My first day of my internship I was shown to my empty cubicle with gray walls and desk. I sat at my desk that day feeling empty. I like a clean desk, but not a boring one. So I embodied my inner Michael Scott and started my summer internship project. Well, not my actual one, but a personal one… for my summer internship… and you know what? It might has well have been considered a project for the whole company. That’s how important this was. Phase 1: every day bring in one new object for the desk. Not decoration, object. Day 1: Christmas Cow Figurines Day 2: Lego Vespa Day 3: Toy car #1 This went on for a while. Phase two: organization. I made a parking lot on my desk. I put down the white tape, I organized the toy cars and legos, including a lego electric car charging station, and started on Desk City in the State of Brigid’s Cubicle (est. 2024) in the Country of Program Management office. The State of the Union is every month on the 25th and citizens are Lego Obi Wan Kenobi, Lego Obi Wan Kenobi #2, Lego Darth Vader, Lego James Bond and Lego Electric Race Car Driver. I am the president. It truly adds nothing to my actual work other than joy, and I think Michael Scott would appreciate that and agree that sales have gone up 10,000% because of it. As a leader on my engineering design team at school, I still take from Michael Scott’s leadership skills. Of course, like him, I still freak out at every minor inconvenience, but everything ends up being alright, but my main priority is making sure everyone is happy and feels like a family on the team. Like Regional Manager Scott of Dunder Mifflin in Scranton, Recovery Subteam Lead Duffy of the Rocket Team in Massachusetts, brings in cookies as the promised “special treat” for the team and then makes them help with the new crossword puzzle for the day (or in my case, the Wordle). My time as a leader has made me appreciate Michael Scott as a character in the office (even more so than when he wasn’t in the later seasons) because I’ve realized that people don’t come back to a team just for the work they’re doing, they come back for the people and for good leaders. If a leader has a sense of humor, is approachable, and makes for a fun environment, people are more likely to respect them as a leader, because they respect their employees. If someone on my team was to say “you remind me of Michael Scott” I would have no choice but to take it as the highest compliment a leader can get.

“WAIT TURN IT BACK” “OKAY I’M SORRY” This frantic interaction was 22 hours into a 24 hour road trip and a result of a Swiftie’s exhaustion-induced (Lavender) haze when they heard the drum opening of “Shake It Off” before the current driver skipped it. I am the previously mentioned Swiftie. “SAYING ‘IT’S GONNA BE ALRIGHT!’” the car of 7 college engineers screamed heading down the Tennessee freeway with a high-powered rocket in the back of the car. The Rocket Team was once again heading down to Huntsville, Alabama for the annual NASA University Student Competitive Launch, and we had qualified both our vehicle and payload. Of course getting there wasn’t easy, and since January of 2024 I have been putting my all into this team coupled with juggling all my classes. Coming back to the team, I was voted to be the next Recovery Systems Lead, meaning I deal with parachutes, and making sure the rocket gets back on the ground safely - parachutes being the most problematic part of the rocket this year. So, preparing to make sure we have successful launches, I’ve received a lot of texts saying “I stay out too late” from my mom while leaving the workshop at 1am after working on the rocket all night, often feeling like I’ve “got nothing in my brain” anymore. Truly the embodiment of Taylor’s lyrics. After spending hours perfecting and testing the system with the current system lead, trying to learn as much as possible for when I take over, we watched the rocket launch, and the parachute…. well…. we shook it off. The parachute didn’t deploy. After hours of work. Nothing. Well, nothing but something for the NASA engineers to question us about at our next presentation. Finally, after countless weeks consuming my life thus far in 2024, we got the parachutes working perfectly, and we qualified for our final launch in Alabama. Needless to say, it took A LOT of “shaking it off” and as for the drive to Alabama, it took A LOT of sleeping it off. I sat on the edge of the launch field behind the caution tape with the rest of my time, and the entire time, I couldn’t help but think about every failure we had up until that moment, but on top of that, I distinctly remember having “Shake It Off” stuck in my head. The announcer finally moved to our rocket. “Alrighty this next rocket on launch pad 57 is going in 3…” “But I keep cruisin’” “...2…” “can’t stop won’t stop movin’” “...1…” “it’s like I’ve got this music” Silence. “In my mind…” The motor finally ignited as if it was waiting for us to be on the edge of our seats. “Saying ‘It’s going to be Alright!’” And it was. Everything was alright. In fact it was better than ‘alright.’ We “never missed a beat” and “hit all our marks” (even more so than Taylor Swift at the Eras Tour). We had one of our most nominal launches this year and we were one of the only teams to successfully complete our mission. To be honest, the team wouldn’t have made it this far if we never took Swift’s advice to “Shake it Off” (and now I have a really funny video of my friends and I singing it on the car ride there).

