My faith has guided me and given me strength when no other man or woman would. It freed me from doubt and filled me with the courage needed to do what I have done. My religion is named Asatru, which translates from Old Norse to “faith in the Æsir.” The Æsir are gods such as Odin and Thor. This religion is somewhat more common in Germanic countries, such as Austria, as they lie closer to the origin of the faith, which is Northern Germany and Scandinavia. Most religions or faiths have rules or morals to abide by. Asatru is no outlier, as it places value on the Nine Noble Virtues. These nine virtues lay the groundwork for what the religion is and include things such as industriousness, courage, and self-reliance, which I hold especially close to my heart as I strive to implement them in my personal life as much as I can, and because I feel like I can identify or resonate with them. Two years ago, when I was back in Austria and seventeen years old, I stood before a decision that would have a massive impact on my future, which was whether I should drop out of high school to pursue my own business. I weighed the things standing for and against dropping out and in the end, I decided to go through with it. The moment I dropped out of school I was put through army service, as Austria is a country that requires you to serve the country for at least six months in the army or through civil service. After I was done with my service I met up with my best friend in Costa Rica and started working on a business both of us helped build. After a few months, my friend had to travel back to the United States to renew his visa and get some miscellaneous things such as clothing, electronics, etc. Hearing this I decided to follow him, as I had always been interested in seeing the US. This is when I fell in love with the country. Three months later I had acquired my G.E.D. and another three months later I had acquired my student visa and was enrolled in a local college I chose on a whim. The fact that everything worked out in my favor surely must have been because the gods had helped me. I strongly believe that I would never have had the courage required to come to drop out and come to a foreign country on a whim without praying to my gods. Through every step of my journey, I prayed to them and asked them to lead me and let everything fall in place. So far, my prayers have been heard and answered. Once I have finished college, I believe that the gods will continue guiding me, as my entrepreneurial spirit has not yet died, and I still intend to eventually found my own company. I believe the virtues of my faith will form a great mindset for this endeavor, as my religion places a lot of worth on hard and honest work, and after all, this is one of the things that are required to be successful in business. My faith will function as a daily reminder to not give up hope, even if business goes slow or something goes wrong in life. No matter how unpredictable life should become, I know that I can overcome it with faith.

Einstein’s discovery of general relativity turned the world of physics and science upside down, which is why it’s my favorite scientific discovery. Before Einstein published his theory, physicists had thought that they had gathered all knowledge of the inner workings of the universe and that there was nothing else to learn. This naivety caused a massive stagnation in discoveries in the field of physics. Einstein awoke his fellow scientists by publishing a revolutionary paper on the cause and effects of gravity and named it “General Relativity”. His discovery, although seemingly unrelated, produced a lot of convenient results, such as the GPS. Any older explanations of how gravity worked would have given GPS satellites the wrong coordinates and given travelers the wrong position on their maps. General relativity is the only reason we need not rely on clunky, old paper maps anymore, with a higher chance of leading navigators down the wrong road. Nowadays you can type in the address of where you want to go, and your GPS will lead you there on the fastest possible route. Without Einstein's theory, the simplicity of modern navigation would be unheard of. Imagine using a paper map on the way to Starbucks. Einstein invented something of great caliber that shattered any expectations of other scientists. General relativity reinvented physics and ushered in a revolution that restarted research in its field and many others. It gave way for so many new scientific ideas to come to life and has made life a lot more convenient, even for your average 9-to-5 cubicle worker. Personally, general relativity is not so much a theory as it is a symbol of the lack of discovery. Humans are always going to have a plethora of new knowledge to gain.