“You know you’re not gonna make any money right?” “I don’t know why you would willingly be a teacher that’s too stressful and not worth it.” The first things you hear when telling people you’re majoring in music education. What a lot of people don’t think about is doing a job despite the amount of money you make. “If you love what you do, you’ll never feel like you’re working.” Something my youth pastor told me that has stuck with me. Throughout high school and beginning college, I have participated in many school and community service activities through church, National Beta Club, and National Honor Society. Through these programs I have had the opportunity to provide service in things like Angel League (special needs) baseball games, Wreaths Across America, Vacation Bible School, donating and helping in our local food pantry, serving in our schools coffee shop, and more. I also started a food pantry at my church, and later a clothes pantry as well that has grown throughout the years, and I still help with them both today. I have played piano almost my entire life, and I have played flute and percussion throughout middle and high school. Since starting piano, I have earned many piano awards and certificates through competitions like Guild, and various piano festivals and performances. I made the All-Region band on flute, and have performed all 4 years of high school in band on piano in the front ensemble, marimba, and flute. I was a section leader of percussion my junior and senior year of high school, and I now participate in the Patriot Drum Line here at UT Tyler. In my passion for music, I hope to influence kids and show them the love and kindness that they might not get anywhere else by being a music teacher. Building a relationship with students as I teach them and share my love for music is a huge goal of mine, and why I am furthering my education to earn a music education degree. The lack of teachers there are today has really pushed me to achieve my goal in making a positive impact in as many kids’ lives as I can. I have always loved kids, and had a strong passion for music, so putting the two together is something I can not wait to do. Through my music, I hope to show kids a sort of “safe place” or “escape” from the crazy world we live in today, and give them the fun and happiness that is sometimes hard to find in their own lives. The reward of doing something you love while encouraging others and teaching them new skills that they will hopefully fall in love with too is much more rewarding than any amount of money I will make. So even though I won’t be a millionaire, and I’ll face hardships throughout my life, do I want to try and “struggle” through music education? Challenge accepted.

“You know you’re not gonna make any money right?” “I don’t know why you would willingly be a teacher that’s too stressful and not worth it.” The first things you hear when telling people you’re majoring in music education. What a lot of people don’t think about is doing a job despite the amount of money you make. “If you love what you do, you’ll never feel like you’re working.” Something my youth pastor told me that has stuck with me. Throughout high school and beginning college, I have participated in many school and community service activities through church, National Beta Club, and National Honor Society. Through these programs I have had the opportunity to provide service in things like Angel League (special needs) baseball games, Wreaths Across America, Vacation Bible School, donating and helping in our local food pantry, serving in our schools coffee shop, and more. I also started a food pantry at my church, and later a clothes pantry as well that has grown throughout the years, and I still help with them both today. I have played piano almost my entire life, and I have played flute and percussion throughout middle and high school. Since starting piano, I have earned many piano awards and certificates through competitions like Guild, and various piano festivals and performances. I made the All-Region band on flute, and have performed all 4 years of high school in band on piano in the front ensemble, marimba, and flute. I was a section leader of percussion my junior and senior year of high school, and I now participate in the Patriot Drum Line here at UT Tyler. In my passion for music, I hope to influence kids and show them the love and kindness that they might not get anywhere else by being a music teacher. Building a relationship with students as I teach them and share my love for music is a huge goal of mine, and why I am furthering my education to earn a music education degree. The lack of teachers there are today has really pushed me to achieve my goal in making a positive impact in as many kids’ lives as I can. I have always loved kids, and had a strong passion for music, so putting the two together is something I can not wait to do. Through my music, I hope to show kids a sort of “safe place” or “escape” from the crazy world we live in today, and give them the fun and happiness that is sometimes hard to find in their own lives. The reward of doing something you love while encouraging others and teaching them new skills that they will hopefully fall in love with too is much more rewarding than any amount of money I will make. So even though I won’t be a millionaire, and I’ll face hardships throughout my life, do I want to try and “struggle” through music education? Challenge accepted.

