My biggest dream for the future is to become a nurse so that I can help others be the best people they can be. I have grown up with a mom who has been a nurse for almost 30 years and she has shown me that throughout her day she helps so many people. This is the kind of job I would love to have, a job that allows me to serve others in so many functions. Not only has my mother's career shaped my future goals, my dad's struggles have also shaped them. My dad was born with a condition known as MELAS which is a progressive disorder that slowly strips the independence from a person in so many ways. I have watched him be so strong through it all as I have helped him regain what independence he can. Because of all he has been through he has inspired me to help people who are going through the same through my future career in nursing. As a nurse, I would be able to help people like my dad and hopefully make a difference in their lives. Because of these things I have been able to clearly see that I was made for a career in nursing and now I can't wait to see how my life changes for the better because of it.

Ever since I was a little kid I have always had an interest in healthcare, no matter what my dream job was it always had something to do with helping others. This is why I continue to strive to achieve a career in nursing. My mom has been a registered nurse for 30 years and has always encouraged me to find a career helping others. Not only would I like to become a registered nurse but eventually a nurse practitioner as well. I plan on achieving this through a college education. I will graduate in a year and a half and then I will go onto college, at either University of Mary Hardin Baylor or Texas Tech. At one of these colleges, I would complete my Bachelor of Science in Nursing and possibly a Bachelor in the Spanish language. Once I finish college I would work for 2 years and then return to school to complete my master's degree and secure my APRN license. These are my future goals and I hope you will help me achieve them.

This past summer I had the opportunity to serve at Camp Blessing Texas a summer camp for children who struggle with disabilities. Camp Blessing's mission is to give children with disabilities the ability to have a traditional camp experience no matter the abilities they have. I was given the role of camp counselor meaning that I was tasked with caring for a camper for the entire week. My camper's name was Myah, a very adventurous brave 10-year-old girl with down syndrome. My favorite memory of my time at camp blessing this summer was the last night which is the time that we perform cross to carry. During cross carry each cabin team will pray while holding a cross. Cross carry is known for being a very emotional night for all campers because it is where the gospel is presented at the end of the week. When it was our cabin's turn with the cross and many of our campers started crying because they had felt so loved over the week and now they were gonna go home and leave the loving community that they had come to love. My most significant takeaway was how much I learned about the minds of people who struggle with disabilities. My whole life the Special education students were always the kids in wheelchairs in the back of the classroom who never had to do any work. Public school always made it seem like they were not capable of having such complex thoughts and emotions. But when I went camping BlessingI saw the complete opposite. I saw kids who were just like normal kids with real complex thoughts and emotions that they were trying to understand themselves. I had so many deep conversations with campers about things going on at home, and I would often realize that not only were these kids going through so many things I never could have imagined but they were also going through all of these things with a smile on their face. Even though many of their home lives were crumbling whether it be parents getting divorced, bullying from kids at school, and so much more they were picking themselves up and just wanting to keep having fun. I will forever cherish the lessons I learned at camp blessing and I hope to return and serve there again.

One way that I try to have a positive impact on the world is by showing love and kindness to others no matter how much I know them or what they have done in their past. This is one thing that I have grown up learning in the church. The church has taught me that we are all broken and none of us deserve to be put on a pedestal because none of us are perfect. This world is so full of hate and judgement when it should be filled with love an acceptance. I have watched our world over the past 2 years collapse into pure chaos with people separating from others for political reasons. This is not what we should be, just because we have the right to our own opinions does not mean that another person is entitled to follow your beliefs just as you are not entitled to follow theirs. Why is this world so full of hate. We should be standing together in this time of worldwide need, so what's stoping each person from joining together for the sake of humanity?

