"You could become a doctor right now if you wanted to", "Don't laugh I'm being serious, you're a smart kid, Cody." A teacher said those words to me when I was in fourth grade. I am now a Senior in high school, and I remember it still like it happened yesterday. Within those 30 seconds that those words were spoken to me, something changed in not just my mentality, but the future path that I would take in my life. From that moment on I saw myself in a different light, I decided I was going to start trying my best in school, and I started to raise my grades, the term I was told those simple words, was the first term in my entire school career that I had managed to get all A's. One teacher, one moment, one conversation, in just one day, completely changed the course of my life. I want to be that one teacher for other students, seeing what it did to me I could only imagine what it could do for other students. I love the idea of teaching in the first place, being able to help other people is something that I have always loved doing. Just thinking about it gets me super excited for the future. With my passions for math, teaching, and helping other people, being a teacher just seems to work perfectly. Math in particular is very important to me when it comes to the idea of teaching. I love math, but if you ask all of the students in a school, most will say that they don't like math, to the point where most jokes in online media for schools involve math in some way or another. I want to be able to change that, I want to be able to get students to enjoy and find math interesting. I feel that most of the reason that students tend to dislike math is because of the fact that most teachers focus on grades more than learning when it comes to math classes. Since math is a required class that has a lot of testing on it, most students tend to stress thinking about it. I want to have a class where students don't worry about grades, and instead get to focus on just having fun while learning. I want to teach as Professor, Miguel Gomez, from Murray State University teaches his classes. All in all, my passion comes from multiple different sources, whether it's because of me seeing the effects of what teachers could do to their students, being able to teach and get other people to understand and have different points of view on math, or even being able to just help my students through their life while teaching them, teaching just seems to be something that I love thinking about. I know that I am going to become a teacher, in case you are wondering, I want to become either a high school or middle school math teacher. I also want to become fluent in multiple languages so that I can teach students from different countries who may end up in my school or that I may end up in their school. I like the idea of traveling, so I may become a teacher in Europe as opposed to America so that I can get to see more cultures and interact with more people from around the world.

"You could become a Doctor right now, that's how smart you are", my 3rd grade teacher told me that. Of course it wasn't true and I laughed it off at first, but she did something that no teacher had with those types of comments. She doubled down on her statement with a serious voice. That's the day I finally started believing in myself as a student. She changed my life within a 30 second conversation. You see this isn't what drives me to become a teacher, but this does drive me to become a good teacher. I want to become someone that can help the future generations, yes being a teacher means you teach them, but you are also shaping those children. You are making imprints, ideas, ways of thought, and many other things just by being a teacher. I have gotten to speak to a education professor, Miguel Gomez, and he also has been a goal for me to be like. By being like them i could make a life long impact on students that could change them for the best. Along with just spread more kindness around this world. I plan to teach in a way where students won't feel stressed. I want to teach middle or highschool both of which are very stressful years of school. I want to teach in a way where students don't focus on grades but instead focus on learning. What's the point of having students be worried about their grade if they are focused more on their grade than the class itself? Classes should be interactive, interesting, and most of all be teaching the student basic character education. Miguel Gomez taught his middle school classes with character education and less grade focused classes and brought the worst scoring students back on track along with being someone their for all of them. With my love of teaching, and math along with my desire to be like the two greatest role models I could ask for, I believe I could make a positive impact on students. Though how do I give back to my community? I give back currently by trying to support all of the different programs, volunteering for town wide things like parades, Christmas caroling and even passing out Christmas candy for a huge light show our town does in honor of an art teacher that passed in our town. He actually was apart of "The Great American Light Show" he was featured for his "Candy Cane Lane". But that's just a fraction of what I do normally, I have been putting my all to my community recently. Since I became Student Body President I have been trying to think of events and things we can do to get my community together not just the school but everyone. I try my hardest everyday to make up ideas and talk to the school board about them. I just re-read the prompt and realized how simular Bob and Miguel are. When described they follow the same descriptions. Miguel has persuaded me to want to teach in rougher schools where students need more help, which I think would be amazing.

