The wild has called to me; I am determined to respond. As a child, every family vacation we took often involved road trips to National Parks and other tourist landscapes because it was a trip my family could afford. My mom is a single parent and has one child enrolled in college. So, our family often lives from paycheck to paycheck. Even still, this is a very foreign concept from the wealthy suburb I am from. So, when I would speak of my summer vacations in class, I was shamed by my peers for not traveling to a European country or spending countless days at Disney World. Initially, the astonishing scenes of different locations around the nation did not satisfy my childish desire for what I thought to be an exciting vacation compared to my classmates’s adventures. The strenuous hikes up mountains and long paragraphs on historical markers seemed unappealing compared to England and the Magic Kingdom. However, as I got older, it would take a single summer of staying home to open my eyes. I realized how much I adored those vacations. My heels lacked blisters; my thighs didn’t hurt when I climbed upstairs. I missed the brisk breeze from the mountain tops in Rocky Mountain National Park that illustrated the beauty of Colorado in a captivating display of vibrant colored valleys and peaks. I longed to be in the humid depths of Wind Cave National Park, which showcased rare rock formations beneath South Dakota’s surface and the extensive amount of largely uncharted cave networks. I envisioned wading through the Narrows of Zion National Park in Utah, where a path of smooth river rocks met the rigid walls of Zion Canyon and guided me through what felt like endless miles of inviting currents. Suddenly, I felt obligated to protect the delicate nature of different landscapes across the United States. So, in my junior year of high school, I took AP Environmental Science with a surge of eagerness to learn about our natural environments. However, in this class, I discovered that many aspects of our earth’s natural beauties have become endangered. This information sent dread coursing through my body; I immediately imagined the dreary world we could live in should we neglect our incredible landscapes: Zion National Park’s river currents could dry up. Rock formations buried within Wind Cave National Park could disappear. Or the vibrant mountains of Rocky Mountain National Park could be a brown, bare blanket. Even so, my teacher snapped me out of my trance by reminding our class that this event hadn’t occurred yet. He declared that in our very lifetimes, we still have the opportunity to change things, such as saving species from extinction in the foreseeable future and preserving the natural forests that remain on the verge of deforestation. My teacher’s lecture shed light on my deep desire to pursue a career in which I can help make his declaration a reality. Thus, I strongly aspire to major in Natural Resource Management. I have an endless passion for the environment and ensuring its protection. Therefore, pursuing a career within this field would allow me to contribute to the conservation efforts of the United States and be a voice for endangered wildlife without one. By earning this scholarship, there will be more funding to support my pursuit of environmental conservation. Although I may not be able to change the course of the past, I’m determined to do everything I can to maintain the existence of our incredibly unique environment in the future.