Jumping up and down in my booster seat, kicking the back of my dad’s chair, looking at the local Best Buy entrance longingly as my mom pulled our SUV into the parking lot, six-year-old me was eagerly waiting to get my hands on Taylor Swift’s Speak Now Album. My parents didn’t share my excitement, but obliged to get me the CD for my beloved Hello Kitty CD Player. To be honest, I hadn’t known Swift until my friend from dance had me as a backup singer for her birthday-party performance of “Mean”. What really gripped me about this album was the purple dress she was wearing on the cover - I was obsessed with purple-everything. But, as I got my hands on that CD, I wouldn’t listen to anything else - not my Mom’s 80s music, not my Dad’s Irish music. “Mean”, “Never Grow Up”, “Sparks Fly”, “Mine”, and “Enchanted” consumed my life (and my entire family’s) as I listened to them on repeat - that is until “I Knew You Were Trouble”, “22”, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together “(Like EVER!), “Shake It Off”, and “Bad Blood” were released. Then, I hate to admit it, I fell off her music as she disappeared from the industry until Reputation - I hopped on the One Direction train (which took a similar toll on my parent’s earbuds according to them). In my first semester of college, Midnights was released, and in the words of Taylor, herself, I thought to myself, “I forgot that you existed.” I felt like I was six again, standing in the Best Buy music section, on my tip toes trying to reach the Speak Now CD, admiring Taylor in her purple dress, wishing I was her age, spinning in the same beautiful dress. Well, now I was her age, and I still resonated with her lyrics. Midnights however, caused me to do a deep dive on her music: catching up on music I missed, watching her Netflix specials and previous concerts, and throwing myself into every theory and lyric dissection there was. The Eras Tour was an event I watched from afar and lived vicariously through low-quality Instagram videos until the movie was released. I admired all the costumes and even planned out my own Reputation-“Eras Fit” if I were to go. Increasingly, Taylor Swift became a role model for me. Songs like “The Man”, “Look What You Made Me Do”, “Mastermind”, “Anti-Hero”, and others made references to her own struggles and experiences as a woman in an already tough industry. Her stories about overcoming adversity in the media and embracing herself through her own creativity have allowed me to do the same in my career as a student in Mechanical Engineering. She’s been truly inspirational to watch night after night, still managing to keep everyone captivated with even small aspects of the show. Taylor Swift’s influence on my motivation has been perfectly encapsulated in her song “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart,” about her own experience on the Eras Tour. I’ve always looked to Taylor’s music to relate to, but “I was grinning like I’m winning, I was hitting my marks, cause I can do it with a broken heart” sometimes feels like an encapsulation of my experience studying engineering. The never-stop, competitive environment of my classes is a sure-fire way to make someone feel like they can’t do it, but if Taylor Swift can do the Eras Tour night after night while going through her own struggles, I can earn my engineering degree, because I can do it with a broken heart.