Theory after theory, lifetimes of studying, lifetimes of work, without learning everything there is to know about our universe. Does this not seem like a topic that we need to get more people to research? Though is there an actual purpose in researching a topic so vague, and difficult to find an answer for? Gravity, black holes, and all of the laws and mathematic theories we have ever made say that this is an insanely important thing to try to research and understand. Everything that we have made, everything that we have thought of, even the simplest of things are all from studying the universe and its ways of nature. The more that we are able to understand the nature of it, the more that we are able to learn and grow as a society. The more that we are able to make certain answers about things without having to be split apart. The nature of the universe is something that every scientist on this planet, sometimes without even knowing it, is studying and researching. The nature of the universe is one of the most researched things on this planet, but still, yet it still has the most questions. Alright, but do we really need to know this information? Yes, just think about it, how would you know how to make houses, cook food, or even be able to count without knowing at least some parts of the universe's nature? You wouldn't know anything, to grow as humans, and to advance as we need to, we have to be more in tune with the universe's nature. What if an asteroid is going to hit Earth, and we didn't research how that type of thing moves, we most likely wouldn't have even known about it even coming close to the Earth in the first place let alone hitting it. With where we are now more studying could most likely be able to prevent an asteroid from even hitting the Earth in the first place. We already have been able to learn about invisible things that stop particles from hitting us, just from studying the universe, why stop there? Throughout the years of questioning things as I have learned, I have made a few ideas about things. Some of these have most likely already been theorized about, but these are just things and ideas that I want to implement into the study of the universe if it hasn't been already. The proof that it's not just the universe here. Just think, how could the universe be expanding and literally stretching out the distance between galaxies, if it was all there was? Just think the universe is supposed to be everything, it's supposed to hold everything, but it is growing. What is it growing into? Something has to be holding the universe itself in it. Although why would you stop there? How would it work if we could reach the edge is another question, would you be trapped in the universe or would you be able to leave it? The universe is growing meaning that something is outside of it, would the universe at some point stop growing? These are questions that I ask myself, and I think that the answer is that the universe is going eventually stop growing. There can only be so many layers of reality that we as humans can physically comprehend, at some point, we aren't going to even notice it growing, because of the fact that we wouldn't be comprehend the levels at which the universe is at that point. By this point though, humans will likely be extinct, so it's just a theory that could never be proven.

It's been over hundreds of years since a single person in my family, related by marriage or blood, has actually gotten a college degree. As a matter of fact, half of them didn't even finish Highschool in general. I want to change this, but why do I want to? One of my biggest reasons is mostly to be able to get my dream job. I really want to be able to go into teaching since it's a job that gives you a ton of family time, and at the same time, it is something that I really enjoy doing while being able to teach my favorite subject on top of it. It's like a win-win situation, but there are more than just 2 wins. Saying that above, the only way I really know how to become a teacher is to get more education out of high school, or take college classes during my time in high school. This is a major thing driving me to become a non-traditional student in my family. Though, the most important thing to me about going to college is being able to support my future family in general. I want to be able to have a family that doesn't have to worry about money, I want to be able to give them good memories. I want to be able to support my family well enough that I don't have to worry about property taxes and just a ton of things like that. Not to mention the fact that I want a job where I can spend time with my future family, and my current family for that matter. If I don't go to college and have to work night shifts or have to work an excessively long work week that I don't want to do, I may not be able to see anyone really, it would just be work sleep, and then work again. Which is something that I want to avoid. Finally one of the last things that drive me to become a non-traditional student is also my competitiveness. I want to "win", I want to be able to say what I have done in the future, and I want to be able to be proud of everything that I have done. I want to be someone who my father would be proud of ya know. To not only make a name for myself but also for my wonderful family who has made me who I am today. Not only do I want to "win" though, I want to be able to get other people to try to achieve the same thing in the future. I want to be a role model that people can look up to, and be able to go in the right direction with their life. What's the point of living if you aren't able to help those around you? These are just a few of the things that drive me to do my best and try to break out of the mold of my family. Not just break out of the mold of my family, but to break out of the mold of majority of the people in my situation, the people who give up because of money issues, the people who just get discouraged. I want to break that mold so badly that everyone is able to "win"!

