I plan on entering the nursing field because I want to help and inspire others. I have grown up in a Christian home, and as I got older I read a lot of missionary books. I loved hearing how those people served the Lord. The main books that grabbed my attention were the ones that had medical missions in it. As I learned more about these people I have felt a strong calling from the Lord to help others not only recover from illness and injuries, but to guide them to him who heals there soul and gives them a greater purpose in life. During this time I also learned a lot about the human body and its functions, it became an area of deep interest in my life. Being homeschooled me and my Mom have been able to adjust my education to better grasp this area of study. This has made me even more excited about this field of study. Reading many books and hearing different peoples stories has inspired me to pursue this career. I know that there is a need for good nurses. I want to be someone who people can trust, when they are scared, I want to give them hope and joy. I am in awe of the human body, and how it was designed so beautifully. It is an area of study that I'm super excited to get to learn more about. I hope to serve others in a humble and helpful way. I know that being a nurse will not be easy, but I also know that it is a really rewarding job. I'm very hopeful to do Missionary Nursing work once I graduate. Whether that be local or global I plan to impact my community in the best way that I possibly can. I hope to assist in saving peoples lives, I want to either specialize in OR or ER nursing. I hope to impact these fields by working hard showing up for my patients in their difficult times. One of the biggest things that I hope to do is to inspire smiles in others, because I know that there have been many healthcare workers who have inspired smiles in me. When I become a nurse I want to be satisfied in the quality of work that I do. I never want to settle for less than the best for my patients. I want to be there for them and show them Christ's love that he has for them. I want to give them hope, the hope of Jesus!

I plan on entering the nursing field because I want to help and inspire others. I have grown up in a Christian home, and as I got older I read a lot of missionary books. I loved hearing how those people served the Lord. The main books that grabbed my attention were the ones that had medical missions in it. As I learned more about these people I have felt a strong calling from the Lord to help others not only recover from illness and injuries, but to guide them to him who heals there soul and gives them a greater purpose in life. During this time I also learned a lot about the human body and its functions, it became an area of deep interest in my life. Being homeschooled me and my Mom have been able to adjust my education to better grasp this area of study. This has made me even more excited about this field of study. Reading many books and hearing different peoples stories has inspired me to pursue this career. I know that there is a need for good nurses. I want to be someone who people can trust, when they are scared, I want to give them hope and joy. I am in awe of the human body, and how it was designed so beautifully. It is an area of study that I'm super excited to get to learn more about. I hope to serve others in a humble and helpful way. I know that being a nurse will not be easy, but I also know that it is a really rewarding job. I'm very hopeful to do Missionary Nursing work once I graduate. Whether that be local or global I plan to impact my community in the best way that I possibly can. I hope to assist in saving peoples lives, I want to either specialize in OR or ER nursing. I hope to impact these fields by working hard showing up for my patients in their difficult times. One of the biggest things that I hope to do is to inspire smiles in others, because I know that there have been many healthcare workers who have inspired smiles in me. When I become a nurse I want to be satisfied in the quality of work that I do. I never want to settle for less than the best for my patients. I want to be there for them and show them Christ's love that he has for them. I want to give them hope, the hope of Jesus!

"You are amazing" they told me, as I drained myself for their pleasure. "Claire's the best!" I would eagerly love to hear, proud of myself with each complement I received. So exemplifying a spirit of excellence? I always have. However a few years ago I didn't feel excellent, I felt empty because I filled my mind with what people thought of me. That's all that mattered to me, it consumed my life. I have always loved to help people, from mowing their grass, to cheering them on, I will be there for you. When I started placing my worth in how people complemented me for it, I instantly stopped enjoying it. I've been on people pleasing journey. I have leaned to exemplify a spirit of excellence by not placing my worth in what I do for people, but placing my worth in the hands for the creator of the world, Jesus. He gets the glory for what I do, and I serve others because of the example he set for me. I have learned to work hard for things even if they are really hard. To keep trying and never quit because you never know what will happen next time. Giving generously to others without expecting anything in return, including complements. I consistently give back to my community by volunteering at a number of events like: church camps, nursing home visits, car shows, child care, ect. As well as simple things like offering a smile to a seemingly saddened stranger, picking up garbage that has been tripped over several times, and by being always willing to offer a helping hand. Showing up for my friends and family, when they need me and even when they don't, has been something I am currently working on. One of my favorite community volunteering events that I have done was when I went with a group of girls to a nursing home to sing hymns. This was during COVID and when we got there we were told we couldn't go in. So rather than leaving and turning around we went window to window singing Christmas hymns. Even though they probably couldn't hear us they got to see some happy people during a time of loneliness. Wow all this is making me seem like I'm some perfect person, I'm not. I fail all the time, I get short with my family, lazy with my school work, and selfish in my actions. I'm not a perfect person and even though I try to be, I never will be. These short comings are when I need to seek God all the more. He shines through my weakness and makes me complete. He gives me purpose and hope in this crazy world. I know that the biggest thing I need to do for my community and those around me is to share the hope and love of Jesus Christ with them. It won't be me but Christ in and through me.

