As the first daughter in a family of Vietnamese immigrants, my greatest strengths are my gratitude and empathy. I am grateful to live in America, a country that is safe and is full of resources and opportunities to grow and further expand my educational experience. I am able to use the educational opportunities at my current school, the University of Wisconsin - Madison, to further strengthen my mind and academic abilities to achieve my dreams. I am grateful to have a family that prioritizes education and supports me fully, so that my only worries are academic-related. Moreover, I am grateful for my culture and the ability to travel back to my motherland, Vietnam, occasionally during summer breaks from school, which allows me to learn about my roots and adds more richness and beauty into my upbringing and life. Trips to Vietnam are always insightful. As an American, I recognize that America has many things she needs to fix, as the idea of "Liberty and Justice for all" may not be true at all times. However, America is beautiful and has lots of give, and in one way or another, every American resident is privileged, because many of our human rights are considered privileges in other countries, such as Vietnam. One of my favorite quotes is from the Spiderman franchise, which goes, "With great power comes great responsibility." My strengths of gratitude and empathy, and my privilege of strong academic skills are my powers, and I feel the calling to do charity work, ranging from helping my local communities to alleviating poverty and educational and health gaps in Vietnam. My dream occupation is to be a medical physician, and my official journey started as a freshman enrolling in the University of Wisconsin -- Madison as a Biology major on a pre-medicine track. My time here started off on a weak note, consisting of inattention during lectures, inconsistent and restless sleep cycles, and a lack of energy to attend student club organizations and library study sessions. Though I later discovered that a big part of my short attention span was due to my undiagnosed ADHD, a big part of this was due to burnout from my last year of high school. I had a mindset back then to finish high school strong: taking five STEM classes, two humanities classes, and being a leader in two student organizations was the perfect recipe to impress universities. Though this may have worked in getting me a full ride to the twelfth-best public university in the country, this had drained me of the beauty of what it means to learn and be a student: I was merely existing rather than living. This abusive mindset lingered in me throughout sophomore year, as I was too stubborn to change my ways. Reflecting back to this time, it was the most unproductive time in my academic journey. It took me until the middle of junior year of undergraduate to finally get diagnosed for ADHD, and this was accompanied with ADHD medication and accommodations from the university. This greatly aided me in my learning, as my heightened attention span allowed me to connect dots much efficiently. All this time, I always wondered why my peers were learning faster and better than me, while I am stuck in one place. Imposter syndrome consumed me as I compared myself to those sitting in chairs in my classroom, and the syndrome further worsened as I see high school seniors on TikTok, who look more productive than me, getting rejected from my university. However, besides from battling from imposter syndrome and a learning inability, I also had to battle with family fallouts and financial worries. Having a family member you love puts others above you, while still seeing them as a victim is a complex position that allowed me to grow to being a bigger person. My mother was scammed out of about a quarter to half a million dollars during my junior year was the most heart-wrenching experience ever. The scammer was a family friend, who claimed that he needed money to help support his two kids after he broke his leg in a car crash and lost his job at the airport in Chicago. Everyone in my family, myself included, saw that this was a scam, as the average American household does not need a quarter of a million dollars to live. My mother gave the money to this man, calling everyone in the household crazy for saying she is crazy, and thinking she would get the money back. I hated her for being stupid, but my strength of empathy may act as a weakness here: I see her as a victim in this situation. The situation is now long over, and we now live with what we have. Another favorite quote of mine is from C.S Lewis, who said "You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending." Rather than hating on my mother and planning a Marvel-villian-like revenge plan on the scammer, I chose to focus on my education and do things within my abilities, such as applying for this scholarship. Moreover, my passion project is the Vietnam Health Project, which is a student non-profit organization on campus that fundraises money to help alleviate poverty in Vietnam. I am president of this organization, and it has been an open door for me to further hone my soft skills and prepare me for my long goal dream of charity work in Vietnam. Through my experiences, I have come to understand that resilience is not built in moments of comfort, but in times of hardship. Each obstacle I've faced has shaped me into a more disciplined l person. I carry with me not only the knowledge I gain in the classroom, but also in lived experiences that allow me to connect with others on a deeper level.

