pinned to the wall with his hand around my neck. The next time I had to go over to his house before we went I had my mom make an excuse as to why we couldn't go over tonight. That night I broke down and told my mom everything to which she went straight to the police and got a restraining order. So what motivated me to be a better version of myself? my dad. before I would never say anything when something was wrong because I didn't want it to be a hassle for people. but today I would never let people walk over me and I never shy away from speaking out when I know something is wrong. Today I'm 18 and I'm a better person I've grown a lot in my confidence and never again will I let anyone belittle me and make me feel like I'm less of a person. I pray if people are going through something like this that they find the confidence I found deep in me and speak out because we are all worth more then that.

All of my jobs so far in life have been helping people which to me only feels right going into a career path that Is assisting others. I've only had two real jobs with community service on the side. But I worked at a nursing home helping others for two years and now I work for Kinder Care which is working with kids who are ready for school working and helping other people has been something I've always loved doing. My Aunt is a teacher and a mentor who impacted my life more than she knew. I'm going to college to be a high school English teacher and she is also a high school English teacher. She is the most fun person and teacher you could ever have and her kids get excited to come to her class which inspires me to do the same thing. She takes time and has actual relationships with her students to where she is an outlet for them if they don't have the best home life. She loves her job and encourages people to go into the field of education. She set the standard super high of what an amazing teacher is and her life story is even more amazing. Not only did she inspire me into going into education but she encouraged me religiously and that is now why I have so much hope for the next generations to come. how I plan to pay it forward is to carry on the legacy on through my family and be the positive and kind teacher she is one day. well, you might be wondering why I want to teach English so badly. But when I was younger I hated English class with a passion and I didn't want anything to do with it. Then I had one good teacher and I couldn't put a book down anymore. I want to help people find that love that I know everyone has in their bodies. I went from reading barely one book in a year to reading forty books by June. People don't realize that books are just like movies but it's a movie you're making in your head however you want it to be it can be. I want to help the next generation find their love for reading and I hope that I can be that person to help them find that in themselves too.

Im going to start off with a story about a teacher who changed my life. His name was Matt Mayeske and not only was he my teacher he was also my track coach from seventh grade all the way until I was a senior in high school. He was my history teacher for my first two years of high school and it was really great knowing a teacher when i first started at a new school. He was also my teacher on the track taught me more life lessions out there then i have in the real world. Working at his old high school he also had a lot of similarities as me with our passion for helping others and also a passion for track and field. Which is where we first met, i was a little four foot ten inch seventh grader going out for track. When he came up to me saying i should try doing hurdles, to which i thought he was crazy because i wasn't close the the height percentile for my grade and age. But he had so much passion for what he was teaching i was like why not give it a try. Moral of that story i fell in love with running and he was my coach for seven more years after that. Now fast forward to my sophomore year of high school my family just got out of a restraining order against my dad and we had to do family concealing. Which i was very embarrassed about, no sophomore wants to have to leave school early because they have to go sit in front of someone they hate. But i started losing sleep over it and falling asleep in class and almost failing a lot of classes. He was the first person to ask me if everything was all right and if i needed any help of support. To which i responded no because i was to embarrassed to tell the truth. He ended up emailing my mom and asking her which she told him everything of course. So before track practice we did a group sit down with all the hurdlers and did a study that if any under class-men had math questions or anything upper class-men could help or even he could. It wasn't until two years later at graduation that he told me he started that for me so that i wouldn't feel alone. He was so much of a light to me through out the hardest years of school and thats what made me want to pursue teaching so that i could make that much of an impact in someones life like Mr. Mayeske did for me.

Im pursuing a career in education because i like helping and watching others grow. Im currently working at a place named Kinder Care and Im working with kids who are not yet ready to attend school. helping those kid every single day is a reward and i want that to keep continuing. Hearing kids say a full sentence for the first time or learning how to use the toilet is so rewarding in so many ways. So Im pursuing a career in education because i like knowing that im going home and a kid is going home feeling confident in something they did or learned that day. My dream is to be a high school teacher, because i feel like in that age group they are going through a lot of change. I feel like my life has put me in situations that i pray never would happen to kids i teach one day. But my goal is to make a classroom that makes kids feel safe and maybe even excited about coming to school the next day. Im well aware that i would be a mandated reporter, but i feel like when i was in high school people going to the councilor was weird. I would see more of my fellow classmates going to teachers that they felt more comfortable talking to. Its hard to be in high school and the feeling that i would go home putting a light in someones life would make me feel as amazing as helping them learn. I would love to be an english teacher and the reason why is because i really disliked english as a high schooler. So my goal would be making it a little bit funner for the students but also still teach. I feel like english has such a bad wrap about being boring and i really want to change that narrative and have kids excited to be coming to my english class every day. English is such an amazing way to express yourself in writing and speaking. I feel like for me english class was my outlet, i was excited to go to english class everyday because my english teacher has us write in a journal for ten minutes before every class. I could freely express any feeling and she would read them at the end of each week and it was all just to understand us better. People tell you to avoid to go into education because of the pay. But if im happy teaching and putting a light into other peoples lives, who even cares about the pay? if you think about the positives and the outcome of what your doing why does the pay even matter if your happy doing it. Im not just pursuing education for a job, its a goal i've had for my whole life even when i was little and Im just achieving that goal