Out of all of the amazing songs in this playlist, I have to say that I think that Shake it Off, may be my favorite out of them all. It's really close between Welcome to New York, and Shake it off, but Shake it off is barely better. Now although that is mostly just my opinion there are a ton of amazing qualities that are in Shake it Off, and it even sends a good message to those who listen to it. What amazing qualities could possibly be in Shake it Off to make it the best out of the album? That's quite a good question let's talk about it. Shake it Off has an amazing beat to it, and just lifts up your mood. It's one of the songs that would play on the radio and everyone would have a good time singing it word for word out loud. Even people that don't even normally listen to Taylor Swift's music admit that it's a really good song, that made a huge part of their childhoods. On top of the good music in general, it also brings a good vibe along with it. A ton of the newer songs that are popular now honestly have a ton of bad vibes with them. It's all about them going and shooting someone or something that just isn't really a major vibe. Shake it Off on the other hand is literally the definition of a vibe. It helps cheer you up, and in some cases might just be able to help you make decisions or better yourself by following and doing as the lyrics suggest. Newer songs would you not want to do this with, since it's just a bunch of crimes mentioned over and over again. Alright, so what it has some really good qualities about it, I said that it had a good message in it as well, where is that message at? Honestly as easy as this is to answer, it's still a very good question to keep in mind when listening to music and other things in general. Shake it Off sends a major message to not let things get to you as much as they do. There are a ton of people who take other peoples' words way too seriously when they shouldn't really care about what they think in general. Here lately I have seen a ton of people doubt themselves and just feel depressed because of someone else making comments to them, and just being negative to them. Shake it Off tries to get you to understand you don't have to take it so seriously, telling you to shake off all of those haters and other things like that. It's a major lesson that you have to learn in life, and it is written and made for everyone to hear, and possibly learn at a young age. With all of this being said and done, it should be quite apparent on how this is an amazing song in general, let alone my favorite in the album it was made in. It's a song that helps people learn life lessons and just vibe in general. It's a major part of my childhood, that I have always looked back on with a smile. No ordinary song could pull something like that off.

Cancer, unlike most words, hearing this word makes most peoples' hearts drop, and makes them scared or even depressed. Just one single word, one single disease has managed to make one of the biggest impacts of my life in just about a 7-month time span. It has affected my ways of thinking, it has made relationships fade away and has made me want to do bigger things in my life. I know before I heard that my dad got cancer I was very naive. I was honestly just wishing for the best which isn't bad, but I didn't really think that it could actually kill my father. I was wrong, my father ended up dying on 9/10/22, and it shocked me. Not only did it shock me but it made me see how the world worked in a new light. I got to see that world could be beautiful and at the same time utterly horrible. I still see things with the best view that I can, I try my best to make sure that I'm not thinking too negatively, but I have noticed I get scared anytime anyone gets even sick anymore. It's made me more protective and on alert about things around me. It's made me someone who won't let those around them fall, someone who will put themself last to help those around them. Cancer has also completely messed up relationships of mine, and made me lose relationships that I really cared for. Shortly after my father died, my sisters' true colors started to shine about things, and instead of caring about the fact that our father just died, they were more focused on the money aspect of things, and arguing about who was going to get what. Honestly, this is something that really disappointed me. I thought highly of them, and I really thought that they were better than that. Currently, as I am writing this, I have only spoken to them 3 times since this happened. I of course still love them, I'm just disappointed in them. Not only did this happen, but I of course lost my father, one of my biggest role models. He was the person who I always have the most fun with, we would go fishing, sing songs we don't know the words to, and just have fun. I could never forget that smile he would have on his face when I would help him fix things around the house. Though I did lose these relationships, cancer also took another role model away from me. My friend's mother ended up passing away last month, she was so nice to everyone and would get everyone to laugh. She was like a second mom to me if I am being honest. She was a fighter, beating cancer 3 times and only losing once. Cancer really has changed my relationships an insane amount, really wish that it would just back off, and just leave everyone alone. After losing two different people to cancer, and relationships getting burnt down and destroyed, my career aspirations have changed a little bit. Before I wanted to be an engineer, but now I want to be a teacher. I want to be able to inspire the future generation of people, I want to be able to help those that need it, and I want to be able to give those who just are tired of this world a slice of what life could be. The slice of life that many people may have never seen, the beautiful slice of life. The slice of life that makes you smile.

