For me, considering my past performance and improving my results is the first step to reaching my academic goals. The academic performance I had in high school was uneven, especially since I was at home due to COVID for a year, which hindered my ability to concentrate. Despite this, I am determined to change my performance for the better. I would like to enter college with a fresh perspective. I will make a conscious effort to stay organized throughout the school year and more concentrated on my studies throughout each semester. I graduated high school early, so I know I can succeed. I just need the chance to do so. Throughout my life, I've had many interests and my family has supported me through them all. The one hobby that stuck with me, and got me through tough times at school was music. I distinctly remember the first time I sang to my grandmother, a stern woman with no time for nonsense, who told me for the very first time that I had a beautiful singing voice. I have always carried that memory with me, and it is one of the driving forces behind my professional goals. The sound, movement, and rhythm of music have always been a source of happiness for me, and I have witnessed first-hand how they can affect the feelings of others. Being a music therapist is an unconventional job, but I feel like I can make a difference in other people's lives through music. I want to use my passion for music to help others in need, no matter what their circumstances are. I want to create a safe and supportive space for people to express themselves and feel heard. I believe music can be a powerful tool to help people heal and find peace. I plan to give back to my community by participating in local music initiatives and spreading the message of hope and support. I also plan to start my own music therapy program in my community to benefit those in need. I already support my local music stores by spending a lot of time with my band planning concerts in small businesses. This helps them earn money or attract customers if business is slow. While my goals may seem ambitious, and some people doubt music's power to change a life, I will not stop pursuing my goals with determination. Music will always be a significant part of my history and future. I want to share that same spark of joy with my community and anyone else who will take the time to listen. I want to prove that music can heal and bring people together. I want to use it to make a real difference in people's lives and the world. I want to create music that will last for generations.

In a world where I feel like everything was trying to fit me into a box, and the trends happening around me were constantly changing, it was hard to think about what made me unique. I dye my hair a different color once every year because it's a goal of mine to be able to say that I've had every color in the rainbow. I also love "princesscore" and "fairycore" fashion, which were both aesthetic fashion trends on TikTok at one point. I prefer alternative and punk/rock music over excessively cheesy pop music, and I decided to become a singer because I believed it would be easy. My grandmother also told me one day that I had a beautiful voice, which is still a moment that sticks with me. I could list off more "unique" things about myself, but it's not those attributes themselves that make me unique. It's the combination of all these attributes, personal experiences, and memories that truly make me, and anybody else, unique. Everyone has probably been asked at one point in one of these essays how they plan to give back to the community, and if I'm truly being honest, I don't know. I would be lying to myself, and you if I said that I had hopes to make the world a better place or that I wanted to give money back to my community. Thinking about it now though, my best answer is this: I want to create a safe space for people who maybe don't know where they fit in life. I was lucky enough that I knew what I wanted to do from a young age, but I was embarrassed to say that I chose my path in life because someone complimented me. Even worse, I was motivated by the idea of being rich and maybe even being the first millionaire in my family. Not everyone immediately thinks about giving back to their community, because they need to worry about themselves first before they can even do that. I think we need to normalize the idea that, not everyone has lofty goals when they first start, some people don't even know what they want to do yet! I would love a scholarship that asked about myself and how I plan to improve instead of the faraway goal of giving back to my community. But, I digress, music has always been a safe space for me to feel any of my feelings and realize that taking life so seriously by conforming to society's expectations of me will just drive me crazy. Letting society dictate what kind of plans I should have for the future and forcing me into making lofty goals that I know I will never follow through on just leads to a whole lot of lying. Lying to myself, and to you, the person reading this application. How many essays have you read with generic answers about donating, creating scholarships, volunteering, or starting an organization to help others? What makes each of those essays unique is the person behind the computer writing them, not any attribute, or goal to give back to their community. That's what I want to help people see and help them feel safe admitting.

Out of the respectable and guaranteed money-making careers I could have chosen, I chose to be a singer. Are You Satisfied? A question was asked by Marina & The Diamonds when I listened to her song. At first, Marina seemed to be talking about the moment she got a brand deal but the more I listened the more I realized she was talking to dreamers everywhere. I wanted to be a marine biologist, but one day my grandmother told me I had a beautiful voice after listening to me sing at a talent show. This moment changed everything for me, and I realized that I could be a singer. Pursuing music has been a difficult path because there will always be others who try to constantly put you down. People who don't believe you can make it or maybe don't even want you to. I refuse to listen to what other people have to say about my dreams because they are MY dreams. I don't want to live the same 9-5 life as everyone else. I want to take risks, I want to succeed and I want to fail. I want to cross lines and push boundaries and challenge social norms. Marina directly asked her listeners if they would be satisfied with an average life and I cannot be. I will not lie about who I am and where I want to be in life. I know that on the path to my dreams there will be obstacles but I'm willing to take that risk. Not only am I willing to take that risk, but thousands of people around the world are also willing to take that risk. Everyone should know, that everyone was a dreamer at some point in their lives because dreams are what change the world.

