I believe that my best quality is empathy. Being the oldest sibling in a fairly complicated family has made me grow up sooner than I wanted to, and be the support system for my siblings and sometimes even my parents. I've had to learn how to handle stressful situations, while also walking on eggshells. The experiences I've had, however hard they may have been, have helped me develop empathy. I now understand how to put myself in other people's shoes and provide advice. Because of this, I've sort of become the therapist friend in my friend group. People come to me when they feel stressed or depressed, and I do my best to calm them down and empathize with them so that they know I understand and care. I share similar experiences I've had and how I handled them, which helps demonstrate my understanding and care. Along with being a support system for my family and friends, I've also become a better leader because of my empathy skills. I am on the student council and the secretary of the NHS, so I have to provide a lot of ideas and feedback to the administration of the school, while also representing my class and organization. I've often been the person to say, "But how would that affect these people?" I always try to look out for underrepresented groups in our school and try to be as inclusive as possible. I try to think about how the decisions we make would affect certain students, and how it would make me feel if I were in their position. Being so sensitive to others' experiences has also helped me explore empathy outside of school and family. I spend a lot of my free time researching and educating myself on minority groups. I want to be aware of the privilege I have as a white person, and have empathy for those who don't have the same privilege as me. I am constantly learning about social norms that come from a place of racism, and I am actively trying to stop myself from doing them. I'm always learning about government policies that have damaged indigenous groups, and how I can help change those when I vote. I also learn about disabled people and how I can help them. I want to eventually learn ASL so I can help deaf and nonverbal people feel more accepted and welcomed whenever I can. Overall, I try my hardest to be an unconditionally sensitive and kind person. In the future, my empathy skills can help me continue to be a safe person to come to in times of crisis and uncertainty. In college and the workplace, I can help other students and employees, as well as customers and clients. I realize it may seem like I'm playing the martyr, but I genuinely want to help others. I will never deny the privilege I have, and I will never deny the fact that I am more fortunate than others. I want others to feel more comfortable in this world. If a simple kind act can help someone's day be better, I'd love to be the source of that. I've felt certain oppression, being a queer and nonbinary person, and to know that the oppression of other groups is so much worse, saddens me to the core. I value empathy, decency, and awareness in all aspects of my life.

In the past year, I've embraced self-love and self-care. I no longer loathe my body for what it is, and I've adopted the body neutrality mindset. I appreciate my body for keeping me alive, and accept that it helps me navigate the world. Everyone has a body, and we shouldn't be as concerned with how they look as we are. In eighth and ninth grade I wasn't eating. I would constantly skip meals unless my parents were there to force me to eat. They never realized how badly I wanted to be skinnier, even though I only weighed 100 pounds. I hated my body and was jealous of all the girls around me with smaller breasts, bigger butts, and flatter stomachs. During the quarantine, I became depressed, as many people did, and ate my feelings. I gained a lot of weight, but it helped me reach a healthier weight. Once I gained that weight, I realized that I still look good. I started to appreciate my poochy stomach and flat butt. My weight has nothing to do with how I look or feel about myself because my body is my body and I can't change that. Fast forwards to now, and how I no longer stare into the mirror and nitpick everything about myself. Now, I admire my body, and I am so grateful for how fortunate I am to have a healthy one. During this journey to body neutrality, I discovered fashion. I had always wanted to dress cooler than I did, and once I started my sophomore year of high school, I started to embrace it. I started doing my makeup every day and tried finding interesting pieces of clothing. Now, I'm halfway through my senior year of high school, and I get compliments nearly every day on my hair, makeup, and clothes. Once I learned to love myself and accept my body, I learned how to be confident in myself. If I had never gotten that confidence, I never would have found my love for fashion. Although my journey to body neutrality has been lengthy, the biggest changes have happened this past year. Along with my adoption of body neutrality, I have explored my gender identity. Realizing that I am Genderqueer helped a lot in my journey to self-love. I started realizing that I can express my gender through my clothes, and that was a revelation for me. I no longer forcibly feminize myself, and I feel more confident wearing a mixture of masculine, feminine, and neutral clothing. I have learned so much about myself throughout high school, and I'm overwhelmed with happiness ever since I learned about body neutrality. I'm still the same me, but I'm so much more confident and self-expressive than I was before.

