My name is Evangeline Barbee, and I'm going to be majoring in graphic design. Art has always been something incredibly close to my heart, and I've always known I wanted to pursue it as a career. I've been drawing since I was a toddler and could pick up a crayon; my parents encouraged me to keep practicing and honing my skills. I'm very thankful to them for giving me a hard time about practicing when I was younger; without them, I would not be where I am today. I deeply enjoy experiencing other forms of art as well as visual art. My favorite hobbies include listening to music, specifically from the 60s and 70's, learning about said music, reading, and creating my own art. To me, any form of art is important; there is not one "true" way to create art or express yourself. However, the issue of AI "art" has many artists, including myself, concerned and rightfully so. This epidemic of stolen art being fed into a machine to create soulless nonsense that conveys absolutely no true emotion is an issue that not only threatens many artists' livelihoods but also threatens the very essence of humanity. There is nothing quite as frustrating as when others attempt to excuse the usage of AI in creative spaces. Personally, I don't care if you "can't draw," pick up a pencil and learn, and the excuses pertaining to disabilities preventing the creation of art are still completely irrelevant. Beethoven was deaf and still created some of the most renowned musical pieces of his generation, and Monet went blind and still created some of the most beautiful paintings. While my future is threatened by the growing usage of AI, I hope to become a graphic designer who creates from the soul.

My name is Evangeline Barbee, but everyone I know calls me Theo. I’m a senior in high school, and I have a passion for art. I’ve always loved to create, which is why I am planning on pursuing a degree in graphic design. I live in Texas and I have my entire life with my family. My family is very dear to me, but I don’t have much left of them anymore. Cancer has taken more from me than I think I can even know. Last year, my father was diagnosed with cancer. We didn’t know what kind, but we knew it was at least stage four because it had migrated to his liver. He was in and out of the emergency room so often, I felt like I lived alone. When he was home, I couldn’t stand to be around him because all he could do was cry out in pain or vomit. It was extremely hard to watch. However, he was supposed to get better; we had set up an appointment to start chemotherapy, and my mother had taken off work to drive him. The morning of the appointment, my mother wakes me up yelling and panicked, she’s on the phone with 911, and I help her pull my father off the bed so we can do CPR. Then, the ambulance arrives, and I stand off to the side and watch how slow the paramedics are moving. I couldn’t bear to ride in the ambulance with my mother, so I stayed home. I got dressed, cried so hard I threw up, and then called a friend for a ride to the hospital. Once we were there, my mother told me that he didn’t make it. Cancer has taken my father from me and both of his parents. My grandmother died of breast cancer shortly after I was born. I mourn a person I never knew, never got to know. I wonder what life would be like had she survived. Would we get along? I’ll never know. My grandfather had lung cancer when I was younger, but was declared cancer-free. However, when I was ten, his cancer came back. I spent four years truly getting to know him, helping him around the house, making up inside jokes, and watching him die. I still remember the day he died; it was the last day before Christmas break, and my parents kept me home from school. My aunt, uncle, and their children drove up to see him. My aunt held his hand and told him it was okay, and he could be with my grandmother now. Then, he closed his eyes and passed away. My father and grandparents always knew I’d attend college, and I want to follow through. I’ve worked as hard as I could to get to where I am right now. College is the next step for me, and I hope to make a difference with my career. Going to college would not be possible without the preparations made by my father and grandparents. I want to make them proud and study what I love. Cancer has taken the people closest to me, and that has shaped me as a person. I feel that my experience with these challenges has made me stronger and more prepared for whatever college will throw my way. Either way, I know my father and grandparents will be proud of me wherever they are.

