I am a senior in high school, and have a part-time job. This is something I struggle with sometimes because I overthink about my future which leads me to stress myself out. My mental health, and physical health are things I have grown to care about a lot. The reason for this is because my family suffers from extreme mental and physical health problems that affect their day to day lives. They encourage me to take breaks and to find peace in the things I enjoy to do. I have been looking into ways that someone's mental health can improve during the day, and have found plenty of articles surrounding the topic. I have contributed many of the suggestions into my everyday life, and have found that it helps! All in all what I do to take a mental break is read, draw, go outside, or simply spend time with family. I love to just take a break from work, school, and reality for a few minutes or days, so that I can once again collect myself and feel a little more sane. Sometimes it's difficult to do this, but I have friends and family that are there for me when I need them. My family sadly suffers from many different types of physical problems, this is due to genes, overeating, medical conditions, or just accidents at work. I have seen many family members suffer day to day because of these problems; this is the reason why keeping up my physical health and nutritional health is so important to me. I have suffered from an ED for years before I finally decided enough is enough and took control of my life once again. I have been following a schedule of times to eat to help me slow my eating habits and even started drinking a lot of water these past few years. It's hard to keep up a exercise schedule, but school has helped me with that part as well by allowing me the take physical education. It is not easy being in school and keeping up a good mental, physical, and nutritional health, but I have found my way around most problems. I take breaks when I need them whether that be from homework, or other problems. I keep a schedule to help me sort out portions of my food, and I exercise regularly to keep my body moving. I enjoy keeping my mental, physical, and nutritional health up, and hope this inspires someone to keep it up too!

I am a animal person, currently I have 1 dog, 1 cat, and 4 birds in my home. My dog, Blanca, has been part of the family since 2016. We got her when she was a baby and we have loved her ever since. Sadly Blanca did have a sister that we adopted with her, Muñeca, she passed away in 2018 due to a car accident. Blanca and the whole family were very wounded by the loss of Muñeca, but we made it through. Currently Blanca is doing perfectly fine and is enjoying her new toys that she got for her birthday! My dog is not just a dog to me she is a friend and a family member that has seen the good and bad our family has gone through. She has been my friend since we got her and I love her very much. Muñeca is also never forgotten, Blanca and I always go visit her grave every time we go on a walk together. Muñeca made everyone's day, if you ever got to meet her, she was energetic, fun, and loved to eat anything she could find. She was the dog my father always took to the woods with him, and when they came back she would run straight to her bowl for food. She was great and is still missed, but her memory is something we hold close to our hearts while Blanca is the little rascally we hold onto for comfort and love. I love all the animals in our home, but Blanca is the one companion I will miss the most, she has been there for me anytime I needed her and has slept with me through the nights that I needed someone. She truly is my best friend and I will always love her to the moon and beyond.

What draws me to math is the different elements that go with it. Math isn’t just random numbers someone has to solve, it’s an equation that helps solve a bigger concept. Math is all around us if we just look. That building you live in, someone used math to build it, that cake you love so much, someone used math to measure the ingredients, math is in our daily lives and helps us shape reality by explaining concepts, and ideas by just a few numbers and expressions. The principal of mathematics are used for various types of research, education, and/or studies, there are many different ways someone can use a formula in mathematics to solve their problem. Mathematics is just a concept for a few, but it helped me shape my life by being the tool my whole family uses for their jobs. Without math my father wouldn’t be able to cut wood slabs correctly, and it would cost him his job. Without math I wouldn’t understand the concept of money, so I wouldn’t understand the income and outcome of my purchases. You have heard the saying “math makes the world go round”, and have thought it to be false, but no math really does make the world go round. Math has helped everyone with their life one way or another. Understanding what makes math so important is the first step to finding out how math helped shape your life and the world. Math is a key concept of understanding the world around us; we use math in science, history, architecture, engineering and more! We use it in these other fields of studies because we know math is a key tool to solve problems or help find new information in these fields. Math is not important to some, but for me it helped me understand the different problems of the world by allowing me to view different data of the world. I want to make a difference in the world and math is one of those tools I will use to help me shape the future!

