I am currently a senior in high school. I attend Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School, and also am dual enrolled with two local universities. I took two AP classes last year, receiving a 4 in both, and plan to take another throughout my senior year. My dream is to fly, and I am working on my Private Pilot’s License right now.. I fly around two times a week, and that is paid for by my current job. I currently work 24+ hours a week, and all of the money I make is going to be funneled into my flight training/college. Next year, I plan to complete my Instrument license, which my working throughout senior year would help pay for. The program in college that I want to attend is with the University of Maine at Augusta. This program is designed to give me my Private, Instrument, Commercial, CFI, and CFII licenses, along with around 300 hours of flight time. Once I get my CFI license, I would be certified to work as a flight instructor. I could do this at the end of my second year in college, and work on my last license while having a part time job as a flight instructor. After I build up my hours, I can start to apply for other piloting opportunities. One of my passions is advocating for pursuing your dreams with diabetes. I believe that Type 1 Diabetics should be able to live a normal life if their blood sugar is properly controlled. My profession didn't accept Type 1 Diabetics a couple of years ago, but due to the technology coming out that allows us to keep our blood sugars increasingly stable, they revised the regulations to allow people like me to fly. When I was diagnosed, I was told that diabetes would be the end of me flying, as it would be too hard to keep a medical certificate. I didn't let that stop me, and received a third class medical last January. I want to share my story so that other diabetics who have been told that they can't pursue their dreams because of this disease know that it is possible. Even though diabetes is incurable, it is manageable, and I want to prove that to the world. I have featured in a news story about my flight with diabetes, and I also plan to speak on a podcast about not letting a diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes stop you. I want to found an organization of pilots that can provide cheaper flight lesson costs to lower income families. Flight Training has excessive costs that serve as a barrier to young pilots. As well as the industry needing more female pilots, we also need more pilots of color, and one of the barriers they face is the financial cost of flying. This organization would offer lessons at a discounted rate for lower-income families, to break that generational cycle of poverty, and to encourage anyone, regardless of background, to pursue flying. I think that this would help many communities to have children who can go into the high paying world of aviation. Once the young pilots get good jobs, they can also help their family back home, reinvesting into their communities, and improving the quality of life for many low-income areas. At some point in my life when I am financially stable enough to do so, I would like to create a scholarship fund, to give back to the generous people who have helped me get as far as I have. I would give scholarship opportunities for driven individuals that have overcome adversity, and continued to pursue what they love. I wouldn't be able to pursue my dreams without the help of generous people, and I want to help others the way that others have helped me. This would also be available to international students, because I believe that anyone deserves the opportunity to achieve their goals, regardless of place of birth or financial situation. I feel very lucky to have even gotten this far, and I know that if I were in a different position, I may not have been able to pursue my dream. I want to change that. I want to change the fact that some kids never get the chance to follow their dreams of taking to the skies, because of the financial barrier that they will have to pass. I want to give the chance to others who come from non-privileged backgrounds to fly.

