As a person who prefers writing my thoughts over speaking them out loud, writing is especially important for me as a form of expression. I chose to become an English major not only because I want to pursue a career in secondary English education, but because I love literature, writing, and analyzing words and stories. My mom loves reading, so when I was very young, she was keen to find books and novels that I was interested in about animals. As far back as elementary school I was working with my dad to write books about mice living in a zoo after school for fun and I took the activity with me the next day to write and draw comics with my friends during free time. I remember that an author and illustrator was my answer to any adult asking me what I wanted to be when I grew up. While my interests have changed since elementary school, writing and drawing comics and stories are hobbies that I’ve managed to keep up with to this day. Although I still want to eventually publish a book or novel series when I am out of school, I am firm on my position of wanting to be an English teacher full-time to help others. In a more professional setting, I just think that writing, and especially being good at writing, is an invaluable skill to have in today’s digital age. I work with one of my school’s marketing and communications managers completely online. I know from attending that most of the students’ information they get from the president, student organizations, their teachers after-hours, and about events, resources, and university announcements are from emails, university websites, and social media pages. The anxious feeling I get when I send out a newsletter comes from knowing that over four hundred people will be looking over what I’ve written and formatted for education and job opportunities, so I'd better not have messed anything up. This job has been one of the most enjoyable positions I’ve held mainly due to the fact that I’ve been able to write and learn about other creative skills like graphic design. Since starting my employment in the marketing and communications department, I have used these skills myself in utilizing the correct language in professional settings (such as writing cover letters and academic analyses) as opposed to more personal outlets (such as the creative writing I’d been familiar with and on social media). All-in-all, I have strong, formative memories from my childhood related to reading and writing. Writing has evolved into a form of expression for me that I’m more comfortable with than verbal speech and allows me to express myself creatively. I believe writing is a vitally important skill for everyone in an age where so much communication is through text and I hope to help other people master this skill in the future.

I discovered Imogen Heap’s Neglected Space without knowing what it was about. I was fascinated by the chaotic, non-linear, avant-garde aesthetic which drove me to discover that the song is about an abandoned walled garden that is slowly falling apart. She was raising awareness about the site so that it could be restored by writing a song from the perspective of the garden itself. Not only this call for help, but also the emotional journey of the song can be gleaned from the last lines: “I’m a story in mourning, and you’re the author/So pour out your masterpiece/Entropy increasing, how long before I’m dust?” Songs are generally stories about relationships, but the idea that an inanimate object can have a powerful relationship with the listener was something I hadn’t been exposed to before. Neglected Space is able to give a voice, memories, and emotions to this structure that can’t have or express them itself. The ending of the song beckons the listener to use their own skills and creativity to raise awareness for subjects without a voice of their own. Heap uses every skill at her disposal to merge her musicality with the focus of her piece, and her ability to do so is incredibly inspiring to people like me. Neglected Space shows that people can expand the reaches of art forms that first appear to have boundaries artists can’t cross and have the power to give a voice to the voiceless.

If I had to pick the change that I want to see in my community the most, it would likely have to concern the treatment of pet animals. The regulations regarding the ownership of pets suffer from a lack of education provided to pet owners about proper care. The animals that people are the most aware of improper care for are dogs and cats, which I’ll be discussing first. As the most popular pets in America, dogs and cats are a part of the common American’s idea of the perfect nuclear family. This leads people who may not lead a pet-friendly lifestyle to adopt them. Take, for instance, one of the most popular dog breeds in America (as I have more experience with dogs)– the labrador retriever. According to the American Kennel Club, this is a dog that is great for families but requires early socialization and training. They live over ten years and require “lots of exercise… to keep physically and mentally fit” every day. Labradors who aren’t given this exercise are “likely to engage in hyperactive and/or destructive behavior”. Even with labradors, it’s clear that if an owner’s lifestyle isn’t pet-friendly, both parties will suffer. The dog will become a burden to the owner rather than the perfect companion American media depicts. Similarly, cats also have set requirements to assure the animal and owner’s comfort like litter boxes, scratching posts, and safe spaces. These requirements differ with different breeds that require research and consideration before adoption. When people do not fulfill their pet’s needs, the animals can be rehomed, abandoned, or worse– dangerous. In my community, I regularly go to events supported by My Pit Bull is Family, an organization raising awareness of housing discrimination against stigmatized dog species like pit bulls. Their message is that not all pit bulls are violent like the stigma and can be wonderful, friendly pets if properly cared for. Due to the fear of dog breeds whose owners did not provide them with proper husbandry, properties have taken it upon themselves to prevent accidents by banning them. This is made worse by the controversies in dog training. There are two ways of training a dog in my community: dominance and positive reinforcement training. Dominance training is based on the antiquated notion that the alpha wolf in a pack fights their way to the top to gain respect and obedience and involves what some consider to be verbally and physically abusing the dog when they behave badly. Alpha dog/dominance training can be effective and quick, but it also can lead to destructive and aggressive behavior and hurts the bonds between the dog and owner. Positive reinforcement training rewards good behaviors in dogs instead, using treats and affection to encourage good and replace bad behavior. This training can often take time, persistence, and is often limited since excessive treats can be unhealthy. Training a dog is not for everyone, and if done wrong or neglected, again, the dog could become dangerous. While the proper husbandry of dogs and cats may be controversial and unnecessary to learn, this lack of information is worse when concerning exotic pets. For instance, the amount of people who are unaware that fish can die without a cycled tank and should have different types of filters and heaters depending on the species is astounding, let alone the fact that it’s still common to believe that goldfish have a three-second memory despite the fact that they can actually be trained. Moving on to larger exotics, in Minnesota, there are city-held turtle races, where turtles are taken from the wild legally by minors or purchased from stores to race. These (often painted) turtles are housed in improper conditions throughout the summer and fed an improper diet to be rented out in races where they can be mishandled and are scared into performing. It’s suggested by Petsmart that aquatic turtles should have ten gallons of water for each inch of their shell, and handling turtles comes with the risk of salmonella. The idea that minors would be able to care for these animals as suggested requires knowledge that they may not know of or have access to. These events also risk releasing invasive species after the season is over when owners don’t want their store-bought turtles (including red-eared sliders, which compete with native species wherever they are released) or releasing harmful bacteria picked up from living in captivity to the native population. As a Minnesotan, I’ve attempted to raise awareness about the unintended harmful side effects of these events since I discovered they existed. Florida is an example of a state that has taken opposite measures. Florida has a multitude of invasive exotic pet species due to its subtropical climate. Green iguanas, parrots, and Burmese pythons (amongst other species) are invasive and kept as pets. The source of these invasives was often people releasing their pets after they got too large. In 2021, to prevent the accidental or unlawful release of more exotic pets multiple reptile species were banned from being kept as pets. One of these, the tegu, includes the reptile species thought of as acting most like dogs. They can be a good substitute for people who can’t keep dogs, but they are now banned. Experienced reptile caretakers were forced to give up their pets to prevent inexperienced owners from releasing theirs. From the properties banning dog breeds to Florida banning exotic pet species, the root of these problems is not the animals, but the humans who haven’t been educated in proper pet husbandry. I have tried to educate myself on care for all my pets and my family has taken in rescues and fostered animals before. I hope to raise awareness about the need to research pet care and it’s disheartening to see so many people unknowingly mistreat animals they were never taught how to treat properly. If adopting an animal came with learning the proper care there would be fewer invasive species, pet attacks, and happier owners.