Throughout time people have planned a ton of things, but most have not come to happen, so why don't we take a different approach to this? Let's talk about how I already make a positive impact on the world, and what I am doing to make sure that I will continue doing this in the future. I make sure to do certain things every day to make sure the people around me are happy, smiling, and inspired to do their best. Though you may be wondering how I make people happy or even smiling in general, so let's get into the subject first. By this point, I do it without really thinking about it, but I do things that I know will get people to smile if I see that they aren't feeling it that day or something like that. I really do try my best to get those around me to be happy, sometimes I will go about it by getting them to laugh or something. Other times I will complement them, but not just some random compliment, but a sincere compliment about something I generally notice about them. But, so what if I get people to smile how does that even equate to making a general positive impact on this world? It makes an impact by making it where those people don't feel alone, it makes it where they may feel better that day and help someone else out. Helping 1 person can start a chain reaction of them helping people and etc. Starting multiple chain reactions can make my entire community a better place to be, and that may even spread to other communities in the area as well. Helping those around you be happy and just getting them to smile is a pretty good thing to do, but I really do feel like people need someone there to inspire them more than anything else. Those that aren't inspired don't feel the need to do anything, they just go through with their lives not really trying anything too hard. They may even start to feel just misplaced in the world because they have nowhere to fit in. This is normally where I try to lift them up. I hate seeing people feel misplaced when they just don't feel like doing things that they have to do for multiple years of their lives. I try my best to get people to enjoy school and other activities. I try to get people to do different things, and I also try my best to be a role model for others to follow in my footsteps. Currently, I'm decent at inspiring people to try different things and encouraging them, but I will be better at this in the future. Though inspiring others and getting them cheerful is fun, and important to have in the world, I think that volunteer work may be bigger than both of the previous things as it's like a mix of the two. I go around with my BETA Club and do different acts of volunteer work, last December I went out and passed out candy for people going down Candy Cane Lane, which is a huge decoration area for my town. I have also helped with various other things like yard sales and etc. After reading all of this, you may be wondering about how I am going to help those around me when I'm done with school. That would be a very good question since a lot of it is linked with school programs. Basically, I am going to be a teacher that inspires people!

Mental Health never use to really seem important to me, to be frank, I didn't really put any value towards it. My old thoughts use to be like "Hurt in your head? That doesn't mean that you really are hurt or anything". Now I have to say that I am completely different with my thinking process, to me mental health is the most important thing to keep in a good spot. Although this doesn't really explain how it has shaped me in the smallest amount, so let's get into the actual topic on hand now. It mostly started when I was around 11, I use to be quite an annoying child. Not in the aspect of being like verbally annoying, but more of the fact that I wasn't able to see how big of things were happening right in front of me. That's when my grandmother attempted to commit suicide, I was in shock, and honestly, it made me feel horrible that I had never noticed that my grandmother was filling so depressed in the first place. It made me start paying attention to other people, seeing if they are feeling alright. It made me a more compassionate person who was really starting to care for other people. Then around this same time, my grandfather on my dad's side passed away due to a disease related to dementia. These two things happening so close together really woke me up and made me start caring even more for those around me, and just in general making sure that they are all alright. Mental Health didn't stop at just shaping my relationships with other people, it also shaped my goals into what they are currently. Everything that I have heard and gone through myself, has made me want to be able to help those who are feeling the same way. With me, I turned all of my bad feelings and upsetness into trying my best in school, and that was like my safety spot. I want to be able to become a teacher not only to teach them but to have a good impact on their lives. An impact that will want them to be the best that they can be at all times. Honestly, I'm still young, and I really don't know that much when it comes to the entire Earth. Although that is true, from what I understand now, this world is not a fair place, this is the most unfair place that you could think of, but just because it is unfair doesn't mean that you can't have control over how you react to the events and things around you. You just have to stay strong and keep going forward with the flow of things!

