Seeing Sabrina Carpenter come into a new light has been wonderful for someone who has been a big fan of hers since her Girl Meets World time. I have a younger sister and we would watch Girl Meets World together and talk about how I was Maya and my sister was Riley. We watched that show almost religiously, spending our time not watching the show acting like Maya and Riley and hanging out together. As we’ve gotten older, we’ve grown out of watching Girl Meets World and the only time we really ever talked about Sabrina Carpenter was if her song Thumbs came on when we were listening to our playlist in the car. About May 2024, I started listening more to Sabrina Carpenter and found her album emails I can’t send. It really resonated with me and I enjoyed the music and got to talking with my sister more about the album and we reminisced about the old Girl Meets World days and how in a lot of aspects, we’re still Maya and Riley. We’ve changed, but we’re still as close and have grown to have a deeper appreciation for the show. Sabrina's song Espresso came out and got really popular and then Please Please Please came out and she’s gotten so much popularity that I know she deserves. Although she was never actually Maya, some of the things she says and does in her shows and lyrics show me that she’s not as different from when I was 10 watching Maya make fun of Lucas’ accent and watching her and Riley fight and make up in one episode. She’s found her style and she’s found her voice.

I have been heavily involved in band for the past 3 years. I became section leader of my high school’s drumline only 7 months after moving to Kansas. If you don’t know anything about drumline or percussion, it is heavily male dominated. I was 1 of 3 girls on the battery, and 1 of 4 girls total. I was terrified of how I was going to earn the respect of the drumline having heard all these boys make sexist “jokes” and tell me to “go make a sandwich” while they did the playing. That was 2 years ago. I learned quite a bit about leading since then, I don’t demand respect, I give it then expect it in return. I have learned that if I expect a lot in them, I have to show that I also expect a lot out of myself. I have learned that communication is so important, and I need to know what I mean and how to say it correctly before I say it out loud. I have learned all this the hard way, but I know that I could not have learned this any other way. I hope to become an officer in the Marine Corps, being a leader of hundreds of people. I know that this branch has a stereotype of not being the brightest, of only eating crayons and grunting. I want to change this. I want this branch that is seen as the toughest to be more than just muscle. I expect myself to be a well educated leader, that’s why I’m going to college. That means, though, that I also expect them to get well educated. I expect them to be able to learn from me while I also learn from them. My main goal is to push these Marines, who might not expect a lot out of themselves, to change that thinking, to push themselves to learn more. Through the skills I learned from the 2 years of being section leader, which I know don’t exactly translate to a branch in the military, I want to lead these people to do more than they thought they could, more than what’s expected of them, more than what I expect of them even. I want them to know that I want to lead them because I know that the Marine Corps is such a tough branch that they should be able to match that with their brains and not just their muscles.

I watched a video in class once, it was about the creator of 5-hour energy. I was so bored and didn't really want to watch the video but then he started talking about a bike that powers houses for low-income households. All of a sudden my attention has been grabbed. This one object could help save families so much money, allowing them to get more food, pay for bills more often, and just not have to live paycheck to paycheck. I think about that invention often because the CEO of a multimillion-dollar company also helps people in low-income areas. Using that bike, people can work for a few minutes and have power for a few hours in their entire home. Not just that, but it's not even his idea. He helps fund his employee's ideas if they can help improve lives. I used to live in a low-income household and it's comforting knowing that a rich CEO cares for both his employees and people that might not even be able to afford his product. This inspires me because it helps re-enforce the idea that there are people out there who care enough to spend money on products to better the lives of people and to make the world a better place. Recognizing that some people don't have electricity and doing something to fix it is so much better than telling someone to get a better job and I think that's what inspires me the most. Instead of telling low-income households to get better jobs or to save more money, the CEO funds projects to help their lives and to make them better because he has the money to.