One day my siblings and I were at the dining table talking about random things. Out of nowhere we start to get into a roast battle, my sister and I start tag teaming my brother, and then suddenly they are tag teaming me. We start to go one by one and I say a good bar at my sister, but that was before tragedy stuck. Once I spat my line my sister started to lick her lips to get ready to say the most disrespectful, horrendous, humiliating line to come out of her mouth, she told me, and I quote "How are you built like Theodore but got Simon's glasses" end quote. I have not been able to recover from this roast battle till this day, it gives me nightmares every time we start to roast each other.

Imagination I am always told I have a big imagination That I could write stories about my adventures That my imagination should be written down and published so that the world can view them But the same world that will view my stories is the same world that made me create them So that I could escape

One of the main reasons I want to pursue higher education is because of my parents. When I was younger my father would tell me stories about how his school looked, but every time he would, he would describe himself as a child. I was curious about the reasoning and when I asked him he told me he wasn't able to finish middle school because of money problems in his family. I asked my mother about her schooling and she told me that she was never able to attend any type of schooling because of her health condition. Both my parents dreamed of attending school and being able to get a high school diploma, and both were never able to. As I am finishing my last year of high school I realize how much my parents sacrificed for me to get an education. I want to not only honor them by getting a higher education but also being able to fulfill the bigger goals I have for myself. I want to be able to provide for my family in the future and feel proud of myself for going into a challenging field not many Latina women are in. I want to help others like my parents and show them that our backgrounds are not something that can hold us back but is something to help us become better people that work harder. A higher education is something I always wanted to pursue and my parents stories are something that pushed me to work harder for it. I hope to one day be able to spread their stories to others to also inspire them to achieve not only their families dreams but their own.

Over these past years, everyone has faced hardships and self-growth. My self-growth is something that impressed even me because I always love to stay in my comfort zone. Over the past year I have grown into a person that loves to speak, not only to new people, but about the problem the world faces. I have grown into someone who loves to express themselves and their ideas, this change is something I have learned to love very much because I have made new friends and found out more about myself that I could not have found out if COVID did not happen. Although, COVID has affected many people differently for me it helped me find myself. During the year 2020, I found myself with so much free time, I thought about my future during this time and even picked up on new hobbies that I did not see myself enjoying till I tried it. I became closer to my family and started to once again enjoy life, which was hard for me for some time, I saw myself happy and grow into someone that was bubbly and cheerful. The reason that I became this way was not because of COVID, but because of my love for books! It does not sound as amazing as it should but it's true, I read books on fiction, biographies, exploration, adventure, human rights and more, but you know what most if not all of them always tried saying; to try new things. The reason these books are so fascinating to me is because, the people in them always do so many amazing things, and the reason they were able to do it was because they weren't scared of new beginnings, they weren't scared to put themselves out there, to be known, so that the things they cared about and the things they wanted to change would come true. I started finding myself because of books because they allowed me to view the world in the shoes of someone else that relates to me. So much of me has changed yet so much stayed the same, my appearance for one stayed the same, and so has some of my best qualities. I am still a very caring person that would give a helping hand to anyone, I still have my love for movies, and I still have the strive to become someone greater. During this time I have learned that being the best is not the only thing to live for, doing the best you can is. Someone will always be better than you at the things you love to do just being able to enjoy it is enough to make your life full, and worrying about the past will only hold you back, so stop worrying and JUST DO! You never know what life holds for you do.

