I am proud to say that I am a devout Christian, and very few things bring me more unbridled joy than helping those in need in the community and witnessing the happiness that it brings to their lives. My name is Creed Fuller and I am lucky enough to be a prominent member of my school’s Student Council and National Honor Society, meaning that I have been blessed with many opportunities to volunteer and help give back to the community. I live in Hubbard, Texas, a small country town that might seem one-note to an outsider driving by. However, the stories and lives of the people living here are truly special, and getting to hear those stories and help make these people’s lives better is just one aspect that makes volunteering in the community such a worthwhile practice. Thanks to the church, I have done lots of food packing for those who are in need. We take food from the church pantry, make big boxes with lots of different food, and then give the boxes to those in the community who may not be able to easily afford the necessary groceries. Putting in these hours is always worth it because I get to make sure that others have enough food to eat. I have also had the opportunity to take part in back-to-school drives at our community center where we provide free school supplies to those in need. It is always a blast to meet the kids going into a new school year. These kids deserve to have the same opportunities and supplies that everyone does, and I am honored to help make that a reality. I have two main goals in volunteering in my community: First and foremost, to help make everyone’s lives less stressful by helping provide goods and services to those who need them. However, another aspect of why I volunteer is that I want to promote volunteerism within the high school and help make it a much more common practice for teens my age. I know that some may feel tempted to grumble at the thought of giving away a weekend day or two to volunteer, but I feel that people should be excited to be the harbingers of joy in other’s lives. I hope that through my volunteering, I can help those in need while inspiring others to volunteer and pave a path towards a more kind and selfless community.

Reading: A simple word that, unfortunately, seems to strike fear into the hearts of many a student nowadays. It seems that the readers of the world are becoming outnumbered by the non-readers of the world due to newer generations becoming infatuated with many other forms of entertainment that are lazier and require less imagination. Opening a book and getting lost in the pages as your mind imagines entirely new worlds and adventures is an experience that I believe no other leisurely activity can replicate. I am lucky to have grown up as an avid reader, as the pastime has taught me many things that I would not have a great understanding of otherwise. For all I know, I could have grown up to become another teen who has no interest in reading, but thanks to my mom, it's one of my favorite things to do. My mom worked as a high school English teacher, and so it was always a priority of hers to raise me and my two sisters as enthusiastic readers. Each summer, once the school year had concluded, my mom would take the time to curate reading lists for each one of us and take us to the library to stock up on new books to read. The different titles on those lists were not only great reads but also helped introduce many unfamiliar concepts to my younger self. Books such as 'Bud, Not Buddy' and 'Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry' provided insights into a different time of our country where racial segregation was more prominent and inequalities were more difficult to overcome. These stories taught me about our past faults and how we can always fight injustices in order to create a better future for everyone. Other novels such as 'The Penderwicks' and 'The Mysterious Benedict Society' told adventurous tales of young people working together to solve mysteries and overcome hurdles in life together. I used to be a pretty massive introvert at the age that I was reading these books, having some friends but mainly choosing to stay quiet in larger groups. These stories of kids my age forming strong relationships with each other as they faced difficulties together inspired me to make more meaningful friendships with others so that I would not have to face life's dilemmas on my own. I mean it when I say that I am not sure what kind of person I would be if reading was not as prominent a part of my childhood as it was. Since I started reading earlier in my life, my perspective of the future has been framed by what I have learned in those pages. I hope to become a filmmaker one day, and I believe I owe large thanks to all the books I read that I have as active of imagination as I do; an imagination that hopefully I will be able to tell stories of my own with someday.