When I ask my parents if they have a favorite, they will always say, “No, parents don’t have favorites.” When I ask my aunt if she has a favorite kid, she will say the same thing. When I ask my grandparents who they favor, there will never be an answer. The only person in my family who is open about having a favorite is me. I will always have a favorite. Her name is Emma Rambo and she is 23 months younger than me. WHen she’s in the pool, she has Ariel level red hair. She is heavily involved in FFA, becoming an officer only a year after joining. She has 2 cats whom my father hates but won’t get rid of because Emma loves them. She wants to go to Kansas State University to teach agriculture because her ag teacher has so greatly impacted her life that she wants to help more kids like she has been helped. Emma has pin straight hair and hangs out with her best friend Shelby more than I can say she hangs out with me. But that doesn’t matter because without failure I will buy her Chipotle everytime she asks. I will take her out shopping even though I tell her I’m not buying her anything else. I have and will continue to do anything for her because she is my favorite person. There has never been any competition on that and there never will be. Some backstory, I have lived in 7 states and 14 different houses. I’m a military brat who moves every few years and, in true fashion, I don’t usually stay in contact after I move. The only constant in my life has been Emma. Even when we fight, she’s the only one who has seen little kid me, the one who couldn’t walk past a bee without crying. She’s the only one who saw me with my short hair before I started to grow it out after middle school. She’s the only one who’s seen my musical growth since 5th grade because she is the only one that’s been around this long. And some might say, “Well sure, but your parents were there too.” Yes, but my parents were dealing with their own issues and recently got divorced. When Emma was a toddler, she–like any other toddler–would throw fits and cry until she couldn’t be understood when she tried to talk. How did my parents know what she wanted? Because they would holler at me to come and listen to Emma since I was the only one that could understand her when she bawled like that. It got to the point that my parents were scared Emma wasn’t going to be able to talk when she was supposed to since I already knew what she wanted. My parents love to tell that story because it has always come natural to me to be there for Emma. Through everything, it has always been me and Emma. It has always been us two. Going to college will be weird for me. I chose a college close to home for a multitude of reasons, the biggest reason being the money. I know my parents aren’t rich, and I know we only have enough to cover one year of college since Emma will be going to college here in 2 years. I chose KU because it has the Marine ROTC program even though I didn’t get a scholarship from them, I know that this is the best route because the less my parents have to spend on my college, the more they can spend on Emma’s because she has to live on campus for her first year and I don’t. That in itself adds roughly $12,000. Her college is an hour away while mine is 20 minutes. I don’t mind driving there every day so that she can live on campus with her friends for as long as she wants. Living at home means I can continue to see the person that my life has revolved around for 15 years. Living at home means that I can still go to her soccer games and see her after she does sideline dance at the football games. Living at home means that for 2 more years I get to see the person that means the most to me before she leaves and goes to college.

My name is Kaitlyn Rambo, I am a 17-year-old high school graduate who is going to the University of Kansas for aerospace engineering. I have lived in 7 states and 14 different houses, I have recently divorced parents and a younger sister who is heavy in FFA. I love my education and the opportunities that I have been given since moving to Kansas almost 3 years ago. I moved from Box Elder, South Dakota where I didn’t even know what AP classes were. I didn’t know what concurrent enrollment was or that you could take college classes in high school for cheaper and use them for credit when you got to college. This was until I moved to Topeka, Kansas. Since moving, I have taken 7 AP classes and 3 college classes. I jumped right into college Spanish after never having taken a Spanish class before and passed with one of the highest grades in the class. I never knew what my education could give me until I was given so many options on what I wanted to learn. My sister didn’t know what FFA was until she was given over 15 FFA class options and now she wants to be an agriculture teacher when she graduates.  I’ve known I wanted to go to the military all my life, my parents met in the Marine Corps and that is the branch I am hoping to go to post-graduation. That is a branch that stereotypically doesn’t know much, and isn't expected to know more than what they’re told to do. I’m hoping to change that. I am trying to get a commission as an officer, where I can impact the most. I have been section leader of my high school’s drumline, also a group that’s not expected to know more than just what they’re playing, and I have pushed them to take harder classes, to push themselves to put more effort into their education and expand their knowledge. I want to keep doing that if I get a commission because I saw the beauty of them realizing that they know more than they think, and that having a good education is important, no matter what you do in life. I want to push these Marines to know more, to be more than the stereotype. I know the stories that my parents told me, and how the Marines they worked with weren’t “the brightest ever,” and I want to push them to be more than that. In my opinion, they are the toughest branch, they do the most and they are expected to be the strongest and toughest. I want them to be more than that because the branch that is that good physically, should be able to match it mentally.

