“ Do you want to try this? My mom made it!” my friend said to me. I shook my head very quickly no. “ I can’t. I have allergies.” My friend looked at me as if I had just insulted her entire family tree. She scoffed at me and never spoke to me again after that. To young me, I had thought that I was the worst person ever. I had just hurt my friend’s feelings…or did I? My severe food allergies have been a part of me for the entirety of my life. For as long as I can remember, I have lived my life skeptical of every food that came in arms reach of me. My mom was a tiger mom; she knew the worst case scenario if I was to eat those forbidden foods. She constantly told me: “ Do not eat these!” As the obedient child I was, I promised my mom I wouldn’t. So any time I came even close to someone else’s food, I was sure to put some space in between us…just in case. Even though it was awkward to explain the strange distance between me and a classmate, it all seemed worth it. It wouldn’t be awkward for long, right? As I got older, those moments of awkwardness didn’t go away. In fact, they became even more frequent. Birthday parties, sleepovers, family gatherings - every social situation involved a conversation that I dreaded: explaining my food allergies. I was always met with the most uncomfortable responses: friends making jokes, waving the food in my face, family members trying to make up for the mistake, offering me random substitutes. The worst part of it all? The constant feeling of being different. I wasn’t like everyone else. While others enjoyed shared meals, I sat on the sidelines, watching. Something as simple as my food allergies had become a dictator to my life. Food was one of the most shared things throughout people - a way to enjoy and connect - but it was my biggest risk. For those without food allergies, they might view the effects of them significantly simpler than it actually is. Because of this mindset, many individuals found themselves insulted or offended at my constant and firm rejection. I found myself feeling so guilty and remorseful for these individuals’ hurt feelings. I tried my best to justify myself and justify my reason, but to no avail. My failed interactions and conversations would weigh down on me for days, weeks. I felt terrible. It was throughout my life, through many experiences and encounters, I have realized one major thing: I don’t have to justify myself to anyone. “No” is a clear answer and reason. My goal for the future is to stop justifying myself to the world and to others, and hopefully, inspiring others to stop the need to justify themselves as well. No matter what the reason is, food allergies to personal choice, you don’t have to justify your choices to others. We should all feel comfortable and empowered to stand firm in our decisions without feeling the need to explain ourselves endlessly to comfort others’ feelings - that is not up to us. We are not responsible for other people’s feelings and their feelings should never weigh down on you or make you feel guilty.

“ Mom, my head is hurting.” “ Mom, my head is hurting again.” “ Mom, do you have any medicine? My head is hurting.” This seemed to be my every other sentence while growing up. Constantly, my struggle was the same thing over and over again. It seemed like my head didn’t do anything else but hurt. If I spent too much outside, if I focused too much in class, if I spoke a little too loud, the consequence was the same. It had become too much. No matter how much I tried to avoid it, I had no choice: I had to go to the doctors. Just like any other kid, I hated going to the doctors the most. The thought of needles, checkups, shots, it terrified me. For me though, a young black girl, my dislike for the doctors went just a little further. Not only was I scared of needles, shots, all of that, I was tired of explaining myself. Being introverted, talking to adults already seemed extremely intimidating, but when I had to explain to my non-black doctors my issues, it went beyond just nerves - it was disconnection. How was I meant to explain my entire life to my doctors? They said my diagnosis of migraines would get worse with certain things, but what did that mean for me? I have to style my thick, curly hair. I have no choice. I can’t wear it down all the time like them. I had to go to the events with my family and friends, saying no was not a choice. I couldn’t take the time to rest all the time. I couldn’t miss school for a headache; I had to take all the opportunities that I had. As I looked at my non-black doctors' faces of confusion on how to advise and guide me, I just felt this sense of hopelessness. It was always a battle and never a solution. It wasn’t until 5 years after that initial doctor's appointment that I found a solution with my wonderful neurologist - the only black doctor I had ever had in my life. For the first time in my life, I had felt a sigh of relief going into the doctors. I didn’t have to explain my entire life to my doctor - they understood me. We were able to relate. We were able to connect. It felt easy. My personal experience with racial inequality inside of the healthcare system inspired me to be different. Pursuing my own passion for the medical field, in the field of Neuroscience to become a neurologist, my goals are clear. I want to be a guide, a breath of fresh air, someone who understands. Feeling disconnected and unheard by those who were meant to save my life was something that I felt for so many years; I aspire to be that connection for other Black patients that experience the same frustrations, doubts, and challenges that I did. Increasing racial diversity in healthcare isn’t about meeting a mark or holding a political stand - it is about including those who feel excluded and misunderstood. It is about understanding the patient as a person, not as a list of symptoms. By being a part of a healthcare system that cherishes diversity, I hope to show patients, especially those from marginalized communities, that their health concerns matter, that they matter. It is my goal to help transform that experience for others, just as my neurologist did for me. The doctors should be a place of trust and safety, not a place that people dread.