I believe that the main problem is that young girls and boys grow up not seeing women in typically "manly" positions, and that leads them to develop the assumption that women can't do those jobs. Girls are discouraged from pursuing their interests, and boys grow up treating any women in these jobs as unworthy, or not as professional. Women in leadership roles are more and more common, but there is also a lot of stigma associated with women working in construction, business, and even my field of aviation. The thing that needs to change is that more women need to be encouraged to pursue their interests, in order to create gender equality in these specific fields. Construction is typically thought of as a "manly" job. We get images of big strong men lifting boxes around and painstakingly completing projects. The rise of machinery in the modern day world has made it so there is not as much of a reliance on physical strength as much as there is a reliance on a person's intelligence. I'm not saying that women don't have as much physical strength as men, but instead that it shouldn't be a valid reason to keep women from the field. Women are also treated as less knowledgable because of the rarity of them in the field. If a man and a woman go real estate hunting, I guarantee that the questions will be directed towards the man only. If a woman is a manager of a construction site, her orders may be questioned more than if she was a male supervisor. These instances illustrate the issues that women working in this type of field face daily. This is one of the reasons I chose my path in aviation. I love flying, but I also want to be able to show young girls that this career path is possible. I never considered pursuing aviation throughout my early life. After all, wasn't it only for the white, rich, powerful men? That's all that I saw of pilots, until I met another female aviator. She showed me that it was possible to do what I love, and I want to inspire others in the same way. Similarly, my flight school does not have a female instructor. This was a barrier to me, as there was no one I could talk to about my struggles as a female in this field. When I become a flight instructor, I want to be able to make young girls feel safe to start flying, and to be someone that can understand some of their struggles. If I can encourage them to follow their dreams, they will further increase the amount of women pilots, who can inspire more young females, and continually repeat this cycle of inspiration. Eventually, I hope to help bring more girls into the world of aviation. The way to solve this lies in the younger generation. If we teach our children that women in these fields are a normal occurrence, not only will girls be not afraid to pursue what they might be interested in, boys will also not view them with dismissive opinions. Girls who are entering the job market now have to be encouraged to push past those judgmental barriers, so that the younger generation can see them as an example of the future. I believe that this is going to be the only way that we can fix the inequality that women face in the workplace, and in life in general. We need to teach the younger generation to treat everyone equally, regardless of gender or sex.

My main goal in life is to become a pilot. I don't know whether I want to fly commercially, or in the corporate world, but I do know that that is the direction I want to take in life. Ever since the first time I was at the controls, I knew that it was for me. The feeling is like no other, and every moment that I am up in the air feels like the best moment of my life. After high school, I plan to attend an aviation program at a local college in Augusta, Maine. The program is paired with my current flight school, Maine Instrument Flight. This program is a 4 year bachelor's degree program, and I would most likely live on campus or nearby for the years that I am there. The Dominos chain that I am employed at currently also has an establishment in Augusta, so I would continue my employment there throughout the 4 years to work towards the $124,000 needed to pay for college. By graduating the program, I would have my instrument, commercial, and flight instructor licenses, as well as around 300 hours. After college graduation, I would most likely try to find work as a flight instructor, either at Maine Instrument Flight, or elsewhere. My mother was a teacher, and I always loved watching her teach her students, although I don't think I have the patience to teach 2nd graders as she does. I think that I would enjoy being a flight instructor, as well as it being a way to give back to the community that changed my life. My interest in aviation was sparked by a flight instructor who was really passionate about flying, and it is my dream to be able to show that dream to others.

I believe the most valuable quality that I have is perseverance. It has helped me get through all of the tough times in my life, and I wouldn't be where I am now without it. When people told me that I couldn't do it, perseverance helped me push aside their opinions and prove them wrong. When I was tired, and didn't think I could do anything more, perseverance pushed me to work harder and keep going. Perseverance has pushed me to challenge myself, and that has helped me to get where I am today. I am a student pilot that was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes when I went to obtain a medical certificate. When I was first diagnosed, my endocrinologist told me there were 3 things that as a diabetic, I could not do. He told me I couldn't do commercial truck driving, join the military, or fly commercially. At this time, I had already been flying for a little bit, so it was devastating to hear that suddenly my dream was over. Then, my perseverance kicked in, and I refused to accept that this was the end. I had just found what I loved, and was happy doing, and I wasn't going to let it go that easily. I went home, and immediately turned to the internet. I asked all of my friends in the aviation community about how I could get a medical certificate, and after being told no many times, one recommended me to a doctor. He told me that I would be able to get a medical license, but I would have to keep my blood sugar in very tight ranges, and adhere to a very strict set of rules. I agreed immediately, and over the next months, I communicated with the FAA. I obtained a restricted medical license last February, and am on the way to getting an unrestricted one now. My journey would have ended in that doctor's office if I didn't have perseverance, and I am forever thankful that I am able to do what I do. My chosen degree is a 4 year bachelor degree in Aviation. This would allow me to get all of my licenses, and to find work as a Flight Instructor. Over the 4 years, this degree would cost me around $124,000, and that is not possible for me without doing extra work. Last year, I took two AP classes, getting 4s in both, earning me college credits. I started work as soon as I turned 16, and have been working around 24 hours a week consistently for a year now, in addition to school. Through the summer, I upped my hours to around 35 hours a week, and also took flying lessons to work towards my Private Pilot's License. This year, I am taking an AP class, as well as 2 dual enrollment classes in school with the University of Maine, and 6 total online dual enrollment classes. Altogether, this should allow me to save on tuition costs when I get into college, because I will already have some of the program completed. This extra workload has not been easy, and I have needed a lot of perseverance to get through. There have been some days where I wanted to take a break, but I know that I have to keep pushing through. Perseverance is a very helpful skill in life, and I believe that it is crucial to being successful. It has helped me get to where I am today, and I hope it will continue to propel me for a long time.

