As I glanced through the music school's window, I was awestruck as my eyes revealed to me an inspiring scene of a woman playing Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata on a grand piano. Being a self-taught pianist for three years, I rang the doorbell out of curiosity. "May I help you?" "Can I please play your grand piano?", I asked. "Sure!" After I played some of Chopin's First Ballade, she said, "That's one of Chopin's hardest codas! You must have a great teacher!" "I'm self taught," I told her. Shocked, she introduced herself as Connie and offered me a full-ride scholarship at her music school, granting me an education that my family couldn't afford. Overjoyed, I started my education there immediately, but I quickly realized how much more thought, effort, and analysis I had to put into my music. However, progress wasn't instantaneous; learning those lessons took months. During my earlier days at the school, I had no idea how to analyze, practice, or master musical pieces. My lack of experience in this environment negatively affected my performance, so I practiced four hours daily to refine my musical skills and prove to Connie that I deserved the scholarship. Never had I forced myself to practice so intensely. I understood what I could accomplish with proper support and I couldn't surrender. Looking back, I realize that persevering through Connie's rigorous and arduous training has pushed me to reach my highest possible potential. Learning the importance of dedication, perfection, practicing, and self-awareness gave me a new mindset and unlocked a new way to approach problems. Putting tremendous amounts of effort and dedication into my music helped me master a plethora of other previously formidable challenges. Poems became preludes, math became music, and my improved ability to analyze the world enlightened me in every subject. I could analyze novels as if they were Nocturnes and every problem I encountered turned into piano practice. Having acquired a new dimension of thinking, my world became a piano concerto, brimming with passion and energy. Though Connie's lessons were meant to teach me music, they also showed me a new paradigm of life. Every day of my 4-hour practice was often a punch in the gut, but every one of these punches had meaning and purpose; these punches encouraged growth. Practicing and analyzing seemingly easy yet difficult pieces (looking at you, Beethoven's 6th Piano Sonata!) for hours on end pained me, yet it taught me valuable lessons that I couldn't learn without such disciplined determination. It was hard to take full advantage of this opportunity, but every struggle of this rigorous training was worth it. Each part of this challenge was a catalyst that expedited and grew my analytic and critical thinking skills. Now that I look back, I'm glad I persevered through each of those lessons, as they have helped me become the person I am today.

The main reason I'm looking to pursue nursing is because my big sister is also a hard-working nurse. I often hear her stories about her experiences with patients in the ICU and I find her career and stories to be meaningful and impactful, thus I was inspired to become a nurse. One of the main things that bothered me with one of her stories was that they often exposed the tragic shortcomings of certain hospitals. The main story she told me that broke me was that some hospitals were so crowded that a lot of patients were put on DNR so more room could be made for other sick patients. It showed me how many people were dying from the inadequate healthcare system with the limited amount of healthcare workers. It was at that moment I realized the value of human life; this experience showed me the limited amount of time people are given and I realized wanted to be a part of the healthcare system as a nurse. As of now, I don't know if I want to be a PA, nurse, physician, or pharmacist, but I know that I want to dedicate my career to helping people live their valuable lives to the fullest and ensure that none of my patients' lives get cut short. I'm not sure how if I can solve health issues or pandemics worldwide as a single person pursuing a healthcare job, but I know that on some level I can have some impact on extending people's lives and preventing easily preventable deaths. I don't know what it will be like and I don't know how much impact I'll have on the world, but I know that I want to let my curiosity for biology flourish through one of these healthcare jobs. I want to explore the intricate nature of life and understand the complex cells that make up my body and getting a scholarship for nursing will help me achieve this goal. I don't know what I'm going to do with my life, but I know have a list of goals I want to achieve. Through nursing, I can become a productive member of society and hopefully create a family through my job. I can explore my fascination for STEM by dedicating my career and education towards a healthcare job and I can dedicate my life to saving the most valuable thing on Earth: human life. Because of my family's currently divorce and difficult financial situation, I am worried about how I will pay for my college education and achieve my dreams. Through this nursing scholarship, I believe that I can pay for college with more ease. I believe my passion for learning, my self-driven extracurricular activities in music, and my 4.37 GPA display my academic promise and aptitude, thus I believe I am a good candidate for this scholarship, as I will use this scholarship for the greater good and ensure that hundreds of families don't have to see their loved ones pass away.

