I often try to start my mornings with my oldest hobby: reading. From a young age, my hands were constantly filled with books. Harry Potter, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and The Baby-Sitters Club were a few childhood favorites. I don’t always have time to read for pleasure anymore; while I eat breakfast, I typically read emails, the latest news headlines, or textbook excerpts I need for my classes. However, regardless of the material, I still enjoy whatever reading I can squeeze into my schedule. My days are often filled with a whirlwind of classes, meetings, and assignments. It’s a relief when I can go to a practice room and play music to decompress. I coax melodies out from the practice room pianos, coloring them with my own emotions and personality. When playing clarinet, I revel in the feeling of high notes on my tongue, played softly and sweetly. I crucially analyze phrases, looking for spots where I want soft, delicate endings or sharp, intense articulation. I assign each piece its own character and try to express those ideas with various techniques. I’ll release an intense avalanche of notes in my favorite piece but end it with a delicately rolled major chord. While at some points in my life playing music was stressful, this hobby is now an outlet and a cathartic release. Although it’s hard to find the time during a busy semester, I like to end my days by tatting, a form of lace-making that uses knots. The tiny clicks from my shuttle are soothing, and the simple, repetitive yet fruitful motions are fulfilling. Sometimes I make lace edging that can be used to adorn clothing, and other times I make Christmas ornaments. It’s a perfect and relaxing way to tie up a busy day.

What started as a simple end-of-the-school-year project in eighth grade transformed into one of my favorite hobbies and eventually a business. My English teacher challenged us to learn one new skill (any skill) and present a project on it. I choose to learn to tat, a form of lace-making. Already a knitter, I had seen a tatting book in a craft store shortly before the project, and tatting seemed like a mysterious, intriguing art form that was begging me to learn it. Through the miracle that is YouTube, I learned what materials I needed, how to wind a shuttle, and how to make a double stitch, the building block of all tatting. My first attempts were nothing but tiny piles of unruly knots, prompting me to gather my courage, rewind my shuttle, and try again. A few weeks later, I presented my slightly lopsided yet earnest attempts to my classmates and received polite smiles as I explained how to form a picot. I continued my venture into tatting long after the project was over. I slowly learned how to shape the once lopsided figures into elegant and charming pieces of art. Many Friday nights I tatted long into the night, making bookmarks as Christmas presents for friends. I even entered some of my work into Fiber Arts competitions. When I was sixteen, my relationship with tatting exponentially exploded when, ironically, my parents told me I couldn’t get a job. They claimed I was too busy with schoolwork and that no boss would accommodate my numerous band rehearsals and last-minute club meetings (in hindsight, they were correct). Determined to start making my own money and get a taste of that much renowned “independence” I had heard so much about, I created my own job. I opened an Etsy shop, TheMadTatterCo, in May of 2019 where I sold hand-tatted items. Orders were few and far between in the beginning, but I occupied myself by learning about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), taking product pictures, and calculating shipping costs. Eventually, business picked up, and I often tatted late at night to fill orders. When I “went to work,” I enjoyed the feeling of taking initiative and forging my own pathways while simultaneously doing something I loved. I discovered that by looking past the options presented to me, I can find ways to combine my ambitions and creativity. TheMadTatterCo is sadly no longer in business; I closed the shop before I started college knowing that I would become too busy to provide the attention it deserved. However, tatting is still a hobby I hold close to my heart, and I try to make time to tat as a way to decompress. The tiny clicks from my shuttle are soothing, and the simple, repetitive yet fruitful motions are fulfilling. I will forever be grateful for the happenchance English project that prompted me to learn a skill that has allowed me to explore my creativity, learn entrepreneurship, and provide a lifelong hobby that brings me joy.