From the moment I saw the film for the first time back in 2018, I knew that my favorite Spider-Man of all time would have to be Miles Morales of Into The Spider-Verse, therefore making my favorite Spider-Man actor the talented Shamiek Moore, who voices Miles in the film. Into The Spider-Verse and its sequel, Across The Spider-Verse, are two of my favorite movies of all time and have been a large part of my life for a while now. Shamiek Moore, the voice actor for Miles Morales, is my favorite Spider-Man actor because of the raw, genuine emotion he brings to the character as Miles grows as a person and a hero. I was in 7th grade when the first Spider-Verse film came out, and I watched as a Spider-Man my age was born onscreen, which was very inspiring to see. Miles Morales begins the movie as a normal middle schooler, going about his life with his family and school until he is bitten by a spider and launched into a coming-of-age journey into the hero he soon becomes. Miles is faced with many hardships, including having to watch as his Uncle Aaron is killed in front of him. Watching his character always get back up no matter how many hits he took resonated deeply within me, and Miles became an inspiration to me and one of my favorite fictional characters of all time. It is all thanks to Shamiek Moore that the character is portrayed so effectively in the film. Though voice acting can sometimes make it harder to convey emotions than acting on-site, Shamiek has no trouble making Miles an extremely believable teen who just wants to keep his family and his home safe no matter what trouble he faces. The Spider-Verse movies have made a large impact on me. I watched Miles as a middle schooler in the first movie while I was one too and then recently watched him as a high schooler in the sequel while I am currently finishing up high school. I have been able to find inspiration and drive to always get back up, no matter what life hits you with, thanks to Miles, and my love for the character would not have been possible without the wonderful performance by actor Shamiek Moore. Shamiek is my favorite Spider-Man actor because of the emotional resonance the character he plays has had on me and my life.

Let me just cut right to the chase: I have always been and will always be a passionate Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw has always been an underrated and underappreciated house to me, and I think that I would fit in perfectly with the members of the house. It's said that people who are sorted into Ravenclaw are of strong intelligence and wit, and without turning this into a self-complementing session, I feel as though these qualities line up with my personality the most of any of the four houses. I am currently set to graduate as the Salutatorian of my high school class, a fact that I believe lines up with the intelligence usually presented by members of the Ravenclaw house. Though there is not a whole lot of time spent in the Harry Potter books focusing on the house of Ravenclaw, the time that is always yielded interesting revelations. For example, while Gryffindor's common room is accessed by using a password, the Ravenclaw common room has a much more fun and interesting entry method: you must answer a riddle correctly provided by the bronze eagle knocker. Riddles are right up my alley, and blue is one of my favorite colors, so Ravenclaw just really seems like it would be the place to call home for me within Hogwarts. While the other three houses have a little bit of appeal to me, none of them have qualities that I extremely relate to. Gryffindors are known for their extreme bravery, even if that sometimes translates into stubbornness or hardheadedness, terms that do not exactly describe me. Gryffindor would probably be my second pick if I could not be in Ravenclaw, but it doesn't fit me as well as Ravenclaw does. Slytherins are known for their cunning and self-serving idealisms, and as we all know, they produce the highest number of dark wizards and witches than any other house. So again, that's a no from me. Then there's Hufflepuff. Bless them. I am proud to be a Ravenclaw (I even have socks to prove it). Ravenclaw played a major role in the Battle of Hogwarts, with the house namesake, Rowena Ravenclaw, helping Harry find the location of one of the last Horcruxes. Without Ravenclaw's contribution to the fight, Voldermort may have triumphed on that day. With their intelligence, wit and creativity, Ravenclaws are among the best students at Ravenclaw, and I am happy to count myself among their ranks.