Teaching has always been an interest to me. Helping other people learn and being a factor of positivity in their life. My goal for becoming a teacher is to be A high school teacher who works with more freshman and sophomore. Everyone seems to not want to work with freshman and sophomore because they’re new to the school. And yes, they do get annoying sometimes even as a senior in high school but I feel like if they had a positive influence in the classroom, things would be different.I feel like all students have chances and opportunities to be great in the classroom and outside the classroom. No matter the skill level that might be I feel like everyone deserves to be in the classroom together. My aunt is an English teacher also. I feel like all students have chances and opportunities to be great in the classroom and outside the classroom. No matter the skill level that might be I feel like everyone deserves to be in the classroom together. My aunt is an English teacher also which also has inspired me to think about education. I know I’d be a good teacher because equality and fairness in the classroom should be a first priority. I’m a very caring person and I care about others feelings, but I am also a sensitive person when I need to be. Pursuing teaching for me isn’t just a career pathway. It’s a goal to change something in the educational system more positive teaching and influences in the classroom while I was growing up. I was one of those kids whose escape from the real world was going to school. My life was very toxic and hectic all the time . And then you meet that one teacher who changes everything for you and is the light that you need in the dark time. The beautiful thing about being a teacher is not knowing what’s really going on in other peoples lives but being there for them in case they need you . I believe that no one is a failure in the classroom and everyone deserves an equal opportunity to education just like every single other person. I am very excited to become a teacher, and I really hope that I inspire more people in the future to think about education as a career pathway , because we really need more good teachers in this world.

Have you ever looked up to someone so much you wanted to be just like them? Well my Aunt Kelly is a teacher and Bonneville high school in Missouri. We have so many things in common and I felt like I was her little twin. She loves reading and it really got me into my love for reading. Now I read to a minimum of nine books a month. She is an English teacher for seniors and as a kid I’d always go to school with her and help her decorate her class room. She has won many awards and deserves so many more. The relationships she has with her students is something I wish I had with my teachers too. So my goal is to be like her, to never give up, Work hard and to be the light in other peoples lives. She makes her English class fun and I don’t know how many times I’ve dreaded going to my personal English class. But I have never seen so many students than her students that look up to her. She’s really good at making people feel like they belong and that’s some thing I really strive to do and be like one day. No matter how hard it gets and no matter how scary it is she puts her bravest face on every morning. She’s the most hard-working and lovable person, and she really inspires me to do better in this world. For a while, I was thinking about being a physical therapist. But in the back of my mind, I always had the thoughts of being a teacher. now an English teacher or something I didn’t expect me to want to do. But it’s inspiring to see how fun she makes her class and how excited her students are to come to a class that most students don’t like. She tries to make it fun and interactive. Sometimes she even takes them outside! If I had one English teacher that was like that I’d probably want to go back. So my goal is to make English class fun. People say they’re bad at English, but sometimes I feel like people are scared of judgment because English is a class where you get most judged. One day in the future I hope to be just like my aunt Kelly and be an inspiration to other kids my age.

This question to some people might be controversial, but to me, this is the easiest question ever. hands down the actor who brought the character Spider-Man to life was Tobey Maguire. Now you might be asking why I say this, but he was the one who set the standard for Spider-Man and the other actors are just trying to match the standard Tobey Maguire set. I am aware that every time people think of Spider-Man they think of Tom Holland. But think about the Iconic Spider-Man kiss who was the actor who did that was Tobey Maguire. Not only did Tobey Maguire start the iconic kiss but Tobey and Kristan Dunst had the best on-screen chemistry out of all the the actors. I don't think Kristan Dunst was the best Mary Jane that was Emma Stone. In the Spider-Mans that Tobey Maguire acted in he fought all of the Original Spider-Man villains, while in all of the other Spider-Man movies, they are kind of like re-fighting the old Spider-Man villains. This is why I think that Tobey Maguire set the standard and was almost the reason why the Spider-Man movies are now so popular these movies with Tobey Maguire really set the pace for all Spider-Man movies.

