I had always absolutely loved OneRepublic. However, I had originally been fond of them simply because of the beat and tone of the songs. After I had realized that OneRepublic was one of my favorite artists to listen to, I began to look into them more. I had noticed a theme. Seemingly all of their songs have some relationship to either a positive outlook on life, or a message on an ultimate purpose of life. From "Counting Stars", which beautifully constructs the essence of better things to come in life, to "I Ain't Worried", which has recently highlighted its message of having a positive mindset when problems arise to the millions of viewers of the new movie "Top Gun: Maverick", it is evident that OneRepublic truly brings an encouraging vibe to the world of music. Furthermore, there is one song that, to me, really has the most significant meaning to it, which is "I Lived". Throughout the song, through the words "And I hope that you don't suffer, but take the pain" and "I did it all", it sends the ultimate message that although there will be tough times in life, the most important thing is to get back up and live life to its fullest. All that truly matters is that you put your best foot forward throughout your life, and "give it all you have". This message has lifted me through the struggles that I have faced, and every time the song comes up on my playlist, I know I am gonna have a positive day. I truly believe that no matter how horrible or unsuccessful one believes their life is, they can change this by simply taking a more positive outlook on what they have, and what they learned from the negative experiences in their life.

It had all begun after I had gotten my learners license. One afternoon, after baseball practice, my mom let me drive home. On the way, she told me that I could stop somewhere and get food if I was hungry. Typically, I would say no and go home without eating much dinner, simply because I did not want to eat, but on this particular day, I chose to stop at none other than McDonalds. After ordering my plain bacon cheeseburger, I drove to the window to pay and retrieve my food. While I was sitting there, I began to examine the Mcdonalds sign out of curiosity. Right then, I was reminded of their slogan “I’m lovin’ it”. After reading this a few times aloud in my head, I had realized something. A connection that would spark my drive to improve my nutrition, and would ultimately change my life for the better. The slogan was in present tense. Not past, not future, but present. Now, you may be wondering why this ended up being so significant, how the tense of a slogan could impact my life in such a meaningful way. Well, once I acknowledged that the slogan was, in fact, in present tense, I began to think of why this may be. In consequence, I came to the conclusion that the reason it is in present tense is because it ultimately makes the slogan true. At the moment, McDonalds is a very cheap, quick, and unhealthy food item to fill you up on the go. However, after “presently” enjoying the meal, the reality of what you had just consumed comes to surface. Your future self is not gonna “love” the fact that you had ingested such a detrimental meal, and you are not gonna look forward to consuming such things until you get in the moment of when you are actually eating it. Although this was clearly an odd way to think of something so insignificant as a slogan, it truly impacted my life in a major way. This realization sparked my healthy-eating revolution,that I refuse to turn back from. I believe that eating in at least a relatively healthy way is one of the most important aspects of our lives. We must recognize that when we eat things, we are literally putting it into the circulation of our body’s processes. This fact leaves me with the belief that if you put negative things into your body, you will get negative things out of it. This applies to both our physical and mental health. Personally, I have noticed that I am a much more confident person, and take much more pride in what I do on a daily basis. Additionally, I have also been much more energetic, and also had a lot more drive to improve other aspects of my life beyond eating healthy, as this significant change has led me to reflect on other things such as working out. On the flipside, I have noticed that I have gained a lot of healthy muscle, and have been able to improve the physical aspects of my baseball ability as well. Ultimately, the importance of having a nutritious and balanced diet needs to be emphasized more throughout our society, as it will lead to more societal drive to improve, and will lower many of the detrimental health disorders that we experience way too much.

I don’t particularly like to refer to my “team” using that terminology. I see us as a family, rather than just a collection of baseball teammates. We do basically everything together, and would do anything to help each other out. This is the first reason I love baseball; it turns strangers and “friends” into lifelong acquaintances who we know we can always rely on. The nature of the sport forces us to work together and help discover the strengths and weaknesses of each other. Through this, we are able to help each other not only grow as players, but also as individuals who will be set up for success in the future. In relation to this, another component of baseball that I am in love with is the support that comes along with being part of a team. I cannot tell you how many times I have “failed” on the field, such as striking out or making an error, and have heard nothing but positive reinforcement from my teammates over the years. I also experienced this specific aspect of the sport after I had suffered a season-ending elbow injury in my junior year of high school. I was devastated, internally manipulated into a whirlwind of a million disparate feelings of pessimism. It was as if the game was as easily taken away from me as it had been given, when I had initially fallen in love with it. However, through the greatness of baseball and its supporting nature, I was able to retain my unconditional love for the game, and continue to pursue the sport that I had revolved my life around. However, this injury shed light on another aspect of the game that I have learned to love just as much as the others. I had originally perceived that my love for the game was exclusively grounded in the action and the on-field “warfare” between the opposition and me. Yet, through reflection and being forced to look at the game from a “behind-the-scenes” perspective due to my injury, I was able to uncover a surprising, yet beautiful element of the game, one of the most relevant and essential aspects of our world, a basic component and truth of our existence: numbers. I had always known that stats such as batting average were a significant component of the sport, but I had no idea how complex the use of statistics is in the game of baseball. This realization truly sparked my interest in numbers and statistical analysis, and paved the way for me to pursue a degree in data science, and hopefully become a data scientist, analyst, or engineer for a professional or collegiate team. Now, as for my favorite player of all time, it has to be the big lefty Jon Lester. As a lifelong Red Sox fan, I grew up watching Lester craft some of the most fluent and beautiful starts I have ever seen, which played a big part in my developed love for pitching, and is now my favorite position. Aside from Lester being a big part of the Red Sox 2007 and 2013 World Series, the main reason he is my favorite player of all time is because of his comeback in 2007. After being removed from a start in 2006, Lester was diagnosed with lymphoma. However, he did not let this affect him one bit, as he came back in 2007 with a vengeance and was a key part of the 2007 World Series pitching staff. This representation of resilience is what I believe baseball is all about, never giving up no matter what.

