"Yeah, I'm not sure what you should put down either. Maybe leave it blank? Or take your best guess?" My homeroom teacher then walks away. I read the question again. How do you identify yourself: White, Black, African-American, Asian, American-Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, or Other Pacific Islander? I look up to see familiar faces fill out the same PSAT questionnaire. My neighbor belongs to the four pale walls that surround us. The answer has always been in front of her. I look down at my arm, too much tone to be white and too little hue to be black. A color wheel would tell me that Asian is the right idea, but the wrong continent. These boxes tell me the idea of me does not exist. This pushes me back to my third-grade field trip. Where my mom chaperoned and my friends realized her strong Spanish undertone made her different. They couldn’t understand her. In her native tongue, she knew every word in their language. Third graders couldn’t understand this. They heard her pauses and my Spanish translations. I heard their whispers. The space around us felt occupied by their needs. I was embarrassed to be around them and not in a space. The only difference between these two days was that then, I was younger and instead of building a space for myself, that day in third grade became a shell that I hid behind. My typical classmate is white. I perfected my "white accent" in Spanish class for him. I had to fit in. He observes my skin tone and sits next to me. "Now I know I can pass this class," he exhales. I couldn’t bring in foil-wrapped tortillas and red menudo for lunch. It would be too out of place, too foreign. To survive here, I needed to replace my culture with white-approved customs. I can no longer stand for it. I can no longer allow myself to change who I am to satisfy someone else. I am slowly allowing myself to reach that lost part of me, by exposing myself to Mexican culture that was not represented in my high school, other than on the lunch menu posed as a "bean and cheese burrito". So, next time I receive the question, "How do you identify yourself?", I will proudly create my own box, made of my own identity, my own culture, and print "Mexican-American".

As a budding environmentalist who became vegetarian three years ago, the lectures and discussions from my junior year class, AP Environmental Science, were the spark that began my passion to pursue creative ideas that will allow for innovation in developments that address future sustainability and cohabitation. I suddenly found myself asking why more action has not been made on the detrimental effects of urbanization. If a city is not well planned out, overcrowding and pollution become a complication. Or the impact that deforestation has on rapid soil erosion and flooding, which have the potential to destroy homes, habitats, and crops. When it comes down to it, many of these things are related to urban planning intertwined with green design. Human-environment interactions become vital to analyze in blooming urban areas, ensuring that sustainable practices are incorporated. Therefore, I have been striving for a career that allows me to be proactive and reduce the negative effects of urbanization. A sustainable way of living can be readily available to us with thought-out plans and can blend into existing structures, which I could achieve as an urban planner. An example of this practice is in the city of Amsterdam, whose planners built enough pathways that riding a bike can be just as readily accessible and fast as driving a car. In turn, pollution from car exhaust is decreasing and access to a job in the city center is now more viable for someone who cannot afford a car and was hindered from obtaining an income. This could ultimately result in reducing environmental and health disparities for low-income populations due to improving pollution and lowering the amount of those in poverty as job access is more realistic. The domino effect of planning an urban area sustainably on the lives of citizens and the environment is what I have fallen in love with. Instead of plainly stating “I want to see sustainable practice around the world”, I want to be the person who makes it happen. Not just someone who sits on the sidelines. But, that is not the only thing I am passionate about. I have been constantly surrounded by the creation of videos my whole life. Whether that be through my family’s photovideography business or Radio and TV class, I have deep connections with producing media for a purpose. This purpose has always fluctuated, ranging from presenting newlyweds' memories of the beginning of their new lives or telling the story of an emerging student artist who advocates for social awareness and changes through her artwork. I am eager to study the creative process of documentary filmmaking to not just tell the stories of those who tell the stories of others, but for me to directly tell those stories of people impacted by numerous problems that face our world today. Issues such as environmental injustice for those in impoverished communities or the loss of biodiversity that is continuing to put our world at risk of irreversible damage. With the furthering of my education in Environmental Science, I am continuing to learn more about the communities that are most vulnerable to the detrimental effects of our changing environment. The opportunity to further explore my enthusiasm for these two passions is something that I have desperately been looking for in my undergraduate education. I want to create an interdisciplinary foundation that can expand the possibilities of my future. My ultimate dream and goal would be to utilize this passion that I have for this type of work and incorporate it into my developing environmental science background to make a difference in the world, no matter how small.

NEVER.ENDING. by ALIEX Sunflower by Post Malone and Swae Lee People Watching by Conan Gray A letter to my younger self by Ambar Lucid El Latido de mi Corazón by Luis Ángel Gómez Jaramillo KEEP IT UP by Rex Orange County Get Home by Bastille I'm Tired by Labrinth and Zendaya If you would like to listen to this "album" on Spotify, attached below is the link. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4UTJFioddXKApSqmiRDszT?si=03d89a704d81470b