I think that if I had to describe myself in one phrase, I'd say that I'm "trying to be better". There have been a lot of things I've struggled with throughout my life, but specifically my high school career. A decent chunk of it came from bad decisions on my part, but I really am trying to be better. Now, I'm not saying I've ever done anything illegal (because I haven't). I've never drunk alcohol or done drugs; I've never even cheated on a test (that I can recall at least), but I was partially at fault for the breakup of my close friend group because of a miscommunication. I'm aware that it's a very first-world problem, but it serves my purpose. That breakup practically destroyed my life for most of my Senior year. After the initial conflict, though, I worked extremely hard to get the group back together because I wanted to make up for my past shortcomings. I wanted to be better. Maybe more worthwhile of a discussion is that I struggle with my mental health. I'm not diagnosed with anything, although when I talk to my older sister about it (she's going to college for Psychology currently), she says that I almost definitely struggle with depression - though again, that is undiagnosed. What is certain, however, is that I have struggled with my self-image and remembering to have a little optimism for at least four years now, and one of the main things keeping me going is that I want to be better. I want to be better and get over these issues, but I also try to be better in other areas, like my schooling. I graduated 7th in my class out of over 250 kids, and I did it because I wanted to be better in my academics. I had the opportunity to run at State for Cross Country in my Junior Year because I pushed myself to be better in my athletics. My entire journey on this Earth has been motivated by my desire to improve. Now, just to clarify, when I say that I "want to be better", it isn't that I want to be better than other people - it's that I want to be better than myself. I simply aim to improve, and I always have. Part of this is due to my low self-image, as I previously mentioned, but a bigger part is that I am a devout Christian. I grew up Lutheran and still am, and I believe that a big part of being a Christian is being a good person. Yes, I strive to improve myself in a physical or an academic sense, but I also put a lot of care into who I am to others, which I can directly tie to the career path that I've chosen to go to college for. I am planning on becoming a Christian pastor, likely Lutheran, though my girlfriend and I have not fully decided yet, and I can confidently say that my decision to become a pastor is partially rooted in my desire to be a good person and help others. There's a saying in my religion (or at least my family; I'm not sure where it originated, to be completely honest), and it is that "the only thing you can bring to Heaven is people". I firmly believe this to be the truth, and I believe that it is something I should strive for, which is why I want to be a pastor. The only dream that I really have is to be someone that people know will be a good help to them when they need it, and that's why I'm always trying to improve. This scholarship would really help me with this, as any and all money that I can put toward my college helps. I want to improve and help people, but I believe the best way for me to help them is through Christ, and college can help me do that, but I can't pay for it entirely on my own. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to read my application, even if I'm not selected.

I've put a lot of thought into this, and I believe that I have a very effective way to balance both my biblical life and my social life. While yes, I have a very different answer to this question when compared to most because I am planning on becoming a pastor when I get out of College. I also plan on going to a Christian School - Grand Canyon University. The thing is though, I don't think my spiritual walk needs to be separated from my career. Like I said, this is different for me because my spiritual walk needs to be directly tied into preaching, as a good pastor needs to have an extremely strong faith life. Now, my past experiences have had a massive impact upon what I plan on doing with my life post-High School. When I was in 7th grade, I had a sort of pseudo-revelation, and it made me really begin to take my walk with Christ seriously, and I've kept it ever since. Then, my junior year, I went to a youth camp at NAU. At that camp, my chaperone said "If there's something Holy that persists in your mind, it's more than likely that God is putting it there". He then followed it up with a joke about how that doesn't mean to do drugs (because doing drugs isn't holy), but the main part of the message has always stuck with me, because I had previously had the thought that "huh, maybe I could be a pastor", but I've always shot it down because frankly, I was afraid of it. I've always been an introvert, and having to talk to people after service terrifies me, but every time I worry my chaperone's words stay with me. This is something that God wants me to do, and because of that I should do it. That's how my past experiences impact my future goals. The one thing that I want is to be better at sharing God's word. Where I am now, every time I try to teach someone something about Christ, it goes haywire. I don't yet know what I'm doing, but that's why I'm going to college. Through the Christian program at a Christian college surrounded by Christian people, I have nothing but faith that I'll be able to share the word of God to by best ability, and that's all that I really need to be able to do isn't it? It also helps because this is how I'll impact my environment. In what way other than telling people about God can I impact my environment?