Choosing to pursue a mathematics degree may confuse some, and make them wonder why someone would want to do so. Though even with all of the doubt I hear from other people about going for a degree in something like Mathematics, I still wish to be able to get one. But why? You see math is just something that I really enjoy, throughout my schooling I have always seen math as the best subject. It's a subject that gets you thinking about what the answer could be, and how to solve the question at hand. The best part about it is that it's never wrong, the numbers and everything don't lie to you, 1 + 1 can not equal 3, if you manage to get that answer you're wrong, not the math. This makes it where you have to be able to find the answer, and I kinda like it as it feels like a puzzle. Although I do enjoy mathematics in general, choosing to get a degree in just that wouldn't make that much sense at first glance, since you still need to be able to find a job that you would enjoy that involves mathematics. That's where teaching comes into place. I enjoy teaching others different things, and it's honestly my passion to try to teach others, and just in general make a good impact on their lives. Being able to become a math teacher would make it, where I would be able to do my favorite things I loved about school, while also doing what I want to do in my lifetime. It's like combining your hobby with a job, it makes it where everything in theory should work out amazingly. Forgetting about all of that other stuff, it should be mentioned that Mathematics isn't something that most people enjoy in the first place. I feel like if mathematics is taught in the correct manner like it was to me, then more people would enjoy and love the subject. Most people see it as tedious because teachers just hand out papers and give them equations to use to solve. There needs to be more diversity in the work, and the way that you solve. Let them find their way that they like to use to solve the problems, and let them keep using that way, ya know. It's important to teach them different methods and things, as long as they are understanding the methods in their way. Just having them memorize the Quadratic formula might work for a little while, but giving them an interesting way to memorize it could last for a lifetime. All I am trying to say is that I really enjoy Mathematics in general, and I would also love to be able to teach Mathematics because I want to be able to make it fun to learn. Most teachers really don't add any flavor to the math they assign and teach. It's like eating flavorless icecream, it's not good until you add something.

Looking back on it, I really should have focused more on my mental health than anything else. Going through a lot of my memories I really just tried to hide my issues, and just try not to even think about them. Though this can work for short periods of time, of course at some point it's all just going to come crashing down, and that really did leave a huge blow on me. Back before my father died, I use to think very irrationally and was honestly just not empathic for others at all, the only times I remember actually feeling bad for someone was for dumb things that weren't really even that serious compared to the other things that I was witnessing without care. For example, whenever I was around 10 to 12, my grandmother tried to commit suicide, and I really couldn't see the extent of what that really meant. It was like I was a brick wall, and nothing really took care of my mind for a long period of time. Now I am insanely empathic for others and try my best to help them through things they might be experiencing. This has made me grow as a person and helped me learn that instead of keeping things in, I should just go with the flow of things. I have made more relationships with other people since I lost my father as well, it's like something just kind of clicked into place with my new beliefs and thinking process, which helped me meet more people, and try my best to help them out. I know one of my friends was insanely depressed, and I'm so incredibly happy that I managed to get them out of that hole. With help of course, I was able to get them to want to do things in school, and meet more people, and I haven't noticed them hurting themselves in over 3 months. Now of course I have made more relationships with more people as I have mentioned before, but I have also made my pre-existing relationships stronger. Me being more empathic, and noticing others, has made it so that I am able to notice when my friends just aren't feeling the best, and I try my best to help them out during the time I notice it. Of course, I can't help with everything, but I always try my best to help them figure out what's affecting them, and how to ease it away. Doing all of the said things, really turned a lot of people that I wasn't that close with, into lifelong friends, that I can never forget no matter how far apart we might become. During my depression period I was facing though, I made the mistake of making relationships with people who weren't really there for me. I tried my best to find something or someone who could feel the hole that was created with the passing of my father and ended up growing attached to someone who really didn't care for me. They ended up cheating on me, and just making horrible stuff up about me. Interestingly though that is what seemed to wake me up, and get me out of my depressed state. Honestly, whenever I was younger, I always wanted to be an aerospace engineer, as I could have been a part of NASA and also work on space rockets and stuff. Although I am still interested in that type of field, I'm more of wanting to go into teaching now. That might not make the most sense, but with me feeling depressed and just not really having anything to bring me joy during that period, makes it where I want to be able to make a good impact on future generations. By not only teaching them but by also being someone who they might want to be like one day, someone who tries to bring out the smiles in everyone. That's really what this world needs, it needs people who are there for other people, there's just not enough of them.