"If we were meant to stay in one place we would have roots instead of feet.", this quote was said by Rachel Wolchin an author and writer. The quote is one that inspires me to look beyond what humans know possible and explorer a reality of creativity, and theories. The universe is humongous and unexplored and although it might take us eons to figure out, we have a start. Understanding the principles that make up our universe is the first step to finding the nature of it. Gravity, space, time, matter and energy make up our universe, but how much of that do we really understand? We know that gravity is the force that pulls us to the center, and mass is what makes gravity. Protons and neutrons make up mass, and quarks make up protons and neutrons and the list goes on. We have the basics of the chemical compounds of the universe or at least half, see we can not cover all the compounds because we have not explored all of it. We have not explored the parts that we do not live in and we have not explored the planets around us, at least not fully. It is very important in the near future that we explore as much as we can in space, so we can further grasp the understanding of what makes up our universe and planets. Once we can explore the different parts we can gather more data to support our theories of the universe and our surroundings, which can further advance our limited resources and can help provide us with more technology and space. Not understanding something is okay, but not being willing to explorer the unknown is something we as humans can not face. Our ideas and concepts push us to a better future, without them we have no understanding of anything, but the only way to prove our theories is by exploring them. A way to explore is by just trying it, if something does not work we try something else, and if that does not work we try another thing. We keep trying until something finally works and we work from that, but the only way to be sure that it is correct and not just a hypothesis is by being able to explain and create new ideas from the main one. We can not live in a planet or universe that we do not understand, it is suicide to keep living this way, we as the dominate species should open our minds to different concepts an ideas of the universe once we can do that, we are able to figure out new ways of exploration and technology to be able to achieve such goals. I end this off with my own quote that I hope inspires someone, "reach for the stars and nothing is able to stop you, only your own mind."

My name is Joane, I am named after my grandmother and enjoy reading. Growing up I wanted to pursue a career in the education field, and still would love to do so, but as a secondary career. After years of consideration I finally found a field that I am very passionate in joining, the government/law fields, the reason for this turn in careers is because of a project I did when I was in the sixth grade. My teacher asked us to research about our wanted future careers and after doing so I found that even though teachers are teaching the future of this country, they get payed and treated as if their jobs are meaningless. After finding this out I was quite saddened, but this discovery opened my eyes to a new path. In the future I want to become someone who holds a seat in office for any of the houses or 50 states. I want to be a person that is able to change the lives of millions by just hearing their wants and needs. I want to be a person that people can trust no matter race, color, or gender. To be this person I will need to work hard and long, but the achievement will be worth it because I want to impact the future of the United States anyway I can. Becoming a senator, representative, or lawyer is a big dream of mind because with these jobs I am able to shape the future for many, and will be able to create laws for the people of this country. I plan to make a positive America where every voice is heard and every need is meet. Wether or not I influence the world in a classroom or in a building field with thousands, I will always represent the brighter America no matter what!

Going to college was something I always thought about, but growing up in a low-income family with immigrant parents wasn't a big push to go. When I was younger my father and mother told me stories about how they regret not being able to attend school or finishing it, I remember sitting in bed for days thinking about how wonderful it would be to attend college, but could never figure out how to pay for the tuition. Growing up with such a mindset was harsh on me and made me think little of myself, but the one thing that kept me from quitting was my parents. They always encouraged me to do what I wanted whether or not that was attending a college. Looking at my parents struggle for years to provide for their children gave me the courage and want to better not only my life, but my families life. Attending a college is very important to me because I want to honor my parents sacrifice, for leaving their own countries to give their children a chance to even dream about furthering their education. As a first born Hispanic American in this country I want my voice and the voices of people like me to be heard and valued. I want to be the first in my family to show them that their sacrifices were not for nothing and that anything is possible in a country full of dreams. This scholarship is only a step towards a bigger dream of mine, and could provide me with the the resources to achieve those dreams. Even if I do not win this scholarship I congratulate any first-generation student who dreams of achieving something bigger, because in this country full of dreams anything is possible if you believe.

