As an only child, playing co-op mode is challenging. You have no siblings to play with, and sharing games with people who already have a group and aren't looking for new members is hard. Your mom tries to play with you, but explaining the difference between the A and B buttons every 10 minutes can get tiring. So, you settle for solo play. It's not all bad: most games you play only allow for solo play, like that Princess Peach game or that atrociously pixelated "Barbie and the Three Musketeers" game for the Nintendo DS. But still, watching gameplay online of people laughing and shouting with their friends and arguing over which one of them fell into the pit, you can't help but feel a sense of loneliness, a desire to experience the crazy, joyful energy of playing with friends or family. So, when the opportunity arises to play co-op with someone, you grab the chance faster than Princess Peach getting kidnapped. For me, those moments of co-op gaming came with the game "Wii Sports" and "Wii Sports Resort." Unexpected, I know. Now, to specify, I'm referring to the classic "Wii Sports" and "Wii Sports Resort" for the Nintendo Wii, the first gaming console I owned. I remember spending hours on the archery game in "Wii Resort" (which I DOMINATED every time) and consistently bowling my ball into the gutter in "Wii Sports." For a while, the "Wii Sports" series was shelved with the "Co-op Games but I Have to Play Solo" collection. However, those games lost that label about two weeks later after my dad discovered the Wii Sports game "Tennis." My dad has been a Nintendo fan since he was a kid, so when we got the Nintendo Wii, he was curious about it. I mean, he only grew up with the NES, so seeing a new Nintendo console that had 3D graphics and was controlled by a magic wand was like discovering a new universe. I can't tell you how, but over the course of a few months, my dad and I began the afterschool ritual of competing against each other at tennis. I can still hear the sound the tennis balls would make hitting our rackets, the "Ohs" and "Ahhs" of the crowd, and the playful taunting my dad and I would make at each other. Hours flew by as he and I fuelled our competitive nature, sweating, shouting, and laughing. Eventually, we moved on to "Wii Sports Resort," and tabletop tennis became part of our routine. I never realized how much my dad loved that sport until we started playing. Compared to tennis, the tabletop was more of him teaching me the rules of it and getting excited if I beat him at a round. When I look back on my dad and me and the times we shared playing on the Nintendo Switch, I can't help but feel a swell of joy and nostalgia. Every time I think about that, it reminds me of just how much my dad loves being with me and how much I matter to him that he would take time out of his day to play video games with me. He didn't have to, but he did, to hang out with me. Nintendo Wii helped me create core memories with my dad, and it not only reinforced my love for him but also cemented the idea that he will always want to be with me and that he loves that I am his daughter.

A rush of excitement pumps through my veins as I hold a new book in my hands. I had been eyeing this book on Amazon for weeks, and finally, it has arrived. Thumbing through the pages, I get hit with the intoxicating smell of freshly printed paper. I feel the sharp ends of the pages stab at my thumb. This sensation is not uncommon, as I have experienced this over the last decade of my life. Before books were my galaxy, they were just tiny pieces of space rock. As a child, I wanted nothing to do with books. Sure, books were fun when my parents read them to me, but when I had to read by myself, I would do everything possible to avoid the task. However, I began to feel left out when I watched my kindergarten classmates increase their reading levels. I wanted to be on par with them, so with my parents' aid, I began to force myself to read. I started reading any book I could find, whether that would be the books my parents got for me or from my classroom's library. Eventually, I caught up and even eclipsed my other classmates. However, this journey led to a second, unexpected outcome: I began to enjoy reading books. The tiny space rock I once scoffed at had now made a crater in my mind, and I soon began collecting more. Throughout the years, I discovered galaxies of genres, ranging from bittersweet fantasy to blood-pumping mysteries. Taking these discoveries, I soon created my universe, filled with planets and stars that I could escape to, whether to a school for witches and wizards or a camp for demigods. Books have been my saving grace throughout my life. It has been my escapism from troubles, an ever-comforting source that I could always rely on. In school, there would be days when I would feel lonely, looking longingly at groups of friends, wishing I could be a part of them. Whenever the pain of loneliness was unbearable, I would retreat into my world of books and feel a little less alone. During the times when my bullies were making my life a nightmare, I could just run away to my world of dragons and castles, and I would feel safe. Whenever anxiety would plague my mind, I would be able to find peace walking alongside the main character in an enchanted forest. While books did not solve all of my problems, they helped give me a way of escaping them, if not for a brief moment. Books gave me a chance to breathe and the strength I needed to face the next day. Even the most heartbreaking books were able to encourage me. Besides being my therapist, books were also my English teacher. While reading stories was not my forte as a child, writing stories were different. I would write three pages when given an assignment that only needed a paragraph. As I read more books, I inadvertently began to study the author's writing style. I started to pick up on how the author would write dialogue, how they would set up the atmosphere, their use of imagery, etc. These English lessons influenced my writing as I experimented with my diction. My characters began to have depth; I was able to give them internal struggles and create fascinating worlds beyond my imagination. Books allowed me not just to create a story but an immersive experience. Now, if you excuse me, I have a new book to read.

