It feels like just yesterday I was racing off the bus with my sister, Willow, to our backyard to make mud and paint it on the exterior of the basement walls. We spent all the time we could outside, finding toads and creating an imaginary world where we cooked with mother nature’s materials. I believe deeply that these experiences and memories with nature contributed largely to my development and who I am now. My name is Ava Yon and I am 20 years old, studying landscape architecture at Michigan State University. This is my first year in the program, but my second year at MSU. Through my connections with nature at a young age, my fifteen years as a dancer, and search for creative outlets in my everyday life I found landscape architecture to check all of my boxes. Last year, March 27, 2022, I lost my sister, Willow. At twenty-one years old, she was taken by a drunk driver driving the wrong way on the highway in Grand Rapids, MI. Willow attended Kendall College for industrial design and would be graduating this spring. She was creative and outgoing, infectious around other people, always pushing others to try new things and be a better person. Since this incident, my life has changed astronomically. I’ve had to do a lot of challenging things like writing her obituary, battling the at-fault driver in court, and currently helping my mom beat breast cancer. Greatest of all, I have had to learn to live without my best friend. Through it all, I have been able to rely on my creative outlet in landscape architecture consistently. My days can be easily swallowed by post-traumatic stress and grief. If you know grief, you know that it is strictly paralyzing. Using my creativity helps me pull myself out. I truly love working in the studio and creating design concepts that relate to an environment. I find peace and joy in my time at school and work very hard to maintain my grades and quality of work. My drive to become a great landscape architect stems from my sister and the positive attributes she would have given to the world. I feel a responsibility and aim to increase the quality of life of those who are still able to live their lives here on earth. The world population recently reached seven billion people, a number hard to visualize. As populations increase, it is vital to implement plans that can handle such populations. My example of this is the highway systems in Grand Rapids not adapting to their increased population causing many disasters. How do we adapt to these vast increases in populations? Sustainability is the simple, broad answer. The importance of designs supporting the current generation without harming future generations. Successful designs are sustainable, and I strive to be a successful landscape architect. I will close this out by offering my greatest condolences to the reader, as I found that you just passed one year without Ray. I searched Ray Bausick, learning several things about him and who he was, and still is. I feel it is important to share that with you to know that this scholarship is truly keeping him in memory. Finding ways to honor and remember those lost is important, a reason why my family started a visual arts scholarship at my previous high school in honor of Willow, similarly. Willow gets me out of bed every morning and reminds me that little discrepancies do not make a bad day. I will forever use her legacy to make positive impacts throughout my career.