When I was in third grade, I got tapped to be in my district's chapter of Future Problem Solvers. From this year on, I worked with a team of four to solve outlandish problems that the governing board thought would eventually plague us. From then on, I have valued the experience of getting a problem and working step-by-step to solve it. While in high school, I thought I wanted to pursue political science or maybe even law, but I took coursework that opened my eyes to science. Nothing was quite as exhilarating as working for multiple class periods on a reaction to finally get a product with over 50 percent yield. Nothing was quite as interesting as crushing up over-the-counter medication, and confirming in my high school chemistry lab that the percentage of active ingredients was what was printed on the bottle. I felt like I was doing real, tangible work on a lab bench, rather than learning about history from a book or talking about literature. I realized I love science because it requires me to be a problem solver, so ultimately I chose a degree in STEM, specifically chemistry. Science forces us to think broadly about how we want to solve a problem and apply years of knowledge and learning to one seemingly-small problem. Each problem set is a culmination of years of work. Each class challenges us to reconsider what we learned and reevaluate what we thought to be true. A degree in STEM means that I will never be finished learning and will always be a problem solver. As someone interested in graduate programs, perhaps medical school or a Ph.D., I anticipate being a student for life. Science is forever changing, and much of science has yet to be discovered, which makes the years of learning ahead of me exciting instead of daunting. While someone might be dejected at the idea of years of school with uncertainty ahead, my problem-solver background makes me eager to keep learning and move on to more courses and more problems. STEM is also a team sport. I've always worked well on a team, whether it be my high school tennis and fencing teams or in my research lab with other students. I value having others to bounce ideas off of and having people in my corner to support me. Similarly to how my teammates would cheer for each other during a pivotal point, my classmates now cheer each other on while we work on some of the most challenging coursework yet in our college careers. While quantum chemistry is much different than high school tennis, we still feel the team camaraderie and passion. Now, I work in a research lab investigating the impact of post-synthetically modifying two-dimensional semiconductors. I never could have dreamed that I would be doing this type of work in high school. I use instruments that would have made no sense to me a year ago because a degree in STEM means that I am always learning and getting exposed to new things. I cannot imagine learning another subject, and every single experience up to now, whether it be my friend congratulating me on solving the Schrodinger equation or measuring spectra that fit the expected values, has shown me that I made the right decision to pursue a career in science.