The amount of change there has been in the last decade is astounding. From technological advances, to the changes brought about by the pandemic, no one can argue that the world is the same as it was 10 years ago. Some of these changes are negative, but there are too many positive changes to ignore. As a Type 1 Diabetic, the treatment of my disease has been revolutionized for the better. I can use a Continuous Glucose Monitor to automatically check my blood sugar every 5 minutes, compared to having to only use blood testing strips not even 10 years ago. I have an automatic insulin pump that gives me insulin without me doing anything, and that adjusts my insulin based on what my CGM reads. If I would like extra insulin, I simply type in how many units, and it automatically injects it. These technological advancements combined help me to live my life as if I didn't have my disease, and to pursue my dreams. Since I am able to keep myself so healthy, I was able to obtain a medical license to pursue my career in aviation. A couple of years ago, that just was not possible. This rapid rate of improvement in my future quality of life gives me hope that I can lead a normal life, not inhibited by diabetes. Not only do these technological advancements help me, but I also have hope that they can allow many others to pursue their dreams. There may be someone who was previously inhibited by their diabetes, who is free to change the world now. I believe that anyone has the power to change the world for the better. Diabetics can live longer and healthier lives now, giving them the change to make a positive impact, and to improve the lives of others. I hope to do this as well, advocating for changes in my legislature, educating about the dangers of diabetes, and helping young pilots achieve their dreams. The world is not going to stay the same, but I believe that humans will adapt for the better, and continue to improve quality of life for everyone in the world

I want to increase the diversity in the world of aviation, and allow anyone to pursue their dream of becoming a pilot. The world of piloting is very male-dominated, and a lack of female pilots also makes it so young girls who love aviation don't have anyone to imagine themselves as. For me, I never was able to consider aviation as a valid career path until I met another female aviator, who flies cargo planes for a living. She inspired me to start flying, and I hope to inspire others in the same way. I plan to become a flight instructor after college, so I can ignite that love of aviation in others, and also so that a young aspiring female pilot has proof that they can do what they love as a career. I also want to found an organization of pilots that can provide cheaper flight lesson costs to lower income families. Flight training has excessive costs that serve as a barrier to young pilots, especially ones that come from low-income backgrounds. This organization would offer lessons at a discounted rate for lower-income families, to break that generational cycle of poverty, and to encourage anyone, regardless of background, to pursue flying. I would most likely found this organization in Maine, as I know that there are many low-income places that would benefit from this service, but would be open to expanding it if there was funding/donations. It would be entirely non-profit, but I think that it would help many communities to have children who can go into the high paying world of aviation. Once the young pilots get good jobs, they can also help their family back home, reinvesting into their communities, and improving the quality of life in many low-income areas.