“You know you’re not gonna make any money right?” “I don’t know why you would willingly be a teacher that’s too stressful and not worth it.” The first things you hear when telling people you’re majoring in music education. What a lot of people don’t think about is doing a job despite the amount of money you make. “If you love what you do, you’ll never feel like you’re working.” Something my youth pastor told me that has stuck with me. Throughout high school and beginning college, I have participated in many school and community service activities through church, National Beta Club, and National Honor Society. Through these programs I have had the opportunity to provide service in things like Angel League (special needs) baseball games, Wreaths Across America, Vacation Bible School, donating and helping in our local food pantry, serving in our schools coffee shop, and more. I also started a food pantry at my church, and later a clothes pantry as well that has grown throughout the years, and I still help with them both today. I have played piano almost my entire life, and I have played flute and percussion throughout middle and high school. Since starting piano, I have earned many piano awards and certificates through competitions like Guild, and various piano festivals and performances. I made the All-Region band on flute, and have performed all 4 years of high school in band on piano in the front ensemble, marimba, and flute. I was a section leader of percussion my junior and senior year of high school, and I now participate in the Patriot Drum Line here at UT Tyler. In my passion for music, I hope to influence kids and show them the love and kindness that they might not get anywhere else by being a music teacher. Building a relationship with students as I teach them and share my love for music is a huge goal of mine, and why I am furthering my education to earn a music education degree. The lack of teachers there are today has really pushed me to achieve my goal in making a positive impact in as many kids’ lives as I can. I have always loved kids, and had a strong passion for music, so putting the two together is something I can not wait to do. Through my music, I hope to show kids a sort of “safe place” or “escape” from the crazy world we live in today, and give them the fun and happiness that is sometimes hard to find in their own lives. The reward of doing something you love while encouraging others and teaching them new skills that they will hopefully fall in love with too is much more rewarding than any amount of money I will make. So even though I won’t be a millionaire, and I’ll face hardships throughout my life, do I want to try and “struggle” through music education? Challenge accepted

Tangled is my favorite Disney Princess movie. My family and I are huge Disney fans and ever since that movie came out, I have been in love with it and have probably watched it about a thousand times. I am a music education major so the soundtrack, that I often have on repeat, and just everything about that movie is so entertaining and captivating to me. With that being said, my favorite Disney character is Rapunzel. Rapunzel's character represents a strong girl who discovers herself and her life through trying new things and overcoming her fears. I feel like I relate to her during this time of my life, because I just started college and I am beginning to discover "a whole new world" (I know it's a different movie, but I still like it) while discovering my life as an adult on my own. Through the movie she grows to be more comfortable with trying new things and taking risks after leaving the castle, and I feel like that is almost a direct representation of my life right now as I leave my house to live at college. Rapunzel is such a sweet, charismatic character that people are just drawn to. She truly helps everyone she encounters in the movie in some form or fashion, and that really inspires me to be that person to everyone I meet in my daily life. Her bubbly and selfless personality throughout her journey of finding herself makes her character so lovable and an example of the way we should live our lives. (Not to mention she also has the cutest sidekick.. like ever.) I want to "Go. Live my dream" instead of saying "let's just assume everyone here doesn't like me," and have "the best day ever" because when moving to college, "all at once, everything is different" and "now's when my life begins."

“You know you’re not gonna make any money right?” “I don’t know why you would willingly be a teacher that’s too stressful and not worth it.” The first things you hear when telling people you’re majoring in music education. What a lot of people don’t think about is doing a job despite the amount of money you make. “If you love what you do, you’ll never feel like you’re working.” Something my youth pastor told me that has stuck with me. I have played piano almost my entire life, and I have played flute and percussion throughout middle and high school. In my passion for music, I hope to influence kids and show them the love and kindness that they might not get anywhere else by being a music teacher. Building a relationship with students as I teach them and share my love for music is a huge goal of mine, and why I am furthering my education to earn a music education degree. Not only will I be teaching them, but I’ll be learning from them as well. I hope to grow as a teacher and musician, learning from my students. Learning is so important to me because it helps us to find out passion and purpose in life. By learning music and different instruments, I was able to fall in love with it and discover my passion. I hope that learning something new will do the same for all of my future students whether it’s in my class or not. The lack of teachers there are today has really pushed me to achieve my goal in making a positive impact in as many kids’ lives as I can. I have always loved kids, and had a strong passion for music, so putting the two together is something I can not wait to do. Through my music, I hope to show kids a sort of “safe place” or “escape” from the crazy world we live in today, and give them the fun and happiness that is sometimes hard to find in their own lives. The reward of doing something you love while encouraging others and teaching them new skills that they will hopefully fall in love with too is much more rewarding than any amount of money I will make. So even though won’t be a millionaire and I’ll face hardships throughout my life, do I want to try and “struggle” through music education? Challenge accepted.

