It's a Friday night and you decide to go get food at your local Chinese restaurant to celebrate working hard during the week. You walk in and see a little kid at the corner table studying. That kid was me. I became the person I am today because of my family restaurant. Although it was a strict lifestyle, it helped me learn some important lessons and kept me out of trouble. I always have remembered how different I felt compared to other students. I went to the restaurant right after school to help my parents. I had little time for extracurriculars, and I would have even less time to hang out with friends. Although this might sound bad, it wasn't. I loved helping out at the restaurant and bonding with customers and making new friends with regulars. Helping lighten the burden on my parents made me happy too. I learned how to manage my time and how to be flexible with my life to balance my academic, working, and personal experiences. I've always realized how little things in the world can make others happy. Grabbing some good food can brighten someone's day. I have decided I wanted to safeguard the smiles on people and to get a degree in Biology to become a dentist. I know going down this path will be extremely challenging, but I believe my restaurant life with my parents has prepared me to take challenges head-on. I am not a stranger to working hard. In school, I have many leadership positions in clubs, showing others how to become better people by serving others in the National Honors Society and BETA club. I have learned to use my time efficiently and how to multi-task to get more done. I tutor elementary and middle school kids on the weekends and help my parents with work on the weekdays after school. I help with customer service with my mom and even help my dad cook in the kitchen. I use the time given to me to make the best out of my unique situation. Life at the restaurant made the days pass by quickly. Until the day that we had to close temporarily because of the pandemic. All the restaurants in my area had to close down due to COVID restrictions and finances were tight. My family's sole income comes from the restaurant, so this was the equivalent of getting laid off from work and becoming unemployed. My family is filled with strong people, so we kept a positive outlook during this time and pulled through. In the end, I want to use my experience and education to help others by working in the dental field. From a person whose parents are immigrants and have never finished school, this may sound like big talk, but I believe I have what it takes to create a positive impact. My parents immigrated here from northeastern China from a town called Fuzhou. In their hometown, many people have to walk countless miles to make it to the closest supermarket and even further for doctors and hygienists. Some just give up on medical attention in general and tough it out at home, leading to dangerous consequences. The families and people in China mean the world to me, and they have treated me very well whenever my family visits. I want to be successful and give my strength to those in need. I will start by helping people in the U.S, and with some time, my future hope is to start a successful business near my parent's hometown to transform society's health conditions.

Having $1000, compared to college costs, may not seem like much but there are many things I want to do. The first thing I would use the money for right now is to buy crafts supplies to make gifts. With prom coming up, I want to ask this girl to go to prom with me. She is a very artsy and intelligent girl so I hope she would appreciate my gift. Of course, I want her to say yes because this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. The next thing I would buy is a mini easy bake oven. Now, this may seem weird but it is something I have researched. The average American spends $22 on eating out three to four times a week. I can go to the grocery store and buy $20 worth of ingredients to last me a whole week. Doing some quick calculations, eating out would be triple as much as cooking meals at home. During college life, food costs on top of tuition are going to be a silent killer. Without even knowing it, $30 a day can empty out your pockets quickly, especially if the habit is year-round. Now, some people may argue that eating out saves time than cooking at home. Well, not if I make leftovers. As I finish making my recipe list from my parents and online resources, I will have all the skills to "cook" it up in college. With this $1000, It would tremendously lift some burdens in my life.

Starting high school can be extremely difficult. Especially when you are a minority student, the first person in your family to make it to high school. You are scared of the big school and kids and don't have many friends. I'm sure many students can relate to this because this is what happened to me. In my first week as a freshman, trouble has already started. Because I didn't have many friends, I was called out by a sophomore and his crew during PE class. I had little confidence in myself and didn't know how to deal with bullies, so I just looked at my feet as they criticized me because I was different. Luckily, an upperclassman came by and scolded the sophomores about picking on freshmen. I thanked him and we became friends. His name was Ethan and he taught me how to build confidence. We played basketball together and even met at gyms to work out. As the sophomore year rolled around, I hit a growth spurt and packed on muscle. In my sophomore gym class, I saw a familiar group of people. It was the same group that bullied me in my freshmen year. However, this time I was different. Even without Ethan, I wasn't timid and I wouldn't take insults without a fight. As they criticized my basketball skills, I outscored them. As we played dodgeball, I targeted them on the court. When we played football, I was coming for their heads. I made many kind friends and surrounded myself with people that care for each other. Even when my journey started off shakily, I started to turn around my life with the support of friends. When Ethan graduated, I promised to never let someone else step over me or my family and friends ever again.