When I was a child, I wanted to fly. Not "fly" in terms of using an airplane or a hot air balloon; I wanted to soar through the sky, the wind stinging my eyes as my hands stroked the clouds. The only way to do that, I believed, was to create mechanical wings. I remember drawing simple diagrams in a notebook, designing them similar to angel wings. I even listed out materials that would be needed (titanium, I decided, would make a good base material). Ideas like these were a major part of my childhood, so it was no wonder I found myself pursuing a career in the sciences. My name is Jayda Gilyard, and I will attend Middlebury College as a Computer Science major. I knew some aspects of Computer Science from classes I took in middle school, but I did not have a desire to pursue it until high school. I remember overhearing a conversation with a student who was a part of our school's FIRST Robotics Team. He explained a video game he had made that was needed for the upcoming competition. That set off something in me: the idea of how a person, how I, could make an entire world through a computer screen just sounded amazing. After that, I began taking computer science classes offered at my school, even taking an AP Computer Science class in my senior year. My motivation for going into this field, and the sciences in general, is all due to my parents' never-ending support for anything I was interested in. After planning my mechanical wings idea, I presented my plan to my parents. Instead of dismissing my idea as just something from my imagination, they rolled up their sleeves and began helping me to make it a reality. They even went as far as helping me make a prototype out of cardboard. They set their minds on helping me make this real, on making my childhood dream real. My parents often did things like this for me, consistently going above and beyond to grow and develop my interest. When I became interested in ballet, my mom found a program at our local church for me to join. When I was interested in environmental science, my parents found a week-long program at our local science center. When I became interested in video editing, they bought me video editing software for Christmas. They never tried to stop me from pursuing my interest, and even when that interest didn't stick, that did not stop them from cultivating the next interest. This continual support helped me to discover what I wanted to be. I had the freedom to learn about things that interested me, and this freedom of exploration helped me to discover that I was interested in the sciences and helped me to discover my love for computer science. Since the field of computer science has a small number of African American women, my parents' constant encouragement also gave me the confidence I need to continue on this career path; no matter what opposition I face, I am more than capable of handling the task. I hope that through my career choice, I will be able to make an impact on people and make my parents' work worthwhile.

A practical solution for helping people struggling with mental health is to increase the public’s education about mental health via social media. Mental health has always been taboo, with people feeling mild discomfort when confronted with the topic. Over the years, stigmas about mental illnesses have become rampant, painted as unnerving or abnormal. This stigma has thus become synonymous with people who have mental illnesses, with them being painted as dangerous or strange. They are only seen as their illness, and without the proper education about mental illness, they will feel isolated and alone. As someone who has struggled with anxiety for over a decade, the worst thing that a person struggling with mental health can think is that no one understands or cares about their struggles. To change this, there must be an increase in the knowledge about mental illnesses. The best way to do this is through social media. Millions of people use social media daily. It has become rooted in our everyday lives, making it one of the most accessible ways to access information. Using social media, we can post content that is dedicated to teaching people about what mental illnesses are, focusing on debunking the stigmas surrounding them. This can range from simple posts to videos. However, the information in these media pieces must be valid and not surface level. It cannot generalize mental illness or make it look “quirky.” The only way this could work is if the information is broken down in a thorough but understandable way. Through this, the general public will understand and accept people with mental illnesses. This will make people living with mental health to feel respected, that there are people in the world who see them as they are: human.