There was only one thing that I was 100% confident on growing up: I had the perfect parents. I was sure of it. There was nothing, absolutely nothing that could tell me otherwise. My mom was the most perfect mom. She was smart, beautiful, kind, and intelligent. She would always come to every event that I had in school. She would always sit right in front of the parents, cheering me on. She always had her camera, ready to take a picture of the moment and capture a symbol of the memory for the scrapbooks. I could count on my mom for everything. My dad was like my knight in shining armor, as most daughters had. He was cool, funny, playful, and really tall, standing at the shining height of 6’1. He would always play games with me. He was the coolest dad. My parents were the epitome of true love to me. They had met in middle school, been together forever, and got married. They were my textbook definition for the perfect couple ever. To young me, my life couldn’t have been more perfect. It was the best thing ever…until it wasn’t. As I grew, my perfect parents weren’t so perfect anymore. My father had become a stranger to me. My knight in shining armor was no longer that. Everything started to slowly crumble in front of me. The older I got, the tensions deepened. A very messy divorce soon ensued between my mom and my dad, crushing the very foundation of my life. My father and I’s relationship fell apart like sand, breaking my heart with each step. Everything that I had known for my dad to be, for our relationship to be, soon became insignificant. Our relationship had changed into something toxic, volatile, and bad. It was one of the hardest things that I had ever experienced in my life. Through the destruction of my perfect family and the divorce of my parents, my life has changed significantly. Standing here, a young 17 year old high school senior, I no longer have the perfect parents. I have the perfect mom. Through every hardship, every court date, every fight, my mom was always there, sitting right in front of the parents, ready to cheer me on. Moving to a single parent income household, with just my mom to bear the weight of everything for my 3 siblings and I, the financial cost of university creates worry for my mom. With this scholarship, the financial hardship of my $13,000 education doesn’t have to worry my perfect mom. With this scholarship - I am not only securing my future - I am honoring my mom’s endless sacrifices and support. Her determination, resilience, and ambition have shaped me into who I am. With this opportunity, I can continue to grow and succeed, and eventually, I’ll can see my mom, sitting in front of the parents, ready to cheer me on once again.

“ I want to be a millionaire and have tons of money!” “ I want to be a fashion designer and make cool clothes!” “ I want to have a big house with 20 cars!” All of my classmates laughed and giggled with excitement at the thought of a successful life and a fulfilling future. Talks of money, families, houses, cars, careers, everything arose in just those few minutes. As I listened to all of my classmates talk, I thought to myself what I wanted in the future; what I wanted when I was an adult. Was it a lot of money? Not really. Was it a big large mansion with the biggest pool I could think of? I didn’t really like swimming much. Did I want to be a fashion designer also? No, I don’t think so, I don’t really like drawing. I didn’t like any of these things like my classmates. Did that mean that I wasn’t ever going to be successful? I didn’t have any wants. I had seen so many different kinds of successful people with big houses and fancy cars, but I didn’t want those things. Did that mean that I was worthy of being successful? It took me a long time to realize that this was just one aspect of being successful. I realized through many reflections and thoughts that success isn’t just about the things that you own or the amount of money that you have - it is about fulfillment and the feeling of content. Success, as I have learned over the course of my early life, is the ability to look back on the decisions and choices that I made throughout my life and be proud of the person that I have presented to the world. Success is the ability to be content with the impact and influence that you have left on the people you have encountered with positive intentions and perspectives. Holding this meaning close to my heart, I have shaped my goals and my perspective around the purpose of making a meaningful impact rather than chasing material success. With this, I have geared my dreams and ambitions towards the medical field, more specifically, in the field of Neuroscience. Being able to become a pivotal change in the lives of others provides me the foundation for achieving this sense of success and fulfillment that I aspire to reach. The human brain has fascinated me - the way that it controls our behaviors and our choices. Assisting individuals with some of the most difficult neurological conditions, I am able to instill a sense of hope and joy into the lives of those struggling greatly. With this scholarship, I am able to turn this vision into reality. With this financial assistance, I will be able to utilize and access significantly more opportunities throughout my journey of higher education. Using this financial assistance for textbooks, academic materials, research opportunities, and many other pivotal aspects for the classroom environment, I am able to present myself with the most effective foundation to engage in my studies of Neuroscience, bringing a foundation of commitment and support. Being able to focus on growing and learning, I will be able to effectively become the person that I have aspired to be for so long. Success, to me, is not so much about reaching the destination but creating a positive and inspirational journey along the way. This scholarship goes beyond just financial assistance - it is a key step in that journey, encouraging my pursuit of my dream, my ambitions, and my achievement of my success.