"Hey! I know what we're doing this summer!" Phineas Flynn and Dipper Pines said separately, yet simultaneously, as each pointed to the town of Gravity Falls on the map. This made Bill Cypher chuckled devilishly in his imprisonment. Another school year had ended, and the kids wanted a memorable summer. Dipper and Mabel were excited to return to Gravity Falls, while Phineas Flynn and Ferb Fletcher wanted to halt their usual mechanics hobbies to travel somewhere new. After seeing an advertisement for the Mystery Shack, Phineas and Ferb wanted to further explore Gravity Falls with the family, and so the brothers planned a trip to visit the Oregon town. However, they weren't the only kids who wanted a different summer. Being a daughter of divorced parents, Vanessa Doofenshmirtz longed for a family vacation. Hearing Ferb talk about his family's travel plans, Vanessa wanted to bring her family along, which was agreed by both families. Although he was annoyed at first, Dr. Doofenshmirtz was more than happy to halt his evil schemes and go on vacation to make his daughter happy. This vacation sounded lovely and fun... or was it the start to something more? Arriving at Gravity Falls, Dipper and Mabel would help Grunkle Stan around the Mystery Shack and eventually ran into the Flynn-Fletcher and Doofenshmirtz families who were touring the infamous place. It seemed like two worlds collided harmoniously, for the Pines quickly bonded with their Tri-State guests. Grunkle Stan, feeling friendly and generous, wanted to accompany and give their new friends a tour of town. All the Tri-State guests were happy, for they wanted to discover all the hidden gems that Gravity Falls had to offer. Little did they know, such gems of Gravity Falls were "hidden" for a good reason. Being in such a haunting town, the Pine twins often mention, among themselves, details from previous supernatural incidents. "Remember how I almost married a bunch of gnomes?" Mabel quietly giggled to Dipper, and Dipper would jokingly say, "Let's introduce our guests to our ghost friends!". This interested the Tri-State kids, who later got the Pine twins to explain themselves. When the kids are alone and away from the adults, Dipper and Mabel would tell the kids all about the supernatural things, including Bill Cypher. Dipper showed them his book, which documented everything, even how to contact Bill. Eavesdropping, Dr. Doofensmirtz wanted Dipper's book to contact Bill, for this creature was the key to his dream of controlling the Tri-State Area. After successfully stealing Dipper's book, Dr.Doofensmirtz contacted and freed Bill Cypher from his imprisonment, who immediately took full control of the Earth, and the world turned into a fiery dystopia. Bill offered to give Dr. Doofensmirtz complete control over the Tri-State Area, if he agreed to join his alliance. The sight of this dystopia gave Dr. Doofensmirtz an epiphany: having the same goal as Bill Cypher, he isn’t much different from this yellow creature. Looking at Bill’s hand, offered for a shake, the evil scientist pondered to himself, “Is this what I wanted? Was this what I was made for?” “DAD!” a young woman’s voice interrupted his thoughts, and he looked up and saw his terrified daughter and everyone else in the distance. “NO!” the scientist yelled, “I wanted happiness, and I was made to be a loving father!” Dr. Doofensmirtz slapped Bill’s hand away, and ran to his daughter and everyone else. Laughing, Bill Cypher is ready to destroy these people. So, how are they going to defeat Bill? Do they have what it takes? Tune into Disney Channel to see this adventure unfold.

"Am I just dumb or does the teacher just not know how to teach?" is an instinctive thought I have whenever I received poor scores on a test. As I progress through high school, I noticed that I was lacking a very important study skill that would aid me in my studies: the ability to take notes well. Back in middle school, notes were presented to me in a PowerPoint format, which I could easily copy down into my notebook, then all I had to do was to memorize every term and sentence to score well on a test. Now, as a high schooler, I was expected to write my own notes from a textbook, and a huge obstacle for me was to figure out which information is needed to write down and which to omit. I noticed that I wrote too much. I tried minimalizing how much information I need to write down but ended up spending too much time staring at my textbook and debating whether I should write a particular idea down or not. Sometimes I write too little because I get too overwhelmed with deciding which information is important. I knew that I must change. I went around and asked teachers and classmates for note-taking strategies. Although I received various answers, I did receive one commonality: read the paragraph first and then summarize that paragraph. Whenever I use this strategy, my notes were clear. They are not too little or too much, but they were minimal and informative; they were simply just enough. Note-taking is such an overlooked yet important skill to have in order to learn efficiently. Honestly, I have not perfected my note-taking skill for there is still room for improvement. But I am glad that I to have found a strategy to use.

