I am a senior at MacArthur High School in Houston, Tx. I am an avid reader, I like to study at home and work with technology. Specifically speaking about technology, I like assembling computers and working with computer hardware maintenance a lot. Whether it’s a computer that’s completely out dated or a computer that’s missing parts, I truly enjoy working on these things. It’s a wonderful feeling being able to see the relief on peoples faces when I repair or fix an issue with their computers. Once I get my degree in computer science I can become a computer hardware engineer. I can make things much more convenient or even make something completely new for people in my community and maybe around the world. I have a dream of opening a shop to repair computers and other electronics for a living. I hope to give people affordable prices, recommendations, tools, and well anything that would suit their computer/technology needs. Some people think computers are just limited to a metal box underneath a desk, a phone, tablet, laptop, but most devices that use electricity have some form of a motherboard inside. I could make my services more available to the public to use and give suggestions on how to set up their environments they use computers in. I could even give advice on things customers may ask like, “I updated my computer and now it wont turn on” or “I logged in one day then this pop up blocked me from accessing my files”. But that’s only the beginning, I could use my degree in computer engineering to make breakthroughs in the technology industry. But that’s barely touching the surface, finding new ways for data transmission, computer communication, or just improving on what’s already there, is where I can definitely make a positive impact on the world. Like getting a job at Intel (a microchip company) and improving the CPU they use for their company. I could make it to process more data and generate less heat while doing so, or make an improved motherboard layout so data can be transferred more efficiently across the motherboard. The possibilities of what I could make will be endless, especially when collaboration with other professionals is involved! I could make a device that helps check for skin disease inside hospitales everywhere. From local, to major, to even animal hospitals. I could make a new vr console that works more directly with the brain then current vr technology. I might even make a counter that serves as a stove,oven and toaster in one! And the best part? All of these ideas can actually be created to some degree! I just have to do the research and take the time to develop them and send them throughout the world as much as I can. But only if I can get a degree where I can make them a reality and that starts with a degree in computer science. But that is enough about what I might do, let me start telling you about what I am going to do. I am going to make something that will help the world with archaeology. Like most kids at some point I had a big interest in dinosaurs, however unlike most kids I have managed to keep my interest. And now I actually know how to pursue it. So when the opportunity presents itself I plan on making multiple devices that can help paleontologists gather information about a fossil with less risk of breaking the fossil and help gather more accurate information.

ompt: Please select a paragraph of your choosing (provide a copy of the paragraph in your response), preferably from an ancient literature or philosophy book, and write a short essay expounding your understanding of the writer's underlying meaning of the text. Avoid summarizations and vague language that wanders from your central thesis that should be stated at the beginning of your essay. “Generations of men are like the leaves. In winter, winds blow them down to earth, but then, when spring season comes again, the budding wood grows more. And so, with men: one generation grows, another dies away.” This is a quote pulled from the ancient Greek book, The Iliad by Homer, an ancient Greek poet who also wrote the Odessey; another well respected piece of literature throughout history and is still read and studied to this day. Homer uses similes to create a more easily understandable poetic representation of the concept of humanities life cycle as a whole. This simile for a man’s life cycle is broken into five aspects: birth, making choices while living, time, death, and revivifying life. In the quote, “generations” is referring to the birth of man. We are given the simile “like the leaves.” Leaves are grown, just like man is born. Both leaves and humans are born one at a time, seemingly separate from one another but in truth never alone, always side by side with another as birth happens a countless amount of times just like the leaves on any tree. And still just a small bit of the collective of nature that humanity is involved in. Since leaves are a metaphor for humans and their birth, the quote “ winds blow them down to earth” means that the wind is a metaphor for the choices we make while living life. Because just like the wind our lives keep going. And just like a leaf being carried in the wind no matter how strong their branch is our choices push us forward whether we want to or not until we die. Constantly shifting directions at a moment's notice as we grow from experiences and as we gain perspective from those decisions. And because of those decisions as we grow in our lives as we develop as humans. The wind, just like the choices we make throughout our lives, can not be avoided from happening whether we are ready for them or not in the inevitability of life, just like a leaf in the wind gliding to the ground. “Winds blow them down to earth, but then, when spring season comes again, the budding wood grows more. And so, with men: one generation grows, another dies away” this quote shows the final parts of a human's life, the creation of a new life as the old pass on. Since humans are leaves and the wind is life. When there is no more wind, no more life the leaf touches the earth and a human dies. So this means in this quote the “earth” is a metaphor for death. The revivification of life being the “budding wood” a simile for the new generation being made and pushed into the cycle of life, a fragment of nature in its whole. Taking the place of the dead and repeating the cycle Time just like the seasons changing is inevitable. Whenever the subject of seasons is mentioned in the quote, the theme of seasons revolving around the other themes almost serves as an indicator for time. “ In winter, winds blow them” “when spring season comes again, the budding wood grows more.” These quotes prove that Homer is using seasons as a metaphor for the passing of time. Both time and the seasons mark various points in our lives. In the (word or phrase referring to the original quote) Spring brings new life, marking the start of a lifetime of constant choices, and a lifetime of experiences. While winter represents the end of a lifetime. Winter comes with death and with death comes revivification of life, not for the ones who have passed, but for humanity as a whole as spring comes around again.

Sorry but this is going to be a little more unconventional than how an essay is supposed to be written. but then again, it's about books and their stories impacts so why not get a little odd? To be honest I may have learned a little too much from books. I've been a big reader since a young age, so the things I learn more or less blend together. But I think over all I've learned to try to keep a plan and to not give up hope or a sense of optimism. These two ideas and reading itself has helped me through hard times. They gave me a sense of routine and comfort whenever things got hard. Like when my family got evicted, whenever we went hungry for a while, or even when I was just overwhelmed in school! I would just pick up a Percy Jakson or any comic I could find (personally love flash comics) and went to work on reading into my little sanctuary. Finding some semblance of optimism that helped me see things in a brighter light when I needed to or at least that's how I have been thinking about things at least, gave me enough strength to start looking beyond just schoolwork. But then a question arrived with a realization, how would I even start planning for this? The main thing I knew about college is that it's expensive and can be stressful to people. But I'm a bookworm a resourceful one at that so I looked into the library and found a book on planning for college. That burned me out in six pages. So, I asked my teachers, and they gave advice...That wasn't too helpful to my actual question and more so just "study, scholarship, and NEVER TAKE A LOAN!" Luckly for me I liked to do things step by step already, so after finishing a vampire academy book I decided to follow a plan leading that would get me a degree in computer science. So since middle school I have been making small plans no matter how small, eat this then study then, exorcise then read here, that sort of thing. Then I planned what I wanted to do after high school. I knew keeping a plan to complicated would probably fail like Saint Dane from the pendragon books. So, I just had an overarching goal of getting a degree in computer science and made small steps to reach it. Which is study, when possible, practice what I can, get some scholarships, and get degree. A bit oversimplified I know but that is the point, regardless These two ideas have been helping me make good decision and probably will continue to do so through my life, stories are wonderful, aren't they?