The human species is a species geared for the community, this is why public gatherings have been such a big thing this year. Over the generations we have created hundreds of public gatherings in order to see others, some of these include concerts, fairs, carnivals, amusement parks and so much more. The human brain is wired for face-to-face interpersonal relationships. When COVID started we were stripped of the thing that keeps our mental sanity afloat. People are now stuck in their homes not even able to go outside never the less to see others and be able to talk about those hard topics. Even with COVID, we should not be completely stripped of all communication social distancing is a way to meet with others and still have face-to-face interactions while also preventing the spread of COVID. Masks have also proven useful in preventing the spread of COVID and still give us the ability to see and talk to others. There is only one way that this solution could truly work is if we broke down the stigma around mental illness. In 2020 this stigma began to break but is not fully broken. Why is a worldwide issue that affects almost every person on the face of the earth such a taboo topic that no one cares to talk about? Continuing this stigma is further damaging the mental stability of this world because it causes people to bottle up these strong emotions. Let's take down this stigma and start talking to others about the things that cause the decline of our mental health and get this world back to the happy world it should be.

My whole life I have always been a happy person but one thing has always been the greatest source of happiness in my life and that is my friends. Even though throughout my life my friends have come and gone no matter who they are they never fail to lift my spirits. Whenever my depression and anxiety start to get the better of me all I have to do is call up one of my friends and they will help me through it. That is why they make me so happy because I can rely on them in times of need when I don't know what to do, or even when I am bored and just need someone to talk to. I cherish my friends more than any other person in this world and I will continue to love and cherish the happy moments that I have and will have for the rest of my life.

Hi my name is Hannah Remus and I am 16 years old living in Austin Texas. I plan to make a positive impact on the world through my future career path in nursing. Through my career in nursing I will be able to help all people no matter their race, shape or size. I think there are 2 reasons that I have chosen a career in nursing and they each have to do with my parents. My mom has always been an influence in my life and one thing she has always taught me is to care for others. She has been a nurse for almost 30 years and works in administration for a non-profit hospice administration. Throughout my life my mom has always taught me to put other above myself and that is exactly what I would be doing as a nurse. As a nurse I would be able to show my patients the love and care that they deserve so that they may return to positive state of health. Anthough my mom has made a great impact my dad has made the greatest impact on my life. My dad has suffered from an extremely rare condition called MELAS (Mitochondrial Encephalopathy, Lactic Acidosis, and Stroke-Like episodes) his entire life. MELAS causes the mitochondria in the body to slowly become diseased and not function properly, which can cause a serious problem when his body is trying to produce muscle. His body also produces very high amounts of lactic acidosis which means that his body is breaking down the muscles that he had already built. All of this adds up to give him stroke like symptoms which include balance deficits, progressive hearing and vision loss, and eventually memory deficits. Even though my dad has endured so much in his life the hardest thing for him and the rest of my family is his extreme progressive loss of independence. When I was a kid my dad could drive, read us books, cook us dinner and do so many things any other dad could. But now he has had his license taken away cannot see or hear enough to read, and cannot even teach anymore. He has also lost everyone in his family to his disease, but he has done it all with a smile on his face. Even through this ongoing trial for my family me my brother and my mom have done everything we can to help his keep the little independence he has left. He is my biggest inspiration to go into healthcare so that I can help people like him who have lost their independence because of a health condition they had no control over.

My best skill is my ability to pick up languages. When I was 5 years old, my parents placed me in a program called the duo language program. The program starts at the age of 5 with kindergarten-aged kids and continues through their time in elementary school. I was in the second year of the program, but it was very successful in allowing me to become bilingual. Since I completed the program I have completely finished all of the Spanish classes in my high school and was looking for something else to learn. I then decided to start trying to learn another language and decided to try learning American Sign Language. I've loved learning sign language because it has opened me up to a whole new world that I would have never been able to connect with before. I will continue to improve this skill throughout my life as I continue to try to learn more languages and connect with more people.

On my first day of kindergarten, I was sitting in the car on the first day of school. When we pulled up to the curb, I asked my mom, "can you drop me off here, I know where my class is". Ever since I can remember I have always been very independent, and I'm sure my family can say the same thing. Being independent to me is being able to be my own person outside of my family, which increases my self-esteem. Ever since I was little I have always been known as my mother's daughter, not as my own person. My independence gives people a chance to get to know me as a person before they meet my family. There are very few people that see me outside of my mother's world and it gives me the joy to know that there is someone out there that knows me for me. That is why I want to move farther away from home. I want to find a place where people do not know my parents, but they know me. Being independent in the future gives me confidence in myself and I cant wait for that part of my life to start.

