Being a kid who started playing basketball later in middle school, it was tough playing against other kids who've already learned basic skills. But over the next six seasons of basketball, there's been much much improvement. I've accomplished having varsity letters as a sophomore, being named an MVP for the team, and a few more. I've had to battle with a broken finger that weighed me down, and would even crawl in my mind for an entire season. Although, I've learned to be patient and trust the progress. Throughout my basketball career, I've accomplished a few cool rewards. One being named MVP of our basketball team my freshman year. This reminded me of how important I was to that team, because it took a whole season of effort and well-earned respect to receive that award. I've also received three varsity letters in high school. These are rewards that tell someone they've played at the highest level, and it's a great accomplishment to stay on that level. Lastly, one small, personal accomplishment for me was finally being able to dunk. Does this play a vital role in having a successful team? No, but it shows me that I'm exceeding as an athlete. With being an athlete, there will come obstacles for everyone, even me. After my sophomore year, I moved to New Mexico, and for an entire summer I found it hard to get a gym to workout and play basketball. I was new and many of the gyms that were open were 30 plus minutes away from my house. So, joining a new team with minimal practice during the summer was hard for me. On top of that, Just before the season began, I broke my finger. I couldn't practice with the team for seven weeks straight. I lost some stamina and skill with shooting the ball. All of this pulled me down for the entire season because it was on my mind with questions like, "What if I break my finger again? What if I don't make it back up to the potential I had before?" and these questions kept replaying over and over again. However, with having obstacles comes lessons learned. Throughout the course of these events happening, moving states and not being able to play all summer, to breaking my finger, I learned to overcome them. One big reason I was able to overcome all of these obstacles were finding peace, strength, renewal, and comfort in God. This specific season taught me to always have that one person you can go to for your needs, and for me it's God. I've also learned to be patient in all situations. Being patient is vital in receiving blessings, because we might need to wait an entire year to see change. When I chose to be patient in basketball, I began to see better results in my skills and athletic abilities. Overall, basketball has been a blessing for me. I was able to receive some great rewards like getting MVP, three varsity letters, and my first dunk. I've also faced some tough obstacles like not being able to play basketball for an entire summer, and breaking my finger. These obstacles have brought some great lessons that will translate to other obstacles while chasing my dreams.

All throughout elementary school, I kept moving from South Dakota to New Mexico, so my parents weren't always together physically. They both raised me well, but one year in elementary school my dad fell into an addiction of alcohol use. Over the course of this experience of seeing my dad get drunk and turn away from my mom, my emotions were flowing constantly! I was able to get protection and comfort from my mom, and she influenced me big time and I'm extremely, forever grateful. She also taught me to speak to others in a patient way, and this will be something I go back to for reminder of being a patient speaker. She led me through how to speak without interrupting. My mom, sometimes having to raise my siblings and I alone was definitely an experience for her that she had to learn from. She sometimes had to take care of us for days without my dad being home because he was drinking, but the light of this moment was that she kept teaching me how to forgive and learn from experiences. I had to learn to forgive my dad after all the days he was gone drinking, and then I had to learn to realize that this situation could be a teaching moment. I had to be coachable. My mom could've easily gave up on my dad and my siblings and filed for divorce, but I later realized she was trying to teach my siblings and I to forgive. From this experience, I learned to forgive even the closest family members of their mistakes and learn from it, even if it wasn't my mistake! Over the past couple of years, I began talking to other people, girls. Before, I tried to handle them on my own, and that didn't work out. Now, I go to my mom for advice because she taught me how to speak and still be respectful with my patience. She instills a patient and respectful speaker into me everyday by the way she speaks to me, and I'm reminded of it. This translated to speaking with teachers, coaches, and other family members I might not be as close to. Her influence of teaching me to speak patiently has opened up many conversations and doorways to opportunities like getting higher grades and growing friendships. With that, confidently speaking, my mom has had the most influence in my life. She taught me to forgive even those who are close to me their mistakes. I've learned how to speak patiently and respectfully to others, and this opened up better opportunity. She still continues to be an influence everyday. These two examples are what really stuck out, because they carry on all throughout my life until the last of my days.