I want to change the way Type 1 Diabetes is thought about in minors. For most people, diabetes is the "sugar disease" that fat people get when they don't lose weight. Although it is true that this is one form of diabetes, it isn't the only form. For background information, I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at 15 years old. Type 1 Diabetes is not caused by diet, and it can appear at any age. The misconception that only older, less healthy people can get diabetes is very dangerous. At my own diagnosis, I was around 5 days away from serious diabetic ketoacidosis, which is when your blood sugar is so high that your organs start to fail. Most people don't think of this happening to younger people, but the truth is that most Type 1 Diabetes diagnoses are in people under my age. I want to change this misconception, because diabetes almost killed me, and it kills many other young people like me due to misinformation. A fellow student at my school died, and the cause of death was undiagnosed Type 1 Diabetes. This death was preventable, and I believe that is unacceptable. I plan to educate my community about the dangers of diabetes in minors, so there is increased awareness, and I can hopefully prevent what happened to me from happening to anyone else. I want to change the legislation in my state to allow for testing of blood sugars on a non-symptomatic basis in minors. In Maine, the only time a minor is tested is if they are showing symptoms, most of which can be attributed to common stress symptoms, like lack of energy, weight loss, and excessive thirst. This unnecessarily leads to late diagnosis of the disease, and I believe that it is a danger to minors that can be avoided if blood sugar was tested on a regular basis. As well as educating my community on the subject, I want to interview health professionals and write to my state's legislation, to see if I can enact a change that I believe can save lives. One of my passions is advocating for pursuing your dreams with diabetes. I am a student pilot, and I believe that Type 1 Diabetics should be able to live a normal life if their blood sugar is properly controlled. My profession didn't accept Type 1 Diabetics a couple of years ago, but due to the technology coming out that allows us to keep our blood sugars increasingly stable, they revised the regulations to allow people like me to fly. When I was diagnosed, I was told that diabetes would be the end of me flying, as it would be too hard to keep a medical certificate. I didn't let that stop me, and received a third class medical last January. I want to share my story so that other diabetics who have been told that they can't pursue their dreams because of this disease know that it is possible. Even though diabetes is incurable, it is manageable, and I want to prove that to the world. I have featured in a news story about my flight with diabetes, and I also plan to speak on a podcast about not letting a diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes stop you. As a female student pilot, I want to encourage young women to be able to pursue aviation as a career path. The world of piloting is very male-dominated, and a lack of female pilots also makes it so young girls who love aviation don't have anyone to imagine themselves as. For me, I never was able to consider aviation as a valid career path until I met another female aviator, who flies cargo planes for a living. She inspired me to start flying, and I hope to inspire others in the same way. I plan to become a flight instructor after college, so I can ignite that love of aviation in others, and also so that a young aspiring female pilot has proof that they can do what they love as a career. I want to found an organization of pilots that can provide cheaper flight lesson costs to lower income families. Flight Training has excessive costs that serve as a barrier to young pilots. As well as the industry needing more female pilots, we also need more pilots of color, and one of the barriers they face is the financial cost of flying. This organization would offer lessons at a discounted rate for lower-income families, to break that generational cycle of poverty, and to encourage anyone, regardless of background, to pursue flying. I would most likely found this organization in Maine, as I know that there are many lower-income places that would benefit from this service, but would be open to expanding it if there was funding/donations. It would be entirely non-profit, but I think that it would help many communities to have children who can go into the high paying world of aviation. Once the young pilots get good jobs, they can also help their family back home, reinvesting into their communities, and improving the quality of life for many low-income areas. At some point in my life when I am financially stable enough to do so, I would like to create a scholarship fund, to give back to the generous people who have helped me get as far as I have. I would give scholarship opportunities for driven individuals that have overcome adversity, and continued to pursue what they love. I wouldn't be able to pursue my dreams without the help of generous people, and I want to help others the way that others have helped me. This would also be available to international students, because I believe that anyone deserves the opportunity to achieve their goals, regardless of place of birth or financial situation.