For me everything has always been good. Its always been okay. Until the last two years, they have been a real struggle. I'm not sure if its because I've been taking my first steps into adulthood or if its just the teenage hormones. Either way something hasn't been right. I think for me my reality is, I simply miss being a kid. When my mental health was at an all time low my grades started declining, I couldn't find joy in the things I uses to, and quite frankly I would waste my time. Making my mental heath a priority has became something that I have been working on prioritizing. I have been taking steps on improving my mental heath by trusting more in God and spending more time with him. Specifically placing my worth in Christ and not the things of this world. I have also been spending more time with my family, mainly my younger siblings, they bring me back to the joys of being a kid. When my mental health is not good my room is often a mess, making it very difficult for my to focus on my schoolwork. Peoples areas can often reflect there mental state, so I have been focusing on clearing my mind and my spaces. Rather than get overwhelmed, I am learning to break things down into steps rather than taking on the whole wall all at once. When people get depressed and anxious, they often turn to things to distract them, like alcohol, smoking, vaping, drugs, ect. One thing that many people aren't recognizing as a vice, is scrolling on social media. This is a trap I fell into, its not that I thought these videos where even that interesting, they just provided an escape and the opportunity for me to be lazy. The biggest thing that we have lost by having these apps and websites is the simplicity of just sitting and thinking. I mean think about it when is the last you just sat and were bored, without picking up your phone? By picking up our phones to doom scroll we are shutting off part of our brain that God designed to be used for creativity. We lose the opportunity to create, design and think for ourselves. We are stuck in the trap of comparison of things that are edited and fake. Rather than focusing on how to develop our character, we focus on how we can be like others we lose our originality and uniqueness. So on my search for a healthy mental peace, I have learned that I accomplish so much more when I set my phone down and involve myself with my life. I only get one and I have decided I'm not gonna waste it trying to be someone I'll never be. Instead I boost my mental health by just being me and growing in that way. I hope to be a Missionary Nurse one day. I want to help heal people not only physically, but also mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I want to give people hope and a peace of mind. It makes me sad to see when people are hurting and they think they have no one to help them. I want to be there for those people who feel stuck and lost, who are so overwhelmed with emotions they can barley breath. I don't want to be the nurse that looks at my patents and just gives them drugs to "fix" their problems. I want to be a person they can lean on, talk to, and trust. Someone who lets them know they are heard and loves them no matter who they are.

For me everything has always been good. Its always been okay. Until the last two years, they have been a real struggle. I'm not sure if its because I've been taking my first steps into adulthood or if its just the teenage hormones. Either way something hasn't been right. I think for me my reality is, I simply miss being a kid. When my mental health was at an all time low my grades started declining, I couldn't find joy in the things I uses to, and quite frankly I would waste my time. Making my mental heath a priority has became something that I have been working on prioritizing. I have been taking steps on improving my mental heath by trusting more in God and spending more time with him. Specifically placing my worth in Christ and not the things of this world. I have also been spending more time with my family, mainly my younger siblings, they bring me back to the joys of being a kid. When my mental health is not good my room is often a mess, making it very difficult for my to focus on my schoolwork. Peoples areas can often reflect there mental state, so I have been focusing on clearing my mind and my spaces. Rather than get overwhelmed, I am learning to break things down into steps rather than taking on the whole wall all at once. When people get depressed and anxious, they often turn to things to distract them, like alcohol, smoking, vaping, drugs, ect. One thing that many people aren't recognizing as a vice, is scrolling on social media. This is a trap I fell into, its not that I thought these videos where even that interesting, they just provided an escape and the opportunity for me to be lazy. The biggest thing that we have lost by having these apps and websites is the simplicity of just sitting and thinking. I mean think about it when is the last you just sat and were bored, without picking up your phone? By picking up our phones to doom scroll we are shutting off part of our brain that God designed to be used for creativity. We lose the opportunity to create, design and think for ourselves. We are stuck in the trap of comparison of things that are edited and fake. Rather than focusing on how to develop our character, we focus on how we can be like others we lose our originality and uniqueness. So on my search for a healthy mental peace, I have learned that I accomplish so much more when I set my phone down and involve myself with my life. I only get one and I have decided I'm not gonna waste it trying to be someone I'll never be. Instead I boost my mental health by just being me and growing in that way. I hope to be a Missionary Nurse one day. I want to help heal people not only physically, but also mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I want to give people hope and a peace of mind. It makes me sad to see when people are hurting and they think they have no one to help them. I want to be there for those people who feel stuck and lost, who are so overwhelmed with emotions they can barley breath. I don't want to be the nurse that looks at my patents and just gives them drugs to "fix" their problems. I want to be a person they can lean on, talk to, and trust. Someone who lets them know they are heard and loves them no matter who they are.

