Last year, I lived in an apartment with three people who had autism. We all had different communication styles, sensory needs, and learning styles. Because of this, we had to set clear boundaries from the beginning about the environments we needed to thrive, then collaborate to find a way for all of us to take care of our mental health without stepping on each other's toes. We made a conscious effort to approach all of our roommate issues with compassion, honesty, and a desire to find a solution. This was one of the best roommate situations I have ever had because we all made an effort to take care of each other and respect boundaries. This experience has also informed my approach with future roommates, as well as arguments among friends and family. I am entering the field of library science, hopefully to work in a university library so I can help support students. That means I will meet hundreds of people with a variety of communication styles, sensory needs, and learning styles. I intend to approach each student with the same mindset that I used with my roommates, focusing on adapting to meet needs instead of forcing students to fit into one universal mold. It is not easy to approach problems directly, and some people even get offended when I am so blunt with them. However, my experiences have taught me that the sooner we get to the problem, the sooner we can solve it. Mental health issues make daily life harder, and everyone needs different forms of support. I recognize this, and I will work in my field to meet students' needs and encourage those students' to advocate for themselves.

One of my favorite book-to-film adaptations is the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I am not the first to acknowledge the genius of the books or films, but this translation is so perfect that it is worth all the hype it receives. Unfortunately, with this series, I broke the most important rule of being a reader—I watched the movies before reading the book. My undergrad college held January terms, a one-month experience where you could explore a topic you normally could not. I took a class on film scores, and our big project was analyzing the perfect score of the Lord of the Rings. Over these three weeks, I watched key scenes in Fellowship of the Ring so many times I could quote them, and I know details about Howard Shore's score that will stay in my memory forever. Before then, I had only read the Hobbit, but this experience encouraged me to tackle the trilogy. I tried to read Fellowship as a senior in high school, but I never got past the first chapter. I only read during school in between classes, and once COVID hit, I spent most of my time writing my own fantasy or watching TV with my family to avoid going insane at home. However, the summer after I took that film score Janterm, I was determined to read the entire trilogy and stick with it. I started Fellowship on May 22 and finished Return of the King on July 6. I read everyday, and I struggled all the way through those three books to the end. I am glad I read them—they are works of art, and I see how Tolkien inspired some of my favorite books. However, I am not sure I have it in me to read them again—at least, not any time soon. The story and worldbuilding are incredible, but there are definitely parts that drag on and on, and I have trouble focusing. While the movie is by no means a scene-by-scene adaptation, it brings the most important elements of the story to life. Even though it is no replacement for the world Tolkien created, it is a close second. Anytime I am missing Frodo or Gandalf, I can put in the movie and spend three hours watching instead of a week and a half reading. I love fantasy, and I struggled with the books, meaning there are plenty of people who may not ever make it through the books. The film adaptation takes the heart of the story and makes it accessible for those who may not have the time, focus, or interest in reading the book. For this reason, it will always be one of the best book-to-film adaptations of all time by letting so many people experience the world of Middle Earth.

I have been coming up with stories since I was old enough to talk. My mother is an English professor, so she encouraged me to read and write as much as I could. I finished my first completed story in fifth grade on my iPod touch. Since then, I have not stopped writing, participating in multiple NaNoWriMos and attending writing workshops in undergrad. I am primarily an epic fantasy writer and prefer long projects, but I have been spending more time recently on short stories, most of them horror. I have a short story published in the Sigma Tau Delta Rectangle, and I will soon have another short story in Austin College's literary magazine, Suspension. Hopefully, these publications will grow. Initially, writing was a cathartic process for me. I have struggled with social anxiety since I was about ten, when I moved schools and had to learn how to make friends again. The stress and loneliness of my new school could feel unbearable. I would often write stories to process these difficult emotions. By projecting on original characters, I felt less hopeless and like I had more control over my situation. Since then, writing has often been a tool for processing my emotions. Some of the worst periods of my life have been my most prolific, even if most of what I write is nonsense. Looking back, I can tell exactly when some of my writing was taking place based on key phrases that summed up how I was feeling that particular year. Many of the stories I cranked out during this time are never going to see the light of day, not because the writing is bad, but because these manuscripts are only meant for me. My bachelor's in creative writing gave me time to focus on my writing and meet fellow writers who had the same passion for storytelling. During undergrad, I learned how to write for different reasons. I still write for myself, but I also have projects that I want to resonate with other people, not just me. My writing is my true passion in life. I want to publish, but I do not want the publishing industry to suck the joy out of an artform that has helped me through such hard times. My plan is to have a career that will make me enough money to live on so I do not have to rely on my writing to support me. I have discovered that working in a library is a career that helps me feel fulfilled without draining me, giving me time to focus on my true passion. The library has always been a safe space for me, and I spent most of my senior year of undergrad writing in the library. I am currently pursuing a master's in library science so that I can work in a field that I am passionate about, that I believe makes a true difference in the life of readers and students, while also giving me the peace of mind I need to continue working on my craft.