As a child, I had the luxury of two doting parents who shielded me from the world. I had the comfort of security from growing up in the middle-class– safe housing, food, and financial security. Of course, the fortunate circumstances of growing up in my household didn’t prevent me from experiencing mental health crises in the future, or from being exposed to mental health disorders in and outside of my household. I would never consider myself a lonely person. My family is introverted and I went to a school far from my house, so I never had close connections with my school friends. This changed with the accessibility of technology, where I could get social media and messaging apps on and text my friends from home. Because of this, I was able to experience codependency for the first time. I am a naturally anxious person who seeks affirmation of my thoughts and actions, and on the eve of my first relationship, I discovered a way that I could receive that affirmation daily if not more often from one person that I cared about and who cared about me. Of course, I was able to function normally without thinking too much about other peoples’ opinions of me, but after that relationship, I found myself sad having lost a partner I could easily talk to and who would compliment and reassure me whenever I felt unsure. This constant affirmation from a partner was something I began to seek out to help me deal with stress and anxiety later on in high school. My relationships were relatively long-winded, so I didn’t have much time without someone assisting me with my struggles. My high school friends were also always there for me when I didn’t have a partner to lean on so I could function normally. This changed when I made the transition to college. Right before my first semester of college, my partner at the time and I split. My family had also put down our dog a few months back, and I was mourning the loss of my pet of ten years as well as losing the person I had become codependent on to process my emotions and act as a crutch so I could deal with my anxiety and situational depression. In college, I was living away from both my family and high school friends. I was in a small dorm with a roommate who did not talk. I also immediately realized that due to my codependency with my previous partner, I felt uncomfortable talking about my feelings with people I was not intimate with. I attempted to journal, which was cathartic, but having a book full of negative emotions just made me feel worse. I would cry myself to sleep, break down during work, and overwork myself in an attempt to distract myself. My friends were concerned, my family was concerned, and even my professors were somewhat concerned. All of this bottling of emotions and stress could have been easily released if I had talked with my father or my friends and told them exactly what I was thinking, but I didn’t know how. I felt that the only person I could say these things to was my previous partner. I was still codependent on them, but they were not available to me anymore, so I wasn’t able to mentally function properly anymore. Many times, my father would ask me what was wrong and what he could do to help, but, no matter how much I wanted to, I couldn’t talk to him about the reasons I was upset, but I managed to express to him how isolated I felt, and I was thankful he did not pry for anything further than what I was comfortable sharing. This ability to tell people about my feelings without having to tell them why I felt the way I did was a breakthrough for me. I began to reach out to more friends and share things I was comfortable and able to share with them. I started seeing a therapist, though I did not continue very long after realizing that my therapists expected me to tell them the reasons why I was sad, and I wasn’t ready for that. I even started talking to my ex-partner in a more healthy, less dependent manner. I have come to realize that I am a very emotional person and that I need more healthy ways to express my negative emotions. During that time, I realized that the best ways for me to process loss are venting to friends, animating my emotions for personal projects because I am an artistic person, and focusing on the more healthy relationships I have with my pets. Because of this, I am actively working to keep closer ties to my family this year, I am reaching out to more friends, and creating boundaries with my current partner early into our relationship to prevent codependency. I have a better relationship with my roommate this year. We talk and seeing her express her emotions made me feel better about also feeling my emotions. I don’t believe my mental health journey has changed my career aspirations since I am working towards an English degree so I can pursue a Master’s degree in education and become an educator, but I am glad that this is my goal because it provides me with a workplace where I’ll be able to talk to my coworkers face-to-face on a daily basis (a sense of constant communication I realized I was missing my first year of college), an environment that gives me the ability to constantly meet and experience new personalities and people expressing all kinds of emotions I will be able to relate to, and the freedom of my summers to take a break from the monotony of a school year to pursue my other passions.

One thing that I noticed in my education when growing up is how little a student is aware of the changes in the importance of what they’ve learned. There is very little effort is put into explaining to them what is changing in their curriculum and why. As a child in the process of learning, I believe it is very important for a child to not only know why they’re being taught something, but also, if the school’s or state’s curriculum changes, to have children be taught why students are no longer being taught that skill they’d learned. In elementary school, I was taught long division and multiplication being told I’d never have a calculator in college or the real world. This was ultimately unlearned in high school, when my classes had TI-84 calculators provided in every test, with teachers pointing us towards applications and computer software that could substitute the expensive calculators in everyday life. Of course, math wasn’t the only subject that was impacted and changed from my kindergarten to college student days. I remember being taught cursive with my third-grade teacher instructing us that this was going to be a valuable resource later on in my life, but I didn’t learn why this wasn’t touched on in the following years until my parents told me that the writing form is near-useless present day. Arguably even worse, was how my earlier schooling treated history, praising Christopher Columbus for finding the New World, and treating the Conquistadores as clever treasure-hunters, and leaving me shocked by the consequences of their conquests when I reached tenth grade and took AP US History. While these are only my anecdotes, they still beg the question, why would a school that stopped teaching children cursive a year after I learned it (which I know from my younger brother’s experiences in the same school) not inform the children that they’d been taught something that is no longer valued in society in the way they’d previously stressed? Why would a school that celebrated explorers for their discoveries not express to the students the presently realized controversies of those individuals and the horrible ways they treated people unlike them? The world and education are in a constant state of updating itself, but when educators are being told to teach differently, their previous students are not being informed of these changes unless they take another class on the subject or go and search for the information independently. What is necessary or acceptable to teach is constantly changing, and I hope that high school health classes would be one of those in my state to change faster. When it ultimately does, I know that when they are updated, children in the school who were taught before the new curriculum would not be informed of these changes. Telling students that the curriculum or their prior beliefs were wrong should not be taboo in schools, and it is knowledge they should be provided by schools as a place of continuous learning.