I was diagnosed with my Type 1 Diabetes right when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Before diabetes, I was deathly afraid of needles. When I was diagnosed, I was so scared, but I came to realize that this was going to be something that I had to get over. I knew I could overcome this obstacle, and I made it my new goal to test my own blood sugar. I managed to do it with the support of my family, and I view this as a milestone for myself. It showed me that I was capable of getting past practically my biggest fear, and it sparked a lot of courage in me. I started to be less anxious, and less scared to try new things. Diabetes represented one of my biggest fears, but the process of getting past it helped me to face my other fears in life. I am a student pilot, so my diagnosis came with another challenge: getting a medical certificate to fly. When I was diagnosed, I was told that diabetes would be the end of me flying. I didn't let that stop me, and I think that is a story that can inspire many others to do the same. I was not giving up on my dream, and diabetes was not going to stop me. I went to many appointments, and spent long nights filling out paperwork, but I eventually obtained a third-class medical certificate. Now, I am in the process of obtaining a second-class, which is even more work, but I am determined to not let my diabetes stop me from doing what I love. I have also been advocating for pursuing your dreams with diabetes. I believe that Type 1 Diabetics should be able to live a normal life if their blood sugar is properly controlled. My profession didn't accept Type 1 Diabetics a couple of years ago, but due to the technology coming out that allows us to keep our blood sugars increasingly stable, they revised the regulations to allow people like me to fly. I want to share my story so that other diabetics who have been told that they can't pursue their dreams because of this disease know that it is possible. Even though diabetes is incurable, it is manageable, and I want to prove that to the world. I have featured in a news story about my flight with diabetes, I plan to speak on a podcast about not letting a diagnosis of T1D stop you, and I hope to inspire others with my own story. Once I get out of college, I will be a fully licensed flight instructor, and even though I will work for a flight school full time, I also want to create a program that allows flight instructors to rent out their time for less to students who come from minority groups or lower-income families. It would be a non-profit, with all of the profits going towards maintaining the aircraft and compensating the instructors for their time, but it would give a way for people to try out flying with less of a financial barrier. I also want to create a scholarship fund for people with chronic illnesses who are pursuing their licenses. Chronic illnesses come with their own high costs, and it is hard to balance the two sinkholes of money that are chronic illnesses and flying. I want to relieve that burden for people who work hard, and allow them to have more time to focus on their studies, instead of working more hours at work to cover the costs.

Education inequality is something that is just going to get worse if we ignore it. The very nature of it is that it repeats itself over and over again, each time just worsening the gap. When someone finds it too difficult to enter college, they may settle for a job with a lower income, making it harder for their children to attend school. Even when someone manages to get through college, often wages do not cover living expenses on top of student debt, and their quality of living will inevitably go down. Their children may grow up in a world of debt, and face the same situation when they reach the end of high school. There is only two ways that this endless cycle will end. One is that there will be an inevitable major decline in lower income college graduates, and the rich people at the top will still send their kids to college. Eventually, they will get the higher income jobs, because there will be no one else to compete with them, leaving the lower income people in an endless cycle of low quality of life. This is the outcome of educational inequality unless we do something about it. So what is the other option? We have to advocate for lower tuition costs. We can promote less expensive ways to earn higher income jobs, like community colleges and trade schools. If we help each other, we can prevent educational inequality from stopping our dreams, and instead live happily.

I have always been a frugal spender, because I prefer to put money into savings accounts or invest it, but when I do spend money, I tend to be an impulse buyer. I will buy something that I use for a little bit, and then immediately forget about it soon after. To combat this, a fellow coworker once told me about the week rule. If it's not a necessary purchase, like food/water, wait a week for every $25 the item is. If you feel strongly about the purchase by the end of that, then you can allow yourself to buy it. This combats my impulse buying, because if it was a true impulse, the impulse disappears after a week, and I can reconsider it. If I still think it is helpful by the end of it, then it is most likely going to be worth the money I spend on it. The coworker also advised me to keep my tips as my spending money, and to put my paycheck straight into savings. As well as helping with money permanence issues by using cash instead of card, this limits the amount I spend for myself per week. My tips are usually around $25-30 a week, which is the perfect amount of money to spend on myself/schooling per week. If I don't spend my tips for that week, I deposit it, so I just have more savings, and a maximum of around $25 for spending per week. When I put the paycheck into my bank account, there is no temptation to spend it unnecessarily, like there would be if I kept it. These two tips combined have really helped me, who is new to actually having to manage an account, to save money for college and to not spend too much.