My name is Ashley Sanders and I'm obsessed with reading. So far this year I've read twelve books in four weeks. But I am one of the #BookTok girls and if you looked at my TikTok and even my YouTube shorts you could see it's all books. If I could describe my dream bookshelf of books all inspired by #BookTok the very first author I would start with the author Lucy Score. just to name a few of her books like "The Things We Never Got Over ", "The Things We Hide from the Light", "The Things We Left Behind", and "By A Thread" are probably the most popular #BookTok romance books. Lucy Score is a known romance author who has brought ideas and things that I feel aren't commonly talked about in books, especially romance books. Most times in romance books I feel like they don't have a point besides the main two characters falling in love. But Lucy Score adds some extra excitement to her books like having the two main characters hating each other so much that it's such a slow burn but it's AMAZING! The next author I'd need to have on my bookshelf is a classic romance author Colleen Hoover. The things I could say about her books are amazing, from crying, to laughing my butt off, to being so angry I need to put the book down and walk away for a little bit. Colleen Hoover's book "Variety" broke me and I mean so much that I don't think I could ever read the book again. I heard about this book on #BookTok and it seemed so interesting because there was so much controversy about if the letter told the truth or if the ending was the truth. This book will take you through every emotion you could possibly think or feel. But Colleen Hoover really changed the book world her books are on #BookTok all the time and she is really amazing at what she does and if her books aren't on your bookshelf then you're missing out. One last book that would need to be on my bookshelf is "The Wall of Winnipeg and Me" by Mariana Zapata. This book is a million percent my all-time favorite book I read this book after seeing it on #BookTok not even realizing how long the book was. But this book put me in tears of happiness and just thinking about the book makes me want to read it again. There is no way any of these books or authors couldn't been on my bookshelf and if they weren't on there my bookshelf wouldn't be very good.

The three characters I would choose would be eleven, Steve Harrington, and the last person Billy Hargrove. Why I chose eleven should be pretty obvious but if you’ve never seen the show she literally has super powers. If you’ve seen Star Wars you could say she has the “force” like Darth Vader. She can pick things up with her mind and tare them apart. Which would honestly be so helpful because then I wouldn’t even have to do anything! The second person I chose was Steve Harrington, which seems to be an odd choice but if you think about it during season 3 he was like one of the most active characters because elevens powers weren’t working. He became the leader of the group and became like an older brother to all of the kids. which I think is very important to have someone like that who is cool, calm, and collected in a situation like that I think it would be needed. The third person I picked might seem like an interesting one because he’s pictured as a bad guy in the show. But Billy Hargrove actually has powers. He was the leader of the “Hive Mind” he controlled people and monsters because he was their leader. If Billy was in the right mind I think his powers could be put into positive things and be very helpful if he could get his monsters to fight the monsters for the group. I think if I had these three people we could survive a lot of monsters and things that came our way.

The person who was most influential in my life was my mother. She has three daughters and was single mom while my oldest sister was a sixth grader all the way to being a senior in high school. She was married to my father until I was 4 years old. They had split custody but my dad made way more money than my mom. She worked 3 jobs just to afford a one bedroom apartment where she would sleep on the couch while me and my sisters shared a queen size bed. When I was about 12 my dad became very abusive and angry all the time. It came to the point that my sister and I would have crying fits about going over to his house. My mom realized that we started acting different. We ended up having to have the hardest conversation of my life. Telling my mom what my dad was doing to not only me but my sisters too was the hardest and scariest thing to do as a seventh grader. My mom ended up putting a restraining order on my father and she had us for 4 months with only the income she was bringing in. She always came home with a smile on my face no matter how tired or worn out she was. It always makes me sad to think about that past, like I know I was only 13 when this happened but I always wish I could’ve done something to help her. The thing my mother did that most inspired me was seeing how hard she worked to provide for her three daughters who were all doing competitive cheer and gymnastics at the time. She never showed how tired she was or let us even think we didn’t have money. Mr and my sisters always felt “normal” around the other kids at school and never felt like our family was poor. My mom never let our father talk down to us and he’d always try telling us that it was our fault that my family wasn’t normal but my mom would always say things after that to make us realize that it wasn’t our fault. My mom is the wisest most hardworking person I have ever met. I hope one day when I have kids I protect and provide as much as my mother did for me and my sisters. I will always be thankful for how much my mom did for us and hope that one day I can pay her back for all that she did.