The first strong, artistic memory I have is of me in an elementary school art class. I would draw dragons that my friends and I would make little stories and comics about. I’ve been creating ever since as an emotional outlet, a way to express myself, or a means of communication. Through drawing, animating, painting, sculpting, sewing, music, and theater, I have found so much meaning in my life and created so many moments that contributed to making me the way I am today. In fifth grade, I started performing in musical theater and kept participating until COVID-19 hit. I found many friends through school and community theater and it helped me grow into a confident speaker, despite the fact that I’m introverted. I was able to meet others with similar interests who could push me. I was an integral part of a performance to tell a story to the audience and it felt amazing. This feeling followed me into middle and high school where I played clarinet in the band, orchestra, and marching band where I was section leader and was often featured in duets or solos. Though, I was not behind the creation of my performances until I developed the musical prowess to begin songwriting. A song I consider special that I’ve written is called “It’s Kinda Stupid”. I wrote this when I was grieving for my dog after her death and after I went through a breakup. I didn’t know how to process the anger and helplessness I felt, so I channeled them into a song. The process was surprisingly therapeutic. Seeing as I want to be an English educator when I graduate college, these experiences have helped me come out of my shell, communicate with others better, write confidently, and be a more effective leader. When I was in middle school, I found ways to share my art online. I’d drawn fanart for franchises I liked so once I realized I could participate in the fan communities through drawing, I created an Instagram account for my art. Soon after, I discovered the animation community on YouTube and realized that people like me could do the things that businesses like Disney could do. I even attended a college lecture by the head of special effects for Moana after my father found out about it by asking the university for good animation software. Since then, I’ve been honing my skills in what is possibly the world’s most tedious hobby. Last year, I created a YouTube channel to post animations, art, and audible comics. I was thrilled when I saw that people liked the content I was putting out, sent me feedback, and took the time to understand and reach out to me if they could tell I was upset through my content. This made me feel like I was doing something productive that could entertain someone else the same way I was entertained by animated media. As I said, I was an actress for some time, and this elicited the same emotions I got from hearing applause at the end of a performance. Now, I’m able to even monetize some of my drawings by posting them on a website called Redbubble that I promote with my animations to help me pay for college. All-in-all, I believe being an artist is being a person who entertains others through their self-expression. I’ve found solace through my art and creativity over the years and learned plenty of other skills I will carry with me as a teacher to help educate the next generation.

I first discovered I was bisexual in middle school after one of my friends came out as bi and taught me what the term meant. I remember thinking to myself, “I like boys, but why shouldn’t I like girls too?” and I’ve identified as LGBTQ+ since. When you’re bisexual, I’ve found you can fake heterosexuality. While you can’t control who you’re attracted to, you can choose who you date. Since I’m a cisgender woman who’s only dated males, it’s easy to assume I’m straight. This is something that I had the luxury to do, unlike other gay and lesbian youth, and something I never planned on telling my family about until I possibly got a girlfriend. The world, however, decided against this. I’ve had an art account on Instagram since eighth grade. My username was inspired by a franchise I enjoyed. After my art started to stray from that one fan community, I changed my username to ‘ThatBisexualArtist’. I thought it was an acceptable name. The unknown people who followed me understood that it was an aspect of myself that I had previously shared on the platform. I'm bisexual and I post art. However, this name change backfired on me when my mother uncovered this account. I had told my mother that I liked girls, but I dated a boy afterward. Looking back on it, my mother probably thought it was a phase and forgot about it, but I hadn’t. I had been careless with my Instagram account because I thought she knew. I remember we were out to eat with the family when my mother started talking to me with a strange inflection in her voice. I was terrified as she brought out her phone and showed the table the account. She asked me if it was true and I did not know how to respond. I don’t know how I would’ve wanted to come out if this hadn’t happened, but I didn’t have a choice after that. I just know I was so scared something bad was going to happen I could barely say, “Yes”. Thankfully, my family was supportive. I knew they were going to be, but I was still scared. I think most have forgotten that even happened and they may think I’m straight. At this point, I don’t care. I’m going to college soon and am ready for my independence. I recently went to Pride with my friends and partner. I had planned on it last year, but COVID-19 canceled it. My friends who went were straight allies, and my partner is also bisexual, so we were in high spirits. We both purchased bisexual flags to wear as capes and had a blast playing games and meeting people. It was an amazing experience. I was able to be me without questioning or judgment from myself or others. It was the most secure I’ve felt with my sexuality since I realized I was LGBTQ+ and I’m so glad I have the confidence to finally be myself.

I’ve known I wanted to be an educator since elementary school. Since my first experience instructing as a volunteer at a family friend’s Vacation Bible School, I’ve had my heart set on helping others learn. I have been accepted into the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities for my undergraduate degree, and the only things standing in my way are motivation issues and the costs. Thankfully I picked a subject I’m passionate about. Entering my first semester, I’d tried to prepare myself for the amount of money it would cost me, but when I saw the total estimate the University presented to me, I was shocked. It was very explicit in my high school economics class that student loans were something that I should attempt to alleviate in any way possible. Because of this, I’m working two jobs at Wargo Nature Center in a receptionist position and as an event operator at the National Sports Center. In my spare time, I’ve also been finding artistic gigs and applying for scholarships. Fortunately, I have been awarded one scholarship through my high school to help with my future in education, and another through the University of Minnesota. Unfortunately, I haven’t had luck with online scholarships with a wider pool of applicants, but that won’t stop me from trying. In my freshman year of college, I will be staying on-campus since I do not have the financial resources to rent an apartment and it would be dangerous and time-consuming to drive from my parents’ house to the campus every weekday early in the morning to get to my first class at 10:10 AM every morning and back at 9 PM some days. I’ve found that most scholarships can assist in paying for on-campus room and board whereas if I rented off-campus, I’d be paying purely with my personal finances. A more important thing to note, I would appreciate the financial aid because my mother has been planning to quit her job soon to spend time with her parents in California. She currently works at the Blue Cross Blue Shield and makes the majority of our income. She’s spent years rehearsing scripts, recording herself during meetings, and critiquing herself. It’s been obvious to my family how distressed she is, and the pandemic worsened this. The entire time, we weren’t able to visit her parents, who we used to see annually. Now that we’re vaccinated, she can finally see and help them again, which is great. However, I already filed my FAFSA for the school year, and informing the university that my mother resigned won’t impact the loan I get from the school as we’d hoped, so any additional help is appreciated. In conclusion, I am extremely excited that I will be starting college this September and gaining my independence, but that excitement does not come without the realization that there are costs I will need to be responsible for and find ways to cover, through student loans, working, and any scholarships I can win.