When I was younger, my grandmother told me I have a beautiful singing voice. Since I was in elementary school, the biggest dream I have had for my life is to become a professional singer and songwriter.

Fathers are often considered the foundation of a family, so growing up without one is tough for any child. However, I think I turned out good because of my grandfather. For as long as I can remember, my grandfather tried to be part of every single step of my life. He walked me to school on my first day of kindergarten, and always made sure no one was bullying me at school. My grandfather taught me about my identity as an African American, he taught me about the meaning behind red, black, and green, he taught me about Kwanzaa and the importance of libation. He was my inspiration. The universe was not kind to my grandpa, and he had diabetes long before I was born. On my 11th birthday, he woke up but couldn't move, and instead of having a party we were rushing him to the hospital. My grandpa suffered from a stroke and couldn't move the right side of his body. He stayed in his room from that point on, but whenever I left out the door for school we always sang our song together before I left. My grades worsened as I got into highschool despite consistently being in advanced classes. My grandpa would express concern and often be angry with me about my grades. Asking me why I wasn't using the brain that my mother gave to me. I took those moments with him for granted, and often brushed off his concern. My grandpa would give me gifts like books, t-shirts, or generally just anything he thought would be helpful to me. I brushed these off a lot too, and I wish that I hadn't. I am now entering my senior year of highschool and he passed away from another stroke in June. I almost couldn't believe it because we've had so many false emergencies. I thought he would always be there, I thought I would get older and he'd walk my down the aisle in place of my deadbeat father. I was wrong. This was a shocking wake up call for me, I now look back on those conversations and wish I took him seriously sooner. I do my best to make it up for it now by improving my grades and applying for as many scholarships as I can. It feels as if there isn't anything I can do now, but I keep pushing. My grandfather was the glue of our family and my mother turned into a completely different person after he passed. I no longer have my emotional support system and it feels as if I am on my own now. I want to fight to achieve my dream of becoming a professional singer and songwriter. Not just for myself anymore, but for my family. For my grandfather who tried to tell me for so long I was moving off the right path. For my mother and grandmother who have argued a lot because they are racked with grief. I hope to show them that I'm becoming an adult and all of us have to move on together because that's what my grandfather would have wanted.

My goal in life is to be a shining star. Not literally, of course, but I have always had a passion for music and the shining lights of a stage since I was a child. It first started when I sung for the first time and watched the awe light up in my grandma's face as she told me I had a beautiful voice. That was when I was in elementary school, I started singing in every place and every moment that I could. I sung while doing my schoolwork, I sung while walking to class, I would even hum a tune on the bus in the morning. My horizons only expanded once I reached middle school and joined my school choir. My mother paid for my voice lessons outside of school, and this is where my real experience came from. Seeing the joy, awe, and inspiration on people's faces is my why. Whenever I perform, there is a persona that I take on, or a story I need to tell to the audience. When I perform, people laugh, they cry, they dance! So many emotions from one person creating sounds for 3 minutes and that is when I feel most alive. In those moments, I feel the urge to be heard take over and any nerves that I may have had begin to melt away under a spotlight. However, not everything is done under the glory of a stage, sometimes I do smaller performances for charity and fundraising. My vision will pave the way for opportunities in other's lives. My mother works for the Chicago Coalition of the Homeless and doing a performance on their charity livestream was the first time I truly felt the impact that I could have on other people. I didn't raise nearly as much money as the other performers on that stream, but the $500 I made still provided scholarship money to a homeless person somewhere in Chicago. Just by singing, I helped someone get a jumpstart on their education to pursue their own vision. This, is my positive impact. Sure, I live for the glory and the fame of a spotlight, but underneath it all, there is still good that I can do in this world. I may not make a groundbreaking invention and I may not find the cure for cancer, but someone else will. Someone else with the same passion but a different vision may accomplish those things. I will be happy living my life knowing I can support millions of people with visions that can change the world.