This poem is about the simplicity and splendor of nature. We often take this for granted, and I wish more people would treat it better. Nothing But the Sky I often sit and ponder about the clouds that wander across the brilliant blue. I think of how the clouds have never reached down to taste the fields, the ocean, or the desert. The clouds know not of the swallows that twitter in the trees. They know not of my hair that tickles the daisies as I lie in the grass. They have never heard the rushing streams, trickling past the pebbles and fish. They’ve only seen the land from up above, wondering from afar. When I think of this vast land we have so readily at our fingertips, it fills me with gratefulness. For we have known Nature in all her splendor. Yet the clouds have known nothing but the sky.

I love making art that transforms something typically seen as “ugly” into something beautiful, and more appealing. I love making very colorful and bold art, since I am a colorful and bold person myself. I see myself a lot in my art, especially since each of my subjects has my signature eyeliner. I also love using mixed media, so my pieces aren’t all made of the same materials and supplies. One of the pieces included is on a paper plate that I used as a mixing palette for another project, and another’s entire background is made of origami roses. I hope you enjoy my artwork as much as I enjoy making it.

I believe that mental health is extremely important. It can be exhausting just to exist sometimes, and we really need to take priority in our mental wellness. In our teenage years, mental illness is extremely prevalent. According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, approximately 49.5 percent of adolescents have struggled with mental illness or disorders in their lives. As teens, our hormones, peers, pressures, schooling, and future plans put a lot of stress on our mental wellbeing, and not everyone copes in a healthy way, if at all. Some people turn to substances, self harm, and other unhealthy coping mechanisms to escape from the tremendous stress, guilt, and pressure of being a teenager. Mental health is something that I have struggled with since a very young age. My whole life, I’ve struggled with not feeling loved, even when I had everything that I needed. My parents divorced when I was nine, and I know that my parents love me, but it’s hard not to feel guilty when all of their arguments revolve around me and my siblings. In middle school, I started realizing that I wasn’t straight. I didn’t know why I liked girls, and I didn’t know if it was okay. I was so scared that my parents would find out and not accept me. I am very fortunate that they accept me for who I am, but I still struggle with being a queer person. There are still people who call me slurs, and judge me for who I love. I am also very worried about my extended family, and what coming out to them could do to our relationships. Along with all of that, I struggle with my self image. I wish I could be a prettier, skinnier person, but I never will be. It’s been a hard journey, but I’ve been slowly learning to accept myself and be comfortable with my body. After visiting a therapist for a few months (which was cut short due to Covid), I learned that healthy coping mechanisms are extremely helpful. To cope with all of these stressors (along with school, college applications, and adult life) I have turned to art. Art has helped me express my feelings, and give me something to take my mind off of my mental struggles. I love listening to music and creating art, so much so that I have my own artist’s desk and storage area in my room. I have made a conscious effort to focus on my art when I’m feeling down. I use my art to vent about my issues, and feel better about myself. I love knowing that I’m good at something and when I feel like I have nothing, I know that I will always have art. Art has helped me so much that I’m planning to pursue a degree in Illustration, and make art a full-time job. I have learned that it’s okay to cry. I don’t hold back my tears anymore, because crying is something human. I also plan to start journaling. I love writing, and I think that expressing myself on paper is a good way to let it all out. Sometimes talking is the best way to work through your problems, even if you’re only talking to a book. I also want to return to therapy when my family is able to support the bills. Mental health is something that many people struggle with, but it’s a natural, human thing. No one is perfect, so you should love yourself for who you are, even though it’s hard.