This fall I will be starting my first year at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities where I plan to major in English and education. I’m happy to say my parents were able to instill the values of education in me at a very young age and I have since grown to respect the profession and those in it, even if American society doesn’t necessarily feel the same way. Because of this, I’ve felt as though helping others mature and learn through teaching would be a good path for me. As a Bengal Junction tutor at my high school and an instructor at my family friend’s church’s Vacation Bible School, I have gained experience in and found that I enjoy helping others learn and working with children. At the moment, I am unsure of what age I want to teach, but I plan on figuring it out through my undergraduate education. There are courses I have already found at my college that offer hands-on education experience. I intend to utilize these to help me figure out which works best for me. During my time at university, I want to better discover whether I want to teach elementary, middle, or high school. Right now, I would like to teach high school English or Chinese, but that is subject to change during my four years of learning more about the career path. And if I decide that teaching higher education is for me, I will then apply to graduate school and get a master’s or doctoral degree to be able to teach as a professor. This will require a larger investment, but if college-level education is what I eventually decide I want to go into, I would be willing to put in the time and money to meet the requirements to teach at my preferred level. As I said, I am planning on majoring in English. I have always loved writing and my English classes. I even was able to take advanced placement and University of Minnesota English courses at my high school and had few credits for college before being accepted into the institution. I also listed Chinese as another possible career path for me. I’m anxiously waiting to start taking Chinese courses in college. I took two years of the language in my middle school and really enjoyed it, but when I transitioned to high school, I switched districts and they didn’t teach it. Since I am half-Chinese, learning the language is important to me, and I can’t wait for the fall semester to begin for those classes. Since this is my first year of college, I’m not in extracurriculars yet, but I have auditioned for my college’s marching band, which is something I hope to carry on from high school. I played clarinet at Blaine High School and was in numerous musical extracurriculars there, from percussion ensemble to pit orchestra. I’d been playing since sixth grade and was section leader of the clarinet section in marching band and our concert band by my senior year. I also have been looking into clubs on campus and plan to be involved with the video game design club and Asian organizations during my time there. All-in-all, I am super excited to start at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities this September to start learning and figuring out what I want to do in life afterward. As I wrote, I am deadset in becoming an educator and want to help the next generation by teaching and giving them skills to further them in life or education the way mine helped me.

This song was very spontaneous for me. I only find the motivation to write when I feel extremely emotional, so I haven't written a song in years. My instrumental skills proved to be rusty since then, but I was still able to express myself which is all that matters to me when songwriting. What really brought me to write this was a build-up of sadness and anger after a breakup, followed by me struggling with having to put down my family’s dog that we’d had since I was eight. I needed a way to vent my emotions healthily, so after a few days, the result was a love letter to both of the figures I had lost in my life. Thank you for listening!

If money was not an issue, I would learn as many instruments as I could and spend more time on songwriting. I have pretty strong anxiety and can’t stand sitting in one place too long without doing something academically or financially productive. I have an interest in both orchestral and modern pop music, but I don’t often have enough time to focus on them as I’d like. I first learned how to play clarinet in sixth grade, and I’m now the first chair player in my school’s concert band. I often wonder what would’ve happened if I picked trumpet or saxophone, or kept up with the guitar lessons I took for a year. I would take the opportunity to learn but with so much schoolwork and scholarship essays to work on, there isn’t enough time in the day to spend a few hours practicing and learning new instruments. I need to do good in school to get good grades; to get into a good college that I need scholarships to pay for to make money in the future. If I didn’t feel as though I needed to go to college to get a good job to pay for a home, food, and my pet turtle, I’d be able to pursue my passion and curiosities more. I always wanted to be a part of a band, but with a so-so vocal range and minuscule experience in the typical band instruments, I haven’t had any opportunities to. Speaking of my voice, it was when I was in elementary school, that I used to make up songs about random things. Not knowing how to write music, I’d attempt to draw the melodies with curves and dashes. I spent lots of time singing and coming up with lyrics to songs I’d create. In elementary school concerts, I’d always be picked to be a featured singer. I had just the right amount of vigor for wanting to sing and learn the cheesy tunes. Later in middle and then high school, I would frequently grace the school’s auditorium in the casts of musicals or parts of programs where I acted and sang. I used to have an issue with how songs were always about love, but after I went through my first break-up I understood. Going into college for English, I tend to believe I’m good with my words. I never really liked writing or reading poetry, but songs I could bear. When I become emotional, songwriting and playing music on instruments helps me relax by giving me those outlets to express my emotions. The unfortunate aspect of these things is that because of my aforementioned anxiety, I don’t feel as though I have enough time to work on anything. Whenever I pick up my ukulele or a guitar, I feel as though I’m wasting precious time I could spend on schoolwork or other more ‘productive’ projects, so many of the songs I write are left without melodies or chords. With enough money to be able to live without needing to attend college and rack up massive amounts of student debt, I’d be able to spend more time taking lessons in more musical instruments. I’d definitely start guitar lessons again if more of my time was freed up and maybe even pick up another instrument in the time being. Through this, I’d be able to understand and express myself through music more than I’ve been able to before with the time and resources given to me. Unfortunately, I understand that these scenarios are unlikely to happen anytime soon because I plan to focus on school first and hobbies second. I will continue to pursue music as a hobby and source of self-expression through school and other activities, and I hope to someday pick up the instruments I still want to learn after I have the money to spend my time on them.

