Plan - Planning is probably the most important phase of personal finance. Planning includes a roadmap of your short and long term aspirations and how much money you want to save for each. Allocate additional money for contingencies. This includes money for college, marriage or a trip around the world etc. Then plan how much you would have to save to achieve these. (I know it says to only put one, but this one is equally as important) Power of Compounding. Most people have studied compound interest during their school days, but still don't understand the power of compounding. Interestingly, it is the most useful concept taught during our formal education even upto post-graduate level. Albert Einstein once said, “Compounding is the 8th wonder of the world”.

It’s 6am and somehow I am 2 lbs over weight for a tournament our team is about to leave for. (For a 106 pounder, 2 lbs was a lot for me). Panicked, I run as much as I can before I jump on the bus. On the bus, I do push-ups the entire hour ride while my face is next to the heat vent. Straight off the bus I start running again. Time for weigh ins and somehow I make weight. I’m beat before the tournament has even started. I have some close matches but end up winning the tournament. It’s the only tournament I ever won and it happened to be my coach’s old high school. What started off as the worst morning of my life ended as one of the best days of my life. A meaningful experience.

My mother was an alcoholic who eventually died from her addiction. I believe she self-medicated her agoraphobia and to cope with being verbally abused by her mother. As a child, it made me hypervigilant—some people might say psychic, but really it was about always being on the alert for the slightest clue that Mom was about to fly into a rage. If you're familiar with the works of John Bradshaw about family systems theory: I became the “hero”. In some ways these adaptive behaviors served me well: I’m very observant, highly intuitive, and a perfectionist—great for working my way through high school, competing on the gymnastics team, and graduating with honors. I eventually studied addiction counseling and volunteered at a residential treatment center.

I don’t think I necessarily deserve this scholarship more than anyone else, but I would simply love to be able to continue going to school and I would be in incredibly grateful to win something like this. As I’ve only really ever known art, and I’m not really good at anything else, so to be able to continue to go to art school would be amazing. Entertainment art. Eg, concept art, animation, illustration. Maybe to work at a studio like Disney one day. My health was my biggest obstacle. I had bowel issues all my adolescent life, and also problems with food allergy and intolerance, and some related health issues. But I was brave enough to try different diets, though I faced an opposition form my family and also the doctors weren’t supportive of such drastic changes. Eventually I found out that vegan diet, based primarily on cooked vegetables and legumes, works best for me. I got rid of almost all health issues, and can finally function normally in my daily life.