The job of literature is to teach readers how to live life well, and Charles Dicken's historical-fiction novel A Tale of Two Cities does this job beautifully. Setting the novel in the French Revolution, Dickens writes with a theme of light and darkness to represent those who meaningfully live in light or merely exist in darkness. Using the characters of Lucie and Madame Defarge, he shows how the way one sees human dignity reflects whether one lives or exists. Dickens closely ties together human dignity and justice by comparing the justice systems of London and Paris. Both cities' systems -- the court trial process of London and the French Revolution in Paris -- give the final verdict of death to those they prosecute, lacking a fair and accurate trial. This reflects the character of Madame Defarge, for her role in the novel is to send people to the guillotine solely for being an aristocrat, rather than their actions. She exists in darkness because she is unable to see human dignity in people. Conversely, the theme of light in the novel is represented by Lucie. Unlike Madame Defarge, she is able to see human dignity in people. While others may think lowly of an alcoholic lawyer named Sydney Carton, she recognizes that he is a human who makes poor decisions in the past and welcomes him with open arms and eventually transforms his alcohol-filled existence into a loving life. In conclusion, Lucie and Madame Defarge are two archetypes of a meaningful life and an empty existence. These two characters may be used as mirrors so that each one of us can see ourselves in. We can choose to be Lucie and love others despite their race, class, or history or to be Madame Defarge and hate those for the same reasons.

A good book teaches readers how to live fruitfully, and Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities does this beautifully. The novel features different ways of how human life is viewed, and this is key to determine if someone lives meaningfully or exists in wretchedness. Dickens shows how valuing human life is crucial using London's justice system and the French Revolution. Both give the death penalty based on suspicion instead of a fair trial, and neither strives for justice. No society or individual could flourish with that mentality, and the character of Madame Defarge reflects this. After two French nobles murdered her siblings, Defarge dedicates her life to avenging them by sending French nobles to the guillotine, measuring people's life values based on class. Whether she continues this for life or not, she'll never be satisfied. Conversely, the character named Lucie shows that a happy life is possible if one values life. Unlike Defarge, she sees people based on who they are rather than their class or history. She is proof to characters and readers that seeing life's value ensures a meaningful life; this helped a character named Sydney Carton to amend himself. Carton never prioritizes his life or future until he met Charles Darnay. Because he is just like Darnay except that Darnay actually values his life and future, Carton realizes that he could be happy like Darnay if he prioritizes his life and future too. After meeting seeing how Lucie views him for who he is, Carton begins to slowly amend himself. We are all Carton at our low points in life, and Darnay could sound like the ideal person we strive to be. The moral of the story is that we can choose to either live or exist. We choose to be either Lucie or Madame Defarge.

Generosity is the act of charity through love for others beyond a given baseline. Everyone is taught to be kind and respectful to others, and this is where the baseline lies, but everyone is also encouraged to go beyond the expectations by being generous. I see the baseline as a level made for people who want to be good, and anywhere beyond that line are made for those who want to be great. Growing up in a Vietnamese family, I am always encouraged to be great than to be good, and I choose to live my life with this principle. What makes an act generous is self giving. The key here is to give away things that we dub to be valuable. It ranges from giving your sibling your side of the dessert to donating your kidney to a sick patient. Though it is one of the hardest virtues to practice, it is one of the things that makes life incredibly beautiful. This is why I think it is crucial that everyone in society learn how to be generous to one another, because it makes life so fruitful, and it also makes us more human too. Generosity can be hard to give sometimes, especially when I feel like my work alone is not enough. I know that no matter how much I give, I won't solve world hunger or poverty. But it's also good for me to know that it's okay to not being able to solve those things, because the point is to care not to solve.