If a close friend comes to me for guidance on a major life decision, I would first ask them how they are feeling right there at that moment. Something that I have learned throughout my lifetime is that it is easy to fall into whatever you are feeling right now. If I am feeling overwhelmed, stressed, upset, or anxious, I make more irrational, poorly rationed decisions. When dealing with burdensome topics, becoming defensive is a common thing that can happen. It is important to gauge this understanding because it plays one of the most crucial decisions in the outcome. After questioning my friend on this, I would question my close friend about what they wanted their ending outcome to be. What is it they want to achieve at the end of the decision? If you are deciding without the end in mind, you cannot make the best, logical decision to start your journey to your desired result. If you are deciding solely based on the future, you might end up ruining it without knowing it. The final question I would ask is: What are you willing to lose to achieve this end goal? People decide based on the comfort that they are going to feel right now. The best things come from the worst discomforts. Make sacrifices and give up the things that you might like now for the betterment of your future. These steps are the best when making these difficult decisions that everyone can encounter in life. A challenge that I have experienced in my pursuit of STEM was discouragement. During my sophomore year of high school, I was placed in physics for my science. At first, I was confident in my ability to complete the assignments and projects given to me with the best effort. The further and further I spent in physics, I realized I was not as strong as some others around me. They could understand the information straight away with no issues, while it took me a very long time to understand the information given to me. At first, I thought it was just a learning gap I could fill over time, but this was not it. I was struggling heavily in multiple aspects of physics that I was relying on others to explain to me simply and slowly. It was extremely discouraging. Everyone around me could fly through assignments and projects with very little issue, as I was struggling to understand the directions of the assignment. It felt extremely demotivating and embarrassing, honestly. It was really difficult for me to be confident in my abilities or knowledge because of the low success rate I was experiencing. For students who are hoping to go into the area of STEM and might experience this, understand that it is okay to admit that you need help. Not everyone is naturally gifted in every area that comes with STEM. Help is so universal that everyone needs it in life. Asking for help or help does not make you stand out as incapable or a complete failure; it makes you more courageous and commendable. It is easy to get so caught up in what others do; that you compare yourself. It is better to focus on what you need to do to succeed at your speed and find those resources.

The generational divide and separation that is so present and influential in modern society heavily surrounds the foundation of the "Ode to Millennials—Gen Z" text. Each generation has encountered impactful life events that have influenced how their societies and daily lives function. The prior generations had to thrive and flourish in a time of uncertainty and turmoil from the detrimental World Wars, forcing them to rebuild and reshape the definition of society and ordinary life. The present generations encounter several crucial social issues. Several individuals deal with the conflicts and effects of the constant generational divide, myself included. These conflicts stem from a lack of understanding of similarity and superiority, severe misunderstanding, and arguments of hardships and difficulties. The Ode to Millennials and Gen Z text touches on similarities between the generations and enthusiasm for bettering the future. Even though it is not as visible, the current generations experience similar things to those of the previous generations. Modern society places the duty on the newest generations to fix and heal all the fragmented sections of the world for the next the older generation. The was placed on more recent generations must thrive in the fragmented society and world given to us by previous generations. All the aspects explained in the "Ode to Millennials-Gen Z" text, such as global bankruptcy, debilitating school loans and a broken medical insurance system, are all things given to this newer generation by the older generation. A sense of required and expected duty generations, just as it is placed in the older generations, just as it is actively being placed on the Millennials and Gen Z generations. Each generation accepts its burdens with grace, but there has been up until now this underlying conflict between the generations. The generational divide growing in modern society presents a classic problem: misunderstanding. Generations possess a sense of misunderstanding when communicating with one another. The older generations believe that due to their experience, they obtain a more thorough understanding of the world and superiority. Newer generations cannot comprehend why older generations will not reason with them and try modern ideas and opportunities. Both generations instantly think they are superior to one another because of their social circumstances. The older generations believe that due to their experience, they obtain a more thorough understanding of the world and superiority. The newer generations believe that a more open and progressive society gives a better enlightenment and superiority to its counterparts. This is not the case at all. All generations have inevitably faced incredible hardships and considerable difficulties. The developed world has changed significantly throughout all generations, naturally making it impossible to justly compare. It is improper to pit two diverse hardships against one another and unanimously select which one is worse. For example, the older generation's hardship of rebuilding a falling society after the World Wars and the newer generation's hardship of fixing the tax structure. These hardships are difficult to compare to one another as they touch two completely different aspects of the living world. Instead of overwhelmingly focusing on the generational and present differences, individuals of all generations need to prioritize the most critical factor: the promising future. No matter the potential negatives that come with it, there are so many promising opportunities that come with the future, no matter what condition the present is within presently. The subjective opinions of each generation should not affect the universal results of the promising future. In the Ode to Millennials and Gen Z text, properly explains, "They do heed the call to duty—their rendezvous with destiny". The importance of instilling a tremendous gift for a successful future is the duty of each generation, whether the leading factor of the generation or an ordinary onlooker.