Often people who don't play sports look at sports and think only about how hard it is physically. In my opinion sports are more of a mental game then physical. Throughout my High School "career" I have been involved in a number of sports: Flag Football, Basketball, and Track and Field. One of the biggest challenges for me has been time management. My main sport is Basketball, I play on a travel team, with 5 or more out of state tournaments in a 6 month long season. Finding the time to balance school, work, family, and friends has been a big challenge. However I have learned so much from this specifically how to maximize my time. Another challenge I have faced is placing my worth in my sport. I have learned that if I try my best there isn't much I could do about the way I played. Even if its not the way I want, I still get better when I try my best. I have also been working on finding my worth in God and not in my performance, because God is a constant but the way I play will always change. I tried track and field my junior year this was a very hard thing for me to do. Regardless this is something I wanted to do, because I believe its good to try new things and push yourself out of your comfort zone. One week after my Basketball season ended Track started. I was already a little burnt out from basketball, but I love sports so I stayed. At our third practice I injured my hip, which was pretty frustrating. I learned the importance of rest and taking care of myself. Through this injury I watched God work in my season. I decided to try throwing specifically shot put since it would be lighter on my hip. When my hip recovered I also started sprinting. I would push myself in practice as much as I could. Then one day after our first two meets our teams split into an A and B team. I was on the B team. This was frustrating to me because I have always exceled at things naturally so this was new for me. Regardless of this set back I kept working hard in practice. When I first started shot put I set the goal of breaking the team record. The first meet I threw in I was 5 feet away from breaking the record. No matter how hard I worked I felt stuck I would get the same results every meet. After two meets got rained out I began to feel hopeless. Still I kept practicing hard, I decided to pick up discus as well. We were at the final meet of the season, the State meet, I had already thrown two of my discus throws and I had two more. My coach told me something to adjust my form and I listened I ended up breaking the team record for discus and scoring points from discus. I learned that listening and trusting the people with experience can really benefit you. Next up was shot put I broke the record on my first throw, and then on my second throw I broke it again! I ended up getting second out of everyone. I also scored the most points for the girls team. Overall I learned perseverance and to never ever give up no matter how far behind you feel.

For me everything has always been good. Its always been okay. Until the last two years, they have been a real struggle. I'm not sure if its because I've been taking my first steps into adulthood or if its just the teenage hormones. Either way something hasn't been right. I think for me my reality is, I simply miss being a kid. When my mental health was at an all time low my grades started declining, I couldn't find joy in the things I uses to, and quite frankly I would waste my time. Making my mental heath a priority has became something that I have been working on prioritizing. I have been taking steps on improving my mental heath by trusting more in God and spending more time with him. Specifically placing my worth in Christ and not the things of this world. I have also been spending more time with my family, mainly my younger siblings, they bring me back to the joys of being a kid. When my mental health is not good my room is often a mess, making it very difficult for my to focus on my schoolwork. Peoples areas can often reflect there mental state, so I have been focusing on clearing my mind and my spaces. Rather than get overwhelmed, I am learning to break things down into steps rather than taking on the whole wall all at once. When people get depressed and anxious, they often turn to things to distract them, like alcohol, smoking vaping, ect. One thing that many people aren't recognizing as a vice, is scrolling on social media. This is a trap I fell into, its not that I thought these videos where even that interesting, they just provided an escape and the opportunity for me to be lazy. The biggest thing that we have lost by having these apps and websites is the simplicity of just sitting and thinking. I mean think about it when is the last you just sat and were bored, without picking up your phone? By picking up our phones to doom scroll we are shutting off part of our brain that God designed to be used for creativity. We lose the opportunity to create, design and think for ourselves. We are stuck in the trap of comparison of things that are edited and fake. Rather than focusing on how to develop our character, we focus on how we can be like others we lose our originality and uniqueness. So on my search for a healthy mental peace, I have learned that I accomplish so much more when I set my phone down and involve myself with my life. I only get one and I have decided I'm not gonna waste it trying to be someone I'll never be. Instead I boost my mental health by just being me and growing in that way.

