I am very excited to expand my knowledge of botany and my future experiences in my four years of college. I know that the university I will be attending has an excellent botanical program, so I can guarantee that I'll be happy in it. I plan on maintaining the health of my body, mental state, and soul through multiple sources. One of which will be going to the gym on a consistent basis. I already have formed a plan for myself in terms of my workout routine. I plan on giving myself enough free time to decompress from whatever the workload for the week may have been, that way I do not begin to crumble from the inside. I know for a fact that I will need to do things that I enjoy to keep me happy as well. Just because I'm going to college doesn't mean I'm going to let myself get absorbed completely and be miserable. I plan on achieving a healthy balance of working on school and working on myself. I see that balance as one of the most important parts of anyone's college experience. One outlet I know I will have other than the gym is the multitude of nature that will be surrounding me. I know that anytime I need a sort of personal spiritual cleansing, I can always find somewhere secluded and quiet. That way I can find a sort of peace, and deal with whatever thoughts I may have correctly. During times like these, I want to strengthen my mental state by learning new information. I aim to do this by examining my surroundings every time I can. As well as checking out multiple books from the library in order to keep my literary skills on their toes. I know that despite all of the challenges college is going to throw my way, I am going to persist in being myself and keeping myself healthy. I have never let my personal challenges beat me, and I will not allow such a monstrous challenge to overcome me. As long as I acknowledge my further education as just that, a challenge, I will overcome it. I know that I will love the environment I am going to create for myself, and that is the last and arguably most important piece for me. In order to keep everything about myself on track toward progression I must keep myself positive. Even in the hardest times having as much of a positive outlook as possible can keep you afloat. I am aware that I will face hardships, but I will continue to face them realistically and resolve them so that I can find a positive in the future.

I believe that my uniqueness stems from my ability to keep a positive attitude and continue to press on through things that are challenging. As well as learning from my mistakes. There have been plenty of occasions that presented themselves to me that were incredibly frustrating. One of the many things that have led to me gaining this skill was gardening. Going into my previous season, I had no idea what I was doing. I experimented and found out what did and didn't work. I had a heavy sense of doubt in myself and my abilities. But once I saw how happy my dad was to see me so happy out there, it kept me going. I continued to work until one of my first pepper plants grew to such a large size. It was rough in the beginning but it ended up working out beautifully. Gardening is one thing I know I want to use in order to give back to my community. I plan on creating a community garden where anyone can come plant, and from my section of what I've planted anyone can take whatever they need. As well as using this as a learning experience for young children to see an environment they may never have before. Showing anyone that wants to learn how to grow any kind of produce for themselves and their family in my eyes is incredibly important. Being able to get people outside and bond together is something I aim to bring to the table. I know that I wish that I had something like this growing up and I'm going to make sure to provide it to my community in the future. I also plan to recycle and encourage my neighbors to do so as well if they don't already. Both of these are smaller parts of my plan to attempt to bring environmental awareness to my community. Not only do I want to show them the difference it can make for the natural environment, but also the assistance it gives to our local social environment. Creating a deeper bond between everyone. I hope to be able to give back to my community in any way that I can. I know that I have missed opportunities to help more in the past due to situational circumstances but I will continue to pursue my goals of bringing my community together despite those circumstances. I will achieve these goals by attaining my bachelor's degree in Botany to further my own knowledge so that I can correctly instill the knowledge and skills into others.