I have always wanted that amazing feeling I see in videos of people absolutely crushing it at the gym. To see the excitement and joy people get when they conquer their goals or exceed their expectations has inspired me. Throughout high school, I never worked out much because I didn't have much extra money to spend, so I couldn't get a gym membership, and I never had the motivation to work out at home or around my family. I am paying for college on my own, so I try to save every penny I am able to. Now that I have started college, we have access to the gym every day of the week. I have started going whenever I can to strengthen my body, get in shape, and use it as a time to focus on myself. I just started college and I am so pumped for all of the new people I will meet, learning how to improve my physical, mental, and spiritual state through classes, the gym, school clubs, and church. I know that taking better care of my body while going through college is going to give me a whole new level of appreciation for myself as I push myself past my limits, and help me as I learn how to be an adult. It will also help me with time management and organization as I learn to balance time between classes, extra curricular, the gym, and anything in between. I have also payed more attention to the food I eat to further strengthen and help my body to become healthier than it ever has been throughout the learning curve and stress of the first year of college. Along with focusing on health to my physical body, I am giving myself a quiet time every night away from my phone and all distractions to really wind down and truly dive in to my devotionals and reading my Bible. This is really helping me to maintain a healthy mind and soul by helping me grow in my faith, and learning more every day. This helps give me a firm foundation and safe place when I am struggling through anything, whether it's school or personal related, and helps me to connect with others going through similar struggles. Giving myself time to better my body, mind, and soul in all the chaos of this new chapter in my life has helped me grow more than ever before, and I can't wait to see where I will be in the future!

I have always wanted that amazing feeling I see in videos of people absolutely crushing it at the gym. To see the excitement and joy people get when they conquer their goals or exceed their expectations has inspired me. Throughout high school, I never worked out much because I didn't have much extra money to spend, so I couldn't get a gym membership, and I never had the motivation to work out at home or around my family. I am paying for college on my own, so I try to save every penny I am able to. Now that I have started college, we have access to the gym every day of the week. I have started going whenever I can to strengthen my body, get in shape, and use it as a time to focus on myself. I just started college and I am so pumped for all of the new people I will meet, learning how to improve my physical, mental, and spiritual state through classes, the gym, school clubs, and church. I know that taking better care of my body while going through college is going to give me a whole new level of appreciation for myself as I push myself past my limits, and help me as I learn how to be an adult. It will also help me with time management and organization as I learn to balance time between classes, extra curricular, the gym, and anything in between. I have also payed more attention to the food I eat to further strengthen and help my body to become healthier than it ever has been throughout the learning curve and stress of the first year of college. Along with focusing on health to my physical body, I am giving myself a quiet time every night away from my phone and all distractions to really wind down and truly dive in to my devotionals and reading my Bible. This is really helping me to maintain a healthy mind and soul by helping me grow in my faith, and learning more every day. This helps give me a firm foundation and safe place when I am struggling through anything, whether it's school or personal related, and helps me to connect with others going through similar struggles. Giving myself time to better my body, mind, and soul in all the chaos of this new chapter in my life has helped me grow more than ever before, and I can't wait to see where I will be in the future!

I have been so blessed to have pets my entire life. My family has had multiple dogs through the years, and I have loved them all since the day I was born. There are many videos of me lying in a wagon as a baby laughing and playing as our dogs tried to climb in with me and play or running around the yard doing everything with them. When I was about 9 years old, I begged and begged my parents to have a dog of my own because I was in love with chocolate labs, and for my birthday I got surprised with a trip to pick out a puppy, my sweet Hershey. From the moment I got him I would not leave his side and he quickly turned into a lap dog (which I can’t completely say is not my fault). I believe that he has taught me so much about love and happiness and has shaped me into the person I am today. No matter what, Hershey is just always happy to be alive no matter what. He is such a loyal and kind dog and I have learned to be the same to others. By watching his happy, care-free attitude, I have learned to implement those attitudes into my life. I strive everyday to make the most out of every situation and to always have a positive outlook on life. Hershey has taught me to love deeply and show kindness to everyone from your closest friends to the farthest strangers. He has shown me to not be afraid of anything (except thunderstorms and lightning), to be loyal to the people you care about, and to always be there when they need you. One of my favorite things my dog has taught me is the importance of laughter. Hershey never fails to make me laugh when he climbs straight to my lap even though he is 8 years old and is definitely over weight (but don’t tell him that), or when he jumps in his water bowl outside and falls asleep in it, or when I try to put him in anything and watch him struggle to immediately rip it off both him and our other dog Punkin, as if to say “No way I am wearing that do I look like a Barbie doll to you? Punkin let me do you a favor and help you get that off!” I am so grateful to have the most amazing dog and best partner in crime who has taught me so many lessons and shaped me for the better. Through him I have learned some of the most valuable lessons such as love, loyalty, laughter, and pure joy that I try to implement in my everyday life and show to everyone I meet. Sadly, my dogs got out during a storm about a week ago and we have looked everywhere for them, with no luck. Losing them has made me realize just how important they were to our family and the countless laughs and lessons we got from them. Hopefully soon we will find them and our family will feel complete again.

