Yellow: Winter Clothing: HAT, BOOTS, GLOVES, COAT. I like that this category is straightforward, but it has overlap with other categories. Some players may be misled by the four three-letter words in this puzzle (HAT, MIC, AMP, MIN) and think they go together. They may also make up a category that doesn't exist, like things that come in pairs (SHOES, GLOVES, COUPLES, TIES, perhaps). Additionally, this category has words that can be both nouns and verbs, which may also throw the player off. Green: Relates: CONNECTS, LINKS, ASSOCIATES, COUPLES. I love how this overlaps with the other categories to increase the challenge. CONNECTS may throw off the player if they are onto the purple category, as CONNECTS could be short for the NYT Game Connections. COUPLES could also throw off the player if they interpret it as two people in a relationship. TIES from the purple category could also fit into this category, further throwing off the reader. Blue: Concert Equipment: MIC, PEDAL, AMP, MONITOR. All of the words in this category are objects commonly used in performance set ups: microphones, effects pedals, amps, and monitor speakers. This also has a few good red herrings connected, as STANDS in the purple category adjacently fits, as musicians sometimes use stands to hold their music or instrument. Purple: NYT Games missing one letter: STANDS, MIN, TIES, WORDE. I love how this turns something simple that anybody could guess, NYT Games (Strands, Mini, Tiles, and Wordle), into a category that is much more challenging. Since most of these are words, they will easily throw off the player. However, WORDE should be a good clue since it stands out as not a word and looks very similar to Wordle.

My fingers are aching. The side of my hand is stained gray from the graphite of my pencil. I may or may not have accidentally gotten some of my eraser shavings stuck in my hair. Every time I think I’m making progress, I end up going in a circle. “Did we figure it out yet?” asks my calculus teacher, Mrs. McNamara, beaming. Not one of the ten students in the class even looks up. Our brows are furrowed, stumped by this proof, but persistently attacking it from as many perspectives as we can imagine. “Alright, let’s go through it together. Let me get an extra sheet of paper for this one,” she concedes. Nearly five minutes later, we’re done. We’ve proved that our fourth curvature formula is, in fact, a valid curvature formula. “Wasn’t that so fun?” Some students roll their eyes in response to Mrs. McNamara’s genuine remark, but I smile a little. I’d like to think I take after her passion for mathematics. I see the beauty in what some think are the little things, but what are truly the building blocks for the bigger ones. I absolutely love the problem-solving that comes with mathematics. I enjoy seeing a problem and having to quickly determine what "tools" I can use to most efficiently solve it. I love how there's that creativity involved, but also the structure of rules to guide me to the best option. One of the things that I find so fascinating about mathematics is how we often learn so much more from our mistakes than from our successes. For example, in my AP Calculus BC class last year, I received a failing grade on a quiz near the beginning of a unit. I recognized that if I did not immediately relearn what I didn't know, I would soon fall behind and be unable to understand the rest of the unit. All while I was grappling with personal health issues and caring for sick immediate family members, I spent countless hours reviewing class notes and watching videos to grasp the basics, then practicing problems and attending extra help to figure out what I could and could not do, and how to fix my errors. Whenever I got a question right, it was certainly a morale boost, but I almost preferred to initially get the question wrong. Just because the answer is incorrect doesn't mean that it's a mistake. I learn a method that I know will not work, and can now attempt a different one. With this mindset, I worked tirelessly to get back on track. I earned a 94% on that unit test. I see college as my opportunity to follow in my calculus teacher’s footsteps. Although I do not plan to pursue education as a career, I hope to major in mathematics and share its beauty with others, just as my teacher has done for me. She has truly created an environment where I can let my love for STEM drive the choices I make. I want to help pave the way for future technological advancements by researching the building blocks, the mathematics behind it all. With my passion for the field and the awe-inspiring mentors in this community, I’ll have precisely the support, guidance, and resources I need to make lasting change in our world.

This past June, I volunteered to help set up and run the main booths for my town’s second annual Pride Event. In a politically divided town, events like this provide solace to the LGBTQIA+ community and their allies. But a day meant to celebrate our differences soon grew overshadowed by protestors lined up alongside the curb. A group of a dozen men and women with handmade signs throwing slurs and baseless accusations at us. At first, we just laughed it off and kept on with the festivities. Then, the protestors pulled out the megaphone. Their insults projected over the live music, every verse interjected with another jab at our morals. But we did not let the protestors bring us down. Instead, the hosts of the event, the guests, and the volunteers began to share our stories. We shared parts of our life that we had never shared with anyone before, past wounds that the protestors were picking open. But instead of leaving these wounds out to bleed, we patched each other’s up. Our shockingly similar experiences, despite how painful, brought us together. Our conversations exposed me to an invaluable lesson: we are truly not alone. Although I do not plan to focus specifically on LGBTQIA+ advocacy in the future, I aspire to create lasting change in the world. I plan to attend a 4-year college with a double major in Environmental Science and Computer Science. When applying, I ensured that every college on my list had some degree of funding for undergraduate environmental research, for I am eager to implement campuswide sustainability projects. I hope to combine my love for analysis with my passion for environmental justice by learning the types of modeling techniques needed to project the efficacy of various solutions to potential climate crises. The tenacity and resilience I have gained from my journey as a queer woman has given me a foundation of perseverance that will fortify the rest of my future.

Eleven and four tenths. That’s approximately how many metric tons of CO2 I produced in a year as a freshman in high school. My first true introduction to the world of sustainable and local eating began with a shock deep to my core. What started as a months-long Girl Scout project has developed into my cornerstone. I started small. After delving into further research, my troop members and I contacted our community organic farm, MEVO, and discussed the potentially substantial environmental benefits of local eating. With their expertise, we presented our project to hundreds of Girl Scouts, encouraging them to adopt sustainable eating habits into their lifestyles. But despite the project’s completion, the prospect of collective local eating, a collaborative effort to preserve the Earth, remained at the forefront of my mind. I continued to visit the farm and brought my friends to spend the week of our spring break volunteering there. I buy locally whenever possible, frequenting the farmer’s market nearly every Sunday morning. I am far more cognizant of my environmental impact and encourage others to make simple lifestyle changes that minimize their carbon footprint. This perspective has helped shaped my future goals. If we all make just a few habit changes, how significantly could we impact the environment? How could we measure that impact? Realistically, my volunteering at my local organic farm and environmentally friendly diet alterations will have a functionally low impact on the Earth. But what if it weren’t just the handful of people who are well-acquainted with sustainability? In college, I plan to take my passion to the next level. I am eager to continue to expand my reach from personal, to hometown, to campuswide initiatives and beyond. When applying to college, I ensured that every school on my list had some degree of funding for undergraduate environmental research. Many of them have a "campus as a lab" program that will allow me to use my community-focused viewpoint to create further sustainability reform right on campus. I could find ways for campus departments and businesses to reduce their carbon footprint without sacrificing quality or efficiency. The challenge draws me in, and its potential impact implores me to never stop fighting for our planet. Not only will I have the opportunity to advance the school's environmental goals, but I also hope to inspire the individual students to build greener habits that will extend through the rest of their lives.