A lot of people in my position have similar “origin stories.” I didn’t come to the conclusion that I wanted to be a mechanical engineer on a whim. I haven’t met anyone who did. It was a series of exposures to the field throughout my life, along with, the media I was exposed to, notably, any science fiction media I could get my hands on. And so it goes, science fiction became science fact, as my rewatches of Star Wars turned to viewings of the ISS educational videos. It became my mission to get past the fundamentals of STEM. One of my most defining educational moments was joining my high school's robotics team. It became the most time-consuming part of my life, for the better. I went above and beyond trying to learn more about the mechanisms and what my small-scale projects could relate to in the real world. None of that would have mattered though, if it weren't for the mentors on the team. Whether or not I realized it, the mostly female-led team was one of the key factors to my success. They never shied away from sharing the more complicated aspects of their engineering careers. With this exposure, I was set on building a career in mechanical engineering. I also developed an interest in politics, hence, I declared a secondary major in political science. Since this decision, I've had my heart set on working in space exploration as an aerospace engineer, acting as a scientific advisor, or government liaison to be able to communicate to legislatures and the general public the importance of space exploration programs and the current research in engineering. There is an extreme lack of understanding of science and engineering in the current political landscape and the gap needs to be bridged, and who better to build a bridge than an engineer? Going to college for engineering has been the best experience of my life, and I owe it to the women who counseled me through navigating the world of STEM. Without them, I, without a doubt, would have fallen behind out of fear of asking for help. Finishing my first year of school, I realized the issues my predecessors faced as women in STEM didn't improve as much as I expected, I was just more prepared to face them. A lot of women didn't have that same opportunity. I have made it my goal to help women in STEM the same way I was helped. I want to help break down those barriers that exist and level the playing field, for good. It's my goal to make resources on STEM careers more available to students so they can understand the scope of careers outside of the vague teachings of "scientist" and "mathematician." It's not enough to start introducing these careers when they are thinking about college. More STEM needs to be considered fundamental education in our curriculums if we want students to pursue careers in it. All this to say, to achieve these goals, I have a lot of education ahead of me. I will pursue a 4+1 master's program in mechanical engineering and a Ph.D. program in aerospace engineering. I've been doing my best to relieve the financial burden of my education off my parents, as I have three younger brothers, yet to attend college and I want them to have the same opportunities I have had. With internships and other jobs that take up all hours of the day when I'm not at school, I'm doing my best to get any financial assistance to make my goals more achievable.

Barbie is a revered astronaut, president, doctor, princess, aerobics instructor, and clearly, a talented midcentury modern architect. Thinking about a long-term, dream residence, I think my heart goes to Lexington, Massachusetts, about 20 minutes from my hometown of Waltham, and not too far from school. Lexington, apart from having plenty of historical sights to explore, has a quiet residential sector, as well as a bustling downtown area that has beautiful foliage in the fall months, a must-have for me. Although I'm not sure Barbie's neon pink dream house would fit perfectly in this setting, I believe my dream of a midcentury modern style, 3-story house, complete with a two-car garage and spacious backyard would fit in just right. Of course, I mention midcentury modern architecture specifically because it is not only my favorite architectural style, but also the style of the Barbie dream house featured in the Barbie movie. Spiral stairs, conversation pits, greenery, big windows, and geometric furniture are all staples of a midcentury modern house. A cobblestone pathway would lead guests from the sidewalk to the exterior staircase and rustic oak door. An open wraparound porch with a swing bench attached to the ceiling for reading and enjoying the weather is a must for my dream house. As for the back porch, there would be a dining table surrounded by fairy lights and retractable screens to keep out bugs while you're having dinner outside during the summer months. As for the interior, when you walk in, the first floor has an open floor plan with a coat rack for guests and a conversation pit to step down into. The floors would be hardwood with accent forest green shag rugs in the living room. Plenty of greenery will be present in living spaces to bring out the elements of nature present in midcentury modern architecture. As for the kitchen, also on the first floor, an island in the center with black marble countertops and overhead cabinets will make for a perfect place to get some much-needed culinary practice. An open spiral staircase will lead to the second floor, half of the floor being an open floorplan with floor-to-ceiling windows and the other half being the master bedroom. The open floor plan section will include plenty of bookcases and a large desk for me to do school work while I'm looking out my windows at the landscape of the house. My bedroom would also have large geometric windows with light blue linen shades and off-white walls for a calming effect when I want to escape my work for a little while. A lofted bed with a loveseat underneath will make the room feel even more spacious. And of course, it wouldn't be a dream house without the iconic spiral slide. My spiral slide, instead of going from my room to a pool, would go from my desk on the second floor to a workshop in my backyard for prototyping and other hands-on engineering work, featuring floor-to-ceiling whiteboards and chalkboards for sketching. Finally, the third floor would have three guest bedrooms, as hospitality will be a main focus of mine. Each guest bedroom will have a theme: a classical New England coastal theme, a cozy cottage theme, and a pastel pink and white Barbie tribute theme. Some of these features may be considered unfeasible, but that never stopped Barbie, and I don't intend it to stop me.

