Philomath- lover of learning and knowledge There are often moments in life where you feel a chill run through your body, forcing you to pay attention, causing you to look inward. These moments are few and far between, but you can feel the energy that just screams whatever you are experiencing is important. In that moment, you know that you are about to create a life from this spark. Some call this love, others call it inspiration, I call it a beginning. From the moment I first turned my eyes to the worlds above me, all my childlike wonder coalesced into a spark within me, a passion to reach a beginning that would eventually lead to a life I hoped to create for myself. I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to learn. To be among the stars with a purpose. I knew I wanted to do something special and unique to me, for myself and for this world. I am motivated because I decided to be, that’s just who I am. I take my ambition and make something from it because I love the feeling of learning something new, and the drive to do something with knowledge. For the sake of myself and my life, but also for science and innovation. I want to pursue this fascination with the world, everything in it and all that lies beyond it. There’s much I have planned for my life and much I want to do. I will retain this ambition to do more, be more than who I was yesterday. I believe that I will make it to the stars.

My father has taught me many things, the most important being, 'be the light you want to see in the world'. This was a strange thing to hear as a child, though over the years I learned to decipher the deeper meanings in phrases like this one. My father was advising me to offer hope and refuge to the people living in such a dark world. I have been to the darker corners of the world and I have seen and experienced the negativity and uncertainty that surrounds people. If it's my job and desire to make the world better, where do I start? There are many issues in the world, and that in itself is an understatement. There are many people who are impacted by these issues, and many more reasons for the problems to be solved. I have come to learn how much of a challenge it is to try and stay positive for the sake of others, but everyone has their limits and there's only so many silver linings. I had to search myself to find an ability that could offer people 'light', and ability that is true to myself and helpful to others. That ability is my drive for knowledge and understanding. I find that people feel secure in what they know, and if I can learn and study so I may teach others and contribute to science, then I believe that in itself can be a contribution of positive impact. Positivity is important for humanity, but intelligence and knowledge are vital. If humanity can learn to understand more about ourselves, each other, our place in the universe and how the world works around us, then that will lead to a brighter and happier future for everyone.

I used to try and divide myself, something that I had done since I was small. It was either one thing or the other. I had to either like cars or dolls, stuffed animals or puzzles, painting, or sketching, non-fiction or fiction, being right or left-handed. I would often be called indecisive, but I simply knew what I wanted. Even if it what I wanted was practically everything I was expected to choose between. There was always a choice to be made, which is what made me so conflicted in the end. I had so many interests, likes and dislikes; could I possibly be such a thing as a scientist and an artist? For a while I tried each piece separately. I would dress the way I thought a right brained person would, in vibrant colors that made eyes strain, hair accessories, painted bags or backpacks, and mismatched socks. I would have a paintbrush at hand and create artwork in my classes. Then I thought, what about the left? How would I act? I wore neutral colors and kept it simple and efficient. I prioritized my schoolwork and helped others study while experimenting and building projects for science fairs or for fun. I played each role to what I saw in media. I wanted to present myself in a way where people would see me and understand who I was. It was always one way or the other, never both. Yet then I saw programs called STEAM. The Science, Technology, Engineering, Math were familiar, but somehow, art was added into the mix. Each STEM field felt closed off from creativity to me, but since art was added, I thought, did I finally have a choice not to choose? I realized I had been trying to cut myself in half. I could not exist without my analytical brain in the same way I would not be able to without my creativity. All this business of categories was tiring, so I thought, who am I deciding for anyway? I am my own person, so why not do it all? I am good with words in the same way I am good with colors. I can research just as well as I can create. I can grow plants in the same way I could chop them up to cook with. I am not meant to pick sides to show if I am a whole spectrum. After this realization, I started nurturing each part of myself. I learned new art techniques to paint in and began to develop my own, unique style. I learned parts of the human body and complexity in plants by means of illustrating them. I applied to higher education programs, such as governor’s schools, and ended up attending where I wanted to attend the most after applying to various ones. I learned how to design in various 3D softwares while using my creativity in the project. Through my creative journey, I realized why the STEM fields felt so bare. People do not often understand complex sciences because the data is hard to understand. Yet when artists are hired to create diagrams and images, people learn how to see the complexity in a more advanced way. Art is vital to STEM because what good is the data collected or the machine made if it can not be explained? Sometimes all the charts and numbers in the world could never quite teach someone what all the information really means to the real world. While I am still learning and practicing, if I can do many skills simultaneously without picking sides, then what can possibly stop me? I want to pursue college education so I may acquire the resources and skills for me to become someone. Someone who can not only understand such interesting concepts STEM offers, but also be capable of explaining those concepts to my future coworkers, clients, or for the sake of science itself. One example of art in STEM is the movie 'Interstellar'. This film took such complex topics, such as imagining what a breach in space-time could look like from our perspective, the surface of uncharted planets, and my personal favorite, visualizing a dimension beyond time itself. The science behind the black hole 'Gargantua ' in the movie, paired with a fantastic art department, led to the most accurate film depiction of a black hole to date. The visual effects in this movie are relatively few compared to other films, but it is honestly no surprise that 'Interstellar' won an Academy Award. If STEM and art were to work in harmony, then not only would people understand the complexity of the fields, but it could offer more creative outlets in such important parts of work. Art is just as human, if not more, than these areas of study. Science, technology, engineering and math need creativity for the sake of innovation and inspiration, and what is more creative than the human desire to create art?

As a kid, books were my escape. I had an intense curiosity of the world around me, and I took to buying non fiction books with to better understand the world around me, and fiction to understand the people I’m surrounded by. I sought out Science Fiction and eventually found the works of Andy Weir. This author offered everything I wanted to read. In his works, not only does he back up the plot with science and reason, but he personifies humanity through a person. To me it makes both the worlds of fiction and non fiction collide. Project Hail Mary is my favorite fiction book that I have read. It takes a man who is driven by his own comfort zone and completely breaks it. He is unwillingly thrown into a situation he had no way of controlling, with nothing but his shattered trail of memories to guide him. Through all of this, he relearns his mission, makes an unexpected ally, and finds his own humanity in the form of sacrificing himself for others (It’s ok in the end). Project Hail Mary represents the desperation within everyone to survive, and one man’s hope to live despite knowing what he must do. Somehow, he manages to save himself and those around him, showing that while circumstances may not go the way you believe, there’s always another way. This book takes the world and the people within in, making the story feel incredibly human. I believe the world has lost touch with our humanity. Most don’t understand each other on a deeper level without romance, or why we often act the way we do. To read a story where above all else, the world comes together to fight a common cause with community and determination is inspiring to me.