My name is Blazen Trails McPhaul. McPhaul is Scottish, Mc refers to belonging to a clan, so I am of the clan of the Phauls. I take pride in my roots, my ancestral roots from Scotland are part of that but more importantly, my roots here in New Mexico are. I will be a sixth-generation New Mexican, the red chili runs thick in my blood. Still, all the roots in the world do no good if there is not a tree that sprouts and grows from them. So let me tell you about my tree. From a young age, I have been pushed to make something of myself so I strived forward, branching off into many different activities such as sports, clubs, and service groups. As I grew I played as many sports as I could, soccer, baseball, football, and wrestling to name a few. However, as I reached High School I decided to dedicate myself to one. It is as Bruce Lee said "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times" Because of this decision I made leaps and bounds of progress in basketball, because of it I made the varsity team. Even so, this senior year I have gone against the decision and decided to run cross-country. This was because over the summer I gave my word to a friend that I would run it with him, I keep my word. Sports were a large branch in the tree of my life, but they weren't the only ones. I dedicated myself to many different clubs and extracurricular activities. I helped to start a student-led bible club. I helped start the mock trial club at our school. I participated in FFA Judging where I made it to nationals in pasture and range and won fourth in the state horse judging contest. These are a handful of the clubs I have participated in. I have loved all of these clubs and they have had such a positive effect on me and the community. I have grown skills and grown as a person from participating in these clubs. Many times these clubs will do service events to help the community. Such as doing a town clean-up or serving a meal at the county fair. My tree's branch of clubs has caught a lot of water for me. A tree always has new growth, something it is striving for and too. I know for me that means learning how to play the bagpipes. It means finding a loving wife and raising a family centered around Christ. In the foreseeable future, it would mean going to college and pursuing a Higher Education. From what I know of Jared Ethan Trueba I think we would be friends, I think that we would talked about maybe heading to NMSU after graduating, I think he definitely would have convinced me to start learning the bagpipes, after trying to get me to play trombone of course. We would have spent long lunch minutes discussing different thoughts and ideas about a scripture story or about what our favorite movie characters were. Most of all I think we would work together to help those in need and grow our community at school or otherwise. I think that I am an embodiment of what Jared Ethan Trueba stood for as well as the type of person this scholarship seeks. My roots are deep, my trunk tall, and my branches long enough to cast shade over a mountain top.