Even more so than the powerful comeback era of 'Reputation' or the classic coming-of-age 'Fearless' era, Taylor Swift's '1989' album perfectly encapsulates the untamed sense of independence and the delicate emotions that come with being on your own for the first time in your life. As a college student in a completely new town, nothing on '1989' encapsulates the freshman experience more like "New Romantics" in my opinion. The song's upbeat, motivating sound combines the feeling of being in a new setting with a new start of "Welcome to New York" and the hopefulness of "I Wish You Would" into my perfect hype song "to walk through the doors on the morning of my very first day" for engineering class or exploring the campus I would soon come to enthusiastically call home for the next four years. And although I successfully survived my freshman year of college, I only find myself resonating more and more with the song as time goes on. Waking up for my 8 am physics lab on Thursdays surely made "every day like a battle" for me, but on the flip side the trips downtown for boba tea made "every night with us like a dream." And with the amount of statics problems I did in my Intro to Mechanical Engineering class, I bet "I could build (a structurally sound) castle" or at least a 3D model of a castle in Solidworks. I can assure you that I have cried plenty of "tears of mascara in the bathroom" and the library, and the engineering lab, and the rocket lab, and the stairs. Despite the upbeat tone of the song, it doesn't shy away from the more isolating aspects of being independent. "We're all bored, we're all so tired of everything" is a line that I have most definitely related to throughout the school year. Whether it be at the end of a long week or after a calculus exam I wish I could have done better on, there were and will continue to be, so many moments where I feel like I just don't have the energy to keep going. The one thing these moments have in common though, was that my friends never let me go through it alone. "Please take my hand and please take me dancing" was more of a "please take my hand and please take me to the slightly pricy coffee shop downtown" but the sentiment is the same, and it not once went unheard. As much as I sometimes wished I never grew up, I would've never met some of my closest friends if I didn't have the experiences I feared so much going into college. It would've shocked me to know a year ago that I would be having my very own "Cruel Summer" knowing my closest friends aren't a two-minute walk away. If I had to tell my pre-college self one lyric from the '1989' album, it would have to be "Honey, life is just a classroom" from "New Romantics," because I would, without a doubt, make all the mistakes I feared I would in my freshman year, but it is simply another opportunity to learn.

Drive the robot and don’t break it. The second part is really important. I was a sophomore on the robotics team and I drove the robot during competition. It was fitted with a 3-D printed prototype that we wanted to try out and I was more than happy to be the person to use it during the game. Things I wish I knew beforehand include: 3-D printing can be weak, especially if faced with a lot of unnecessary force, and pneumatics don’t always work quickly, or at least, the pneumatics we were using were set to be slow. A minute into competition, I moved the robot too quickly out of a tight spot and I saw the filament of the 3-D printed piece shatter and fly off the robot. Among a cacophony of gasps, I wanted to do everything possible to fix it, but super glue isn’t the best in these cases. I profusely apologized to everyone and soon realized they weren’t half as distressed as I. I had a habit of freaking out over insignificant things and this was one of those times. With reassurance, I came to accept the situation (even though it was immortalized in robotics team history), but going forward, I attempted to avoid similar mistakes. In future seasons, I focused on making sturdy mechanisms to prevent this from happening to us again. I have gone forward questioning the sturdiness of other mechanisms and I won’t back down from a “Duffy Test Drive” once a while.