I was once told that I base my happiness off of other's happiness, and that I should learn how to be happy for myself. I love giving gifts to other people, and the look on their faces when they get them is enough for me. I have always worked very hard on gifts that I knew the specific person would enjoy, and personalized them to their tastes. For a long time, that was one of the only things that would make me happy. I "wanted" to be an Engineer with a passion, because I thought it was the thing that would make my parents the most happy. I would go out of my way to solve other people's problems, while ignoring my own. It grew to a point where I was constantly working myself to the bone to help others, and I wasn't able to focus on myself. When I tried to take time for my mental health, I felt sad, because I wasn't making anyone else happy. One day, one of my teachers told me that she loved the gift that I had made her, but she was worried for me, and that I should take the time that I would have spent making her next gift on myself. I did, as still wanted to do what made her the most happy, and I realized that I didn't like the way my life was going. I didn't like my career path, I had no hobbies that I liked, and I had developed so many bad habits that I didn't want to keep. After she told me that, I set about changing my life to better suit me. I still give lots of gifts when I can, but now I make sure to put my mental health first.

I was diagnosed with my Type 1 Diabetes right when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Even though at the time it felt like one disaster after another, I think that the time at home allowed me to learn more about my diabetes than I would have otherwise. I was mostly diagnosed by luck. A random test was done, and they noticed my ketones were abnormally high. They sent me to get an A1C, and that afternoon, I had my first insulin shot. Before diabetes, I was deathly afraid of needles. I had a teddy bear that I would bring into the doctor's office, and I would squeeze my eyes as tightly closed as I could. When I was diagnosed, I was so scared, but I came to realize that this was going to be something that I had to get over. I was going to deal with it the rest of my life, and I didn't want to have to get someone else to give me insulin all the time. I knew I could overcome this obstacle, and I made it my new goal to test my own blood sugar. I managed to do it with the support of my family, and once I realized that I could prick myself, it wasn't long before I gave myself my first insulin shot. I view this as a milestone for myself, as it showed me that I was capable of getting past practically my biggest fear, and it sparked a lot of courage in me. I started to be less anxious, less scared to try things, as I could tell myself "I got over needles, I can do this too". Diabetes represented one of my biggest fears, but the process of getting past it helped me to face my other fears in life. Diabetes also gave me a lot of responsibility over my own health. With diabetes, I had to be constantly aware of what my body was doing, so I could treat it appropriately. I had to take responsibility for my own health, and I had never been solely responsible for something that important before. It was thrown at me very suddenly, so I also had to learn how to adapt to my new situation. With diabetes, you have to be okay with the fact that sometimes, you don't know what is coming. That was a really hard lesson for me to learn. The lesson that you can only predict diabetes up to a point, and are going to make many errors, and I had to accept that. I've also been advocating for pursuing your dreams with Type 1 Diabetes. I was interviewed by my local news station, and did a story on how I wasn't letting my diabetes stop me from flying. I want to spread my story, because I want people to know that when properly controlled, diabetics can live normal lives, and be more than their diabetes. I also plan to be on a podcast geared towards teens with Type 1 Diabetes, and to share how they should not let diabetes stop them. The lessons I have learned from dealing with my diabetes have been many. I think that even though it has sometimes been a struggle, I have come out being a better person than I was before. I am more aware of my own body, I have met so many people with inspiring stories, and I have a way to inspire others to pursue their dreams. I have learned how to ignore my fear and how to take risks, and I have diabetes to thank for it.

I think of generosity as having the ability to emphasize with others, and to sacrifice something of yours, whether it be happiness or time, in order to hake their life better. It doesn't have to be anything big, but just the willingness to bring yourself lower to lift someone else higher. There are many examples of generosity that I consider to be influential in my own life. My mother's generosity in giving up 16 years of her life in order to raise me is something that I will never take for granted, and my father's sacrifice when he takes a night shift or longer hours to give our family more is something I will always be thankful for. My teacher's generosity when they take extra time out of their day to teach me something I am struggling in has shaped my academic career for the better. I try to repay their generosity to me by passing it on, and making sure to help others whenever I can. I volunteer at a local pet shelter, helping to find good homes for the cats and dogs, I help the church every winter to make wreathes, and I am an assistant at the local library, where I help people navigate the shelves to find what they are looking for. I do my best to imagine myself in less fortunate shoes, and do what I can to make their life better. I pack lunch kits to give to people I see on the sidewalk, I write thank you notes that I leave on tables to cheer up the waiters, and I leave at least $5 in any performer's hat that I see. I realize that my actions may be small for now, but I hope to be able to give more in the future.