I have always wanted that amazing feeling I see in videos of people absolutely crushing it at the gym. To see the excitement and joy people get when they conquer their goals or exceed their expectations has inspired me. Throughout high school, I never worked out much because I didn't have much extra money to spend, so I couldn't get a gym membership, and I never had the motivation to work out at home or around my family. I am paying for college on my own, so I try to save every penny I am able to. Now that I have started college, we have access to the gym every day of the week. I have started going whenever I can to strengthen my body, get in shape, and use it as a time to focus on myself. I just started college and I am so pumped for all of the new people I will meet, learning how to improve my physical, mental, and spiritual state through classes, the gym, school clubs, and church. I know that taking better care of my body while going through college is going to give me a whole new level of appreciation for myself as I push myself past my limits, and help me as I learn how to be an adult. It will also help me with time management and organization as I learn to balance time between classes, extra curricular, the gym, and anything in between. I have also payed more attention to the food I eat to further strengthen and help my body to become healthier than it ever has been throughout the learning curve and stress of the first year of college. Along with focusing on health to my physical body, I am giving myself a quiet time every night away from my phone and all distractions to really wind down and truly dive in to my devotionals and reading my Bible. This is really helping me to maintain a healthy mind and soul by helping me grow in my faith, and learning more every day. This helps give me a firm foundation and safe place when I am struggling through anything, whether it's school or personal related, and helps me to connect with others going through similar struggles. Giving myself time to better my body, mind, and soul in all the chaos of this new chapter in my life has helped me grow more than ever before, and I can't wait to see where I will be in the future!

“You know you’re not gonna make any money right?” “I don’t know why you would willingly be a teacher that’s too stressful and not worth it.” The first things you hear when telling people you’re majoring in music education. What a lot of people don’t think about is doing a job despite the amount of money you make. “If you love what you do, you’ll never feel like you’re working.” Something my youth pastor told me that has stuck with me. I have played piano almost my entire life, and I have played flute and percussion throughout middle and high school. In my passion for music, I hope to influence kids and show them the love and kindness that they might not get anywhere else by being a music teacher. Building a relationship with students as I teach them and share my love for music is a huge goal of mine, and why I am furthering my education to earn a music education degree. The lack of teachers there are today has really pushed me to achieve my goal in making a positive impact in as many kids’ lives as I can. I have always loved kids, and had a strong passion for music, so putting the two together is something I can not wait to do. Through my music, I hope to show kids a sort of “safe place” or “escape” from the crazy world we live in today, and give them the fun and happiness that is sometimes hard to find in their own lives. The reward of doing something you love while encouraging others and teaching them new skills that they will hopefully fall in love with too is much more rewarding than any amount of money I will make. So even though won’t be a millionaire and I’ll face hardships throughout my life, do I want to try and “struggle” through music education? Challenge accepted.

“You know you’re not gonna make any money right?” “I don’t know why you would willingly be a teacher that’s too stressful and not worth it.” The first things you hear when telling people you’re majoring in music education. What a lot of people don’t think about is doing a job despite the amount of money you make. “If you love what you do, you’ll never feel like you’re working.” Something my youth pastor told me that has stuck with me. I have played piano almost my entire life, and I have played flute and percussion throughout middle and high school. In my passion for music, I hope to influence kids and show them the love and kindness that they might not get anywhere else by being a music teacher. Building a relationship with students as I teach them and share my love for music is a huge goal of mine, and why I am furthering my education to earn a music education degree. The lack of teachers there are today has really pushed me to achieve my goal in making a positive impact in as many kids’ lives as I can. I have always loved kids, and had a strong passion for music, so putting the two together is something I can not wait to do. Through my music, I hope to show kids a sort of “safe place” or “escape” from the crazy world we live in today, and give them the fun and happiness that is sometimes hard to find in their own lives. The reward of doing something you love while encouraging others and teaching them new skills that they will hopefully fall in love with too is much more rewarding than any amount of money I will make. So even though won’t be a millionaire and I’ll face hardships throughout my life, do I want to try and “struggle” through music education? Challenge accepted.