Growing up playing musical instruments and being surrounded by and intensely curious about science (the science fair was a favorite event for me and my father was a high school science teacher), I feel like STEAM is an extension of my personality, combining my love for science and creativity. I hope to positively impact the world by becoming a doctor and using my knowledge of science and my ingenuity to create treatments that will benefit others. When it comes to science specifically, I love the connection between the very big and the very small. While peering through a microscope at cells, I marvel at how such small beings can coalesce to form organisms. When watching water droplets form a dome on a penny, I think about how the polarity of water molecules creates the dome through cohesion and how this cohesion is necessary for water transport in plants and human blood vessels; the seemingly insignificant uneven sharing of electrons in water molecules is largely responsible for much of life on Earth. I am fascinated by the relationship between the microscopic and the macroscopic and how the qualities of the extremely small translate into the larger whole they make up. I want to explore this topic further in science to understand how our bodies function in order to cure diseases. However, I first need to train and understand previous scientific discoveries before I stretch my own creative muscles in research labs (like the Women’s Reproductive lab I’m in). So, to fulfill my love for creating and the arts, I visit a practice room. Playing piano since I was five years old and clarinet since ten years old, I let my creative side come out to shape the music I play. I coax melodies out from the practice room pianos, coloring them with my own emotions and personality. When playing clarinet, I feel the way different notes are played and revel in the feeling of high notes on my tongue, played softly and sweetly. I crucially analyze phrases, looking for spots where I want soft, delicate endings or sharp, intense articulation. I assign each piece its own character and try to express those ideas with various techniques. My personality is constructed from a duality of science and the arts, which is why the relationship of logic and imagination in STEAM has always fascinated me. The meticulous methodology used to study science has been carefully refined for centuries, and conclusions are formulated based on evidence from careful experimentation. To some, this process seems cold and unfeeling yet I find this to be quite the opposite since imagination is what drives science. Evidence is necessary to support a theory or law, but imagination is the spark of inspiration for many “eureka” moments. Discoveries originate in dreams and are made possible through scientific discovery. I embody the duality of STEAM when I use logic to find concrete answers in a chemistry class AND when I think creatively when I play music. I hope to unite these interests in my career as a doctor, a career in which I can make a positive impact on others by using science and by doing research. As seen during the Covid-19 pandemic, doctors are vital in keeping the public safe and healthy, and I want to contribute to that cause. I can think of no better way of spending my professional career than helping people in their health. Whether it is through giving diagnoses, prescribing treatment, or doing research to develop cures, using science to develop innovative solutions to help others is the ideal pathway for me.

I served my community through organizations such as the Beta Club, the National Honor Society, and Girl Scouts. Beta Club and the National Honor Society were organizations associated with my high school, and there were multiple events throughout the school year where we would provide a service to our community. These events included peer tutoring, donation drives, card making for veterans, making gifts for nursing homes, and much more. I also participated in Girl Scouts from the age of five and was able to receive the Gold Award for completing an independent service project. For my project, I placed a Little Free Library in my local park so my community would have free access to books without having to worry about returning them on a specific date. Being an avid reader from a young age, I visited my local library often, especially with my family; this made it extremely fitting that I establish another library (in a sense) in my community. The concept of a Little Free Library is to give and take books freely therefore eliminating any worries about overdue books or expensive prices. As I mentioned before, our local library was excellent, but I felt that the constraints of a due date and potential late fees could be intimidating. This worry is eliminated when using a Little Free Library, and its placement in our public park is ideal for people to pick up and drop off books, especially families with small children. I also added my Little Free Library (charter number 97742) to the organization’s global map on the Little Free Library website so that my library can be discovered by others. I am considered the steward, or primary caretaker, of the library. I do my best to have a variety of books and magazines stocked, but the library is truly a reflection of my community’s reading interests. On my visits to my library, I’ll occasionally have interactions with people who are curious about the library, and I’ve even been given positive reviews. However, the biggest indicator of community interaction is which books are in the library. The more different the books are between visits, the more people have been exchanging books. The best moments are when I don’t recognize any of the books in my library from previous visits, meaning all the books I put in found new homes, and others generously donated enough books to keep the cycle going. I started my Gold Award project in July of 2019 and finished my project in June of 2020. I spent over eighty hours working on it, and I still make an effort to visit my library as often as I can when I’m home from college. Although I had help from multiple people and organizations in my community, the majority of my project was organized by myself, and I was responsible for ensuring the project was completed on time and that all necessary requirements and precautions were taken care of. This project allowed me to learn the process that many other community volunteers go through to carry out their work and how to collaborate with others as a team. For example, I had to get permission from my City Council and the board in charge of the park to establish my library, so I had to learn to effectively and professionally communicate with these members of my community. My Gold Award project was extremely fulfilling since it was about a topic that was very personal and close to my heart, and overall, I thoroughly enjoy all the volunteering I do.