Baseball: a simple game that involved running around on orange dust and breathing in the Saturday-morning scent of freshly cut grass. It used all the knowledge and mastery that I had acquired over my experience, endeavoring to assert my dominance over the opponent. This was my life. This was my passion – a passion that was severely threatened when I suffered a season-ending elbow injury prior to my junior season of high school. I was devastated, internally manipulated into a whirlwind of a million disparate feelings of pessimism. All of the cheers and accolades I had received from peers and inspirational role models in my life were completely extracted from my soul. It was as if the game was as easily taken away from me as it had been given, when I had initially fallen in love with it. However, I had originally perceived that my love for the game was exclusively grounded in the action and the on-field “warfare” between the opposition and me. Yet, through reflection and being forced to look at the game from a “behind-the-scenes” perspective due to my injury, I was able to uncover a surprising, yet beautiful element of the game, one of the most relevant and essential aspects of our world, a basic component and truth of our existence: numbers. Now, don’t get me wrong; baseball is still an instrumental part of my life, but I realized that baseball taught me something that was invaluable: the meaning of numbers. I had watched Major League Baseball nearly every chance I had, and I learned that everything about baseball was predicated on numbers. From coaches’ decisions to the amount of money these people – the most talented in the world – get paid, to attendance at each game, and to which players get to play, the substance of the sport was numbers. This realization sparked my interest, and I began to perceive our world as a secret dish, with numbers as the fundamental ingredient. So, why do I love math? Well, simply because math, specifically statistics and numerical analysis, can be applied to basically everything we do in life, and math is ultimately necessary for the future advancement of our society. Additionally, I plan to pursue a career in data science, which has extreme applications of numbers and mathematical statistics, which will fully convolute my love for the most instrumental component of our society, math.

On a beautiful and calm Sunday morning, I happened to be walking my sweet labrador, Smalls. We take just about the same route every single day, after both breakfast and dinner, which seems to satisfy her more than needed. However, on this particular day, Smalls would get a little more satisfied than usual, or at least I thought. We had just crossed our first corner of the walk, since our route had always been in a rectangular shape, and were walking at a typical walking speed until, suddenly, I felt her pull me back a lot harder than usual. Her resisting my walking was nothing out of the ordinary, but this time, it was as if she had just seen the most juicy, scrumptious squirrel on the planet. After she had pulled me, I initially looked back for a brief second, but did not notice anything unusual, so I attempted to pull her back in my direction, and keep walking. This time, however, she was determined. She was not gonna let anything stop her from pulling in the direction of whatever her mind was encapsulated in. So, I gave in a little bit, assuming it was just another pointless smell that she was looking to assert her dominance over. I t was fair to say I had given up on pulling her to keep walking in my desired direction, at least up until I saw it. A sandwich, only this one wasn't any ordinary sandwich. After moving a couple feet closer, I could see it more clearly. On the sandwich, it looked as if it had been completely infested with mold by sitting outside for an extreme amount of time, but then I realized this "mold" was moving. This is when I was able to decipher the colony of ants that had taken over the middle school sandwich, but it was too late. Smalls had lunged, as quickly as I had seen her move, at this sandwich, and had swallowed it in less than a second. At that moment, I was consumed by a mixed feeling of disgust and concern, as my beautiful and loving best friend had just swallowed a few hundred ants in just one bite. However, at this point, there was nothing to be done but continue our journey around our rectangular walking route. Then, probably about midway through the walk, I was in deep thought. I had realized that not only had my eyes witnessed the most eventful dog meal of my life, but my mind had also made one of the most significant connections possible on a dog-walk. I had realized that dogs truly are the beauty in the world. Not only are they innocent in every aspect of their lives, but they also find the beauty and positivity in everything they do. Any human would have seen that sandwich as nothing more than a pile of nasty bugs devouring some rotten waste, but this dog was able to see it as a perfect breakfast supplement to her typical main dish of dog food. I feel like this story truly represents the role that my little Smalls plays in my life. She is ultimately here to remind me of the positive things in life, and that everything will be just fine, no matter what. Since the first day we got her, over two years ago, I have noticed a significant change in my outlook on life, and have been happier than ever. The saying “dogs bring out the best in us” is truly not cliche, and could not be more representative of the truth.