I have read many books over the period of my life, and one book in particular stands out to me. It isn't a particularly challenging read, and its praises aren't sung by English teachers, but to me, it is a classic. It is called Inkheart, and it is set in a world very similar to this one. In it, lives a father and a daughter, both with the ability to read things out of books and into their own world. I loved this story growing up, and would constantly read books aloud, hoping that some fantastical creature would appear out of them, but unfortunately, I got nothing. The main reason I love reading is that it allows the reader to be lost in a world separate from our own, and to set aside their troubles for a few hours as they immerse themselves into a different story. One that might be set in a medieval castle, or a futuristic city. I always loved fantasy for this reason, as you never knew what that world was going to do. Inkheart especially allowed me to escape into its world because it was about a girl almost my age interacting with many characters from books that I knew, and there were so many cool crossovers. Another interesting part of the book was that in the story, there was a physical book called Inkheart, and it's where most of the main characters are from. When reading, I could pretend that I had the power to see the characters within the pages acting out their story, and I could just move in between the lines like the characters could. It really represented the magic of reading to me, and that is why I love this book.

I was diagnosed with my Type 1 Diabetes right when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Even though at the time it felt like one disaster after another, I think that the time at home allowed me to learn more about my diabetes than I would have otherwise. I was mostly diagnosed by luck. A random test was done, and they noticed my ketones were abnormally high. They sent me to get an A1C, and that afternoon, I had my first insulin shot. Before diabetes, I was deathly afraid of needles. I had a huge teddy bear that I would bring into the doctor's office, and I would squeeze my eyes as tightly closed as I could. When I was diagnosed, I was so scared, but I came to realize that this was going to be something that I had to get over. I was going to deal with it the rest of my life, and I didn't want to have to get someone else to give me insulin all the time. I knew I could overcome this obstacle, and I made it my new goal to test my own blood sugar. I managed to do it with the support of my family, and once I realized that I could prick myself, it wasn't long before I gave myself my first insulin shot. I view this as a milestone for myself, as it showed me that I was capable of getting past practically my biggest fear, and it sparked a lot of courage in me. I started to be less anxious, less scared to try things, as I could tell myself "I got over needles, I can do this too". Diabetes represented one of my biggest fears, but the process of getting past it helped me to face my other fears in life. Diabetes also gave me a lot of responsibility over my own health. With diabetes, I had to be constantly aware of what my body was doing, so I could treat it appropriately. I had to take responsibility for my own health, and I had never been solely responsible for something that important before. It was thrown at me very suddenly, so I also had to learn how to adapt to my new situation. With diabetes, you have to be okay with the fact that sometimes, you don't know what is coming. That was a really hard lesson for me to learn, that you can only predict diabetes up to a point. You are going to make many errors, and I had to accept that. I am a student pilot, so my diagnosis came with another challenge: getting a medical certificate to fly. I was not giving up on my dream, and diabetes was not going to stop me. I went to many medical appointments, and spent many long nights filling out paperwork, but I eventually obtained a third-class medical certificate. Now, I am in the process of obtaining a second-class, which is even more work, but I am determined to not let my diabetes stop me from doing what I love. I've also been advocating for pursuing your dreams with Type 1 Diabetes. I was interviewed by my local news station, and did a story on how I wasn't letting my diabetes stop me from flying. I want to spread my story, because I want people to know that when properly controlled, diabetics can live normal lives, and be more than their diabetes. I also plan to be on a podcast geared towards teens with Type 1 Diabetes, and to share how they should not let diabetes stop them.