I was diagnosed with autism when I was fifteen, much later than most. This finally explained why I had been so alienated from my peers growing up. The thing about being autistic is that everyone can tell but you. Most of my classmates considered me “weird” or “off-putting”; I never understood why. That diagnosis explained so many things. Being autistic has affected every aspect of my life. Social situations were the most obvious as I was growing up, but navigating the world on my own as an adult now has also proven to be difficult. People never assume that I am autistic, so my reactions to loud noises or bright lights always seem odd. Being disabled in a world that does not accommodate me has been hard, but I’ve always found comfort in the people I surround myself with. People who are willing to accommodate me and provide the type of support I need are close to my heart. Recently, I was at the mall with my friends when we were discussing where to eat at the food court. I was already overwhelmed with the noise and the number of people around me, but one of my friends told the rest of the group how much I disliked eating in cafeterias and around many people. She advocated for me when I couldn’t, and that is the type of person I aspire to be. Because of her, we ate at a restaurant which was much quieter than the mall. I’ve always felt like I take up too much space because of my disability, but when people make me feel like I belong, it makes me feel valued. People who are willing to accommodate my disability and make me feel like I belong are the most important kind to me. I hope that I can do the same for others with disabilities like mine. My education, while not focused on disabilities, would enable me to have more of a chance to help others. I’ll always advocate for what I believe in, and one of those beliefs is that people and children with disabilities are severely underrepresented and mistreated in the education system. I will use my position as an educated person to fight for those who never got the chance to be in my position. Underepresented communities are all around us, but many seem to forget that. My goals would be unachievable without the people who have helped me get to where I am. I strive to be one of those people for others with disabilities. Disabled people are just that, people. They are too often treated like an inconvenience, and I want to change that. Accommodations should not just be for school; they should be integrated into our society for the people who need them. We as a society choose to ignore people with disabilities, and I have faced the effects of that mentality personally. There will never be anything that could deter me from advocating for people with disabilities, especially once I have an education and the stability to do so. I will always do what I can to make a positive impact on people in the disabled community. Ultimately, my disability has affected me greatly in my life, and I will stop at nothing to ensure that others with disabilities do not have to face the same challenges in the future. With my education, I have a much better chance of putting plans into action and improving our society. With the efforts of myself and others, I have no doubt that there will be changes made in the future.

Growing up, I always knew I was different, but I never knew why. Then, when I was fifteen, I was diagnosed with Autism. It explained so much. When I was growing up, I was alienated from my peers and even bullied for my differences. It was these challenges that made me stronger and pushed me to pursue higher education. When I was growing up, I was looked at differently from other people my age. I never understood what was so different about me until I got that diagnosis. To me, autism is a disability, but it’s not a fault of mine. If I wasn’t autistic, I doubt I would be as strong and passionate as I am. The strength I have today is because of all the adversity I’ve faced, and I would not be as determined to receive a higher education if not for that. For my entire life, I’ve had some sort of interest in being creative, mainly art. I’ve been continuously drawing since I could hold a pencil. There are crates full of my old sketchbooks that benchmark my progress as an artist and as a person. I found myself through art, I explored my identity and my interests. There has never been anything quite as important to me as art is, which is why it’s my dream to study graphic design in college. I want to pursue a branch of art that is professional but also something that I will enjoy doing. Every time I told someone that I wanted to pursue art as a career, they asked if I had a backup plan. It made me come to terms with the world’s interpretation of art as a hobby, not a career. However, graphic design is everywhere; it’s in advertising, packaging, info-graphics, and so much more. Graphic designers are artists, but they are also corporate office workers. It collides with a lot of people’s ideas of artists. Artistry is not about what you make or how you do it; it only matters that you create from the heart, which is why this career path is so important to me. In every community, there is expression, and art comes with expression. There is nothing I would value more than to bring life and color to my community through art. Using my passion to do things like help advertise the food bank or advocate for more public facilities in our community areas through art are just a few of the things I could do to encourage those both in and outside of my community to build a strong relationship with each other. Community is just that, community. It is nothing without the members of said community working together to improve and better the lives of others around them. A strong community is one that is built on love and understanding. I am a firm believer that nothing good comes from hate. With a formal education in graphic design, I could use those skills to bring people together and put a stop to the hate that prevents us from truly understanding and helping each other. While I am disabled and only one person, I believe that, given the funding for the classes, a higher education in graphic design would empower me to lift up my community using those skills. My goals begin and end with my community, and I want to be proud of my career and environment. I want to be proud of my contributions despite my disability.