To understand me, I am an introvert but I really find satisfaction in helping others. I usually encourage people by listening and I like to offer my skills to others. I am an after-school tutor for students in my school and a babysitter for families in my neighborhood. Through these experiences, I have learned to read the body language of others and act accordingly to help them succeed. I go to my neighbor's house and tutor their middle school kids David and Angela on weekends. Angela is smart but just needs the motivation to do her work. Because of this, I make little presents for her when she completes her assignments. David is very hard to get through. He despises schoolwork and complex thinking. I have encouraged David to learn by taking baby steps with him through his schoolwork and making flashcards to aid his studies. We take frequent breaks and I always try to instill discipline in him every time we meet. I also try to help others emotionally. One of my friends has been going through a tough self-confidence dive and she feels alone a lot of the time. With all the seniors talking about prom, she feels even worse with no date. What I did next would continue to surprise me to this day: I asked her if she wanted to go with me. Of course, I asked her to boost her self-confidence, but this still puzzled me as an introvert. She was overjoyed and rambled on about matching our outfits and where to take pictures. I realized something important from this new encounter. As I help out people around me, I learn many skills from the experience too. As I helped her self-confidence, her energy increased my self-confidence too. Helping those around us is very overlooked.

As a young Asian American boy growing up in the United States, I was always told to not draw much attention to myself. Many relatives told me to not stand out and just to blend into the crowd, but my parents told me to reach for the stars. Growing up in a financially unstable community, I never believed I could amount to anything great but my parents never let me think that. After years of hard work, my family started their own restaurant and this changed my life. My mom and dad proved to me that even if you didn't come from much, you can change your future. So, as my parents said, I reached for the stars and decided to try to go to medical school following undergrad. I will be the first person in my entire family to graduate high school and go to college. Education has always been important to my family and me. I want to pursue a biology major and go to medical school or dental school in the future. My career goals include helping other underrepresented communities, like in China, with medicine or providing hygiene. I know this is an astronomical dream that not many people can achieve. The only thing I have going for me is my determination and family support, but I believe that is what you need the most to be successful. In the future, my personal goal is to be successful and set an example to make my family proud. I want to show other minorities that winning is not impossible. To unlock this motivation, someone would need to step up and take the unknown head-on. I will gladly be the key to breaking this cycle of hardship in my family even if what I do is a silent battle.

Beep Beep Beep. I smack the alarm on my phone and check the time: 5:30 am. The day has begun. I get up from my warm bed and am met with a chilly, dark, but also familiar atmosphere. I brush my teeth after eating a breakfast of cereal and toast and head out the front door. Armed with nothing but my body, I start stretching to run down the familiar streets. Our bodies are our vessels. Without a strong vessel, people have limited capabilities. I believe to live a healthy life people need to improve their bodies and their minds. Perhaps the best way to start improving the body is by developing a schedule. Start with something small and gradually build up to something that will become muscle memory. My mornings were developed after many years of repeated effort and through the effort, my body is strong enough to complete many obstacles. I play basketball for a club and being out of shape can be detrimental. After the two-hour exercise, I clean up and prepare for the school day. Feeding the brain is just as important as feeding your body. The brain is the control center of our emotional health and Intelligence. Mental health is also very important and I believe being happy is the other ingredient to living a long life. Surround yourself with people that make you happy like good friends and family. The extra homework assignment can wait. Not taking time to enjoy yourself can lead to burnout which will cause someone to hate their life. In the end, through my experiences, being fit will keep your body in good shape, and being happy will keep you wanting to live. Combine these aspects and you will for sure live a long and healthy life. Cheers!