I am a student pilot that is pursuing my Private Pilot's License. I have passed my knowledge test, and have around 40 hours of flight time. I have already soloed, and am currently working on navigation and night flight. I chose aviation because I love flying. I love the feeling of being up in the air, and when I am flying, I feel like it is the best moment of my life. Growing up, I always loved planes, but never thought of being a pilot as a career choice. I am the first to pursue aviation in my family, so there were no people that I could look up to in my childhood who were pilots. I never saw it as a possible career, after all, it was for the rich and powerful to do. At least, that's what I thought until I was randomly signed up for a workshop about aviation for girls at my high school. I mainly said yes to it because they said it was a cool opportunity, and it sounded more interesting than going to my Latin class that day. I enjoyed the workshop a lot. We built little gliders, launched them out of the second story windows, and I had a lot of fun The real thing that intrigued me in this workshop was when the presenter started talking about the student pilots. He talked about how he was an instructor for a program at a university, and how he was teaching real people how to fly. Not rich people, not famous people, but just normal people like you and me. He talked about these people who were actually learning how to fly, and becoming pilots. What surprised me the most was when he revealed how old they were. Most of them were 5 or so years older than I was at the time. This revelation that people were actually learning how to fly changed my life. That night, I raced to my computer and started to do some research. The cost shocked me, but I knew right away that this was what I wanted to do. I found the flight school online that the instructor had mentioned, then went to go visit it about a week later. I went on an introductory flight, and I was immediately sure this was where I was meant to be. I had previously been pursuing engineering, but never really enjoyed it. I was just good at it, so I thought that was what I was meant to do. After that flight, I couldn't think of any other future except for flying, and I was determined to let nothing stand in my way. After high school, I want to go to the program at the university I mentioned. The program gets you your instrument, commercial, and flight instructor i and ii licenses. I have been taking college level classes from the course of study for the program throughout last year and this year, so I can hopefully graduate from the 4 year program in 3 years. After that, I would most likely find work as a flight instructor, to get my hours up, and to also teach other people the joy I found in flying. I've always wanted to follow in my mom's footsteps, who's a teacher but I hate trying to teach little kids. I love teaching people around me though, and I think my passion for aviation will translate well into teaching others. If I like flight instructing, I would stay instructing, but if the opportunity arises, I would probably go into corporate or the airlines.

If I was born a decade ago, I wouldn't be able to live the life I do. This is because of recent technological developments that have improved the day to day life of living with diabetes. From my Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) that automatically tests my blood sugar every 5 minutes, and sends an alert if I am high or low, to my insulin pump that gives me insulin through a tube and changes that insulin based on the readings of my CGM, technology for diabetes has improved by so much in the last decade. My FAA medical license has only been approved in recent years, October of 2019, because of the stability I am able to have with my blood sugar. These two devices combined allow me to emulate a normal person's range of blood sugar, and allow me to live in better health. The rising number of diabetics have increased the need for diabetic related advancements in technology, and I only expect it to increase from here. As well as driving new innovations, the rising diabetic numbers in the United States also creates a bigger demand for insulin. Insulin in the United States is expensive. This is due to a limited amount of companies that hold patents, and it is a whole complicated issue. One way that people plan to change this is to introduce new insulin to the market, and make that price so low that now the expensive companies have competition, and have to drive their prices down. In order to create that new insulin, it has to be developed pretty much from scratch, and they have to repurpose old technology to create new ways to replicate the chemical formula of insulin. Projects like the Open Insulin Project are developing technology in order to bypass the patents of the big insulin companies, and make insulin for cheap. This technology would allow diabetics in the United States to not have as much of a financial burden due to their diagnosis, and would also allow some lower income diabetics to not have to choose between food or insulin. I think that this technology would revolutionize life for diabetics, and I am very excited to see what happens because of it. The amount that technology in diabetes management has changed in the last decade gives me hope that it can change even more in the future. Who knows what having diabetes will look like in the future, maybe technology will advance so much that they will have a STEM cell treatment that can make your body produce insulin again. It is because of this type of technology that I am so hopeful for my future and the future of diabetics all around the world.