Most sports function with a team of many people who all play a part in making a win happen. Something that always interested me about the sport of tennis is the fact that the only ones out on the court during a match are you and, depending on if you play doubles or not, one other person. I am at my best when I am playing doubles, as I get to team up with another player and watch as they bring out the best in me and I try to bring out the best in them. Playing tennis doubles has taught me about working well with another person through the metaphors it can present between being a good tennis partner and being a good partner in life. Something I learned fairly early on in my tenure as a tennis player was that in order to get the best out of your partner, you have to give the best to them; in other words, you have to always be a supportive teammate, congratulating them when they succeed and being there for them when the game becomes frustrating. The relationship between two tennis doubles partners and the relationship between two people in real life, whether it be friends or a couple, has more parallels between them than I expected. Two tennis partners must always be on the same wavelength and accepting of each other's mistakes in order to walk away from the game with a win, and the same rule applies to any two people in a relationship if they want the relationship to work out. So, as peculiar as it may sound at face value, being a part of a whole in tennis doubles helped me learn more about being in a relationship with other people. I went into tennis in order to try a new experience out and was not expecting to pick up life lessons along the way, but the dynamic between the two partners involved in a tennis doubles match holds more parallels to real life than one might expect. Hopefully, the experience I have as a tennis doubles partner will come in handy later in my life when it comes to successfully navigating a two-person relationship, whether that arrives in the form of strong lifelong friendships with others or with a significant other someday down the line. Because of my experience in tennis, I have a stronger understanding of how one must be an active teammate in order for the pair in question to find success.

Music has always been an indispensable part of my life, as it always provides a safe haven of sorts whenever emotions are running high. Slower music helps me feel better if I am sad or stressed, while joyous music makes a good mood even better. That said, there is one specific aspect of my life where music has an even deeper meaning, and that is my religion. I am a christian who was raised in a christian household, and my family would always have worship music on the radio in the car whenever we would go places. Because of this, as I grew up, I learned many worship songs by heart and heard them more than any other type of music. Whether it was in the church or in the car on the way to school, worship music would be there to instill upon me at an early age what was really important in life while uplifting my spirits and spreading a positive message. The prominence of worship music in my early life was a telling sign that the genre may have an even larger role in my life at an older age. The church I attend has a youth group that meets every Wednesday where middle schoolers and high schoolers alike all get together and worship God. When I first started attending, the worship music was taken from videos off of YouTube and we would all sing along with the voices coming out of the speakers. While there was not anything inherently wrong with that, most of the kids present never seemed to be able to get as into it as I had seen was possible, and I wondered if there was an alternative way to go about things. As it turned out, my youth pastor was a guitar player, and he offered to teach me how to play as well. We spent the majority of that summer and autumn working through the different chord progressions, and at one point I bought my own acoustic guitar so I did not have to use his. It was not long before I could proficiently play the guitar, and an idea began to form. There were several other members of the youth group who were proficient in an area of music: my sister was a great singer, a friend of ours was great on the piano and an up-and-coming freshman had played the drums for almost his entire life. The four of us got together and created a worship band, Peace To You. After discussing it with our youth pastor, who was all for the idea, the four of us started to play live worship music on Wednesday nights at youth group. As someone who loves God immensely and is so thankful for everything he has done for me, it is an amazing experience to get to play the guitar up on stage and spread what was once new to me to others in hopes of them finding the same peace that I have. Though we started playing just Wednesday nights, we have since played on some Sunday mornings at the church's main service and are actually leading a revival at our church next week. It has been amazing to go from someone in the crowd hearing the music to actually getting to be the one spreading the music to others, and in that way, I can firmly express that music has changed the way I view my purpose.

