The song that inspires me the most is "Trivia: Love" by BTS, specifically the member RM (also known as Kim Namjoon). This song is obviously about love, but it touches upon the topic in a way that isn't talked about a whole lot. My favorite lyric is "I live so I love" and even though it sounds cheesy or cliche, I think that it's so important. We as people were meant to live and we were meant to love too. As someone who was bitter and angry at the world for a long time, this song reminds me that I was made for and to love. The wordplay and lyrically composition of this song is very important to me as well. One of the main themes through the lyrics compares the words "human", "love", and "live". Genius lyrics says "“Love” in Korean is 사랑(sarang), “human” is 사람(saram), and “to live” is 살아(sara). These three words are written and pronounced in a similar way." and RM touched upon this in a fanlive, saying "I think since a long time ago, since the time Korean was first made, they created “human” and “love” similar on purpose....And also the word “to live”. These three words are essential in our lives. So, I think they were made like that.". Taking the origins of the song into consideration, it was really made out of love itself in every way. I hope that one day I can create something that is made out of love as well because, as the song shows, we are made for it.

Hello! My name is Ashton Julian, my pronouns are they/them/theirs, and I am a student at Alfred University with Child Psychology and English majors. I am also autistic. As an autistic individual, I have firsthand experience with the way that students with developmental disabilities are treated in the public school system. I ran an animal therapy clinic at my high school that served students with developmental disabilities and I help teach horseback riding lessons to other autistic children on the most weekends when I am not in college. As someone who is autistic, I think that the people we need to concentrate the most on are non-autistics. Instead of teaching me and other autistic people to mask and appear "normal", why can't we teach non-autistics how to properly support people who are different? One of the biggest problems that I have as an autistic person is that neurotypical people love to speak for me. Non-autistics will see me doing something different and immediately do everything in their power to make sure that I conform to them. They don't give me the chance to explain the why of my actions or thought process. The main issue with this is that it's well meaning. I know that there is no ill-intent behind these people's actions, they are simply trying to help me in the only way that they know how. I am not going to fault the moral character of a person because they don't know the correct way to help me. However, knowing that they don't mean to hurt me doesn't make my needs any less ignored. I think that teaching people to focus more on the needs of the autistic person rather than the remedy of the situation will make a big difference. In my personal life, something that I struggle a lot with is overstimulation and emotional outbursts. I don't have any emotional regulation so I cry a lot whenever I feel like something is overwhelming. Most people's first response to me bursting into tears is to either remove me from the situation or change the situation somehow to fit their perception of the stressor. Very rarely am I asked "How can I help you?". This is very frustrating because of the time my ideal remedy is to simply continue with the activity. Non-autistics seem to feel that me crying is a failing on their part when truth is that it's just an emotional response that most of the time has nothing to do with them. I think that if I was allowed to explain "The reason why I'm crying is not because you are doing something wrong, it's because [x], [y], and [z] happened and my brain doesn't know any other response to it. I am still able to function, I just look like this." then it would be much less frustrating to everyone involved. But because the focus is immediately on salvaging the situation rather than how I feel, my needs are once again overlooked and a sub-par solution is provided for me. Now, this isn't to say that everything autistic people do is justified and shouldn't be questioned. Of course there are things that just aren't acceptable and any behavior that causes harm to another person, animal, or themselves needs to be dealt with appropriately. However, I feel that once those major behavioral issues are dealt with, autistic people are expected to just conform to everyone else and that is really hard on our mental health. This scholarship will assist me in my goals of helping people with developmental disabilities because I would like to write books or give talks on my experiences as an autistic person. I am pursuing an English major as well to help me. I think that with the right language and education I will be able to help others understand the struggles of the autistic community that aren't talked about as often. With this understanding, non-autistic people will know how to help us.

The manga "Noragami" by Adachitoka has had a profound impact on me through the character of Yato. Yato is a former god of calamity who is now committed to becoming a god of happiness because of the support of his friends. This is really important to me because it reminds me that there is no single way to love or be loved. A lot of Yato's struggles arise because he loves people how he wants to be loved. His love isn't self-serving, he does truly care about his friends, but he just overlooks some of the finer aspects because he's never really had to think about other people's needs before. Yato reminds me to not only support my friends, but learn from them too because I really do care about their happiness and I want to love them in a way that I know they will feel.