A month after my seventeenth birthday, I woke up to my mother begging me to help her perform CPR on my father. He had been battling a rare and aggressive form of cancer, but in no way was his death expected; in fact, his first chemotherapy appointment was that day. My father’s uphill battle with cancer and sudden death changed me forever. When my father first discovered that the tumor was actually cancer, he sat me down and told me he was going to try to make it to my graduation, he didn’t even make it to my senior year. The loss of my father is possibly the most painful experience I’ve ever had to go through. Watching him deteriorate in real time was horrifying, and it changed my outlook on the world as a whole. My father’s death made people tiptoe around me and go silent any time I brought him up. It made me realize that most people do not actually want to support you; they just feel obligated to. They avoid you like the death of a loved one is contagious; it’s not on purpose, it’s just what people do. It taught me to rely on myself, even in the darkest of times. I’m the only person I can truly count on. My father was an English teacher at the high school I attend now; in fact, last school year, he was my teacher for AP Language and Composition. Teaching AP subjects was his true passion, and the pursuit of knowledge was his never-ending mission. He and my mother took summer courses at Oxford University several times, and took every opportunity to expand their understanding of the world. I aspire to be as knowledgeable as my father was. That was his defining trait: he was snarky and loved video games and literature, but everyone could agree that my father was very smart. He made learning enjoyable and gave me motivation to genuinely put effort into learning new things. Losing him isn’t just about losing a father; it’s also about losing a mentor and a teacher. My father was a completely different person from my English teacher, yet at the end of every day, I went home with both of them. My father was incredibly influential in my academic life, but also in my interpersonal relationships. He taught me that when you expect disappointment, you’re never truly disappointed. It’s a bleak outlook, but that’s just who he was. He was never a ‘glass half full’ sort of person; he made sure I understood from a young age just how unfair the world was going to be. I doubt I’d be as independent as I am today without that mentality from him. Self-reliance is one of my biggest strengths, and I have my father to thank for that. I miss my father, my mentor, and my teacher. I know many people do; he affected generations of students, but none of his students have to sit in front of a laptop alone, typing an essay about him. I do, I sit here and think about how he never saw my college acceptance letter, the announcement of my class rank in the top ten, he’ll never see me graduate high school or college, or rent my first apartment, or get married, none of it. My father is gone, and it’s been so hard to accept that he’s gone forever. However, I know he is proud, in his own snarky way, wherever he is. Despite the enormous challenge of his death, I will persevere for myself and my father, protecting his legacy.

Even as a child, I knew I was different; I had always felt like I didn’t quite fit in. As I matured, I went through many labels, yet none of them have felt quite like transgender male. My identity to me is home; it is a connection to my trans brothers, sisters, and siblings. I wouldn’t trade the love of my community for anything in the world. However, the world does not share my love for my identity, which is very frightening. In school and outside of school, I’ve been terrified to be myself for fear of what others would do if they knew I was transgender. I’m one of the lucky ones, and I’ll use that luck to speak out for those who weren’t so lucky. Accessing education can be challenging for transgender individuals, and thankfully, I have not had the worst experiences in school. However, truly being able to learn and focus becomes hard when classmates mutter ugly words at your expense, or talk about you behind your back, or deliberately misgender you. I also have intense fears about being transgender and applying for college; discrimination is everywhere, and I’m terrified to let my identity slip to the wrong person and possibly ruin my chances at a higher education. Living in fear of my future being taken away has had an immense impact on how I view my academic future and educational opportunities. And I hope to see a future in which transgender people are not terrified to pursue an education. I will use my education to be a success story. I will fight for my future, and I will do it for my transgender siblings who are no longer with us, I will do it for my transgender siblings of the future, and most importantly, I will do it for myself. I will succeed for those in my position who couldn’t. My heart shatters every time there is a headline about a transgender person passing away from the hate of someone else. I will use my education to find a job, I will make money to donate as much as I can to transgender charities, and speak up for my transgender siblings. I will do it for those we lost in the headlines and those who did not make the news. Every transgender person is worth everything to me, and I will speak up for them. I will fight for a future where transgender youth do not live in the same fear I do. I hope for a tomorrow with less fear, less violence, and less persecution of transgender individuals who are just trying to live their lives. I have been blessed enough to never have to endure violent discrimination for my identity, but it happens, and it happens often. To live as a person whose identity is being persecuted makes it terrifying to do anything, like pursuing an education. That’s why I will use the privilege I have to fight for those who are not in the same position. I will get an education and use it to be an example that transgender people can succeed; we can and will overcome the hatred of others. I will not let it trap me, nor will I allow my transgender siblings to be trapped any longer.