Title: Ups and Downs By: Lil Freshman 1. "Another Day of Sun" from the musical LaLa Land (underscores the mysticality of college and the shock of how different college is from high school in the first few months of freshman year) 2. “Surface Pressure” from the movie Encanto (I am the oldest and first person in my family to go to college in the United States, so I feel the pressure to set a good example for my younger siblings and make my parents proud). 3. "Vivir Mi Vida" by Marc Anthony (emphasizes the dilemma I am going through: Even though I want to have a job that pays well, I also want to be happy in my future career and “live my life”) 4. "Money, Money, Money" by ABBA (explains the stresses of paying for college I am constantly feeling) 5. "A Hard Day's Night" by The Beatles (highlights the effort I put into assignments and studying in order to excel in my classes) 6. “Numb Little Bug” (This song is the perfect example of how I am currently feeling burned out at the end of my second semester of college due to the workload) 7. “Clouds” by Fin Argus and Sabrina Carpenter from the movie Clouds (Reminds me to stay positive and to try to enjoy the process of college)

My Bucket List: 1. Explore the forests of Australia and the savannas of Kenya 2. Witness the northern lights 3. Go to college→ accomplished 4. Study Abroad 5. Do some sort of work abroad (volunteer or internship, etc) 6. Hike through the Grand Canyon 7. Know five languages → 3/5 complete 8. Live in Italy for a few months to admire the artwork 9. Attempt a triathlon 10. Go scuba diving → complete 11. Solar eclipse → complete 12. Have a pet aquatic snail and shrimp → complete 13. Build a greenhouse 14. Grow a garden that lasts longer than a year 15. Win a scholarship

Something I am passionate about is observing and creating art: Everything I see in the world is art--from the Beatles’s rock music to Hamilton’s rap, from India’s Taj Mahal to my town's simple buildings, from European history to geometry. To me, math problems are puzzles that form works art; history is a long mural in my mind that displays a dramatic soap opera; novels paint picturesque scenes onto my imaginary canvas. I enjoy drawing and painting because it allows me to connect with and disconnect from the world. Through art, I am able to create what I see in the world or an alternate reality of what I want to see, transforming a blank piece of paper or canvas into a colorful masterpiece with depth and meaning.

Salvador Dalí lifts his brush to a blank canvas and layers varying tints and shades of reds, blues, and yellows. The beginnings of a visual masterpiece are not evident with each dab of oil paint, but the chaotic blobs come together to create the completed and harmonic look of Galatea of the Spheres. The finished product of this revolutionary painting contains all the Design Principles of art, which are the artistic elements that create a piece of artwork. Dalí depicts the design principle unity well in his painting by cohesively incorporating disparate aspects into the piece: The evenly spaced spheres give the painting depth, perspective, and a unified look. Without unity, the piece would be in a state of pandemonium. Unity is what makes the painting whole by displaying the cooperation of colors and shapes. By displaying unity, Galatea of the Spheres visually communicates its beauty to many, giving them inspiration to partake in the magic of art.

