Joy, to me, is a rush of fulfillment after completing a goal, making a difference in the world, or seeing someone else achieve their own goals in life. Joy means moving forward, rather than staying put. I seek joy by actively trying to find it in the small things in life, not just the big milestones. Joy could also mean different things, depending on the day. Getting out of bed one morning could be the most joyful moment I have that day, and accomplishing something huge could spark joy for me on another. I seek joy by making my life what I want in the moment, but also in the overall picture. Little moments mean everything. One little moment has the potential to make or break a day, and even one day can hold endless meaning in life. I try to savor each moment because of this; however, this doesn't mean I aspire to do something life-altering each moment I can. Making the most out of each moment could mean resting when I feel tired, but could also mean striving to do the best I can in a scholarship competition, or later savoring the moment I learn that I won that competition. All of these moments, big and small, are the meaning of joy for me. No matter what I do, I know that I am doing what is best for me, making the most of this life while I have it. Life is a fragile thing, but it can hold a lot of meaning if it is made meaningful. That thought, more than anything, is what joy means to me, and it is also the mantra I live by in order to seek joy. Using each moment to its full potential is what joy is truly about.

I am a mountain range: I fall in some places, but peak in others. Not only that, but I am a lively mountain range, host to a fascinating world as I stand mighty like a sentinel. My peaks are areas in which I reveal my best self: art, earth sciences, environmentalism and writing. My falls are areas in which I now fight to rise up, despite struggling in the past: math and public speaking. I fall a lot, but I come right back up to form new peaks after working even harder than before to achieve them. I am a strong mountain range, and I plan to stay this way.

I use a few key study strategies to learn new information and achieve academic success. First and foremost, I use acronyms to learn information that I know I will need to list consecutively on a test. I imagine a coherent thought that uses the first letters of each of the terms I need to learn. For example, during an Econ course I had to learn the four factors of production, Land, Labor, Capital and Entrepreneurs. This is a short list, but I still created an acronym for it in order to absorb the information completely: Little Lizards Climb Everything. I used acronyms to learn much of the material involved in that course and earned an A+ that I owe in part to this strategy. Secondly, if I am writing more than one paragraph for a study material, I first write a rough draft that includes all of the necessary information. Then, I return to the entry to highlight all of the absolutely necessary terms within and eliminate any filler. Then, I write down the information again, but using only the highlighted words. This makes my study materials shorter, more concise, and thus, more quickly processed, ensuring that I know everything to a T. Lastly, I rewrite my notes, sometimes multiple times, to learn all the information I may need. This may be a common strategy, but there is an extra detail that I personally believe maximizes its impact. As I rewrite, I reword my original notes in subtle, but recognizable ways, regardless of any editing I have done already. As a result of new wording changes, the material I apply this strategy to sticks with me even more. I find this strategy especially helpful while studying detailed information, as it makes even large blocks of text easy to process.

It took a while for me to decide what my vision for the future was. As a child, I aspired to be several things: first, a cat (I was three), then a veterinarian, then, for a long time, a journalist. Then, my junior year of high school, I took a science course that changed everything, and I soon realized that my newly-intensified love for science had, unbeknownst to me at first, opened up many new windows for me. Now, nearing the end of my senior year, I know that my true passion and career dream is to work in environmental science. Finding the best solutions to conserve resources and discovering new ways to reduce the human footprint is what I see myself doing further down the road, and for, I suspect, the remainder of my adult life. What exact authority I will work under remains a gray area, but I do know that first, for the duration of college at least, I want to secure an internship as a steward on a natural reserve in order to gain meaningful experience within the field. Then, after I obtain my degree, I wish to go into natural resource management, or become an environmental consultant, conservation officer, or even an environmental engineer. My plans may fluctuate in the future, but I know for a fact that my objective will stay the same: to harness my passion for conservation and the environment in order to make a difference. Not only will I be able to make a career out of an issue that is very important to me, and an increasingly relevant one, at that, but I also will be able to spend each moment purely happy at my ability to improve the future of the world.

Doing what I am passionate about—creating paintings, drawings, collages, and sculptures—makes me happy. Showing love for those I care about also makes me happy. Sometimes I combine my love for creating things with my motivation to show love for those I care about. I have found a variety of ways to do this, whether it means painting a sprawling sea of wildflowers for my significant other, sculpting a jewel-toned vase for my friend's new plant, or sketching bright little cartoons of goofy animals for my grandmother. Producing something from nothing with paint, pen, glue, clay, clippings, and anything in-between makes me happy, especially when I set out to use my passion for creating in order to show love for those I care about. I am confident there is no better feeling in the world than embracing both those I care about and the things I am passionate about creating. I love using my passion to spread joy. Setting off to meet the different creative goals I have made for myself is all the more worth it when I am also pursuing those goals for those I care about. My ability to create and to show love to those I care about through creating are factors that both make me incredibly happy.