Jack Terry's story is one of pain, passion, and perseverance. Learning about his trials and tribulations has opened my mind to how possible it is to overcome seemingly impossible trials and it also showed me how many blessings I truly have. I constantly take the things in my life for granted and don't realize how lucky I am to even be breathing every day. Seeing him persevere through the impossible inspires me because it shows me that despite one's scarce resources and difficult situations, people can still persevere through adversity and achieve success despite their circumstances. After reading his story, I think about how much more resources I have and his story teaches me that I can achieve my goals if I have the habits of Jack Terry! Throughout my life, I grew up in a frugal family and my parents eventually divorced when I was 13 years old. My parents have gone through a costly child custody fight and they are still currently finalizing their costly divorce. After it is finalized, my father might not have enough money to pay for my education and I am frantically applying to as many scholarships as I can, hoping to pay for my education. He is already taking care of five of us children and is trying to balance his career and divorce simultaneously and he is trying to handle all of his struggles while supporting five children and their educations. All I can do right now is hope, pray, and persevere, but I do not know what my future holds for me. Through these trials, I have learned that not everyone gets dealt the ideal set of cards. Not everyone gets pocket aces, some people get an offset 2-7 and cannot do much about the circumstances in their lives. However, after hearing about Jack Terry's story, I realize life isn't exactly like poker; even in the worst circumstances, one can work towards a better flop, a better hand, and a better life. Even if you have nothing, through determination and hard work, anyone can live a successful life just like Jack Terry. Through persistence, anyone can change their hand to a 7-7-7 on the flop if they give it their all. Even though my father's financial situation is looking bleak, I hope that I can overcome adversity through hard work and also go to medical school, just like Jack Terry. Even though I have a 2-7 in some ways, I hope to persevere towards that lucky 7-7-7. Through my studies, I aim to become a physician to save lives and preserve the most valuable thing on Earth: Human life. I know medical school will be difficult, and painful but I know that through my pain, I will ensure that no parent must cry over their dead child, I know that several more innocent children will get to see the light of day for years to come, and I will be able to pay taxes and be a productive member of society through my studies. Of course, saying that I want to become a physician so I can "help people" and "save lives" is a generic answer, but I believe that it is the best answer. Dedicating one's life to selflessly saving the most priceless thing on Earth is not a generic reason for becoming a doctor, it is the best one. Through perseverance, hard work, and opportunities, I hope to become like Jack Terry, the unfortunate boy who achieved success through hard work despite his circumstances.

As I glanced through the music school's window, I was awestruck as my eyes revealed to me an inspiring scene of a woman playing Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata on a grand piano. Being a self-taught pianist for three years, I rang the doorbell out of curiosity. "May I help you?" "Can I please play your grand piano?", I asked. "Sure!" After I played some of Chopin's First Ballade, she said, "That's one of Chopin's hardest codas! You must have a great teacher!" "I'm self taught," I told her. Shocked, she introduced herself as Connie and offered me a full-ride scholarship at her music school, granting me an education that my family couldn't afford. Overjoyed, I started my education there immediately, but I quickly realized how much more thought, effort, and analysis I had to put into my music. However, progress wasn't instantaneous; learning those lessons took months. During my earlier days at the school, I had no idea how to analyze, practice, or master musical pieces. My lack of experience in this environment negatively affected my performance, so I practiced four hours daily to refine my musical skills and prove to Connie that I deserved the scholarship. Never had I forced myself to practice so intensely. I understood what I could accomplish with a proper support system and I couldn't surrender. Looking back, I realize that Connie's rigorous training has pushed me to reach my highest possible potential. Learning the importance of dedication, perfection, practicing, and self-awareness gave me a new mindset and unlocked a new way to approach problems. Putting tremendous amounts of effort and dedication into my music helped me master a plethora of other previously formidable challenges. Poems became preludes, math became music, and my improved ability to analyze the world enlightened me in every subject. I could analyze novels as if they were Nocturnes and every problem I encountered turned into piano practice. Having acquired a new dimension of thinking, my world became a piano concerto, brimming with passion and energy. Though Connie's lessons were meant to teach me music, they also showed me a new paradigm of life. Practicing on those 88 keys for four years wasn't just a hobby and that music scholarship wasn't just a collection of free lessons. To me, music was an experience for growth, a creative outlet, and an inspiring subject that transformed me into a curious philomath. Practicing Beethoven's 6th Piano Sonata for 100 hours turned me into a hard worker, learning how to compose music transformed me into a poetic philosopher, and teaching myself piano for three years fostered my passion for learning throughout high school. During those four years, music was my companion, my mentor, and my comfort during every struggle, trial, and life experience. Now that I am moving on from playing Chopin Etudes and composing waltzes in my free time, I am now pursuing my dream job as a physician with the same curiosity that drove me to learn La Campanella. I am chasing the American Dream with the same determination that helped me pass my music jury, but now I just need someone to assist me financially on my journey to achieve my dreams. As my composition teacher once said, natural ability and hard work are not enough to achieve success in a world where having the right opportunity is the most imperative component to success. In this stage of my life, I need that accompaniment if I want to live my childhood dreams. Music, Ms. Connie, and Mr. Wesley have gotten me this far, but I need more accompanists to achieve my dreams.