Is this a show that everyone’s already raving about? Yes. Does it deserve all that praise? Absolutely. No questions asked, Wednesday is one of my favorite shows to sit back and watch. I am a big horror movie fan, a big spooky person. Seeing Wednesday being created into a TV show shortly after I had just gotten done playing in the musical pit for The Addams Family at my high school made me happier than 7 year old me getting her first guitar. Everything about this show showed precision in one’s craft. From the makeup division ensuring that the Hispanic part of Wednesday didn’t get covered when putting on the goth black and white makeup looks, to the costume department holding the feel of the original Addams family clothes when adding a modern touch, to Jenna Ortega playing a character that could feel cringey to a character that really had death in her. Even the CGI hand that felt like it really just was a hand with its own mind. Everything had a purpose and everything showed this feeling that the creators wanted people to feel like this wasn’t just another mass produced show like every other show that’s come out here recently. So why else should you watch this show, other than it being a creative masterpiece? The show had a unique storyline, one that hasn’t been done, one that in an area where shows are produced rapidly, stood out without issue. The show mainly focuses on Wednesday and her troubles going to a school where she is targeted as her mother was when she went there. The show has the fun best friend who tries and gets Wednesday out of her shell, and pushes her to be more outgoing. There are the usual show conflicts that all shows have, but this show goes so much deeper than most other shows that have been released. There’s this big mystery surrounding the show. What is hunting after Wednesday? Why is it hunting after her? Did this happen to Morticia? I’m not usually a big mystery person, I find them to be easily solved and boring. This show put mystery in a whole new way though, every person I thought was the hunter wasn’t. I swore I had solved the mystery then I’d be proved so wrong that I almost felt stupid for trying to solve it. It kept me on my toes, on the edge of my seat, hooked line and sinker. With mystery, the show also had a lot of that spooky macabre feeling that the Addams are known and loved for, everything in the show felt like it payed homage to the original Addams and I can’t say that I thought it felt any different or that the characters were changed at all from the original show. Wednesday is such a good show for a multitude of reasons, the plot, the characters, the professionalism shown in every step of the process really just makes it a 5/5 star show. I think that everyone who loves the Addams family or wants a good show to just sit and binge should definitely start Wednesday. Clear out some time in your calendar because you’re not going to want to stop watching, not even when the last end credits play.