Open discussion has always been an important value of mine and I often strive to promote it, whether that be in a collaborative environment or in everyday life. Freshman year, my friend asked, “If we live in a simulation, are morals real?” as in, if we have no free will, would it matter if we did “the right thing” ethically speaking? Primarily, if I wanted to answer this question, I had to accept the statement “we live in a simulation” which was not something I was prepared to think about, much less internalize. Secondly, I was faced with the question of moral relativity. Nonetheless, I answered with a semi-thought-out response: moral codes may apply to the simulation; whether or not we follow them is up to the person playing: all moral responsibility falls on them, not us, but that doesn’t exclude us from comparison to a moral code. To my surprise, she disagreed. My friend expressed her opinion that morality is irrelevant to both the person playing the simulation and the people in it. Her argument was sound, and I listened to how she described that in a simulation, we technically don’t exist so why would it matter how we act, and consequently the decisions the person playing the simulation made. I found myself wanting to continue the argument because I enjoyed hearing what she had to say about it even if I disagreed. I started off startled with the question, but open discussion encouraged me to overcome this feeling.

Spending countless hours of my free time in the basement of the school sounds like the perfect punishment to other students, but for me, it’s something I look forward to on a daily basis. Brainstorming, prototyping, and engineering sounds exhausting, but it has taught me what a real community is: a loving and caring family of people who support each other. Walking into a cluttered robotics lab is coming home. Home to mentors who have taught me countless lessons on the value of trial and error. Home to friends and teammates who I know would support me through anything, not just tech support, but life support. More than learning how to build a robot, I have learned how to work as a team, collaborate with others, and persevere through failures that may seem too great for me to solve on my own. I’ve never experienced such a tight-knit community in my other teams, and I think this stems from the nature of engineering itself. No other community I am a part of forces team members to interact on a daily basis, just to get things done. The constant support I received from my team led me to pursue engineering.

Oftentimes, my interest in theater takes a back seat to my other, more major, interests such as engineering and government, because it isn’t something I hope to pursue academically. However, this doesn’t take away from how much it has shaped me into who I am today. People can tell you, I am a very different person from who I was when I walked into my first day of high school, back in 2018. When I joined my high school community, I had minimal exposure to live theater. It was limited to a few off-broadway shows and related experiences I had on stage through Irish step dance. Then, I joined the school musical freshman year, as a part of the ensemble. Of course, I didn’t have much responsibility, as it was my first show, but it was certainly enough to get me interested. Since my first show, I have been cast in more prominent roles, both onstage and online. However, I think I had the most “character development” when my cast wrote a show to be performed over Zoom. Much like the movie Clue, we wrote a script for a murder mystery based on a game titled The Last Train to Paris. I was cast as Princess Idelle Chattre, a royal in exile, who turned out to be the murderer, Fiona Fae Tahlle, in disguise. Through this process, I not only wrote a murder mystery play and developed my character, but I had the opportunity to mentor the underclassmen on certain aspects of theater. Theater is the reason why I am ambitious and outgoing today, in comparison to my freshman year self, who was quiet and closed-off. The nature of theater, being expressive and direct, pushed my limits and helped me to break through the shell I was once hidden in.

Since I was younger, space and engineering always seemed like a given in my future. I grew up with tons of LEGOs and I frequently visited my local Museum of Science just to see the display of the solar system. My love for these subjects only grew when I got to high school, and I found myself playing an integral role in my school’s robotics team. As co-captain of my team, I love to introduce underclassmen to engineering as so much more than calculations and hardware. With a sufficient understanding of how machines can learn to make reasonable decisions and adapt to their environment, I would be prepared to apply that knowledge to participate in the construction of rovers and space crafts in general. As for Political Science, I became engaged in the political process recently, with the 2020 Presidential election. I began staying up to watch debates and I decided to take AP Government. On their own, I think that government and politics are integral to understanding how our society functions, not only presently, but also in the future.