Though I have enjoyed many of the movies that Netflix has to offer, one film specifically has made me appreciate both the ups and downs in life in a whole new way thanks to its contemplative story and amazing characters: 2016's 'La La Land'. My favorite film on Netflix is easily 'La La Land' because of the amazing way it weaves a beautiful and introspective story of a fateful year when two strangers' lives collided and changed for the better. "𝐶𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑠, 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑒?" The film opens by introducing the two leads, Mia and Sebastian, who are both living in LA hoping to pursue their dreams and have not met yet. Mia catches every audition she can, hoping to be an actress, but never can land a part. Sebastian plays the piano at a restaurant but dreams of opening a jazz club where he can embrace his talents as a concert pianist. Right from the get-go, I can relate to the characters because I hope to move to California and pursue a career in the arts (specifically cinema). While Mia and Sebastian face obstacles in their paths to achieving their goals, they never stop trying, always looking to the future when faced with roadblocks. This inspires me to know that though there will be challenges ahead, I must push through them to achieve my dreams. "𝐼 𝑓𝑒𝑙𝑡 𝑖𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝐼 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑦𝑜𝑢..." While pursuing their dreams, Mia and Sebastian stumble across each other at a party and quickly hit it off. Over the coming months, the pair spend an abundance of time together, falling in love and moving in with each other. The film is shot gorgeously and uses certain colors in specific scenes to convey the emotions of the characters onscreen, which is an absolute genius technique that is so fun to watch at work. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, who expertly play Mia and Sebastian, have phenomenal chemistry together that makes the movie's budding romance one of the best ever put to film. Nonetheless, my favorite aspect of the movie comes at the end, where the film presents a deeply thought-provoking theme. "...𝐻𝑒𝑟𝑒'𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑜𝑙𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚..." After becoming a pair, Mia and Sebastian find success with each other's help: Sebastian plays in a band while Mia writes her own play and premieres it at a local theater. However, the demands of work threaten their relationship's stability, and after Sebastian misses Mia's play, the two fight and Mia leaves, crushed that barely anyone saw her play. After they split, Sebastian is called by a casting director who saw Mia's play and wants to cast her, so he finds Mia and they travel to the audition together. The film then jumps ahead 5 years where Mia is a famous actress and Sebastian owns a jazz club...but the two have been split up. However, Mia's husband takes her to a club that ends up being Sebastian's jazz club and the two see each other across the room for the first time in years, they share a smiling nod, and we realize the message of the film: That even when a person unexpectedly leaves your life, they can leave a positive impact on it that makes the time you spent together still worth something. If Mia and Sebastian had never met, they never would have been able to achieve their dreams, meaning in a bittersweet way, it was all worth it. This beautiful ending caps off my favorite movie on Netflix and one of my favorite films in general.

@joshuacreed.f

As an aspiring filmmaker hoping to go to film school, movies are without question a huge part of my life. However, one film specifically has made me appreciate both the ups and downs in life in a whole new way thanks to its contemplative story and amazing characters: 2016's 'La La Land'. If I had to watch one film for the rest of my life, it would easily be 'La La Land' because of the amazing way it weaves a beautiful and introspective story of a fateful year when two strangers' lives collided and changed for the better. "𝐶𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑠, 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑒?" The film opens by introducing the two leads, Mia and Sebastian, who are both living in LA hoping to pursue their dreams and have not met yet. Mia catches every audition she can, hoping to be an actress, but never can land a part. Sebastian plays the piano at a restaurant but dreams of opening a jazz club where he can embrace his talents as a concert pianist. Right from the get-go, I can relate to the characters because I hope to move to California and pursue a career in the arts (specifically cinema). While Mia and Sebastian face obstacles in their paths to achieving their goals, they never stop trying, always looking to the future when faced with roadblocks. This inspires me to know that though there will be challenges ahead, I must push through them to achieve my dreams. "𝐼 𝑓𝑒𝑙𝑡 𝑖𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝐼 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑦𝑜𝑢..." While pursuing their dreams, Mia and Sebastian stumble across each other at a party and quickly hit it off. Over the coming months, the pair spend an abundance of time together, falling in love and moving in with each other. The film is shot gorgeously and uses certain colors in specific scenes to convey the emotions of the characters onscreen, which is an absolute genius technique that is so fun to watch at work. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, who expertly play Mia and Sebastian, have phenomenal chemistry together that makes the movie's budding romance one of the best ever put to film. Nonetheless, my favorite aspect of the movie comes at the end, where the film presents a deeply thought-provoking theme. "...𝐻𝑒𝑟𝑒'𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑜𝑙𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚..." After becoming a pair, Mia and Sebastian find success with each other's help: Sebastian plays in a band while Mia writes her own play and premieres it at a local theater. However, the demands of work threaten their relationship's stability, and after Sebastian misses Mia's play, the two fight and Mia leaves, crushed that barely anyone saw her play. After they split, Sebastian is called by a casting director who saw Mia's play and wants to cast her, so he finds Mia and they travel to the audition together. The film then jumps ahead 5 years where Mia is a famous actress and Sebastian owns a jazz club...but the two have been split up. However, Mia's husband takes her to a club that ends up being Sebastian's jazz club and the two see each other across the room for the first time in years, they share a smiling nod, and we realize the message of the film: That even when a person unexpectedly leaves your life, they can leave a positive impact on it that makes the time you spent together still worth something. If Mia and Sebastian had never met, they never would have been able to achieve their dreams, meaning in a bittersweet way, it was all worth it.