At school, I can typically be found with my nose in my notes for one of my STEM classes. While I know creativity is necessary for scientific innovation, I need to first develop a basic foundation in those subjects before I start to use my creative muscles in those classes. However, I completely change gears when I visit a practice room. Playing piano since I was five years old and clarinet since nine years old, I find comfort in letting my creative side come out to shape the music I play. I coax melodies out from the practice room pianos, coloring them with my own emotions and personality. When playing clarinet, I feel the way different notes are played and revel in the feeling of high notes on my tongue, played softly and sweetly. I crucially analyze phrases, looking for spots where I want soft, delicate endings or sharp, intense articulation. I assign each piece its own character and try to express those ideas with various techniques. For example, one of my favorite pieces, composed by Cecile Chaminade, is called “The Flatterer” (also known as “La Lisonjera”); when playing it, I manipulate the timing and placement of the notes to bring out the extroverted and charming essence of the piece. I start the beginning smoothly, wanting a debonair suitor (a “flatterer”) to come to the audience's mind. However, the middle section intensifies, and I let an avalanche of notes rush out, expressing the tension and raw emotion I feel the composer wanted the piece to emulate. In moments like these, I let my creativity fly free and there are no right or wrong answers to how the music is played; the only limit is the timer I set so I remember to return to my dorm later that evening.

Starting college was a drastic life change and required me to adapt my study habits to my new environment. It became my responsibility to keep up with the faster pace of my classes on a day-to-day basis. I discovered devoting an hour of study to each class almost every day helped me to understand previous lectures and better prepared me to absorb information and participate in future lectures. To keep track of the many important exam dates and due dates, I made sure to meticulously record everything in a planner. I also wrote down small goals each day for myself, which greatly helped me organize the never-ending to-do list I seemed to always have. Additionally, I took time at the beginning of the semester to adapt my study habits to the teaching style of each class. For example, my biology teacher lectured very quickly, and it was of utmost importance to quickly write down everything she said. To prepare for the first test, I made outlines using my notes, but to prepare for the second test, I made flashcards after each lecture. I had much more success with the flashcard method and will continue to use this method for her genetics course this upcoming semester. However, my chemistry class required completely different study habits. Chemistry exams were composed purely of math problems; to study, I practiced the chemistry problems our professor suggested multiple times and found extra problems to practice in our textbook. Overall, I’ve learned that the best study strategies for me are to consistently check in with myself to make sure I’ve understood the material from the most recent lecture, use a planner to keep track of upcoming exams and assignments, and find ways to study that match the teaching style and rigor of each class.

The song that most inspires me is “I AM WOMAN” by Emmy Meli. This song recently gained attention on the Internet for empowering women and recognizing the power women hold. The chorus of the song is filled with affirmations reminding everyone (but specifically women) that you are fearless, creative, and can achieve anything you desire. It’s a powerful anthem that reminds you to be kinder to yourself and celebrate all your achievements, no matter how small. When I first heard this song, it was on replay for days. One key element of this song is that “I AM WOMAN” is just about four minutes long, making it the ideal length for a study break. During midterms and finals season, in between studying for my chemistry, calculus, Spanish, or biology exams, I would stand up and stretch while listening to this song, a reminder that I can achieve my goals and that my abilities are limitless. Afterward, I would continue working, but the lyrics would stay with me throughout the day, motivating me to pursue my dreams. This prompt at first seemed challenging to me since I’m a musician who can play both the clarinet and the piano; there are many other pieces I've played that move me and conjure up intense emotion. However, while other pieces often bring me joy or comfort, the meaning of “I AM WOMAN” gives me grit and determination and inspires me to continue working hard to achieve my goals.

To me, anything that breaks up the monotony of my routine or brings a smile to my face, even for just a moment, can be something that makes me happy. Moments of happiness can be found simply in cups of hot, carefully brewed green tea, in the smell of fresh bread that envelops me, and in a cool breeze that whips my hair around and carries the laughter of my friends for miles. Then there are things that give me happiness for hours and even days. Such things are warm blankets and hoodies fresh from the dryer, attending an orchestra concert put on by my peers, and the newest carefully crafted episode of All Creatures Great and Small. Finally, there are things that bring me happiness for weeks, months, and years. The videos I have of my roommate and I being silly in our dorm room in the first few weeks of college make me giggle under my breath still, even when I’m in the grocery store or at home. My aloe vera plants that I bought in my sophomore year of high school and have since multiplied are my pride and joy. Pictures and mementos from family trips bring quiet smiles to my face. Sometimes, in a society that feels as dark and dismal as ours, it feels like holding onto happiness is as easy as catching sunbeams in a mason jar. However, if you let the mason jar sit in the sun for a while, you can still feel the warmth of the sunlight long after you bring the mason jar into the shade. So when happiness does come our way, we can cherish it and hold onto it as tightly as we can for as long as we can, and that is enough for me.