My dad joined the military before I was born, so I’ve spent my whole life as a military dependent. I’ve moved thirteen times, lived in seven states, one foreign country, and been to a grand total of nine schools. Being a military child has been hard for me. I’ve had to say goodbye to so many friends every two to three years when we moved to a new duty station. It’s very difficult to leave your whole life behind, and start completely over every few years. Nobody likes being the “new kid”. It was especially hard given I haven’t had a phone or social media for the majority of my life. I had to force myself to be complacent with no contact with my prior lives. Although moving a lot has been a struggle, one constant in my life has kept me grounded. No matter where I go, I still have my mom. My parents split up and remarried when I was pretty young, so I don’t remember much from that time. All I remember is moving with my dad to Colorado, and visiting my mom in Texas each summer. I like to joke that a third of my life has been spent in cars, planes, trains, and boats from all the moving and family visiting I’ve done. I’ve always moved around, and never really felt like any of them were home until recently I realized that none of those places were my home. Texas is my home. Texas is where I was born, and the one place I keep going back to. I love visiting my mom in Texas because it always feels so familiar. I know the people there, the cows, the stores, and the roads. Texas really does feel like home. I know it’s cliché that my role model is my mom, but it’s true. I have always had a special connection with her. I love that I can talk to her with no filter. We have no secrets, and every moment we spend together is filled with laughter, love, and acceptance. Her and I are very similar in our looks, opinions, and mannerisms that sometimes I wonder if I am her clone! She owns a small ghost tour business in Houston which has inspired me to do something similar. I want to follow her footsteps and create my own online store and appear at markets to sell my art. I would also like to follow her confident mentality and her philosophy of kindness. She believes in nature and is very down to earth, so I hope to be like her one day. My whole life has been spent in a mid to low-income family. My mom doesn’t make much, so I haven’t been able to live with her since I was very young. My dad makes more money, but with three kids and a new baby, our family is starting to struggle a bit on a single income. This scholarship will help me afford college and avoid student debt, as well as follow my dreams. I want to be an entrepreneur just like my mom, and create my own art platform. However difficult military life has been for me, it has provided me with invaluable experiences and knowledge. Without being a military brat, I never would have lived in Alaska, gone on a ferry, flown unaccompanied across countries, or lived outside of the US. I currently live in Belgium, which is amazing! My life wouldn’t be the same without the experiences I’ve had and the people I’ve known, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I wish to see a change in the American education system on LGBTQ+ education. Our history, sex ed, and rights should be discussed in school settings to make future generations more knowledgeable, tolerant, and aware of our community. Schools actively dismiss the history and diversity that LGBTQ+ people bring to the world, and they are contributing to the masses of children and teenagers who grow up to be intolerant and misinformed about queer identities. Because of schools being so negligent in their curriculum, young queer people aren't taught safe sex education for their future partners, and young transgender people aren't shown the representation they deserve to feel accepted. Without adequate education, queer youth's suicide and self-harm rates will continue to rise. Even with growing tolerance and media coverage of queer communities, queer people are still being harassed, assaulted, murdered, and bullied into bad mental health. A lasting effect of this lack of education is the recent Supreme Court decision being overturned. Older generations of ill-educated people have refused to listen to the rights of women and people with uteruses and because of that, they now have no say over their own bodies when it comes to terminating pregnancies. Roe VS. Wade protected the rights of these people, and typically Supreme Court decisions are final, but the overturning of this decision sets the precedent that any decision is in jeopardy of being overruled. This makes me extremely angry and worried about future decisions being overturned. First its people’s bodies, but who’s to say they won’t target LGBTQ+ marriage and interracial marriage next? The people fighting for these overturnings are intolerant and ignorant and are pursuing the ruin of innocent people’s lives and rights. Queer people and people of color are starting to feel even less safe than before with the recent happenings in the Supreme Court. It’s terrifying to think that our safety and happiness could be completely erased by a country supposedly based in freedom and equality. I believe that the education system could have a positive influence on future generations, and hopefully mold students into activists for change. It is now up to the youth of the world to fix what the older generations have blatantly destroyed. To do this, several things should be added to school curriculums worldwide. In History classes, we should be taught about the Stonewall riots, Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, important dates in decriminalizing same-sex relationships, Gore Vidal, James Baldwin, Andy Warhol, the legalization of same-sex marriages, and more. Along with historical events and people, schools should teach students how to respect other’s identities and pronouns. Pronouns are such a minor change in interacting with people which often make others feel more comfortable, and even improve the mental health of the individuals who have specified pronouns. Students should also be taught to respect people’s preferred names for the same reasons. In sex education lessons, students shouldn’t be separated by their gender or anatomy. All students deserve and should know the same information. Along with the traditional materials, teachers should teach about safe sex in same-sex relationships, accurately describe the transition process from female to male, and vice versa. Emphasis on inclusion, acceptance, communication, and education is the biggest thing that schools should include in curriculum and other practices. With these changes, I believe that we can make the world a better place for queer people. Queer people deserve to be safe, accepted, and loved the same way as cisgender and heterosexual people do.