The first time I went to a concert, I was very young and I do not remember most of it. I went to see the Doo-Dads, a kids' band, with my dad and a few other similarly aged friends. We were in Kansas City, visiting family, and I went to this kids' concert to give my mom some time alone with her father and sister. We have a DVD from the performance, but it has been scratched over the years until its become unplayable. While this was not where my love for music began, it is an experience that has hovered at the edge of my memory and reminds me of an important moment with my father. My most recent concert memory, and my favorite, is Sad Summer Festival 2023. I went to Dallas with my mom to see the festival and stayed for most of the event. I was primarily there to see Stand Atlantic, PVRIS, and the Maine, though I discovered two new bands—Cliffdiver and Hot Mulligan. I had not been to a concert in years, and this was an exciting moment, a reminder that I did, in fact, enjoy live music. Dallas in July is miserable. Before I was even in the doors, someone fainted from heat and an ambulance was called. I originally had lawn tickets, more for ease of space than anything else. However, after the ambulance showed up, they closed the lawn and gave everyone with lawn tickets floor seats. I was far closer to my favorite bands than I expected and got to take plenty of photos and videos to commemorate the event. I ended up buying a shirt from Stand Atlantic and PVRIS, both of which I wear regularly and bring me great joy. Even though we were inside, the venue was unbearably hot and humid from all the people packed inside. My mom and I brought Liquid IV packs with us to avoid getting overheated, and we were dressed for the weather, with plenty of sunscreen. I remember seeing people in jeans and felt very, very bad for them. To this day, when my mom and I talk about this concert, we talk about watching the Maine perform. We had listened to this band for years, but we had not seen them live before and were expecting them to have a relatively sad and calm stage presence. We were very wrong. The lead singer, at some point, ran up and down the aisles to try and get everyone hyped up. He had far more energy than either of us were expecting, and we stood in our row laughing with surprise. They were excellent, but I was not prepared for the level of chaotic energy they brought to the festival. Because my mom forgot her earplugs, we ended up leaving early and going to get pizza. We missed the last two bands, but by then I had seen everyone I wanted to see. We were inside for about eight hours, and when we walked out, it was still light outside, which was baffling. This was one of the best experiences with my life, and I am glad that my mom and I had this opportunity to bond. Without her, it would not have been as amazing.

Street L Cantina Metro Tavern Grunge Wine Baron Robin T Club Prep Casual Pub Subway Cross Yellow: Bars: Club, Tavern, Pub, Cantina Green: US Public Transportation: Metro, T, Subway, L Blue: Clothing styles: Street, Grunge, Casual, Prep Purple: Red ___ : Baron, Robin, Wine, Cross I have played Connections almost everyday this summer, and I can often figure out the puzzle without truly understanding the connections between each word. The connections often follow a pattern. I have tried to replicate that pattern with this puzzle. Yellow is almost always a synonym of some type, so I have chosen different names for bars straight from Google's thesaurus. Green and blue often have group-based connections, so I have chosen two different groups—US public transportation systems and fashion styles—that may be obvious to someone who knows a moderate amount about either group but not as easy as the yellow group. The purple group is often an abstract connection, such as missing a word before or after, or taking part of one word out. I have chosen a collection of phrases that start with "Red." Additionally, there are some overlapping words. For example, cross and street could be mixed with metro and subway if the player misunderstands the connection as city features. Also, one word in each group is a reference to a Chappell Roan song, which may throw off any player who knows her music well or spends too much time on TikTok. Hopefully, this puzzle is challenging but not impossible for the average Connection player, depending on how much they know about each group.