When I was younger, I had a bad habit of wanting to appear as cool to other kids. This started off as small stuff, such as having cool toys and being the best reader in the class. However, one of the bad habits I picked up from other kids was rocking back and forth on my chair. My teacher told me countless times to stop rocking in the chair, but did the first grade version of me listen? No she did not. As per usual, one day while the teacher was talking, I was rocking back and forth in my chair. Eventually, I swung back a little too far and hit my head on the hardwood floor. Obviously, this was extremely painful and my teacher heard me screaming and crying. She took one look at me and loudly announced to the class. "It looks like you have a goose egg in your head!" I did not find this funny in the slightest at the time. As for the next week or two, I was bedridden until the bump had cleared away. I also went to the doctor to make sure I didn't suffer from a concussion or any kind of brain damage. When I came back, my friends started calling me "Mia The Golden Goose" because I had a "goose egg" on my head. Moral Of The Story: Being cool is not worth the pain that comes with it, but it is worth the cool nickname!

1. I deserve this scholarship because I am 10 times better than these other applicants. I can sing. I can dance, I can do it all! If I can do all that and still not break a sweat, I clearly deserve a scholarship. If that's not enough for you, just look at my amazing bold profile! and my amazing answers to these next 2 questions. 2. Academic goals? To be honest, I just don't have any. If I can speedrun through high school and college that would be the best for me. The sooner I do that, the sooner I can pay off that exciting student loan debt! Everyone loves a little student loan debt in their lives, and I don't even know what career goals are. I just thought it was school and that's it- 3. Honestly my best story was when I managed to give myself food poisoning. I ate an entire family-size bag of Doritos in a single night when I was younger, thinking this would have no consequences whatsoever. I was very, very wrong. I continuously threw up the next morning for about 5 hours, and somehow still managed to go to school the next day. I'm super resilient right???

I think the best way to live a long, healthy life is by enjoying it to the fullest. Yes, you should eat right and get a decent amount of exercise, but overall, the physical health goes hand in hand with mental health. If you are unhappy or stressed constantly, you will never feel good about yourself. Sometimes people will consider you selfish for putting your needs before their's, but that's okay to do. Not everybody needs to be a part of your life, especially if all they bring to the table is negativity and stress. You also need to consider your own negative behaviors that may be affecting your health. Confidence in yourself is the first step towards happiness, know your worth and never let anyone take that from you. Just as everyone else you were given a chance at happiness on this earth and you can achieve that however you wish to. At one point in my life, I was surrounded by people who did not wish to see me succeed. After building up my confidence, I came to realize those people were only harming my efforts and promptly cut them off. Since then, even through COVID, I have been so much happier and healthier. I'm taking dance class now to keep up my physical health and have been doing much better in school. Being able to take that first step towards a healthier life is so important to living a long life.

When I first listened to this song, I interpreted it as a gifted kid who grew older and eventually lost motivation. I then saw someone else's interpretation of the song, and they believed that the song was about never letting go of your dreams no matter what anyone else says. Even when you doubt yourself, you need to ask yourself if you're truly satisfied becoming another 9 to 5 worker. When I was younger, it was like I had the world in the palm of my hand. Everyone told me I could be whatever I wanted because I was so smart and that I would never have to work that hard. I also discovered at a young age my passion for music and singing, even writing my own lyrics during downtime. However, I was too caught up in pleasing my family. I was my mom's only child and I spent my time trying to get high grades with as little effort as possible. I never cared about my grades, but my mom did. I would pass every test but never do any homework. Teachers started telling me "If only you would just apply yourself". I found that I did apply myself, but towards things that I wanted and not towards what everyone else wanted. I finally hit a wall, and almost failed a class. I considered myself a disappointment and was in my darkest moment when I found this interpretation of the song. I finally understood what it was that I wanted to do, I couldn't be satisfied taking the easy route and becoming another cog in America's machine. I wanted to achieve my dreams, no matter what it took for me to get there.

In my life, I've begun to understand that even though I have been provided with countless educational opportunities growing up, others may not have received the same amount of time and care. With the direction our generation is going, our environment is also in danger and there may not be enough resources for our next generation. I have dedicated my life to using my music and time to spread awareness and to provide money to those who may not have it. When I was younger, I enrolled in a program with Shedd Aquarium called Shedd Stewards where we would volunteer at different places to help the environment. Not only was it educational, but also helped out several plant species and animals. One memory that sticks out in my mind was when we took a trip to an area that was infested with an invasive species of trees. We spent the afternoon clearing out as many of the invasive trees as we could and had an open bonfire with the cut apart pieces of the trees. Right now, I am currently working with Chicago Coalition for the Homeless to provide scholarship opportunities to students who have experienced homelessness at any point in their educational career. I am raising funds for this cause by participating in their Virtual Variety Show which is being hosted on December 16th.