Ever since I was little God has meant a lot to me. This is mainly from my Mom. She was widowed when I was 2 years old. Through her trials she never stopped trusting God. So growing up I always saw that. I watched God work in my life by giving my Mom, me, and my brother a wonderful new family. My Mom got remarried to an amazing man who had six kids. I had a broken family but God had made it whole. When I was 12 I decided to be baptized and fully commit my life to Christ. God has helped me so much over these past few years he has helped me in so many ways. I used to idolize over things and obsess over stuff that really wasn't that important, and God saved me from that. He also saved me from a lot of comparison. He continues to sanctify me and show me his goodness. For a few years now I have wanted to be a missionary nurse and that is still my goal. I think that my faith will help me in my career, because I want my career to be serving God wherever he leads me. I do hope to do overseas missions, but if that's not God's plan for me and he just wants me to work in a hospital, I'm okay with that. I think my faith will help me with my work ethic because I want everything that I do to be for God's glory. When you try to work for man or the pleasure of man you don't get the same enjoyment out of it. It can be easy to do the bare minimum. So I think if I do end up just working as a nurse in a hospital in America that I will still be able to serve God. I can serve him in the way that I work, the way that I interact with my coworkers and the way that I interact with patients. I think I can reflect God no matter what I am doing, which is my goal. I know I won't be perfect at it, and I need to trust in God to help me. I can't do it on my own, but I know God and he is my best friend and I know I can trust him. He does help me and I don't think that I would enjoy any career if I didn't have a way to bring God into it.

I was young when I lost my Dad. He died in a car accident, and within a year my Mom was remarried. She married an incredible man, he had six kids. My Mom just had two. So adjusting to this was a very big thing for our family. I admire my Mom and (step) Dad very much for the way they let God shape and mold their relationship and combined our families into one. Over the years we have all grown very close and my parents had 3 more kids along the way. Making us a mixed family of 13. I have always been a tom girl, and able to compete with the boys in things (having 6 older brothers it was kind of natural for me). So I love sports, I will play any sport. The first organized sport that I ever remember playing was flag football. I quickly grew to love the sport. However, I was the only girl for a few years so I didn't get passed the ball hardly ever. I decided to prove myself by controlling what I could control and pull flags. My confidence has grown so much through this sport and it has shown me what I am capable of. I think my plan worked cause eventually they started passing. Last season I had two interceptions and 3 touchdowns in one game. I wish my Dad could see me. I wonder if he would be proud. My (step) Dad is great and all. But there is something about having someone with the same traits as you. I often feel strange in my family because I think and act the same way as my Dad did. My mom said I was the most like him. So it's hard sometimes having no one who understands you or gets what you mean. I feel like me and my Dad would have been friends and I miss him. I wish I would have got to know him better. However, this football endeavor transferred over to my main sport basketball. When I play basketball, everything else goes away it's just me, my God, and the ball. Basketball has been a huge gift from God to give me peace. Through it, I can work through my emotions, pains, and struggles. I feel like it does give me a way to make my Dad proud and honor my God. My Dad's death was God's plan, and even though it's hard to understand sometimes I trust God and he has blessed me incredibly. My (step) Dad is super supportive and records all my games, he shows Jesus's love to me. My siblings are irreplaceable. Without my (step) brothers, I never would have found the joy that basketball brings me. They brought basketball to me and through it, I learned leadership, hard work, effort, and kindness. I plan to use the skill and talent God has gifted me in basketball to inspire others to embrace their hard situations and let it change them into a better player, person, and family member. I have had the incredible opportunity of passing my love for basketball to my younger (half) sister. I hope I can teach her and many others the life skills and technical skills I have learned through it.

Inspire Smiles I plan on entering the nursing field because I want to help and inspire others. I have grown up in a Christian home, and as I got older I read a lot of missionary books. I loved hearing how those people served the Lord. The main books that grabbed my attention were the ones that had medical missions in it. As I learned more about these people I have felt a strong calling from the Lord to help others not only recover from illness and injuries, but to guide them to him who heals there soul and gives them a greater purpose in life. During this time I also learned a lot about the human body and its functions, it became an area of deep interest in my life. Being homeschooled me and my Mom have been able to adjust my education to better grasp this area of study. This has made me even more excited about this field of study. Someone who really inspired me is Clara Barton. She was the founder of red cross, lived during the civil war and had a strong faith. She would go out onto the front lines and care for the wounded. She was not afraid to do what no one else would do. Although she was a very shy person, she carried a boldness with her. I hope to carry that same boldness with me into the medical field. I also wish to serve my country and my God like she did. Reading many books and hearing different peoples stories has inspired me to pursue this career. I know that their is a need for good nurses. I want to be someone who people can trust, when they are scared, I want to give them hope and joy. I am in awe of the human body, and how it was designed so beautifully. It is an area of study that I'm super excited to get to learn more about. I hope to serve others in a humble and helpful way. I know that being a nurse will not be easy, but I also know that it is a really rewarding job. I'm very hopeful to do some Missionary Nursing work once I graduate. Whether that be local or global I plan to impact my community in the best way that I possibly can. One of the biggest things that I hope to do is to inspire smiles in others, because I know that there have been many healthcare workers who have inspired smiles in me.