I am an avid reader, my first few months on TikTok were all captioned #BookTok. All the books I have read here recently, when I find the time, were recommended to me by random women who posted 45 second videos about how much a book changed their life. I thought they were joking, until I started reading some. My bookshelf would be filled with memoirs, the ones I’ve found on #BookTok have really hit my hard and I can honestly say that I have been changed by the books I’ve found. Some of my most notable ones would be I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jeannette McCurdy, and Verity by Colleen Hoover. The first one I think impacted the #BookTok community the most because it was someone everyone knew and loved, from iCarly or Sam & Cat, and she was the first person to really call out the abuse child actors faced. From there TikTok blew up talking about children being used for clout and to make parents rich, even going as far as POV (Point of View) creators making their own series about children being exploited for views. It didn’t just stop on TikTok, it got all the way to a documentary series. Who did this? #BookTok did, by recommending and blowing up one single memoir by an actress who hasn’t done major roles in years, #BookTok became such a topic that people are being almost bullied or called out if they use their kids for clout and views to make a few dollars. This community went from being known to only suggest romance (and even some smut), to potentially saving hundreds of child actors from being exploited like the ones before. Now, I know Colleen Hoover is a hot topic, and she is under fire, but no one can deny that she can write. Not even the people on #BookTok that originally suggested the book. Yes, this one has some romance and some spicy scenes, but the storyline itself is a work of art. This book had me hooked from line one and I couldn’t put it down, not even to study for my calculus test. I thought this book, and author honestly because she really ran #BookTok for a while, was going to be overrated. I don’t think there’s a way to, I don’t think that this book could be called bad for any reason. Colleen Hoover and Verity had such a chokehold on the community because it was just so good and so thought out. I think this book really threw the #BookTok community into romance books that weren’t just romance, weren’t just a nice meet cute, but books that had deeper thoughts, deeper feelings, deeper storylines. Both of these books had such holds on the #BookTok community, that really gave them a platform to be able to show good books and branch out to more than just the average reader, suggesting books that are so different but can have such an impact on a person’s life to hundreds of thousands of people. I wholeheartedly believe that both of these books are a must-have, and that the #BookTok community probably wouldn’t be as big or as successful as it is without both of these titles.

Music became my life after I moved to Kansas. I made friends and found a love for my music and myself when I moved. I was spending 4-5 hours of my school day practicing and perfecting my tone and my solos. I moved here and I didn't know anyone, South Dakota and Kansas don't usually mix. I moved here and joined the marching band my sophomore year, I had never played marching snare or marched in general. But there I was, playing a music style I never have, in a drumline I had never been in, playing with people I didn't know. I shortly made friends with the people that have made such a positive impact on my life because I decided to stay in band and challenge myself with that band. Since then, I have been in district band for 2 years, being principal my first year and getting to play for an outstanding director. I have been a state soloist 2 times, playing Furioso and Valse in D Minor by Earl Hatch as my very first solo ever. I spent so much time practicing that so I could show the band that I wasn't just some new girl who didn't know what she was doing. Then I soloed with Frogs by Keiko Abe, a four mallet piece that was maybe just out of my playing ability at the time. I have found myself doing these solos, I have found how to push myself and how to both be humble about soloing, but also how to hold myself when it is time to show myself off. Along with both of those, I have gotten to play in my school's musical pit, which was a whole different beast. I got to play for easily the best director I ever have. The amount of passion he has that rubs off on anyone who plays for him. I have had the chance to play for him there and in multiple orchestras and choirs, both playing percussion. I am so grateful every day that I have been able to play so much music and so much different music styles that I never would have if I didn't move to Kansas. I have a different joy for music now that I play it and that I am so involved in it. The last thing I want to highlight was a band that I played in for a very short time. About a year ago my parents got divorced. It came to no surprise, but still hurt. This band, a brass band academy, was my escape. It was my way of getting away from the hurt that I was feeling. Getting to go play music with some of the best brass players in Kansas was how I was able to get through my feelings and be there for my little sister, who was really hurt by it. I was only in this band for a short time, but that short time was one of the best experiences I've had and needed in my life.