I am a young queer woman who grew up in a small conservative town in Texas. It has only been in the last few years that is has become acceptable to be quietly queer here. While I was in middle school, I was bullied. I have never been interested in what everyone else was doing, and this meant I needed to be put in line by the other girls in my grade. The worst rumors they could spread about me were that I was gay and in love with one of my friends. I tried not to let this experience affect my self esteem, but it taught me that I needed to keep my identity quiet, even though I came from a very accepting family and had many happily married queer family friends in my life. When I attended undergrad, I was shocked at how diverse and accepting my campus was. One of the saddest parts about graduating and having to move back to my hometown has been going from an environment where I can truly be myself to one where I have to hide. In undergrad, I pursued creative writing to give myself a way to work on my writing projects. Since I have come out and been more comfortable in my identity, I have written as many queer characters as I can. I remember the first time I read a story with a lesbian in it, and I want to make sure that future readers can see themselves represented. I had to wait until I was sixteen—my hope is that young readers will not have to wait as long, or scour the internet for books with queer main characters. While I only have one short story published right now, I am hoping to share more of my work so that it is available for anyone who may benefit from it to read it. I am currently pursuing a master's in library science. One of the only places where I could find representations of myself was my local public library. While my high school library often caved to book bans, my public library never did. I had the honor of interning with my public library while in undergrad, and this experience further reinforced that this job was a great fit for me. I want to work in academic libraries to help students, but I also know that I will enter the workforce at a time when book bans will be a major concern and often attack LGBTQ+ folks and people of color. Without my public library protecting my right to read what I wanted and form my own opinions on it, I would likely be a less thoughtful and more insecure person today. I want to help protect other readers' right to information and allow them to decide what they do and do not want to read. It is easy to feel hopeless, living in a state like Texas, when the LGBTQ+ community is under attack. The topic of book bans is something I have control over and a way that I can make Texas a safer place for young queer folks.

My favorite aspect of Minecraft is the ability to play with friends. Many of my friends in middle and high school lived far away from me, so it was not always possible for us to hang out regularly in person. Minecraft gave us a way to talk to each other and hang out without being physically near each other. We would play games, listen to music, explore realms, and create anything that came to mind together. While I have always loved Minecraft and enjoyed building bases and exploring on my own, it is often more fun with friends. After my friend group went to college, we continued playing together, even if we were states apart. This gave us a way to stay in touch and continue to build our relationships when it was incredibly difficult to see each other in person. One of my friends has a realm she maintains, where we each have an established base. Even if we are not online at the same time, we each have a designated space where we can reach each other, even if it is with a sign. I have grown apart from some of these friends, but I still see our weekend Minecraft sessions as one of the most effective ways I have ever stayed in touch with people I care about. I have always been creative, and Minecraft has provided a space where I can build my wildest imaginations. However, it is always better to share these creative visions with friends.

I have chosen to pursue library science because of the impact my local libraries had on me as a young reader. I spent most of my summers at my public library and would often go through a novel a day, reading everything I could. My local library has always been a safe space for me, and I was always comfortable and accepted there. Later on, when I began to struggle with my mental health and question my sexuality, this was the place where I could find books that reflected my experiences and helped me feel less alone. Without these experiences, I would have never begun writing my own stories, a creative passion that I have stuck with for over ten years. As an undergrad student, I spent much of my time studying in my university library, finding this a calm, quiet place to focus. I want to provide this same service for the next generation of readers and students. I also live in a state facing many book bans, which would have personally hindered my growth as a young reader. I want to protect knowledge so that all students, regardless of background, have equal access to knowledge.

The main Nintendo game I look back to is MarioKart Wii. This was one of the only games my sister and I could play together on our Wii when we were younger. We spent hours racing each other, constantly challenging each other to improve. I would always play as Yoshi, and my sister would almost always play as one of the princesses, usually Peach, though occasionally we would play as Mii avatars. I was older and somewhat better at the game, so in my free time, I would spend hours racing solo to unlock more characters, tracks, carts, and secrets. I wanted to give us as many tools as possible so we could keep having fun together. One specific memory I have is playing hide and seek in Mario Kart. Instead of racing like usual, one of us would hide on the track and the other would seek. I remember one of the best tracks to play this game on were the desert tracks, like Dry Dry Ruins, where sand would pour from the ceiling. We would park our cars underneath the sand until it covered us, making us difficult to find. We would play this game until the race automatically ended, both of us in 11th and 12th place. During quarantine in 2020, my sister and I dusted off the Wii and booted up MarioKart. We did not play any of our unusual games, like hide in seek, and instead raced as normal, trying to beat each other. While I am not as good at MarioKart as I used to be, I still had fun racing against my sister and, often, beating her. This game was a staple of our relationship when we were younger, and I still look on it fondly.