One of the most influential people in my life was discovered via the Who Was Jane Goodall book. My younger self picked up the book without thinking of its inspirational impact--an impact that is shown through my love of animals and my intended major. Jane Goodall, an English explorer who is currently a primatologist and anthropologist, studies chimpanzees in order to bring the understanding between human and primate communities closer together. When she was twenty-three years old, Goodall received the opportunity to live in the Jungles of Gombe despite not having a college education. Due to her determination and patience, Goodall discovered chimpanzees use tools, have emotions, and create familial bonds. Jane Goodall’s ability to build a bridge of apprehension between two seemingly dissimilar communities inspires me to further pursue environmentalism in order to try to help protect the function of this metaphorical bridge: To continue comprehending a community, it must stay alive. To attempt saving these primates and all creatures from climate change, every person must take action. In high school, I helped create my school’s first Environmental Club, a club where we clean the streets of our town, organize fundraisers and bake sales, learn how to be more conscientious about waste that is not biodegradable, and educate classmates: We gave a PowerPoint presentation to the entire high school about Australia’s catastrophic 2020 bushfires. By building my school’s community through the spread of awareness, I hope to gain experience that will help me to further my career and enrich my passion for protecting the environment. I realized, however, that if I want to try to impact the world, I must become a politician that supports the protection of the environment because politicians have the power to pass legislation to enact change in people’s everyday lives. To experience the legislative process, I joined Youth and Government, a mock government club that includes a budget analyst committee to research the financial ramifications of bills and to deduce whether a state would hypothetically lose or gain money if each bill passed. I chose to participate in the budget committee because numbers can justify legislation. At the YMCA North Carolina Youth and Government yearly conference, delegates from different schools across NC meet to debate topics that could benefit the state. On the topics concerning the health of our planet, I argue passionately. For instance, a group of delegates presented their bill of taxing plastic bags. I argued for the passing of this bill and successfully convinced the other delegates to vote for it by including facts and real world examples, such as laws in Denmark and other European countries that showed the positive impacts of taxing such material. Analyzing a body of work, working in a team to help the community, and gaining confidence are all traits I strengthened during this convention. After my first conference, I became the president of my school’s budget committee, and the following year I received the North Carolina Model Budget Analyst Award at the annual conference and was chosen to be the school’s president of the club, experience that has shaped my career aspirations--aspirations that would not exist without the help of Jane Goodall.

I have long prioritized protecting wildlife and caring for nature and the environment, whether that be by studying sustainable energy or choosing the right foods in the grocery store. My passion for helping the planet intensified after I learned about global warming in the sixth grade and, as a result, I took extra science classes, participated in science camps in my free time, and I did research on renewable energy such as solar panels and wind turbines, sketching the machines and recording how they worked in my notebook and designing other possible inventions that could help the planet. I thought about becoming an environmental scientist but realized, if I wanted to change the world, I should be a politician because politicians have the power to pass legislation to enact change in people’s everyday lives. To experience the legislative process, I joined Youth and Government, a mock government club that includes a budget analyst committee to research the financial ramifications of a bill and to deduce whether North Carolina would hypothetically lose or gain money if a bill passed. I chose to participate in the budget committee because numbers are not easily refutable and can justify legislation. At the YMCA North Carolina Youth and Government yearly conference, delegates from different schools across NC meet to debate topics that could benefit the state. On the topics concerning the health of our planet, I argued passionately. For instance, a group of delegates presented a bill on taxing plastic bags. I argued for the passing of this bill and successfully convinced the other delegates to vote for it by including facts and real world examples, such as laws in Denmark and other European countries that showed the positive impacts of taxing such material. Analyzing a body of work, working as a team to help the community, and gaining confidence are all traits I strengthened during this convention. After my first conference, I became the president of my school’s budget committee, and the following year I received the North Carolina Model Budget Analyst Award at the annual conference and was chosen to be the school’s president of the club, experience that I hope will help me achieve my goals. At times, though, I admit, I go to extremes because of the passion I feel for our planet. During track and field practice my junior year, I once abruptly stopped my practice after noticing a helpless caterpillar making its way dangerously across the path of runners. Poised with a stick and a brown leaf to provide safe transport, I squatted to ensure its survival when a classmate purposely stomped on it. Incredulous, I asked him, “Why? Why did you step it?” to which he merely chuckled. I was melancholic and heartbroken: the poor caterpillar that was minding its own business was now decomposing and would never turn into a butterfly. I turned back to the caterpillar to see if I could give it a proper burial, but the bug was completely smashed and basically glued to the track. Whether in the Senate, at school, or at home, I constantly fight for what I believe is right, not only through words but also by example: I always try to bring reusable bags to the supermarket; I reuse plastic waste as pots for my garden; I try purchasing foods that do not use pesticides or chemical fertilizers; I care for all animals that need help. Whether as small as a caterpillar or as big as a human, we all need saving at some point--right now, however, our planet needs saving the most.