Imagine sitting down with a group of friends, and one of them make fun of an absolutely horrible situation because they just didn't understand what it really did to people. I have personally seen this a lot in my life, and I really think that people should read Anne Frank's diary. Normally when you read something that happened in history, you really don't think about what it would be like if you were there in that situation, so you break it apart from reality. Anne Frank's diary pulls you back into reality, by having you realize that people actually lived in these situations you read about all the time during WWII, and they really did get hunted and murdered. Way too many people think of Nazis and Hitler as just a joke and not really as something we should avoid from happening again at all costs. During the book, you get to see how Annie was happy and was generally enjoying life and thinking about boys. All normal things from day to day, then throughout the diary, she slowly has to hide away from the Germans since one of their family members was chosen. This is upsetting in so many different ways, in one way you see a little girl get ripped out of her normal happy life, and in another way you could see the fact that most Jewish people during that time didn't even make it as far as Annie did. In short, people need to see the actual damage wars have on people, WWII especially, and to know not to make jokes, or to wish for it to happen again.

This is something that is quite weird to think about, as it's kind of two different people. The person that has really supported me the most in reaching my educational goals is my old third-grade teacher. Though she doesn't even know it, she has made an everlasting impact on me from one of her small comments. One day I was walking up to the gym since that's where everyone would meet in the morning at my old school, and she mentioned to me that she really did think that I could be a doctor right then and there if I wanted to be. I kinda pushed it off and didn't think about it, but then she mentioned "I really do believe that Cody", and that really inspired me. That small comment moment we had, inspired me an incredible amount to try my best. It made me start to care about school more than I have ever done before. She has left a mark on me so huge that she most likely wouldn't even be able to recognize me at this point. Though all of that is true, and is the main reason I have done so well in school, she really isn't the main thing driving me through school anymore. You see on September 10th, 2022, I lost my father. Most people would be insanely depressed by an occurrence like this and just quit trying on anything for a bit, they normally need a break from what they do in their day-to-day life. Though i was insanely upset by what happened, I powered through it, not only did I power through it, I got it where it's the main thing that drives me to do my best. My father deserves to be recognized, and he deserves to have a son who can make him proud. I do the best that I can so that by the time it is my time to go, he will be proud. I want to be someone who he can admire in all ways shapes and forms, making him proud of himself for raising me. That is what is driving me. This supports me in overwhelming ways, whenever I think about giving up on something, I think of him, and it allows me to excel in so many different things. It's my main motivation that I believe is going to help me do amazing things in the future that no one else will be able to do. I know for a fact that I am going to keep pushing and do my best, for him, and for my future family.