While brat is a no-skip album for me, with 15 hard-hitting tracks, the song that stands out the most to me is "Girl, so confusing," especially the remix with Lorde. This song is catchy and gets stuck in your head, while also having some wonderful social commentary that I feel is especially relevant this summer. In this song, Charli XCX and Lorde sing to each other about how they both respect one another and feel threatened. These two women sing about how they don't have much in common and feel pitted against each other — "Can't tell if you wanna see me / Falling over and failing" and "I was trapped in the hatred / And your life seemed so awesome." However, by the end of the song, these two women reach a point of solidarity—even though they are different, they tell each other "I would ride for you." This song does an excellent job at capturing the way the industry and media often pit celebrities, especially women, against one another, when this competition is often fantastical. This is relevant right now, seeing as many of the top artists on the Billboard this summer are woman, such as Taylor Swift, Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, and, of course, Charli XCX. We cannot accept all these women succeeding without creating a competition between all of them, as if there can be only one successful female artist. "Girl, so confusing" captures the complexity of being a woman with a platform today and how the media will frame her career in relation to other women. This song is a masterpiece and has deserved all the hype it receives.

I discovered Chappell Roan last summer when her song "Red Wine Supernova" released as a single. I instantly fell in love with her music, and the moment her album dropped, I listened to it religiously, though "Red Wine Supernova" remains one of my favorites. Her music was a breath of fresh air for me, though it took me time to understand why. I remember watching an interview with her at some point after the release of her album where she was talking about her fanbase in the midwest. She said that there are just as many queer people in the midwest as the east or west coast, but these people are often quieter about their queerness. However, they are still proud and have a wonderful community. This is the audience her music is for. This was the first time I can remember hearing an artist talk about my experience with queerness in the midwest, where it is often necessary to be quietly queer to keep the peace among your community and family members. I feel seen when I listen to her music. I love her artistry and the persona she crafts for herself. I have never been able to explain what camp is to my straight friends as clearly before she rose to fame and I could start using her as an example. She is one of the few artists I listen to that is truly a performer and wants to put on a show. While I am a little sad I will probably never be able to afford tickets to her shows anymore, I am also so excited that she finally has the audience she has always deserved. She is an incredible artist and has worked so hard on her craft and persona. She deserves every bit of hype she has received, and I hope that her popularity will continue to help LGBTQ+ folks live their truth.

I first encountered #BookTok during my sophomore year of college. I had not read a book for fun in years. I used to read a three hundred page book every single day as a nine year old, so anything less than that felt like a failure. The summer after my sophomore year, I decided I needed to work on myself. I had struggled with anxiety and depression for most of middle school and high school, and I finally had the confidence to see a therapist and rediscover who I was outside of mental illness. This included picking up a book. I found a TikTok of short books to help you get out of a reading slump and took this to my public library. I picked up Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri. Reading this book took most of the afternoon and evening, but I finished it in one day. While the ending made me sob, I had a sense of completion, that I was still capable of finishing a book. To this day, I will send videos recommending books under 200 pages, most of them Japanese introspective fiction, to any of my friends needing something easily consumable. The first addition to my #BookTok bookshelf would be a collection of these short books, which I never would have found if not for #BookTok. This includes Tokyo Ueno Station, Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, The Lonesome Bodybuilder by Yukiko Motoya, People in My Neighborhood by Hiromi Kawakami, and Terminal Boredom by Izumi Suzuki. These books were instrumental in restoring my confidence as a reader. #BookTok also helped me learn about queer books, which helped me see myself in the stories I loved and make me feel more normal. I live in a small town, so I don't have easy access to queer books. Being able to connect with other queer readers and learn about their favorite books changed my life. Some of the books that would need to appear on my bookshelf are She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan, Gideon the Ninth by Tamsy Muir, The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samatha Shannon, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan, and These Witches Don't Burn by Isabel Sterling. Lastly, I have #BookTok to thank for helping me figure out what type of horror I enjoy. Before spending time on #BookTok, I did not read any horror, though I was always interested in the genre. I have learned I like books that feature feminine rage, fantasy or gothic elements, and what many people on #BookTok refer to as "mind fuck" storylines. My bookshelf would feature books by T. Kingfisher, such as What Moves the Dead or Nettle and Bone, Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica, Earthlings by Sayaka Murata, and thrillers like Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn or Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter. These are all books that I have found through the #BookTok community when I was getting back into reading. I am forever grateful to the creators who read these books and loved them enough to share. Reading depends highly on preference. The books on my shelf might be banned from another reader's shelf. Either way, #BookTok provides a valuable service that allows readers to find more books they would like to read, from readers who may have the same preferences as them.