The Ode to Millenials-Gen Z is directed at us, the readers. We, Gen Z, have evolved to live a lifestyle different from the past generations. The newest generation uses their phones nonstop. The older generations didn't have them like we do. The newer generations have grown more comfortable in living with expenses and issues that most people deal with or have dealt with. There's a change to how living is now as to how it used to be. Although, it seems as if we're going back to the past. This ode to the Millenials-Gen Z is about differences and similarities between older generations and newer generations. In the fifth paragraph, the author says, "There are so many similarities between the Greatest Generation and the Millennials Gen Z. In the 30s incomes were very low, and unemployment was 25 percent. For Millennials-Gen Z, incomes are very low and underemployment, by some accounts, approaches 25 percent." There's a comparison here to how similar the two generations are in terms of income and employment. This newer generation seems to not care about the money issue we're having. I'm not okay with it, because I need money to go to school, pay for a car, pay for a house, etc. The next paragraph says, "They accept an economy that is on a course of bankruptcy, not only in the United States but worldwide." This text opened my eyes to the reality in which money plays a higher significant role in my life. We can all help in losing this nationwide dept by saving our money and not spending it on unimportant items or things like overspending on food, clothes, collector items, and more. Most of us need to stop getting comfortable and stop accepting the loans we're being drowned in. A difference between Gen Z and past generations, specifically "The greatest generation," from the 30s, is that Gen Z has evolved by using technology to improve. In paragraph three the author says, "The older generation typically wishes that the newer generation would “do it” their way. When I was young, parents would ask that we kids write to them while we kids preferred to use the telephone." I don't think it's wrong to use our phones to text or send a message to the world through social media, but it is risky what you put out there. Phones have their pros and cons, and I think the cons outweigh the pros. One major problem with this generation is procrastination, and phones play a huge role. If everyone didn't have their phone on them, much more work would get done like homework, yardwork, cleaning, etc. It's an issue my family has, and it needs to be talked about. The author says in the last paragraph, "My bet is that they will become“The Greatest Generation 2.0”!" Our generation could become like them because our procrastination will lead us to bankruptcy and unemployment like they had to face in the Great Depression. In the end, my idea for this issue is to spend less time on our phones and get our work done first! This ode speaks to most of us, so let us not forget what we need to do about our issues and face them.

I went to a high school in South Dakota for the first two years, but after the summer of 2022, I moved to New Mexico where I was once that new kid in town, coming three states away. Being new has helped me work harder, has helped me impact my peers in a good way, and has helped me accomplish, and even get closer to, my future goals. I’ve learned that being new isn’t the worst thing in life. I'm now a senior in New Mexico, but at times I still feel like a new kid, because I didn't go to middle school or elementary school in New Mexico to have those friends that go way back, so I'm kind of close to only a few people. This being a new kid experience has changed my life by almost forcing me to learn the faces and names of people who are cultured up and live a different lifestyle than me. I've learned to act differently to others, like being "chill" or "kind". I've been taught pretty quickly ways to earn money, work hard, and dress with a better style in my opinion. This has had a big impact on my life because I've expanded my knowledge. I’ve also been introduced to a few friends who encourage me to chase my dreams. After growing close with a few of them, I’ve been able to look at my future and make better decisions to assist in education, sports, and my faith. I’ve now been admitted to The University of New Mexico! In most relationships and friendships, both people should benefit, and being the new kid has impacted my friends as well. They haven't had a friend who is so big on their faith, that they grow curious to know who God is. In my eyes, this is a huge impact because as a believer in God, It's amazing seeing people get closer to him. This has made micro changes to their lives, by the way they act and think about certain decisions. My friends also have been inspired to focus more on school, work hard in basketball, and be a kinder, generous, and forgiving person to others. Lastly, being a new kid has pretty much wiped out my knowledge of athletics, because I now have to study different players, find new gyms, and get along with teammates I'll only have known for two years. That's tough on the team IQ part of any sport. It's challenged my critical thinking and problem-solving skills. One of my goals is to play basketball at the collegiate level, and knowing my teammates well plays a pivotal role when I do play college basketball. Also being a new kid in New Mexico, in a way, has made me realize how lazy I was before. I'm working extremely hard to receive scholarships, money, playing time, and everything else I want that I can obtain. This has a long-term impact because I worked hard enough to get admitted into college and receive scholarship opportunities, which are future goals that will later assist me in becoming a Strength and Conditioning Coach. I want to become a successful Strength Coach at a well-put-together university that’s successful in division one sports. In the end, I know that being the new kid has helped me grow tremendously. It has impacted my friends who seem to be more intimate with their time and what they spend it on. I hope to keep growing my knowledge as a new kid.