Something that I love about myself is my ability to speak 2 languages. I learned to speak English and Spanish at the same time starting in kindergarten and because of that, I have been able to have conversations with people I could have never talked to. There was also another instance this past time when I attended a mission trip to Piedras Negras. My job this time was as a translator for the nurses. One lady came up to us and kept speaking of her children that we needed to help. She had not brought them so we kept asking her to bring them. But when she refused and asked me and a nurse to come to her house to help them we agreed. I drove to her home where there we multiple families living in one including 2 infants and multiple other young kids while the flu was spreading rapidly. Her infant was having trouble breathing and our pediatric nurse diagnosed asthma and was able to explain how to take care of her. I was later able to talk to the mother and hear more about her life and the things that she had been through. She had been through so much and I was so glad to not only help them physically but to be able to connect with her emotionally. I am so grateful to be able to connect with others and to get to connect with them on a deeper level than I ever would have.

My favorite scientist is Sir Roy Calne, who founded the idea of organ transplantation. 95 organ transplants happen every day and in turn, 95 lives are given a second chance at life. Because of Calne's discovery, he's created a way to increase life expectancy and give people in unfortunate situations a way to gain a second chance.

Someone I admire from history is Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to ever earn a medical degree. Blackwell was born in England in 1821 and was born into a long line of activists. Elizabeth was inspired to strive for a degree in medicine when she experienced the loss of a friend. She was informed by a friend that if her physician had been a female, he probably would have survived. Elizabeth fought to overcome the limits placed on women in society and succeeded in becoming the first woman to gain her medical degree. Elizabeth Blackwell is my inspiration every day to not let anything stand in the way of reaching your dreams. Even today, the medical field is still a male-dominated field. I hope to overcome those obstacles just like Blackwell did. Ever since I was little I always dreamt of joining the medical field, but have always been told that I have to strive for higher positions in order to gain respect from male colleagues. Even now, men dominate the upper positions in the medical field. For instance, 64 percent of doctors are men, while lower-level positions such as nurses are 91 percent female-dominated. This is why I admire Elizabeth Blackwell because even in the face of extreme male domination and societal pressure to fit into a specific sphere, she overcame it all. She not only did, but she became a famous woman of history and has surely inspired millions of women to follow in her footsteps. Now, because of Blackwell's legacy, women can feel that they can pursue any position without fear.

As I have grown up I have always dreamed about my future and my next phase of life. Whenever I think about my dream life, the first thing I think about is my job. My dram job would be a pediatric nurse practitioner. I find so much joy not only in helping people but especially in getting to see little kids happy and healthy. Getting to see kids go from sickness to health sounds like the greatest job in the world. Another aspect of my life that I have always dreamed about is my family. My dream family would be my husband, and 3 kids of my own and adopt one. Just life my dream job, my dream home life is full of kids. I would love to adopt a child to bring them from an unfortunate situation and bring them into a loving and accepting family. I would also be involved in trips to latin american countries to provide support to the people who are not as fortunate as I am.

My mom is always telling me to take care of my finances, and always make sure I am financially stable. One of the best lessons she ever taught me on financial stability is the 80-10-10 rule. The 80-10-10 rule is a budgeting tip that accounts for many different aspects of spending and saving. To use the rule, first, you take your monthly income and take out 10% to place in savings. You do not use the money in your savings unless you have to. Then you take 10% and give it to charity. Charity could be your local church, a homeless shelter, or any place where you are giving money to others without expecting anything in return. Finally, you have 80% of your income to use, starting with bills and mandatory expenses. Make sure you pay your bills first so that you do not run out of money. Whatever you have left after all of this is yours to spend on whatever you please. This has been the most rewarding lesson because I always know what I truly have to spend.