The little things do matter. The power of listening is something special. Humans learn to listen so they can grow and support others. Listening, to me, is the power to build character and to improve myself and those around me. If we don't stop and listen once in a while, we can lose sight of ourselves in the loud voices. We pick up information we never would have known by listening. In my sophomore year of high school, I made a really great friend. His name was Chris and as a junior, he was like a brother to me. He was very talkative and told crazy stories, many of which I listened to. After listening to Chris for a long time, I started to notice that he was struggling with an inner darkness. I found out he was battling depression the whole time and talking was his way of coping. I quickly picked up on this and made sure that Chris had support from his friends and family. Currently, he is in therapy and I am so glad I caught this before it escalated. After this experience, I decided to become a lifelong listener and learner. I feel that listening to Chris gave him support. I want to understand people around me so no one has to go through such a tragic experience by themselves. I actively listen to others by nudging them to keep expressing themselves. I learned that people like to talk around somebody they can trust. I try to become as reliable as I can so others can speak their minds around me. In the end, I learned that people like to talk to get things off their chest, and when they do that, I'll be that person that will happily lend an ear.

My favorite scientific discovery was from a book I read on vacation. The book introduces us to how people originated and what our bodies sacrificed to survive. The title of the book "Survival of the Sickest" is a play on words of "Survival of the Fittest". The discovery was actually about one of the most important defensive mechanisms our body has: the skin. The skin is one part of our body that stands out the most. We know melanin changes the skin but what causes this diversity? The answer to this question answers a lot. Fun fact, almost all the human species originated somewhere in Africa, and as the harmful UV rays try to damage people, the skin kicks up the melanin production to protect us. Thus, making people tan. Although darker skin would protect you from UV rays, we need sunlight for an important ingredient, Vitamin D. Without Vitamin D our body and bones would not grow properly. Take into account another aspect of this complicated relationship: folic acid. Folic acid is a vitamin that helps make healthy new cells but it is destroyed if exposed to sunlight. In a nutshell, as early humans migrated across the world, the amount of sunlight we got differed. When this happened, our skin became paler to increase light absorption or darker to protect against too much light. Now, why is this my favorite scientific discovery? It's because this relates to us today. People nowadays will criticize you just based on your skin color and I find this outrageous. Our skin protects us and the color is an aspect of what makes us human. In the end, this scientific knowledge can debunk many stereotypes. Our ancestors originate from the same place and the color of our skin is not something others should judge.

My favorite hobbies are playing basketball and cooking. Basketball was introduced to me at an early age, and it has been my key to self-love. Cooking became one of my hobbies much by obligation and curiosity. As a shy Asian kid in middle school, social interactions were not my strong suit. My parents owned a small Chinese restaurant which led my younger self to love food. This led me to be obese and increased my shyness. One day, my cousin showed me a video of someone amazing: Kobe Bryant. I remember being mesmerized by the windmill dunk and the tenacity he approached the game with. For once, I decided to pick up a sport, and to this day I have never put it down. After many years, I became good and joined local basketball clubs. Few people see Asian "hoopers" and are all surprised when I do better than the stereotypes say. The chubby little boy saw his body become lean and started to find a passion for basketball. Ginger, cabbage, carrots, and mixed with sauce. Wait for a little and dump in the strained noodles. Flip well and serve. Watching my dad over the years at the restaurant made me curious about cooking. I first learned to cook at a young age from my parents and it eventually progressed into a hobby. I loved cooking because nothing beats hearing your food was great from others. It was also a great family bonding experience and was a physical task, like basketball, that would never fail me. Over the years I started to look at my hobbies differently than others do. Hobbies tend to mean something you partake in with free time, but to me, hobbies started to help me build character. They helped me find myself when I couldn't.