The best quality I have, in my opinion, is having an open-mind. I value this characteristic about myself the most because I am able to understand other people's opinions and emotions, which allows me to evaluate situations that evolve different parties. This characteristic also allows me to help others by listening to them and comforting them in times of hardships. To most this quality is nothing special and although I must agree with them, I also must disagree because this quality will help me in the future by allowing me to become someone people can trust. In the future I want to become many things, one of those things is to become a person in office, so that I can help others and listen to their needs. I want to help shape the United States's future and it's people by listening to their needs and wants for this country. Having the ability to listen to everyone and having the heart to care are two things I am very proud of and at the ripe age of seventeen, I am glad to announce that I am an open-minded individual that values everyone, and wants to level the playing field for everyone no matter their background or race.

My back to school tip is to talk to people that you never even thought of speaking to. I want to spread awareness on an issue I see in many schools, people always seem to stay in their comfort zone when speaking to peers around them. You might not feel comfortable with speaking with random people and that's okay, but you never know when you are saving a life too. Some people feel down and have no one to talk to and feel like the world is after them, you can change their minds by just speaking one word to them a simple "good job" or "you're beautiful" can change a person's day, and besides you never know if that random person beside you is your new best friend. My social handle on Instagram is: @jojo._.the._.yoyo

The smell of food that hit my nose every time my mother cooked was the best smell I can remember. The warm plate that she would put in front of my siblings and I would be the best part of my day, it would make my day a better one because I knew my mom tried her hardest to make something that everyone would love. I remember sometimes the neighbors were still at work and and their children would be waiting for them outside. My mother would invite them to come to our house, so that they didn’t have to wait outside for their parents. I remember them coming in and smelling the air because my mother had just cooked, they looked hungry and my siblings and I were about to eat, my mother once again invited the children to the table and served them a plate as well. We all sat their with smiles on our faces and just enjoyed the meal my mother made. This is a simple memory nothing that bold or adventurous happened, but one thing this memory taught me was kindness. My mother did not have to invite those children inside nor did she have a responsibility to feed them, but she did. We were not made of money and other people in the community didn’t offer to watch us when my mother went to work for the night, but she showed kindness to those around her. She showed me to always be kind and give a helping hand to those who are less fortunate then myself, she showed me that money comes and goes and the connection you have with a person is the best thing that can happen to you. I am a person that helps many people now because of this one kind act I saw my mother do, and I want to continue to help as many people as I can. I am a first generation United States born Latina that strives to become someone of importance, so that I can help the communities of people whose voices and opinions are never heard about. I want to help more people then anything because I believe helping those that are less fortunate is important and treating them to a meal is just the first step into a bigger goal, a goal I want to accomplish now because of my mother who just shared a home and meal.

Growing up I saw these people on my screen that made our laws, I saw them make laws for the men for each field. I read through the years on how men got their freedom and how men got their voices heard, but until recently I saw how women got their voices heard, and how women started making our laws. Come to find that sadly women’s voices are less heard then those of a man, I have come to find out how my laws and my freedom are once again getting stripped because of men that see it fit that a woman’s voice is not heard. I have sadly seen the fall of laws that protected a woman’s rights and freedoms in a country that claims to be the best country in the world, to only help half of it’s population. As much as I am disappointed about this, I am more disappointed in how the same people that create our laws look down at the people who pay their wages and party’s. The people of color in this country have been seen as lower class citizens since the creation of this country, the poor people of this society have been looked down upon because they can not afford food or clothing for themselves or their children because they do not get a livable wage, but a state regulated minimum wage. These wages are not enough to feed a person let alone support a climate that is slowly dying because of the hurtful expansion and destruction these people make. Our climate will die before the new generation can inherit it, and the only thing we will be able to show for this country being once great will be the words of the old that no longer have meaning because they did not fight to change it. These are only some of the problems this country faces, and by no means are we the worst country but we are one that needs fixing. I want to study in the field of law and strive to better the United States, I want to help create a country that the future generation can be glad they live in and feel safe to be who they are. I want to help the communities that helped build this country and create jobs and fields that focuses on helping the lower class citizens. I will advocate for better wages, better laws, and much more for this country now and in the future because growing up I saw people create laws and I too want to be a person to create laws, but for the future and for everyone.