Personally, my favorite way to help others is to listen to their problems. At times where I cannot do anything to help the person, the baseline lies in communication, and the first step to communication is listening. Due to my age and the environment that I live in, there are situations that people I know go through that I will never have to go through or even worry about. It's hard for me to give advice in a situation that I have no experience in. In these situations, the least I could do is listen and try to understand. Though I could not do anything else to further ease their pain, listening is still crucial to the situation because it shows that I care about them. I know this well because there are countless of times where I want someone to be there just to listen to me, not to give a solution. Conversely, in times where I am able to give advice to the person, I would do that after thoroughly listening to the other person's situation. Listening wouldn't just let the other person know that they're being understood, but listening would help me know the approach to use to help them. Different people need different methods of help even though they are going through the same thing. We all go through problems, and our nature always crave to be understood. In the worst case where there are no solutions, being understood is the only thing we need. Sometimes, a solution may not even be needed. There are times where the people who try to help me successfully make the problem go away but fail to understand me, and it is the most weirdly, frustrating feeling ever. So, this is why listening is my favorite way to help others.

I believe that the key in what makes a book inspiring is its ability to show the reader how to genuinely live instead of just exist, and Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities perfectly does this job. The story sets during the French Revolution and has an ongoing theme of light and darkness; light represents those who are living life with a purpose, and darkness represents those who are simply drifting through their existence. Each character in the book perfectly represents light or darkness in their own way, but the two characters that did this job best were Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton. Despite looking almost identical, these two are polar opposites. But like the Yin and Yang, their differences balanced out beautifully within the plot. Darnay represents light, for he is a man with a bright future and takes full advantage of his talents. Conversely, Carton represents darkness, for he is known to be a highly intelligent lawyer with high potential but decides to ignore everything and everyone; he escapes this reality by getting drunk. But when he realizes that Darnay is just who he could have been if he cared about his future, he cried over this lost. By the end of the book, Darnay was sentenced to death by the guillotine. Carton realizes that the only purpose he can serve to finally bring purpose into his existence is to sacrifice his life for Darnay. Carton represents all of us when we are at our low points in life: we are unmotivated to strive for success and just drift in a puddle of existence. At this point, Darnay seems like an idealistic version of ourselves. But I learn that if we kill this existence, like how Carton killed his, we may be free to start living.

While life contains many big, beautiful events, the beauty of life is composed of simple, satisfying pleasures. The purpose of these pleasures can range from being a reward to being a form of happiness. In terms of a reward, these pleasures may be the sigh of relief I let out when I cross the finish line in a race after hours of pushing myself, or it may be the relief I feel after I hit the "Submit Application" button after I'm done with this essay. In terms of a form of happiness, this could be the boost of dopamine I get when I hear the sound of a soda can opening, or it could be the excitement running through my body when I scream and cheer at my favorite band's concert. These simple pleasures are much needed in order to stay sane within the stress of the pandemic and the boredom of quarantine. A way for me to escape reality and destress is to light a candle, pour myself a cup of tea, turn on soft jazz music, and read a book on a comfortable couch. The combination of these factors reminds me that I am still able to find peace even in the midst of chaos. It makes me think that life is still sweet if I put in the effort to make it so. Overall, simple pleasures in general bring out the beauty of life. Our five senses enable us to experience these beautiful gifts. Smelling the scent of coffee in a cafe, seeing a baby's smile, being able to hug your teachers and classmates one last time before leaving the graduation ceremony, listening to a song that seems to understand you fully, and tasting your favorite meals are all examples of my favorite simple pleasures in life.

There are two types of people in the world: Those with a fixed mindset and those with a growth mindset, and the wall lies at how each value effort. According to American psychologist Carol Dweck, people with a fixed mindset "believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success—without effort." In contrast, Dweck said that people with a growth mindset "believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talents are just the starting point." Going to a K-12 school with the same people since fifth grade can be draining, for my classmates are extremely talented people. The girl in my English class will be an taekwondo Olympian in 2024, the guy in my economics class strives to go to MIT, and my best friend just applied to Harvard. All my life, all I value about myself is how I was born smart, and I never felt the need to try new things or to improve myself. Conversely, most of my classmates were not born smart, but they attempt new things and put in effort to be better versions of themselves. I realized this wall between me and them. I humbled myself by listing exactly what I need to improve, and I went out of my way to fix them. I joined clubs such as mock trial and pod cast club to improve public speaking, collaboration skills, and time management skills. Though I may not dream to be an Olympian or to go to an Ivy League, I see room for improvement, and I take every day as a chance to be a better version of myself.