Since I have been young, I have been hyper-aware of gender discrimination in the US and Texas. My mother graduated from Texas Woman's University with a PhD in feminist rhetoric, with her research focusing on Margaret Fuller. Her research influenced how she raised my sister and me, and I watched her struggle firsthand to fight against the social conditioning we experienced at school that taught us we were less than, simply because we were women. This was mostly annoying when I was younger —for example, I did not care that Barbie represented unattainable beauty standards, only that I was the only girl my age who did not have a Barbie. However, as an adult, I recognize and admire the effort my mother went to so that my sister and I would grow up knowing that we were individuals, not objects under patriarchy. Many of my friends cannot say the same. In undergrad, I followed my mother's example. Most of the classes I took as an English major had some sort of focus on gender inequality. Through these classes, I learned just how much internalized misogyny I held and began the difficult but necessary process of unlearning this. I chose to minor in sociology because it gave me opportunities to research and assess gender discrimination on my campus and in my environment. As part of a research methods class, I interviewed AFAB students with a STEM major and wrote an analysis about how gender discrimination still proliferates in this area. The same semester, I researched the medieval text The Romance of Melusine and analyzed the value inherent in motherhood and fatherhood in this story. Currently, I am working on an essay about friendships between women in nineteenth century feminist Gothic literature. These are just a few examples of the research I performed in women's studies. I have presented this research at the Austin College Scholarship Conference and Sigma Tau Delta's Centennial Convention, and my work has been published in Austin College's academic journal. While these are small steps, I strongly believe that if my work has helped one person think critically about how they view gender then all my work is worth it. Currently, I am enrolled at Texas Woman's University, like my mother, to pursue a master's in library science. Ideally, I want to work at an academic library and help students grow through their own research. However, I also know that Texas needs librarians to protect the availability of information. Books in Texas that face bans often represent minority groups, like women, people of color, and the LGBTQ+ community. I am a strong advocate for free access to information, especially when that information includes powerful representations of Texans who may not often see themselves represented in popular culture. I know firsthand that seeing yourself and your struggles represented can change your life and improve your confidence. Everyone should have this opportunity. Once I have my MLS, I want to use it to protect the voices of women. Without honoring these voices, we cannot achieve true progress.

The most pressing environmental challenge is, by far, climate change. I currently live in north Texas, and each year the environment becomes slightly less livable because of the rise in global temperature. Each year, we have more ice storms that our grid and roads cannot accommodate, and each summer we have temperatures of over 100 degrees that cause illness and fires. I know the rise in global temperature is causing these issues, and I expect them to continue to worsen unless we make huge improvements in fossil fuel emissions. Climate change is a complicated issue, with no one right answer. The first step is having all countries and transnational corporations to agree to work towards preserving the environment. Nations and TNCs have the most impact when it comes to lessening fossil fuels. Without these big polluters taking action, we cannot make a sizable enough dent in emissions to keep the worst of climate change at bay. While I like to think I do a good job reducing my personal footprint by using reusable bags, thrifting or making my own clothing, donating old clothes and furniture, recycling anything and everything my city accepts, and using a more eco-friendly alternative to plastic whenever I can, I also know that these actions only make a small impact. In addition to my environmentally friendly practices, I try to advocate for global cooperation whenever I can. I would also argue that a major roadblock to addressing climate change effectively in the United States is the refusal to believe it is happening. I have had many adults I consider intelligent and well-educated claim that climate change is a hoax. Partly, this is caused by political bipartisanship in the US. Climate change needs to become an indisputable fact, not a point of political debate. his will not immediately solve the issue, but I hope it can open the doors to more productive discussions. As a future librarian, I am responsible for spreading information and making sure it is accessible and factual. I can make small steps towards making climate change more credible, but I will need help from people with power over public opinion. We cannot address climate change if we are still arguing about if it is real. To address climate change and lower fossil fuel emissions, we will need to turn to cleaner energy sources. While green energy is more accessible today than it has been in the past, we can still improve. One way in the US we can make this happen is to make green energy far more affordable than fossil fuels. Currently, my home uses some solar power to generate electricity, but I would like to have a home completely fueled by clean energy when it is available in my area. I know many others who feel the same and only use fossil fuels because of affordability and accessibility. If the US takes steps to support the accessibility of green energy, more Americans will use it, overall lowering our carbon footprint as a nation. The US government has the power to shift the market in favor of a healthier planet, and I argue this is a step that is necessary for us to make.