Being the only Latina in my grade in a private prep school in a conservative town, I easily stood out and was targeted. For instance, in tenth grade my English class read Chronicle of a Death Foretold, a book set in a small Colombian town. When I contributed to class discussions by asking questions or giving my opinion on the book, I pronounced the Spanish names correctly, and everyone snickered. I asked a classmate about the whispering and chuckling, and he admitted the whole class was making fun of my pronunciation. I felt like an outcast in this new school, new town, new state. The irony was the entire town in the book knew the protagonist was getting murdered, yet no one told him or stopped his murder; in class, everyone knew I was getting bullied, yet no one intervened. After experiencing marginalization, I attempted to understand myself, my community, and the world by intentionally expanded my cultural awareness to prevent this situation from recurring, either to others or to me: I joined the International Culture Club, Global Textbook, and Get in the Game. The "International Culture Club" is a place where a small group of high school students share information about many different cultures and traditions with the rest of the high school via presentations, movies, and a bi-annual festival. I and the other two co-presidents helped grow a cultural bond in our community through the exposure and highlighting of the cultural differences in my school community and around the world. Through activities that helped students understand and embrace different cultures, we helped unite these cultural differences while appreciating the uniqueness. The "Global Textbook Club" is a club where we create worksheets and videos for Chinese students who are studying English and plan on coming to the United States. During our meetings, we plan and make worksheets and videos that talk about the United States’ culture: public and private school systems, different slang and word usage throughout the country, popular sports, well known communication and social media apps, and various ethnic populations and groups throughout certain states. Lastly, the "Get In the Game" club was created after the death of George Floyd, and its purpose is to discuss social justice issues and racism while hoping to make it an effective model that could be used across the USA. Through my experiences, I realize people in this world are afraid of what we do not understand, and this ignorance can create walls that separate the connection of many different communities. I understand that while my Brazilian cultural experiences made me stand out in a sea filled with almost identical fish, my Brazilian heritage made and still makes me be my authentic self by contributing to my identity and enabling me to have a deeper connection to the world. Surprisingly two years after being marginalized, my classmates elected me to Homecoming Court. This action demonstrates that in my community and around the world, we can accept others by demolishing the wall of ignorance and building exposure through the construction of a bridge of hope and understanding.

The curtain ripped. . . on the opening night of my first musical performance at my new high school and an hour before showtime, the curtain ripped--a rip longer than my wingspan, a hole even a person sitting in the last row could see. Two boys were messing around, and the curtain ripped. Panic engulfed the cast and crew: “Oh no! . . . What are we going to do? . . . We can’t perform with this distraction.” Right then and there, I said loudly and clearly, “Does anyone have a needle and thread?” One of the actresses sprinted to her book bag and returned with a small needle and thin black thread. With the help of two other cast members, we sat behind the curtain for the full hour--one holding the curtain, another holding a flashlight, and me with the needle and thread. One minute before the show was to begin, our work was complete. No one could tell the curtain had ever been ripped! Everyone backstage quietly clapped and silently cheered at our work. I have participated in musicals and plays since the seventh grade. After moving to South Carolina halfway through sixth grade, I watched my new school’s Shakespeare play and fell in love with theater, realizing it is a place where diverse people come together to create a work of art. Whether an actor, tech crew member, backstage crew member, makeup artist, or prop designer, all combine their talents towards one goal: a spectacular performance. I joined theater the following year and worked backstage, simply moving a bench on and off the stage. Since then, I have branched out by painting the roses red for Alice in Wonderland, working in the tech booth for Little Women, transforming a man into a green zombie for Zombie Prom, and so much more. Theater has enabled me to be a better artist because it gives me the chance to create props that bring the scenes on stage to life. Being an artist means creating something from nothing, and theater allows me to do just that. The art we make on stage and behind the scenes allow me to connect with and disconnect from the world: I am able to create what I see in the world or an alternate reality of what I want to see, transforming a blank piece of paper or canvas into a colorful masterpiece with depth and meaning. The theater community not only drives and inspires my artistic passions by allowing me to have creative freedom, but it is also accepting of me and all kinds of people because it’s a place where minorities’ voices are heard and expressed. A place where art can connect future generations through the tangibility of alternate realities and the expression of societal justice issues via stories. A place where I feel at home. A place where the experience communicates more than words, an experience that cannot begin until the curtain opens.