As a past super-fan of Hamilton: An American Musical, I would be lying if I didn’t say the first thing that comes to mind when I think of my legacy would be that tale. There, they focus on two separate types of legacies: how society tells your story and views you, and how the ones you knew tell your story after you’re gone. In short, a legacy is your impact on the world once you leave it. To me, the idea of wanting to have a legacy is a paradoxical subject. Yes, I’d like to be remembered for doing something important after I pass, but does it matter if I’m not around to experience it? Many even these days would say it doesn’t, as the morally better a legacy you leave, the more selfless of a life you have to live. This means, by proxy, you give what you get out of life and sacrifice your ease to help someone else. But why does it matter what people think or say about you when you can’t taste the fruits of your labor? Sometimes, this is just not as important as personal happiness or wealth when alive. For others, accumulating happiness and wealth is only important because of how they can support their loved ones while they’re living and after they pass. When looking at it from these perspectives, it can be hard to know the goals and motivations behind someone’s actions and exactly what the way to achieve a ‘perfect’ legacy would be. A person’s legacy, though, may not even be remembered if they truly are selfless in society’s eyes. Often, the kindest actions go by unnoticed. Having a kind of long-standing legacy where more than just your immediate friends and family remembers you entails a person doing something especially great; being like Henry Ford, or the Wright brothers, or Motzart. Creating or discovering something that fundamentally changes society as we know it. But where I find fault with these legacies is that the deeds are not necessarily selfless or made for advancing the world, and are instead often for the betterment of oneself or their community. Because of this, the smaller, more personal type of legacy is the one I’m more interested in, which may sound odd coming from me now that I think about it. As an author, artist, animator, performer, and director amongst other things, I can’t say I don’t dream about someday making it big and contributing to society in a way that puts my name on billboards or boosts my ego, but when it comes down to it, I’d rather work for the world and others than for myself. This is why I’m planning on going into education after college. I’d rather make personal connections with people and make a long-standing impact by teaching them skills to forward them in life than striving to be the next Rick Riordan or write the next Harry Potter series like I once strived to do. In an ideal world, I’d like to be fondly remembered by past students for helping them achieve their full potential academically and then later in life. I want to be remembered by my current and possible future family for being there for them, which I feel like I’ll be able to accomplish with a job teaching. I want to be remembered for being a good person and helping others, and I figure that I’ve found one of the best career paths to assist me in achieving that goal and can’t wait to begin my schooling to prepare myself for it in college. All-in-all, out of the societal and personal types of legacies, I believe that the more fulfilling is the more personal legacy. Being remembered by the people you knew and spent time interacting with than having the world remember me for rising to fame independently, and I hope to someday achieve one.

Being a young, Asian-American, LGBTQ+ woman, I can say, especially now, that there are a few changes I’d like to see in the world around me. Especially in times like these, where racial tensions are higher than they’ve been in years and a person’s existence can still be shunned and dismissed by society. As half-Chinese, the last year has left me more than a bit on edge. I trust that no one I know in school would try to hurt me, but the amount of Asian-American people being discriminated against on the streets, or in shops, or at work made me uneasy. The amount of misinformation and hatred that’s been spreading unstopped throughout our country is appalling. I try my best to dispel any falsehoods I hear about my culture, but at the same time, I acknowledge I’m only one person, and not everyone understands the same things I do. Living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, it’s palpable the racial tensions here are higher than in other places, being so close to where George Floyd was murdered last year. This is especially the case now that the trial for the police officer who killed him is underway. Seeing this atrocity happen so close to where I live brought to light a side of the world I’d never been exposed to before. I found that in many ways I could relate to the protesters I saw on television or from inside a car and I understood their messages. It reminded me of the more open hate against Asian-Americans due to the spread of COVID-19 in the USA. While the struggle for colored people in America may be different depending on race, all are discriminated against and that needs to stop regardless. The lessening to a complete erasure of discrimination is also what I’d like to see against the LGBTQ+ community. While racism is almost always depicted as negative by the media, public figures, and society in general, homophobia and transphobia are still raging throughout the entire world. The United States is no exception to this, no matter how hard we try to claim we’re the land of the free, giving all the ability to pursue happiness. I identify as a bisexual woman, so I am arguably one of the least likely to be discriminated against in the LGBTQ+ community, but that doesn’t mean I am complicit with anything that doesn’t affect me. Much to the contrary, I stay up to date as well I can with queer news and try to understand the problems of other members of the community as best I can. I am hoping that by the end of my life, a person’s sexuality or gender identity won’t be challenged by others or treated as a mental illness like it is in my country even today, and if I can, I want to help with that process in any way I can by educating myself or sharing my experiences with others. It may sound cheesy, but I want the world to be a happier place in the future. I want people to be treated equally, so I treat others with respect, attempting to lead by example. I try to educate those who come to me with questions the best I can, and I plan to do more in the future in any way I can.

I first “taught” in my family friend’s vacation bible school in one of the summers of middle school. My instructor set me up with a syllabus and told me where the water was and where I needed to go to get help and told me I was going to teach science to kids up to fourth grade. I was sent to fetch and buy all the supplies needed for the five days of the vacation bible school’s experiments and haul them to the church every day on my bike where my dad had previously dropped off a card table. I was extremely nervous about teaching my first year. I had just graduated from being a student in the summer camp a year, and the organization had never had enough volunteer staff to run the science class, so I was on my own. I also would have to teach a bunch of my younger peers, including my two siblings, both of whom would be very judgmental of my lesson plans. So when the Monday rolled around, I was a little surprised with how much I enjoyed it. Teaching five-or-so separate, quarter-hour classes was stressful, no doubt, for little middle school me, but somehow I managed despite the playful jeering from the oldest class (made mostly of my friends) about my lack of professionalism and got through the syllabus to each class. As an actress though, the relaying of information for each lesson came pretty naturally to me, whereas the other instructors had told me that they found it somewhat annoying. Later, I was to find that most of the adults in my community theater were actually teachers, which I found was interesting. At the time, I just loved working with the kids, and they loved all the science experiments I presented to them, even if they didn’t work out as perfectly as they had when I tested them. At the end of the week, I’d even go to their little mini-concerts to see them sing after learning a batch of cheesy, not-rhyming earworms throughout the week. One of the coolest parts was that year after year, I was able to see those kids grow and learn. Some of them even joined me in volunteering, which was pretty cool. I wouldn’t say at that point I knew I wanted to be a teacher, but it made me realize that I enjoy helping people learn, think, and be entertained. With more experience, I discovered that education was the right path for me. I later went to seek teaching positions, like in my high school as a Bengal Junction student tutoring program, which I do to this day. I also plan on continuing peer tutoring in college before going on to pursue a career in English education.