I haven't had as many chances to volunteer as much as I would like, but I really do enjoy it for helping me new things about myself. Honestly one of the biggest things that volunteering has taught me is how much I can endure. Like seriously, I have always thought of myself as someone who will back out if something gets too bad, but volunteering has taught me otherwise. For example this past December, I was working for something in my town called "Candy Cane Lane", you can actually find a lot of videos on youtube about it! Anyways though, I was volunteering for it, by passing out candy canes, and I was one of the only ones actually there passing them out, which means that if I had left then no one would have been there to give out candy canes to the kids and families passing by. So I decided I was going to stay there until they shut down, in the freezing temperatures, and pass out candy canes to the kids and everyone. I was out there for about 6 hours, 5 pm-11 pm. Around 9 pm I really just was wanting to stop, I felt like I was going to die, but then I kinda stopped feeling the cold and was able to just go and enjoy the night passing out the candy canes. I learned how strong I really am, and how much I can really endure, on top of it, I learned just how much I love to see all of the different people from all sorts of places, and see them happy while enjoying the holidays. It's really something magical, I never really thought that seeing another person happy would make me so happy. Generally one of my favorite things about volunteering is seeing all of the happy faces, and joyful people. Now I also have learned that I really do enjoy socializing in general. I always use to be nervous to talk to people and stuff like that, still am every now and then, but it use to be really bad. Through volunteering at different concession stands and caroling, I have learned that talking to people can be really fun. For example, I have the most fun talking to people at different volunteer things. I have met a ton of people, and I have learned how much I really do enjoy talking to others. being able to learn about yourself is something that is huge, and the fact that volunteering can help you learn so much about yourself is something that you just can not ignore!

I have a ton of educational goals that I am wanting to be able to achieve, some realistic others not so much, but there is one thing for certain I am going to do my best for them. You see, I want to be able to stay top 10 in my class, most preferably rank 1 or 2. This isn't going to be that difficult to reach, since I am working harder than any other student in my school, and I have been trying my best to take weighted classes. I also want to become the student body president of my school. Currently, I have been elected as class president for the next upcoming school year, and I am hoping that I can become the student body president as well. On top of those two things I also want to be able to go to college and be able to go into teaching. Teaching is a major thing that I want to be able to do in the future, so it's important for me to get scholarships and stuff like that. Now though after hearing my goals, you may be wondering what my obstacles are/have been. I already have had possibly one of the biggest obstacles to handle this school year alone. My father passed away on September tenth, 2022, right in the middle of the 1st term. No matter how sad I was though, and still am, I have not missed a single day of school, in fact, this school year I have only had 1 B, but I have a weighted class so it's still a 5.0 on a 5-point scale. I also have the obstacle of money usage and time. My mother is having to work to make money in general, which then I need for the many school things I want to reach and achieve. At the same time though I also need more time to be able to maintain everything properly. Though these are issues that I am currently facing I am not letting these stop me or slow me down any. I have been using my father's death as a way to motivate me more than ever, putting it in my head that I need to try my best and keep going forward for him. I'm turning my major obstacle into my greatest advantage. Then with the money issues, I am overcoming them by being the best student I can be in school, so I have a better chance of the school helping me with things I may need. With time, I have been finding ways to get everything organized in a way where I can work on the most important things the most, then the things I really enjoy 2nd to most, then finally the things I just don't really care about last. It has all been working very well, and I really enjoy what I have set up currently. These obstacles are quite an issue at times and can mess me up. Though I'm not going to let these obstacles make me do any worse than I have been doing, as I don't want to end up messing everything up. Just going to keep going forward the best I can!