In the most simple terms, I am a military brat. My parents met in Pensacola, Florida when they were both stationed there. My aunt and late uncle were both Marines, and my mom's brother was the reason my mom followed him in joining the Marines. I plan on following in all of their footsteps and serving my country. My mother was in the Marines for 2 years before getting out because she was pregnant with me. My father, however, stayed in another 8 years before he got out and we moved to Texas. My dad, Nathan Rambo, did some amazing work for the Marine Corps. He likes to say he was "just doing my job," but people don't just rewrite radar manuals used by close to 200,000 people every day. My dad was a radar technician, he still does that today in NOAA, when he was in. He got in to make his father proud, and I think he made the entire Rambo side of my family proud. Although he never deployed, even though he says he "really, really tried to," he did a lot for this country. After boot camp, he had to take lots of classes to be a radar tech and he even taught one because he knew his information so well. He was a Sergent and from what he tells me, he really took care of his people. He knew when he could push his people to do better because he expected better, and he knew when to check them too to make sure no one was feeling like life couldn't get better. I look up to my father, I want to make him and my family proud and join the Marines. I want to go to college and major in engineering. I highly enjoy math and science, as I am currently in AP Chemistry and AP Calculus. Last year I took 2 math classes and AP Physics as well. Engineering is a passion I have always had because when I was little, my dad would say that in simple terms, he was an engineer, and I wanted to be like him. In an ideal world, I would get to go to the United States Naval Academy and try and be a Marine Corps Ground Officer from there, but I need to have backups. Since my family is from Texas, we are huge Texas A&M fans, and that is my backup. I would hopefully join their Corps of Cadets and then go to the Marines after graduation.

My name is Kaitlyn Rambo. My father is a disabled Marine Corps veteran and my mother was a Marine, who got her RN at 30 and works as a labor and delivery nurse. I have a sister who loves her cats and is an FFA officer. I have lived in 7 different states and 14 houses. I have now been to 2 high schools and I went to 3 different elementary schools. I love traveling and I want to continue traveling for as long as I can. I want to study engineering at Texas A&M because I have a long line of people in my family who have gone there. My dad was a radar technician in the Marine Corps, and some of my fondest memories from when I was young were going on base with him to see his work. I have always wanted to be an engineer and I want to major in aerospace engineering. I lived in South Dakota for almost 5 years and because I lived near an Air Force base, I was able to see planes flying around constantly. Seeing those planes was something that most people here in Kansas don't get to see so often, and I know I am lucky to have been able to see that. I moved to South Dakota when I was in 5th grade, and the planes fascinated me. I want to be able to work on the planes that gives other children that fascination like I got from them. This scholarship would help my family because my parents are recently divorced and it has greatly affected our financials. I know my parents are doing the best they can to financially support both my sister's and my activities, but I am trying to work up and save for college so that they don't have to have more financial struggles. I have a job and I am slowly starting to save up for college, but my heavy school load--4 AP classes and a college class--keeps me from working as much as I could without it. This money would take some of the stress of paying for my college off of my parents' shoulders. I am lucky enough that my parents are willing to pay for some of my college, but they have both made it clear that I will need loans and that they will take some out too and I want to make sure that I am doing the best I can to ensure I am helping pay for college too.

As someone who has moved around most of my life, there were only two things in my life that were constant; my family and my music. I started getting into music when I was 8 or 9 when I got a guitar from the Marine Corps. I played that until I was 10 when I got into percussion in my new school district. I have had the lovely opportunity to grow as a musician in states like Massachusetts, Texas, South Dakota, and Kansas. With this, I have seen and grown with other musicians in various states. I have seen different ways students show emotion through music. This could be from Native Americans in my band in South Dakota showing me music they grew up with to students in Kansas playing hard solos during competition to show their growth from when they were young. I have had the great opportunity in seeing all these different views of what music should and shouldn't be and I've been able to make my own ideas of what I think music is. I think music connects people, from different cultures and states. I think solos make you think of what the solo wants you to play and portray, even if it's from a different culture. I think that music is meant to make you work hard because expressing emotions isn't easy. My view of the world has shifted as I've grown through music. To me, though, music has always and will always be a gift. I can get that gift like I got my first guitar, or I can give that gift like how I gave my first solo to a bunch of aspiring elementary band kids. I think that though the world is wide and people are separated, music will always bring people together. I will always see the differences in people, but I will also see the similarities in the music they listen to. Whether it's the person dressed in black listening to country music and the farmer getting up early to listen to the same songs, or it's the old lady listening to new pop for her grandchildren to connect with them more. I know I will always see the world as a little separated, but something will always connect people and I think that that connection is made through music. I think that I will always see the world as something that can use the gift of music to connect people from Nepal to California.