Ever since 2021, I have been making multiple changes to my lifestyle. I started using an app to track my daily food intake and keep track of my nutrition. This change has been off and on but as of now, I am sticking to it again and I intend on staying with it for a long time. I also began gardening, this gave me a new activity to get me outside while also creating a new mindset for me surrounding my health. I started to realize how much I have begun to value my health. After the growing season ended I was left with no new outdoor activity to keep my cycle going, but this was when school started up again. I began using the school gym every day, striving towards a better version of myself. As I did this, my eating habits and water intake improved. In terms of physical health, I had peaked. This also brought my mental health to an all-time high. The second semester rolled around and that's when my journey got a big shake-up. I no longer had access to the gym like I used to. It was hard to motivate myself to do a whole lot of anything, especially with it being cold outside. I sort of turned into a lesser version of myself that I have seen too many times before, and instead of fighting it, I sank into it for far too long. As of January this year though I once again got back on track to some degree. I track my food again, I began working out in my house and what's most important is that my next growing season is right around the corner. Being able to start lifting myself out of this hole I dug myself gave me a boost to my mind that I desperately needed. I am still constantly working to get back to and push past my previous peak in my life, but I can feel myself getting closer and closer each day. My body is already starting to feel less sluggish and far more energized. I know that there will inevitably be more pitfalls that I face, but instead of them being months on end of feeding into them, I will bounce back much faster and with a new sense of self-worth and self-care. This journey of mine has taught me so many important lessons about myself and my worth. I look forward to continuing my journey and hopefully helping those around me.

My daily choices impact the environment semi-negatively and semi-positively. Over the past two years, I've been discovering new ways to be more sustainable in my day-to-day life. I have been using a food waste bin that I dispose of every week in my garden, that way the nutrients that those food scraps offer can be recycled into my garden for the next growing season. I also have been keeping cardboard boxes, bottles, cans, and glasses of sorts to use as planters for my seedlings. That way I am still able to reuse them to some degree. I have stopped using plastic non-reusable straws entirely as well as any other form of non-reusable food items. Considering I don't have a car at the moment, I can't bring my recyclables to the recycling center, but I have kept a stockpile in my closet for when I am inevitably able to take them. I also have started a small pile of styrofoam that I find in packages. I plan on taking this down to my girlfriend's uncle who condenses foam, that way it can be repurposed. I still impact the environment negatively sadly, I do catch myself throwing things away that don't need to be. But my large plan for the future is to be as sustainable as possible. I plan on keeping my garden routine that way I can grow as much food for myself and others as possible as well as give back to the earth what it has given me. I aim to bike in most places where I can and invest money into getting an electric vehicle. I want to recycle everything I possibly can that I use, while still keeping up the practice of using bottles and cans for my seedlings. I hope to further my sustainability in life by majoring in botany and minoring in sustainability. With my knowledge in both of these fields, I can take care of my surrounding plant life which holds the ecosystem together, as well as learn new ways that I can become more sustainable. I plan to leave a positive impact on the environment throughout my life. I want to spread my hopes and practices to others in hopes that I can influence them into caring about our planet even more. I hate that it took me seventeen years to learn all of this but I will continue to learn about what I can do for the planet, and what I can say to get more people behind the cause.

Community to me symbolizes comfort and support. I believe that whatever you put out into your community whether that be volunteering for one activity or simply picking up some trash you see laying on the side of the road. Community is in some form your extended family, if you're involved enough, no one is a stranger. As I get older and become more independent and inevitably move away from my current community, I hope to be able to participate and contribute to my future community to an even greater degree. I aim to do this by starting my own community garden where everyone can come and grow their own plants. Not only just growing, but I also plan on operating an honor system where people can come in and take whatever they need from what I will be contributing. This plan alone can grow the bonds of a community by seeing the support that it can offer to one another. Especially a smaller community like mine. If I could have established one this previous growing season I would have, but having this time to think and plan it out even further will most likely end up better in the end. My girlfriend introduced me to the importance of giving to your community and how it can make you feel. One thanksgiving she offered to take me along to package and give out meals to those who need them. Initially, I was dreading it but once I started working, I saw the bright smiles on everyone's faces that were helping. That infectious happiness crept up on me and swallowed me whole. Despite this only being my first time helping at an event such as this, I was treated with the same kindness and respect that anyone else was given. That feeling truly gave me a sense of what a community can do for anyone. I will continue to care for and give to my community, whether I am here in my hometown or off in a different area after college. I will treat each and every new and existing community that I will be a part of with kindness, care, and love. Everyone's community deserves that from the individuals within it. Whether that means giving up one Saturday a month to volunteer or donating unwanted clothes and items to a nonprofit organization that will cycle the items back to those who need them. This bond is what a community offers and it is one of the most comforting and secure things anyone can be a part of.