My first memory of chess is of when my parents signed me up for a chess club after school in elementary school. I still have the old, worn-out, chess club shirt from then, since I joined late and was given a shirt a few sizes too big for me. I thought it was cool that there were horses and that the queen was the most powerful piece in the game. I wasn’t big into chess, being an impulsive and unmotivated player. Once I taught my younger brother the rules, he quickly started beating me at the game time after time, and I figured an easy way to not lose would simply be to not play. Unfortunately, or fortunately, this phase did not last very long. Partly because my family is big into camping and one of the worthwhile games in our camper is a compact, magnetic chess set. Because of this, I ended up playing with my siblings a lot on the week-long trips without television when I was younger. I don’t personally think I improved much, but the time I spent with my family was worth it. On the other hand, my brother did improve, being someone who’s intensely into puzzles and mind games. Instead of playing the game the traditional way, my siblings and I often messed around with the chess pieces and made up other, more artistic games that involved making huge carriages for the king and queen out of pawns and rooks with the knights in front. I found this significantly more fun, but also trickier since I am a perfectionist and there were only so many pieces I could use to try and make what I was envisioning. As could probably have been gathered from this, I was to become a pretty artistic person. Not being the best at the game, but knowing the rules and a few tricks back from my few years in chess club did, however, make me the perfect person to help my sister pick up the game. My brother wanted a new person to test his skills against (or perhaps just an easier, more competitive target), but didn’t have the patience to teach my sister how all the pieces moved, so I decided to help her. With my help, she didn’t win the game (I’m not a miracle worker), but she was able to play and also was able to spend time with my brother and parents over the chessboard. I plan to become an educator and am going into college to study English and education. My first memories of chess are of those in school, where my teachers tried their best to teach me and my five-year-old peers how to try and think critically, and while I am not the greatest at the game, I value the skills that it hones. I also appreciate how I’ve been able to help others and live vicariously through them as I teach them and then later watch them excel where I failed, like my brother, or make new friends with the game like my sister eventually did in middle school homeroom. Chess has taught me that inspiring and giving others the tools to make their own decisions and giving them opportunities they wouldn’t have had access to otherwise can be just as -if not more- fulfilling than just knowing a skill or subject. This is something that I plan to do in the future as an English teacher, helping students better maneuver the world of writing and words we live in.

Before COVID-19 shut everything down in my state, I was dead set on becoming a part of the MMEA All-State Band as a clarinetist- something I’d been burning to be a part of since my freshman year. I had been focused completely on my audition and etudes, and when we were sent home for the rest of the school year, my ego completely deflated when I received a letter from MMEA saying I didn’t get in. And so, the events at the beginning of quarantine left me extremely unmotivated and sad. Surprisingly though, this left me extremely open to change and to find new hobbies. I started trying to connect with friends over social media and made more on art platforms since I do dabble in doodling quite a bit. I rediscovered my old hobbies of animating and voice acting, excited with the fact that my family now actually has a sort of recording studio, with a microphone and audio editing software. I was able to successfully direct a multiple-animator project on YouTube scripted and edited by myself, and after a fortunate run-in with an obscure group called the Warrior Cats Fandub on an Amino community focused around Erin Hunter’s Warriors series who needed voice actors for their fan-dubbed audiobook, and I was cast as my first ‘major’ role in the pandemic as a pretty she-cat who turns up in the second book as a love interest for one of the main characters. The people involved and in charge of the fan-project turned out to be extremely nice and supportive. The directors seemed genuinely sad they couldn’t pay me for voicing the character due to copyright, so they started making special projects not affiliated with the franchise that they could pay me for. Much to my surprise, as soon after this project started posting content on YouTube, the channel’s subscriber count shot up to over a thousand, and these fans turned out to be just as supportive to the team as the team was to me. On a roll, I began to really start pursuing voice acting and landed a few more gigs, including being in a 3D animated project that I’m really excited to see really get going, produced by Little Dragon Studios on YouTube. Before the pandemic, I’d been really into real-life acting, but since the quarantine began, my community theatre has been shut down with no sign of reopening in the near future. The internet provided me a way to tap into a new way to experience the feeling of acting and being a part of a cast again, and ways to meet and connect with people in the most physically isolated time in my life. Sure, it’s not as impactful as a real performance on stage would be, but I’m grateful for the opportunities nonetheless and how they’re able to help me feel productive during the pandemic. During this time, though, lots of more important things have been happening nationally and globally than me getting a gig or two. Living in a multicultural household, the threat of the virus in China put my mom on edge especially, since she’s a Chinese citizen. I’d already experienced racial jokes in school before the shut-down in 2019 based on my Chinese heritage, and when COVID-19 spread to the USA, my anxiety was heightened. My mom came back from work with stories of Asian-Americans being violently discriminated against by people angrily referring to the pandemic as the “China virus”. Many of which weren’t even Chinese, or who were, but of course had in no way caused the American outbreak. Even though the likeliness of us being openly discriminated against was very low in our quiet community, my white dad was the only one who shopped for us for a while. Unfortunately, this harassment of Asians in the media was put to an abrupt stop in May of 2020 when George Floyd was killed a mere thirty minutes away from my house, and protests and riots about racial tensions began to break out all over my state of Minnesota and the world. When it was safe to go, my family went to the place where George Floyd had died. I was on edge since there were so many people there in those flower-laden where 38th Street and Chicago Avenue crossed, but thankfully a majority of the people were masked and just coming to pay their respects, to demand a change, or to tell the stories and say the names of those forgotten people of color killed by police. The cry for a change was phenomenal with so many people moving to support and protest with the Black Lives Matter movement and join together to call for reform in local police departments, whether successful or not, left a mark on everyone. Even I have been impacted by this call to action and have looked into racial inequality in this nation since. This nationwide shift to being more active on the internet and social media hasn’t had the same impact on everyone though. While I was looking for a community of artists and actors to chat with, others began to be pulled into darker communities during this time. The conspiracy theories running rampant through the minds of so many people is absurd, but taking into account the restlessness of a mind in quarantine and the nature of search engines and social media platforms to corral their consumers into echo chambers, it’s easy to understand how it’s so hard for people who have bought into these theories to change their minds now that they’ve been made up. While the internet can be a great source of entertainment and a place where passions can flourish, when not properly researched, it can also lead you to bad places and a toxic mindset, as shown by recent events. COVID-19 has led to a number of historical events that will be remembered for years to come, and I have no doubt that more is yet to come.