It's not really possible to explain what generational wealth means to me in one way, there are many different ways to think about it and classify what it is. One of the ways I see generational wealth is in a more mental aspect. I want to be able to do things in my lifetime, that my family in the future will do, and love doing as a family type of thing, such as baking cookies, or going to a certain place for holidays. Just some type of custom for my family. That is important to me, being able to make my future relatives happy is huge generational wealth in my opinion. That's one of the many ways I can see generational wealth, it's something that most people value most as well. Now though I also see generational wealth from a viewpoint as well. How many families do you know about only because of the fact that they had one person who owned something in your town? Like think, the kids also get what they got in a viewing manner, poorly or a good view. I have seen many people mention how since so and so is part of a certain family they must be smart or something along those lines. It's a weird thinking process to have, but in current-day society that is something that is passed down for generations. Something that can help you incredibly, or make everything difficult for you, either way, it can have a major impact on you. Finally is the last way I see generational wealth, which is the wealth that your family inherits after you pass on. The wealth that can keep your family all happy and stable for many years if there is enough. In most cases, there isn't, but if you could have enough for that, it is something that can make a huge impact on your family and just make everything easier for you. Not from a worldly standpoint, but from a living standpoint, you won't have to worry about rent as much, or paying off taxes, since you can work a more casual job, and get by while being able to spend time with family. That is personally something that I want to be able to let my future family and children have. A life where they don't have to worry about getting their taxes paid off or losing their home. Just for them to be able to enjoy life to the fullest while also spending the most time they can with their families. You see, just because I see generational wealth in so many different ways, and I think that some ways of it are more important than the other ways, doesn't mean that I can just go and have a ton of generational wealth for my family. On top of the part where I have to work for it in the first place, I'm starting at a pretty low point to be able to get my family the generational wealth I am wanting to get for them. My main plan on how I am going to be able to get generational wealth, mostly all lies within my schooling. I'm working my hardest in school, trying to get the best grades I can, while trying to get scholarships and join clubs. Trying to help my community by volunteering and just a ton of things like that. All just so I can go to college, I come from a family that doesn't have enough money for college, so I have to work hard. College is my key to generational wealth!

Maths is important for many different reasons, and it's not something that can just be discarded or something. You see nearly any type of progress you want to see in human society involves math, it doesn't end at school like most people think it does. If you go out and buy stuff for your home in general your most likely doing math in your head keeping track of how much you are spending, or trying to figure out how much you will have left on your credit card after you just bought a ton of stuff. Most professions use math and will have to use math nearly every day, even people that work in fast food have to do some type of math to figure out everything. The part that most people tend to try to argue against though is actually Algebra. I love algebra as it's one of the more complex parts of math, and it teaches you the basics of nearly everything you will need to know for the future of higher and more advanced math. As I mentioned above a lot of people tend to say that you don't have to use it in day-to-day life, which is a completely false statement for quite a few people. You see any job that is going to require measuring and angles are going to need Algebra properties, if you know it or not you are doing algebra. Say that you need to figure out how to get a hanging light to work, how fast it would fall, or even just how long you would need to cord in different spots. All of those situations would involve some type of Algebra. Want to know a safe radius for some big fireworks that you bought for a celebration? You can use Algebra to figure out a safe distance that wouldn't be affected by the said fireworks. A lot of things in your life rely on using algebra to maintain itself and just make sure everything would work out properly. Earlier I mentioned how I do love math, and you may be wondering how I could even possibly like math, or maybe you just wonder why I enjoy it. To me it's simple on how I can enjoy it, you see I love learning in general, it's just most things are simple and easy to learn and don't take that much time to get the hang of, but when it comes to things like math it can challenge my brain, and give me something to think about for long periods. It's something that I can just work on for say 30 minutes, and feel happy about having the right answers. It has definite answers and I enjoy that, I love puzzles and finding out the answer to them, it's just something that I have always enjoyed, you get to learn the process of solving the puzzles and then solving them by yourself. In short, math is just an amazing subject that our entire society relies on, if they want to admit it or not.

I enjoy math for a ton of reasons. One of the main reasons I love it so much is because it's something that challenges my brain and gets me to think. Some of my favorite things are puzzles and strategy games since they do the same thing. Math is also fun to use out of school in day-to-day life. Like, say that there's a simple multiplication problem or say you're doing taxes or something, you can apply math to them and it feels nice knowing what you are doing. The process in math can also just be a ton of fun to work out, like factoring equations in (#x+#)(#x+#). Factoring has to be one of the best things to do in math since it all just slides together really well, and works out perfectly. Then there are things like P/Q where you have to plug in mountains of numbers which isn't the best, but there is always a definite answer in the end. Having a definite answer to be able to find is something that I love, mostly because there are so many different methods to solve equations. Especially polynomials, for powers of two you have factors, quadratic formulas, and many other different methods to find out what your x values are. In short, it's just genuinely a ton of fun to solve and figure out, sometimes I like to do math in my free time for a matter of fact. I like teaching it more than anything though to others, which is part of the reason I want to become a math teacher in the future.