Picture this: You're driving your pink car through the streets of Barbieland and saying hello to your neighbors when suddenly, on the horizon, you see it: an enormous Barbie Dream House tower with glass walls and a large fountain in the courtyard. It doesn't matter if you are a Ken, Barbie, or Allan: this dream house will be the place to be. My Dream House would be located right in the middle of Barbieland so that anyone can come and party. It will be a nice seven stories tall (one for each color of the rainbow, of course). The ground floor, Red, will feature the largest, brightest and best karaoke stage in all the land. The surround sound speakers will have your bones shaking to the beat of the music while the multi-colored spotlights, dance floor and golden microphones complete the aesthetic look. The second floor, Orange, will be packed with all of the games you could ever play. Have fun competing against your fellow Barbies & Kens with many different areas including the bowling alley, basketball court, mini golf course and dance floor. Though nothing is actually a competition in Barbieland (the Barbies would win of course) the game floor provides a great time nonetheless. Next up we have the Yellow floor, which houses the most Kencredible indoor swimming pool you've ever seen. It will be hard to decide where to start first when you feast your eyes on the massive waterslides, the B-shaped lazy river, the dance floor and the exciting wave pool. No matter what time of year it is, you can party like it is summer all year round. One more floor up you will discover the Green Floor, home to a beautiful movie theater equipped with all of the bells and whistles. Concession stand? Check. Surround sound? You know it. Dance floor? C'mon, that shouldn't even be a question at this point. The theater runs 24/7 showings of Greta Gerwig's 2023 masterpiece 'Barbie'. Just don't ask for them to play 'Oppenheimer', or you might get kicked out of BarbieLand itself... but if you are a fan of clothes, then the fifth floor (Blue) is the place to be. How does an epic fashion show sound? Cheer with delight as your fellow Barbies and Kens model the best outfits in all of Barbieland, or get up on the catwalk (across from the dance floor) and do the modeling yourself! The sixth floor, Purple, is for napping. Partying can be tiring, so this floor provides beds (for the Barbies) floor space (for the Kens) and a dance floor just in case. It's usually the least busy floor. All of these floors are fun, but none compare to the top and final floor, Pink, where the Dance-Party-That-Lasts-Forever is always in full swing. Under the light of stars and disco balls, you can truly dance the night away without ever even thinking about death once. Why would you ever choose to stress about the hardships of life when you could just clap your hands and stomp your feet to the beat that never ends? With all these floors and activities to choose from, my Barbie dream house will be the hottest spot in town to leave your worries behind, find your meaning and live your life to the fullest extent. Or, if you are a Ken, it will be the hottest spot in town to hang out with Barbie.