Along with being part of a multicultural household there comes the reality that not everyone in your family will be viewed and treated the same by the outside world. My mother is a Chinese citizen who’s been living in America since she was around thirteen years old, and my father is a caucasian Midwesterner born and raised in the US. My siblings and I, as a result, have gotten the occasional odd glance or been in an awkward situation with our parents because of this. My sister looks more or less white, I look more Asian, and my brother is a mix of the two, which curiously gets him labeled as Mexican more often than not. We’ve gotten ‘Are you adopted?’ a few times, and even (in my case), the horrifying assumption that I am in a relationship with my family members since people don’t seem to realize we’re related. But despite the looks and my appearance, I never really addressed my race when I was younger. I went to elementary and middle school in a very diverse neighborhood where nobody cared about what race their peers were unless they brought exotic foods to school or could speak a language other than English. This changed very abruptly when I transferred to a different school district closer to home for high school. This school was mostly white, and I suddenly didn’t exactly fit in as well as I did in my previous schools. The realization that I was of a different race than my peers was quite shocking to me mentally. Suddenly, I didn’t get good grades because I just was in the clique with the ‘smart’ kids, I got good grades because I was Asian. It wasn’t as though I thought I was white, though I did think that for a year or so, it was that I just didn’t understand there was a foreign aspect in one of the two cultures I’d grown up with. For example, I remember when I went over to one of my friend’s houses, I was unconsciously surprised when I found no chopsticks in their cutlery drawers. Of course, none of this had an inherently negative impact on me or my social well-being. It wasn’t until recently that my Chinese heritage came into conflict with society. Namely, the COVID-19 pandemic that started in Wuhan. The rise in hate crimes against Asian-Americans has risen greatly since the coronavirus crossed to the Americas, and unlike the waning of media coverage would lead you to believe, it is still going on at alarming rates. The fear-mongering, overly-patriotic words of some politicians have led to and allowed it to happen. When quarantine first started and the governor called for lockdown in our state, my white father was the only one who left the house to shop or run errands while my Chinese mother and us kids stayed at home. My mother warned us vehemently about being careful outside with other people, even sitting down with my little sister to explain to her that even though she could pass as a white girl, there was still a possibility that people could see her as different and blame her for things she didn’t do. For a short time during the pandemic, I almost felt like I wanted to just remove that part of myself just to remove the risk of being harassed for my race, but as the months dragged on, I found that the fact that I was part Chinese gave me a platform amongst my friends. Since my family was so nervous about the pandemic and the effect on Chinese citizens in the USA, we kept up with the news and findings of COVID-19, because of this I was able to influence some of my friends to abandon misinformation they found online and they found me a somewhat credible source, being Chinese-American. At one point, a person had said something pointedly racist on their social media, but after I addressed them about the misinformation and attacking language they used, they quickly apologized and took their post down, instead of sharing a news source that found what they’d falsely claimed wrong. The fact that the people they were so angry at included people and families of those they knew and were friends with made them see what they did was wrong and pushed them to fix their mistakes. Oddly, the attacks on Asian-Americans during this pandemic have brought me closer to my Chinese roots now that I have been more conscious of my mixed-heritage and experienced the fear of not wanting to be seen by others purely on my physical appearance and where my family comes from. I plan to continue fighting for the truth and against the current racism in all its forms, but understand that not everyone sees the world and understands Asian culture the way I do. Despite how I sometimes feel like a bit of a phony for not being 'Asian enough’ to be the proper representation, lodged in the suburbs of Minnesota, I am one of the only Chinese people a vast majority of my friends know, and I try my best to dispel any stereotypes.

In college, I plan to study English and education and to pursue a career as an English or language arts teacher, or something else that involves writing. I’ve always loved the subject of English and have been writing stories and essays since I learned how to read. I’ve been in advanced English language arts classes since the fourth grade, mainly due to how much I read and loved to read when I was younger and how that has carried over into my teenage years. My teachers were always extremely supportive of my reading habits -except for when I read during other class subjects- especially in my high school years. I’ve taken honors, advanced placement, and college in school English classes and my teachers have been very involved with my continued love in the subject. Most of my teachers were very open with my class and allowed us to discuss many subjects with them or helped us facilitate controversial discussions in the classroom. Some teachers even have been writing and publishing books and shared information about them and their writing process with us, which I found to be quite interesting to be able to do while also teaching. I’ve also been interested in becoming an educator since I first volunteered at a family friend’s vacation bible school as the science team leader. I’ve been reprising my role every year I can since then to help out with the kids. In high school, I became a morning tutor when I was taking advanced placement US History my sophomore year and then became a student tutor after school when I discovered that I enjoyed teaching other students. I mainly focus on history and English when tutoring, due to the somewhat moldable and story-centered aspects of the two subjects, and often enjoy peer-reviewing and editing college essays for my classmates. I’ve even helped out those who speak English as a second language when they need someone to quickly go through their homework assignments before turning them in for my school’s free, after-school tutoring program, Bengal Junction, I volunteer for. For a while, I was unsure of what type of educator I wanted to be and didn’t even know if I was sure I wanted to teach. I thought for a while I’d want to be a full-time author, but thinking back on what my strengths and passions were, I decided I wanted to go into a career where I could interact and assist with other’s learning in a more direct fashion than any average author could have on their audience through a novel. I want to be like the English teachers who allowed me and many others to speak our minds and grow in a public setting. I want to observe as well as have a part in educating the next generation and future for this country, while still having time for my own short or long term projects and time for myself on the side so I can live a more fulfilling life.