What do I love about math? I could say an easy answer like "It's fun!" or "It's simple!" but I know that isn't the real answer as to why I love math. Math isn't easy, it's one of the hardest subjects I'm in, nor is it simple. Right now my math barely has numbers in it, I feel like I have two English classes rather than a math class. I love math because it pushes me to think outside the box. Math pushes me to think of ways to get to an answer, but there are rules that I have to follow. I think of math as being on the Hogwarts stairs. The Harry Potter stairs require students to figure out how to get to different levels by finding different routes using different stairs. Like the stairs, I can get the same answer by using different equations as long as I follow the rules for those equations. I like math because I like having hard equations where I need anywhere from 1 to 4 equations to get the number 2 as an answer. I think it's fun to work so hard and to push your brain to get a number like that. I'm a student-athlete so I like to push my body to its limit to see how far I can jump or see how fast I can run. But with that, the student part comes first. I work on my studies just as hard, if not harder than I do on my athletics. Math pushes my brain like I push my body and that's why I like math. I think the only way to learn is to have a challenge, and math helps me the most because it challenges me the most.

What makes me unique is my strong work ethic. I know that sounds cheesy, but I put 110% into each and every activity that I do. If I'm on a volleyball court, I'm talking and I'm working every single day to make sure that I am the best middle blocker that my team can have. If I'm competing in a math competition for my school, then I would have reviewed important formulas to ensure that I don't miss something. I'm taking the hardest classes that I can so that when it is my time to step up and help people, I can do everything in my power to be the person that people need. My work ethic is the most unique thing about me and makes me stand out next to others because I am the person that takes work shifts for others, I am the person who stays up studying so that I can pass a hard test, I am the person who asks questions when I don't understand something. My unique quality makes me work hard enough that I know that I am at the top of my game at all times because my future is everything and what I do now will affect what my future looks like. I moved around a lot when I was growing up, and moving from one place to another every few years can make it hard to say I'll be helping one specific community. I have lived in 7 states in the past 16 years and I wouldn't change that for anything; consequently, it has made answering questions about my life hard and complicated. When asked the question, "Where are you from? Where is your community?" I can't answer it easily. Do I answer where I live now? Do I answer with the state that I lived in before now? So, my community is the US. My community is the military bases I grew up on, my community is the tough, hard-working folks who put their lives on the line to serve their country. My community moves with me when I move. My goal is to go to the United States Marine Corps and serve my country. I plan on going to college, majoring in engineering and then going into the military. I plan on giving back to my community to go into the military and be a direct part of the people that I look up to the most. I see the only way to help that community is to be a part of it. I want to go to college to further my education so that when I join, my input is valid and my input can directly help people. Being an engineer in the military can mean being anywhere from dealing with the design of planes that can bring people back home to their families to being a nuclear engineer and making sure that the troops overseas have portable power and clean water.

I watched a video in class once, it was about the creator of 5-hour energy. I was so bored and didn't really want to watch the video but then he started talking about a bike that powers houses for low-income households. All of a sudden my attention has been grabbed. This one object could help save families so much money, allowing them to get more food, pay for bills more often, and just not have to live paycheck to paycheck. I think about that invention often because the CEO of a multimillion-dollar company also helps people in low-income areas. Using that bike, people can work for a few minutes and have power for a few hours in their entire home. Not just that, but it's not even his idea. He helps fund his employee's ideas if they can help improve lives. I used to live in a low-income household and it's comforting knowing that a rich CEO cares for both his employees and people that might not even be able to afford his product. This inspires me because it helps re-enforce the idea that there are people out there who care enough to spend money on products to better the lives of people and to make the world a better place. Recognizing that some people don't have electricity and doing something to fix it is so much better than telling someone to get a better job and I think that's what inspires me the most. Instead of telling low-income households to get better jobs or to save more money, the CEO funds projects to help their lives and to make them better because he has the money to.