Though this may be one of the least expected answers to such a prompt, the movie that has truthfully had the greatest impact on my life is 2017's The Lego Batman Movie. I know, I know. At face value, one may wonder how a movie like that could ever have that much of an impact on anyone's life. However, I can assure you that if not for The Lego Batman Movie, there is a good chance that I would not be on the path to the future that I am today. My goal in life is to become a filmmaker, so I hope to attend a film school after high school. You would not have guessed this had you known me as a child when I feared two things the most: airplanes and movie theaters. Due to a sensory issue I had, going to the movies as a child was a stressful experience, since between the massive screen and booming speakers, my sensory input tended to become overwhelmed. Usually, once the movie had been going for a bit, it was not as much of a problem, but the stress surrounding the experience in general made me never want to go. Enter The Lego Batman Movie, a film that me and my sisters were highly anticipating in the months before release. I was looking forward to this movie so much that I was willing to go see it in theaters, even though the excitement was mixed with some anxiety. When my family arrived at the theater, my anxiety really started to kick in. The familiar sights, smells and sounds of the cinema that bring many people joy brought me a different feeling entirely at the time. However, my memory of the day does not revolve around those types of emotions, because thankfully, I had a blast. The movie was awesome and my anxiety disappeared quickly after the film started. This was a big leap forward in dealing with my sensory-driven anxiety, and nowadays, going to the movies is one of my favorite things to do. However, this is not the only positive impact the film had on me. There is a much larger aspect of my current goals that I also have The Lego Batman Movie to thank for. As I stated earlier, my goal after high school is to become a filmmaker, and looking back before I had even decided on this, it is clear that the seeds were planted before I even realized it. One of my favorite hobbies in middle school was making stop-motion videos, a method where you take a picture of a scene, slightly move something in the scene and then take another picture, a process that then repeats itself many times. And what was the first stop-motion video I made? A recreation of The Lego Batman Movie's opening scene, with my own Legos. The film inspired the first of many stop-motions that I created over several years, which I now see as me attempting filmmaking before I even knew I wanted to do that for a living. If I had never seen The Lego Batman Movie and subsequently created my first short film inspired by it, I may not have ever continued down that path as I have today. It is very interesting how a kid's movie that might seem insignificant to some people can have the effects that it had on my life. Without that film, I may not have ever gotten over my sensory anxiety. Without The Lego Batman Movie, I may not have ever become the aspiring filmmaker that I am today.

I hope to be a filmmaker who travels the world, telling stories that would otherwise never be told to people who would otherwise never hear them.

No one likes change. Taking any familiar aspect of life and removing or replacing it with something else makes us all feel less confident and secure for a moment because it forces us to adapt alongside whatever change has taken place. Even though it's "out with the old" and "in with the new", our base instinct is to long for a time when things were the way they used to be. This bias against change is a constant that I feel will always cause a rift to form between subsequent generations. Whether we like it or not, our world is developing and advancing at a rapid pace as new sciences and technology are utilized every day. Every specific decade is characterized in our society by its own culture, music, and technology, which is evidence that it does not even take ten years for the status quo to reinvent itself. I feel that this is the largest reason why older generations may find themselves scoffing at the practices and staples of newer generations' daily lives since their own lives were so much different when they were young. Older generations believe that everything is going downhill simply because the status quo is shifting away from what they grew up with and are comfortable with. As the text states, the conflicts that newer generations are tasked with facing are much different than the ones older generations faced, leading to more of a rift to grow between the generations. Older generations know what a life of fearing war is like, whether it was WWII in the 40s or the threat of the Cold War in the 80s. This is probably a leading reason why older generations feel as though newer ones are lazy and plodding when in reality, the world newer generations grow up in faces its own conflicts, just of a much different degree. Greed and selfishness plague our governmental and economic systems, and we must face a reality where twisted people are gaining access to more and more means of exploiting others for their own benefit. So while the battles we face today may not be on a battlefield against another country at the moment, struggles of morality and right versus wrong are still prominent in today's world. So yes, it is true that multiple factors can cause an aperture in the relationship between newer and older generations. However, I believe that instead of trying to find the faults in other generations compared to our own, we should instead all turn our collective focus towards tackling the problems that do still exist in our modern-day world, even if they are not the same type of problem faced in the past. Perhaps, by accepting that change will always come and preparing for it instead of trying to stay in the past, we can build a better future for every generation, no matter the differences.