It would be really irresponsible and selfish of me to not speak my mind. As an underrepresented group in most of the things that I do, choosing to keep my mind shut would be choosing to let me and others like me continue to be ignored, or treated as diversity hires in the things that we participate in. Quite obviously, there are people who never have to worry about speaking their mind - but for those of us in the minority by race, gender, or other factors, finding the opportunity to speak our minds is the challenge. I stay committed to speaking my mind because there's pressure to. If I don't say anything, folks that aren't in the minority are free to assume I lack ideas, creativity, and the intelligence to participate on the same level as them. They are free to assume that because I'm not speaking my mind, I don't have an opinion and they are free to make decisions without me. By choosing to stay quiet, I've chosen to let people ignore me. I stay committed to speaking my mind because doing so isn't just for my benefit. Women, minorities, and other groups I unintentionally represent could be too scared to speak their minds too. Somebody has to do it, but it doesn't make me a hero to be the person that does. It also doesn't make them criminals or cowards for not doing so. But if I'm given the chance, using my voice is the best way for me to play a part in creating more opportunities for people who usually can't speak their mind to speak their mind.

I didn't really learn how to study until my junior year of high school. (And yes, I'm a junior now - I didn't properly start studying until now). For the past eleven years of schooling, I have breezed through classes and gotten by without writing very many notes down or listening much to the teacher because I was always able to figure things out on my own. However, I had my first difficult class this school year, and it was a math class too, something I always thought I excelled at. Finally, all the warnings I'd been told about calculus BC were true - my teacher, and the class, were difficult. Only when my tests started to see a trend of C's and D's was when I realized I had to change something. I consistently blamed the difficulty of the unit, or how busy I was, for doing poorly on a test or two. But with the only consistency being in my low grades, it was obvious what the problem was - me. Or, at least my studying habits. From there, I didn't have to do anything drastic to get my grades and understanding in the class back up. I just had to try - and that meant working outside of class too. For the first time ever, I was doing additional work on top of the classwork and homework I had been assigned, even though it wouldn't be for a grade in the short run. The practice problems and detailed notes did their job - they helped me understand things more. But that wasn't the only thing I changed. No longer could I blame my poor performance on other conditions - obviously, I was capable of performing under pressure. And if I wanted to, I could keep doing it.

In my opinion, having a positive impact on the climate happens on both an individual and group level. So as an individual, I try to reduce my negative impact on the planet. Over the past few years, I've swapped paper towels with a slew of colorful kitchen towels found throughout my house, dryer sheets with fluffy wool balls, plastic cups with mugs, and so on. While these actions are small, they might inspire someone else to do the same and will definitely help add up to leaving less of an environmental footprint. On a group level, after gaining the courage to reach out to strangers, I joined a local climate advocacy group I had heard about online a few months prior. Climate advocacy groups, strikes, and other group activities can help draw attention to the climate crisis, teach others about the importance of helping our planet, and help create more pressure on governments big and small to take action towards improving our planet. Both types of actions are important to helping our planet, and I am proud to say I do both. While my actions aren't always perfect, and I will still have somewhat of a negative impact on our planet, using these reasons as excuses to do nothing will harm our planet more than trying to make any sort of positive impact.

This question is a very simple question - even though I'm not influential, I still stand for, and would stand for, the environment. While people may often disagree over the best way to feed everyone on the planet or who the best politician may be, the one thing we all have in common is the planet we live on. Even if you don't believe in climate change, nurturing our planet is a responsibility we hold as citizens of the world. Treating our planet as best as possible, no matter what the circumstances are, is crucial to being healthy and living in a healthy place. If I were an influential figure, I'd use both my money (seeing that a majority of influential people have a decent bit of it) and voice to urge individuals to band together for climate action. The influence of celebrities and everyday people alike is important in fighting the climate crisis - by having many people big and small push our governments and large businesses into being more environmentally conscious, it would be a lot easier to try and make a difference. As an influential person, I would hope to spend a lot of my time spearheading campaigns, actions, and more to both help bring attention to the climate crisis and actively do something about it.