As a mixed-race, LGBT+, young woman, I have a lot of reasons to advocate and a lot of things I would like to advocate for. I plan on becoming an educator, so I want to build a better future for myself as well as for the kids who will be my future students. I haven’t really advocated much yet, but I have a desire to help educate others. With the current tense atmosphere around race I have seen the impact racial violence can have on a community after the death of George Floyd; and before, as a Chinese-American, the discrimination against Asians that came from the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic. I remember when my mom came home warning my family about how people were abusing Asians whether they were Chinese or not because of COVID-19. My mother is a Chinese citizen, so the beginning of quarantine was stressful for us. My white father was the one who went out for errands. Thankfully, I experienced no discrimination, but there were a few times I saw acquaintances spreading disinformation that was rather harmful to Chinese-Americans and had to point them to more accurate sources. I really think the only reason they followed my advice is that they realized they had offended me and they felt bad after I called them out. But then, the prejudice against the Chinese began to waver and was pushed from the headlines in the media. While this was not an end to the discrimination against Asians for COVID-19, it was when another more vocal group began to take the spotlight. Unfortunately, this was due to the more pressing racial tensions breaking out across the globe. A ripple effect that began in my own state in a city I’d been to many times led to a call for change and equality in the treatment of blacks in society when George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I watched the riots and looting on TV that was happening to buildings. Later, my family drove by those burned buildings and soaked in the magnitude of the anger people were experiencing. But I also saw the peaceful protests when we went to the crossroads where Goerge Floyd had died and experienced the determination, and hopefulness of the people gathered there, drawing art on the walls and streets, laying flowers, and giving passionate speeches about equality. My mother always tells me that Chinese people don’t speak out or complain- we work harder to prove ourselves. This is something that I’ve struggled with after I’ve experienced time and time again when I see other groups making strides in progress while East Asians have been treated very much the same two years ago as they did ten. This may not seem like too much of a problem, seeing as Asians aren’t discriminated against as much as groups in the USA like Hispanics or Blacks, but East Asians being taught to remain stoic when someone stereotypes them becomes a real problem when, for instance, the President of the United States begins using the Chinese people as a scapegoat to shift the blame of human deaths from the government and the reaction from the Asian community is barely heard. I believe that this needs to change if Asian-Americans want to stop being the butt of the joke, or the scapegoat community in the future and I intend to be a part of that change in the USA. But while being a woman or being half-Chinese are things I’ve been since birth, other aspects of my identity were realized later. I first learned about the LGBT+ community when #lovewins was spreading around Instagram and did a quick search on what it meant. At thirteen, I didn’t understand why same-sex marriage was so controversial. Sure, it seemed a bit odd to someone who never been exposed to any gay couples before, but I figured that if two people were in love, they should be able to get married. Little did I know, I would discover I am bisexual. Fortunately, this means that I easily can pass as a straight girl, since I’m in a heterosexual relationship, but once I realized I was part of the community, I started educating myself. It was a horrific surprise to learn about how being gay could prevent someone from adopting a child in need of a home; how homosexuality and being transgender were, and sometimes still are, viewed as mental illnesses; and how high the rate of suicide was in transgender individuals. After being exposed to this information, I began to speak out openly for LGBT+ rights and helped direct some of my friends to positive LGBT+ media to help the normalization so they wouldn’t have to go through the research I had. When I was in kindergarten, I took an interest in dinosaurs, animals, and the theory of evolution. I poured myself over countless animal books and learned how amazing the animals on Earth are and how so many have been and are being endangered by human activity. This discovery led me to understand exactly what people are doing to the Earth and how reckless they treat the only place in the universe they can survive. For instance, a few years ago I took an online course on fashion as design and learned just how many resources, including fresh water, are wasted on jeans alone. As a younger person who enjoys nature, the future of the planet is one of the most important matters to me, as it doesn’t just affect one group of people, but all the people and living things on Earth. Like many others in my generation, I understand that simply recycling when you can and taking quicker showers isn’t going to do much in the long run, and I believe in putting in place more enforceable changes in laws and regulations on companies to prevent pollution and the wasting of finite natural resources like fossil fuels, for the benefit of humanity as a whole.

Seeing as I want to be an educator and plan on majoring in education, it’s probably easy to assume that education has had a big impact on my life in a very positive way. My parents were the biggest push behind my education and spent countless hours teaching me cursive, going over my homework, and teaching me things I didn’t understand from class after school. My father never got his degree and regretted it, which he told all of us when expressing frustration with his inability to rise up in his jobs due to the fact that he doesn’t have the degree to be promoted. When we were younger, my dad attempted to get his degree again, but he had three small kids, and he was going to school and working. He eventually stopped taking classes to spend more time with us. Both he and my mom (who emphasizes us always doing better academically) have always supported me throughout my education, pushed for me to take more advanced classes, and paid for any tests I’ve taken with my schooling. I’m a senior in high school, so most of my friends are people I’ve met through my classes. During this year, it’s been difficult to interact with friends in ways other than texting and brief calls, though, with everyone inside the house all the time, privacy has been an issue. One class in particular that I’m in has been able to almost counteract the awkward effects that talking has on a student taking online classes. In my college-in-school English and literature class, the discussion-centered nature of the course, and the relaxed nature of the teacher allowed us to get to know each other in an almost-book club atmosphere. I was able to reconnect with friends I hadn’t been able to talk with since last March and even make new friends. I’ve even discovered that some of my classmates are going to the same college as I plan on attending and we’ve been keeping each other updated on the status of our applications, admissions, and scholarship information. Afterschool, I participate in my school’s student-tutoring program, Bengal Junction, where I guide students through writing essays, retesting, or homework. My AP US History teacher recommended for me to join when I was taking her class, and I did because I wanted to helo out students like other former members of her class who helped me. Even now, during the pandemic, I’m still volunteering there because I love tutoring and helping others out with schoolwork. Being a part of this group has really allowed me to discover that I want to become an educator. I plan on going to college for my undergraduate degree in English or education, and maybe continuing on to get my graduate degree if I’m in a good financial state at the time. I want to become a teacher for either English or another sort of liberal arts and have the opportunity to oversee the education of the next generation.

We got Daisy without knowing much about her background except that she was a farm dog around three and was probably a yellow lab-chow chow mix. She seemed to be a very mellow dog, which was good because we had a toddler in the house at the time, but in the ten years we’ve had her we learned that she was so mellow that she never barks, fetches, or swims and believes she’s a big ol’ lap dog! She enjoys cuddling, doing tricks for treats, and being the center of attention! @corrineolsonofficial