This is Atticus. He is a 5 year old Chocolate Labrador Retriever, and one of my three dogs. The two of us go for a long walk in the forest preserve neighboring our house nearly everyday. Though I am the one holding the leash, Atticus chooses which route we take. He knows the entire path by heart. By the time we return home, Atticus is always ready for a long nap on my bed. He wants nothing more than a long walk followed by a longer nap.

Our climate is rapidly changing, far quicker than is natural. If we as a species continue to catalyze this process of extreme change, our world will become unrecognizable. The effect this sudden change will have on the human population will be equally frightening. My overarching goal is fairly simple. I want to leave this world a better place than I found it. The specifics which will lead to that, however, are more complicated. I plan to major in Environmental Sciences and Biology in college, vigilantly studying. Working hard to succeed, I will graduate and enter medical school. I plan to graduate with my MD. After completing college, I plan to work at a hospital as a doctor. I want to help patients who will have an increased chance of cancer due to exposure to wildfire smoke and other air pollutants. The assisting of cancer patients and the development of treatments for these stubborn ailments are extremely important to me. A personal goal of mine is to complete a study of the correlation between climate change and the incidence rates of different cancers within separate populations. I believe that we will see an increase in cancer cases within the next 50 years, many of which will be caused by the pollutants which we have put into our environment. Knowing this, I want to do everything that I can to treat those who are sick and prevent more from becoming ill. As I said at the beginning of this essay, I want to leave this world better than I found it. The path towards completing my goal is messy and complicated. Not a single step will be easy. But, there is not anything worth doing in life that is simple or easy. I believe this is a future worth fighting for.

Atticus is a 115lb Chocolate Labrador Retriever. Though not as gentleman-like as the "To Kill a Mockingbird" character whom he is named after, similar to Atticus Finch he is both tall and beginning to gray. He appears awkward and anxious in day-to-day situations, almost as if he were a little boy lost at the mall. Taking him for a walk is the highlight of my day. I live about half a mile away from the forest preserve trailhead. Weather permitting, the two of us venture into the woods for a few-mile hike nearly every day. Despite his idiosyncrasies and inability to read the clock, Atticus knows when it is time to go for a walk. He stands still while I put his blue harness on him, smiling the entire time. Once I attach his reflective leash to the harness ring, he begins on the set path he has already decided we will go. By the time we return home, he is exhausted and runs up to my bed to take a nap. He smiles the entire way, and it makes me happy. For me, it is enough to know that my dog is content. I really could not ask for anymore. Atticus makes me laugh when he acts simply strange, and happy when he is smiles. Though simple, the happiness I receive from my dog Atticus creates the highlight of my day.