Since the day I was born, I was attached to my Mee Maw at the hip. She was the most loving and caring person, and never knew a stranger. She attracted kids like a magnet with her compassionate and fun personality. As my biggest role model, my Mee Maw spent most of her life around kids and made it her goal to show every kid she met kindness and love. When I was younger, I spent most of my time with her playing teacher, watching my favorite shows, or going on adventures with her everywhere. She was always willing and excited to play whatever roll I wanted her to take on in the current game I was playing. Whether I needed her to be the principal, the lunch lady, the nurse, or anything in between, she was always the best at it. She called almost every day to talk to me for what felt like hours, she would bring me special “treats” or come pick me up from school. If you could describe the most caring and joyful soul, my Mee Maw would be the perfect definition. A few years ago when I was beginning high school, she had been in and out of the hospital for different sicknesses like Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Cancer. I was scared to see her in the hospital because the thought of seeing her sick terrified me. I was always almost hesitant to go because I have a huge fear of the hospital, especially when I saw my favorite person sick, but I wanted to see her every chance that I could. After being in and out of the hospital she got worse and worse until she eventually passed around Christmas. Not only did she pass during the holidays, but the last time I was allowed to go to the hospital, I didn’t go because I thought she would be home soon and I was so terrified every time I walked in to the hospital. I was going to go see her as soon as she came home in the next few days, until I found out I couldn’t. Hearing my mom cry over the phone at the hospital to tell me the news was the worst struggle of words I have ever heard in my life. As I was barely in to high school, the thought of all the things she wouldn’t be there for absolutely crushed me. The thought that I wouldn’t have her to call whenever I wanted or go drive down the road to her house when I got my license, she wouldn’t see me graduate or get married. I felt like I had lost my best friend. I was supposed to sing at her funeral, but couldn’t make it through. I’m usually not much of a person to cry, but I just couldn’t get myself together, and I tried to keep myself in the background so nobody would notice. As my biggest role model, losing my Mee Maw made me realize just how much she had taught me and the most important things in my life. I am going to college to be a teacher because, like her, I have always had such a love for kids and teaching. I want to show everyone the amount of love and care that she did. I want to “fight” to achieve my goal of becoming a teacher and never knowing a stranger. In the crazy and evil things in the world today, I want to be someone’s person that my Mee Maw was to me. Despite the hardships in her personal life, she was always so kind and giving, and I want to be just like her. Since her passing I have lost two more grandparents, my Big Daddy the following January to skin and brain cancer, and my Pa-paw in January a couple years later. Despite the hard days that I think about them and miss them more than anything, I fight through the pain and continue to show others love and compassion in my everyday life to show everything they stood for. As the financial part of college will be challenging, as I am paying by myself, I will strive to achieve my goal of becoming a teacher, and living out the life that I know my Mee Maw would be proud of.

I have heard of so many people telling horror stories of paying off loans their entire lives, and I want to do anything and everything I can to not be the next horror story. I plan to pursue further education at University of Texas at Tyler as a music education major, and I will be paying for college on my own. My dad does not like the idea of me going to college as he did not go and says that it is not necessary to have a good job. However he is a mechanic and what I am interested requires a degree. My mom just started a job as a high school library assistant so she is not able to help me pay for college because she does not make much money. I will not receive much help from the government because FASFA is based off of 2020 taxes when my mom still made much more money working in home health. I have strived my entire high school career to keep good grades and stay at the top of my class, so I plan to avoid college debt by using the last four years of hard work and community service to earn scholarships and dedicate as much time as I can to filling out scholarship applications and work outside of school. I am a hard worker and determined to achieve my goal of leaving college with no debt, and I will work to get as many scholarships and grants possible. My dad has trained me to know not to owe anyone anything. Everything my dad has bought he has waited and saved until he was able to by the thing all at once, and I want to end up like him, owing nobody anything and being comfortable financially while working hard for anything he gets. I plan to work for every scholarship and extra dollar that I can make in order to avoid taking out loans and end up financially stable all the way through, and coming out of college.

One of my favorite ways to help other people is to be involved in community service. Throughout my senior year so far, I have had the amazing opportunities to help with special needs baseball games, food drives, Wreaths Across America, Youth group, helping young kids, and teaching children's church. I love being around kids so I always take the chance to help out a parent by watching their kids for a while or helping a kid with something they struggle to do on their own. Being involved with the children in my church has been such a fun learning experience for me, while helping others in the process. This along with many other community service events has been my favorite way to help others.