As a writing consultant, I am passionate about poetry and love to decode its hidden meanings. For this essay, I decided to provide a close reading of my favorite of Shakespeare's sonnets. Shakespeare’s pair of Sonnets 15 and 16 describe a poet desperately searching for a way to preserve the life and youthful beauty of his love, a young man, throughout all of time. His hopeless determination to keep the young man spiritually or symbolically alive past his physical death portrays the two sonnets’ unifying theme — the inherently human desire to transcend time. In Sonnet 15, Shakespeare alludes to this argument by comparing men to plants: When I perceive that men as plants increase,/ Cheerèd and checked even by the selfsame sky,/ Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease,/ And wear their brave state out of memory;/ Then the conceit [thought] of this inconstant stay/ Sets you most rich in youth before my sight,/ Where wasteful Time debateth with Decay/ To change your day of youth to sullied night (15.5-12) Shakespeare uses a simile that compares the life cycle of men to that of plants to signify his love’s short-lasting youth that is seemingly taken for granted. He explains that as men and plants grow in beauty, they are both judged and marveled at by everything that perceives them. Just as they themselves become aware of this, they begin to grow old, and it vanishes. Shakespeare treats this as a tragedy, as his love's new canvas exterminates the memory of his prior beauty. In short, this simile artistically explains that the effect of time is not considered when marveling at beauty and youth is quickly lost when it reaches its peak. The tragedy of it all is enhanced when Shakespeare personifies time as wasteful, even capitalizing “Time” to refer to it as a being. He claims that Time works consciously to turn his love’s youth to “sullied night.” This not only suggests that time is working to rob the poet’s love of his youth, but also establishes Time as Shakespeare's Enemy. Naturally, this is to say that he wants to rid youth of its short-lasting quality -- or transcend time itself. This theme is alluded to more clearly, though, in Sonnet 16: “But wherefore do not you a mightier way/ Make war upon this bloody tyrant Time/ And Fortify yourself in your decay..?” (16.1-3). Here, the poet urges his love to preserve his youth in the face of death by asking him to “fortify [himself] in [his] decay.” This is both a direct demand to fight against the flow of time and an indicator of his rage-driven insanity -- as his prose becomes more aggressive and his plea is not physically possible. He now refers to Time as a “bloody tyrant”. His emotions in Sonnet 15 grow stronger as his love grows older, again signifying his wish to transcend time.

As a venture capital audit intern with Frank, Rimerman + Co LLP, I currently use AI as a starting point for my research projects on venture funds and their portfolios. I have found it a valuable tool for providing a general idea of what I am researching and connecting me with trustworthy primary and secondary sources to refer to in my case studies. From here, I always rely on sources prepared by real venture capitalists and writers to make a more compelling argument than if I were to say "this is what I was told by ChatGPT". I believe that AI will continue to be used this way and become more accurate in the future. However, the nature of auditing requires 100% accuracy and good human judgement in grey areas. As far as I have seen, AI search engines do not provide the most accurate information, as they scope the web and incorporate many different sources. For this reason, I do not think it will grow beyond a starting point, as research will always lead to a fund's financials and reviewed information from its portfolio companies. In addition, it can never replace the human interaction that is valued when providing a service, which is the nature of public auditing. I do think that AI will be able to take over the more mundane tasks assigned to first-year auditors (e.g. data entry and certain parts of client rollforwards), but our current technology that is specifically tailored to accounting is much more practical than documents that are prepared by AI. This is because manual data input and linking in excel shows viewers where numbers are coming from and tells a story about what actually occurred with a company's financials. With this being said, Integrating AI with these softwares is the best way to speed up the auditing process while maintaining the same sense of depth. In all, the pros of AI in auditing include speed, which can boost productivity and, depending how it is contextualized, empower auditors to take on more tasks or cut down on the strenuous work hours in a busy season. The end results could be either firm-wide growth with new clients or a better work/life balance for employees -- or a mix of the two. Also, as I previously alluded to, AI search engines organize the beginning of research journeys and make the process much smoother. This is both convenient and quicker. The most significant con of using AI in auditing is a greater risk for inaccuracy. While it might fill the information in on a screen faster than a person, it will undoubtedly require more vouching for first-year associates. And while it could help first-years take on more tasks, senior associates and managers are still required to manually review all of the work that is passed up to them. This could cause imbalance by overloading their schedules. Ultimately, it could slow the firm down where it really matters, as the higher-up employees physically contact clients and ensure quality service. to conclude, AI is a powerful tool when used in its current capacity and integrated into accounting software. However, the nature of my field of study is too dependent on assurance to permit a robot to perform the service. I believe there is something valuable about human interaction that AI will never be able to replace. At the end of the day, It is the relationships customers build with their contacts and the experience that they are given that contribute to a firm's success. People will always gravitate towards reputable professionals as opposed to impersonal algorithms.

I first experienced what would later be diagnosed as severe epilepsy with absence in April of 2022, the year I graduated high school. The seizure happened as I was driving my teammate home from rugby practice. As the thought left my eyes, I let go of the wheel and uttered nonsense. He had to take control of it to prevent us from crashing. I had not known anyone with a similar condition before, so I was left in a state of near-incessant consternation. I felt as though my doctors were failing me -- being shunned away and accused of drug usage while not being able to see a specialist for six months. My last rugby season was cut short and the stress the seizures induced (not to my knowledge at the time) only exacerbated my condition. Further, I was instructed to refrain from driving and to avoid dangerous activity. As a senior in high school beginning his summer, it can be imagined that these restrictions were infuriating. Through all of this, however, I am proud to say I was never afraid. Although anxious and frustrated, never afraid. I knew I was strong enough to overcome the madness and I could actively see myself handling it. In addition to this, the 20 or so doctor's appointments and countless emails/phone calls left me exhausted yet proud of myself for taking matters into my own hands. I can see now that this was an early glimpse of what Millennials call "adulting". In the end, I let myself have a fun summer. However, I did not partake in a considerable amount of activities with friends and found myself staying in at night much more often. I thought it best to tread lightly into what was seemingly becoming the rest of my life. And although I can cut myself slack because I was uneducated on my condition's nature at the time, this summer left me with just one regret: I let it hold me back. Come my diagnosis by the aforementioned specialist in September of that year (two weeks into my first semester of college), I felt as if the 100-pound dumbbell on my back had been lifted simply by giving my disorder a name. It was just a few months later when I found medication that almost extensively blocked my seizures. I was ecstatic not only to return to some sort of normality but to have proved to myself that my hard work and perseverance were worth it. As I reflect on that time, I find my epilepsy to have impacted my life in a much different way than I had expected. I learned from what I regretted before and decided to forbid my seizures from holding me back any longer. I am more adventurous now than ever before, I am driven to accomplish my goals, and I am striving to live life to the fullest. I am fearless and I owe it to the endurance my epilepsy has given me. Since my diagnosis, I have skydived from over thirteen thousand feet in the air, backpacked through New Zealand, surfed Mavericks Beach, hiked five national parks, and survived a close encounter with a bear. On top of this, I secured an internship in my dream career field. The legacy I want to leave behind is that epilepsy only made me stronger and fueled my wish to live life to the fullest. I want others who will go through what I did to emulate this mindset and view epilepsy as a valuable and empowering experience rather than a burden.