As I’ve steadily approached the age at which my mother had my older sister and, not long after, me, I think I’ve begun to understand her a little better. I understand: It wasn’t fair for her to break her back in high school, saddling her and my grandparents with tens of thousands of dollars worth of debt; it wasn’t fair for her friends to leave her because they never saw her anymore; it wasn’t fair that she had to leave home at 17 and that my family resented her for it. In spite of all of this hardship, she persevered. My mother always did the best she could to make something out of her situation. I understand my father because he loved my siblings and I so very much. Even though he never got his feet into the ground enough to support us, battling addiction and financial problems from not finishing college, he showed me the importance of trying. Day after day, he showed up for us even when he was at his worst. As much as we all like to pretend we have everything figured out and that we know what tomorrow will bring, we don’t. All of us are doing the best we can and hoping that nobody can see through our façade even though everybody else is too fixated on their own to notice. I admit that education alone isn’t enough to make or break someone’s future, but the fact is that being educated allows you to understand the world a little better, and that’s the real key to success. I plan to use my education to allow me to achieve what someone who is unfortunately less educated cannot. Having a personal passion for engineering, I would accomplish this via equitable infrastructure. I firmly believe that anyone provided with the opportunity to be educated could thrive, life circumstances permitting. Even without education, people still have the capacity to make wonderful differences through determination and will. One thing about those with education is the advantage of specialization. The course of an entire family’s future is at the hands of a surgeon saving the father. A scholar could make a discovery that prevents warring for generations. People with the particular skills acquired from education are able to use that education in ways very few others can, to make a difference relevant to them. If I were educated, I could design waterways that provide clean water to those compelled to go without, and transportation to those who the city has left behind and outgrown. With what I know currently, these ideas shall remain exactly as they are, but with the chance to seize further education, they can flow freely from my mind and manifest themselves in the world, benefitting any who has had to suffer as they have continued to. Neither of my parents had the opportunity to finish college, and my father never will now that he has passed, but I will. There have been a lot of bumps in my education over the years as my family relocated from city to city, and especially when COVID hit right after I moved states. It was a difficult adjustment, but I came out of it for the better. Despite all of those bumps, I want to dream big and not rid myself of the opportunity to try. I hope that by using my education to make a lasting, positive impact in the world, I will inspire other people to contribute their unique skills to the betterment of their community and all those living in it.

I never really knew what I wanted as a kid; I wasn’t one of those people that fell out of the womb with my life’s purpose etched on the inside of my eyelids. Even after the revelation struck me that I did, in fact, have free will around four years of age, nothing changed. I was content just to go to school because—well, that’s just what you do when you’re six—then come home and play video games.  There were books strewn about my house, and my grandpa was always flicking through an astronomy catalogue. Still, reading always felt like something grown-up, so I didn’t think much about it. It was like hotel reservations or taxes; it just happened.  One day in second grade, I sped through my times tables like always and doodled contentedly. Suddenly, it struck me how mundane this was. But what else could I do? I must have sat there for a few minutes with a concerning look on my face because my teacher came up to me and wrested me from my contemplation.  He led me to a cozy nook nestled in the classroom’s corner, overflowing with books every color imaginable. After a moment of wonderment peering in at the selections, I pulled one from the shelf with an eye-catching cover. My life changed the moment I opened a page. Reading has become a necessary aspect of my existence since then. Not a day has passed when I haven’t picked up a book—or, at the very least, gazed longingly at one—each book defining a period of my life. I’ve absorbed the disparate worldviews commanding the authors’ hands, shaping my own perspective simultaneously.  As I continued to read, I filtered boundless ideas through my own voice and thoughts. Each book became a stepping stone through my mind’s shores, guiding me through vast waters and dropping me into the depths of wisdom, carving my understanding of the world itself.  Before I started reading, I didn’t know what I wanted, but I do now: I want to understand. The plight of the Formics in “Ender’s Game” represents the most ultimate form of understanding: love so deep that it cuts to the very soul; love so powerful that, in the moment just before destruction, allows you to finally understand that which you are destroying. Love that makes you realize why it had to be that way, and why it can never be so again. Ender Wiggin was unwittingly burdened with an entire species’ fate. In the moment just before he obliterated the Formics, protecting Earth, he came to love them in the only way possible.  Through books like “Ender’s Game”, I’ve learned compassion and terror. I’ve realized that the world will remain stagnant until everyone begins to understand each other. Reading taps you directly into the consciousness of another, allowing you to truly understand them. By understanding, maybe you can even love them.  I no longer float through life aimlessly; I seek to be mindful of everyone, no matter how different from me they seem. I want everyone to share the experiences I’ve had, so I stress the importance of books in the hopes that they’ll go on to understand others and make a lasting impact for the better. Library volunteering has become a favorite pastime of mine because it allows me to engage directly with other readers, spreading the word and hopefully driving just one person to inspire another. Books gave me direction, and now I want to pass that gift on, because the next story someone picks up might change their life the way it changed mine.