"A Little Princess" by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a book I would put on the world's required reading list. It is a book I read several times throughout my childhood and found an incredible connection with. Burnett's book tells the story of a young girl sent to a boarding school by her father, where she is treated very well at first. Then her father dies, leaving her with no money to continue paying for her schooling. She is moved up to the attic and treated as a mere slave to the school. Still, throughout her harsh treatment of malnutrition and physical, emotional, and mental abuse - she stays an imaginative, humble, and kind girl. She continued to put the needs of others before her own, playing make-believe to escape from her harsh reality. There are three things all humans should possess - kindness, compassion, and humility. While these things are something that everyone should have - the reality is often disappointing. The world needs more kindness. More people who look past their issues and problems to help others in need. Whether volunteering or giving a simple smile and "thank you" to a service worker. We need more compassion because the world looks upon those who have been wronged with scorn. No one is given sympathy in a society where everyone needs to make their own way with no help. Pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and pushing through even though it is causing them severe mental strain. People deserve to be shown compassion during hard times. Above all else, the world needs more humility. These days, people only look for themselves and tend to get arrogant - only thinking of themselves and how to put themselves higher in the world. "A Little Princess" teaches the importance of humility because no one is truly better than anyone else. Anything is possible. One could go from living like a princess to a maid within a night. Humility is to be modest, and humble. Not needing to boast or speak highly of oneself because no one is higher than another. Learning the importance of humility gives way to the lessons of compassion and above all else, kindness.

I was first outed at eleven years old. I recently found the word "bisexual" and found it to be something I identified with. I told this to my older sister. She then told my family that same night - before I was ready. I was met with hateful words from my stepfather. He called me disgusting, scum of the Earth, and that I was going to be a criminal when I grew up if I continued to walk down the path I "chose." Despite these words from my stepfather, I continued to live my life as a queer person. When my family turned their backs on me for being bisexual, the LGBTQ+ community welcomed me with open arms. I finally felt like I had a place where I belonged. Surrounded by people who shared similar stories of being scorned by their families made me feel seen and heard. When my family showed disdain towards my love, the community supported me and told me I was a valid human being who deserved to live. As I entered high school, I wrote papers on what it was like growing up in a homophobic household as a queer kid. I dove into LGBTQ+ history and fell in love with the stories of Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. They were my idols as a child and continue to be people I hold an immense amount of respect for. Then Covid hit, schools were shut down, and I had to live at home full-time. I put the pieces together and realized I was trans and began socially transitioning. I came out to my father, stepmother, and brothers. My father continues to this day to not believe that I am trans and makes an effort to try and turn me back into a woman. Every time he says these things, my heart aches. I dive deeper into my work - learning stories from LGBTQ+ people of the past. All these stories were similar to mine and I wished that they were able to be shouted from the rooftops. I started doing Running Start and found a deeper love for history. It became my major, of course. Inspired by the stories of Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Alan Turing - decided that my main focus as a historian would be to share stories of the LGBTQ+ community's past. To share the stories that are not told nearly enough. I want to be an LGBTQ+ historian - writing books on not only my experience as a gay and trans person in the modern day but how those like me coped in the past. I want to give back to the community who gave me a family when I did not really have one of my own.

I was outed as bisexual when I was eleven and almost kicked out for it -- I now can't let my family know I'm a transman for the sake of not being disowned. There was always a dream to help LGBTQ+ stories be told. I became fascinated with LGBTQ+ history and involve it in almost every single paper I've written. Eventually, when I go to write my book for my Ph.D. in the future, I want it to be about LGBTQ+ history. Our stories and voices have been ignored for too long. My dream is to help people take the LGBTQ+ community and history seriously. The gay historians who came before me were never taken seriously in our field and I want to change that. I long to write a textbook that has LGBTQ+ history focused on more than just a couple of paragraphs on the Stone Wall Riots because our history is more than that. We helped create and innovate so much in the modern world as well as the ancient world. I want to change the way people think about the LGBTQ+ community. LGBTQ+ history is an amazing and rich one. The Victorian Era is home to many famous LGBTQ+ figures. Oscar Wilde, Natalie Barney, Eva Palmer, and many more. These figures helped to craft the entertainment industry for many years to come. Sappho, an ancient Greek lesbian poet, helped to pioneer a new genre of poetry. Billie Holiday, a famous POC bisexual singer helped to pave the way for open gayness in the music industry. Even some famous presidents like Abraham Lincoln were part of the LGBTQ+ community. Another dream involving the telling of historical LGBTQ+ stories is to tell stories from pre-colonized areas. A reason homophobia runs so rampant in the world is because of colonization! I was able to study under Dr. Dharitri Bhattacharjee for a part of my undergraduate degree and she answered my questions about living as an LGBTQ+ individual in pre-British India. Through my friends whose parents were born in a different country, I heard their stories of LGBTQ+ they encountered and how they were treated, and how they would have been treated differently had Great Britain not colonized them. The difference in LGBTQ+ treatment in India today vs before the British invaded is astounding. It can even be seen today in places like Thailand which was never colonized. Thailand calls its transwomen 'ladyboys' which is not a degrading term in Thailand. These women are actually viewed with a lot of respect by those in Thailand, and before the Western world had a lot of influence, were even viewed as holy or divine in some sense. I am an avid historian who wants to tell LGBTQ+ stories in their entirety -- to document our history in a way that it hasn't been before -- focusing on how we were treated before Christianity infused homophobia into the veins of those around us. My passion for fulfilling the aforementioned dreams lie in the way my peers and I have experienced homophobia. I want to change people's minds. To have those who have treated us harshly become educated on our history as I believe education is the most effective way to combat ignorance.