I've always wanted to find out the type of person I am. I'm always looking for ways to be "better" and through this journey, I've found God through one incident that happened during the quarantine of 2020. Through finding God, I've realized how hard-working I am. I love to play sports, which makes me an active person also. Being a hard worker means I must get my hands dirty, and I've become a more intelligent person through tons of experience in playing not only many different sports, but I've learned how to work with power tools, yard tools, and I've worked many different jobs as a volunteer. You can say I'm very flexible. I'm a fun, enjoyable person, and by this I mean I love to try new things and make the most out of them. Being a follower of God, I'm always trying to be better, and this means pushing for perfection. This award will mean so much to me if I received it! $3,000 is so much money that will help me with my books, my college dorm, and my fees. The college/university I'm interested in offers free tuition for in-state residents, so this money will pretty much help me pay for everything else. The number of books I'll have to purchase will add up over 5-6 years in college, and they're quite expensive. The dorm is also very expensive, and it's a big piece of the money I'd have to pay for college. There are also fees like the $100 athletics fee, the $35 student flat fee, the $53 mandatory student fee, and the $72 wellness fee. These are paid for every hour of coursework. It all adds up, and $3,000 will help get me started in college! The funds from this scholarship will help me decide on which books to purchase, the dorm I'll stay in, and how much I can put into fees upfront. Even though this isn't a huge amount of money compared to a $50,000 scholarship, it'll teach me how to be more disciplined with the scholarship money, and it'll help me make better decisions. Receiving scholarship money also just motivates me to want to keep pursuing a better education, and this will help me stay focused on my degree. Especially with the undergraduate degree I want to get, it's only a stepping stone degree, meaning I must receive another major for my postgraduate if I want to make the undergraduate degree useful.

The dream version of myself would be a highly achieved Strength and Conditioning coach for a professional basketball team and one who loves others by following the word of God.

I have an uncle, who's older than me by a year, that receives money by card after his dad passed away. He has used this money to help his family with food and clothes, as well as his own needs. I see how receiving money from past generations can help, and receiving money from your father or mother would sound amazing. Generational wealth in my family was something that's been around for a while. Generational wealth to me is receiving help from past family members, who allowed for their money or checks to be given to next-generation children after their death or retirement. It could also be from the good deeds done by a parent, that someone says it's only right they pass on their money to their children. Some students may not have a lot to help themselves. Receiving money from past family members is a blessing to them because it could help with clothes, food, the field of study opportunities, and more. Generational wealth is giving next-generation children an opportunity to work towards their goals, by kickstarting their financial goals which helps when saving for college, a car, a home, and more. It's giving their children a chance to succeed early, and even in the future when it comes time to pay for school, transportation, residency, etc. Achieving generational wealth in the future would mean I have to work, and do the right thing, so that my future children would be benefitted. Doing the right thing makes me more reliable in the eyes of business owners or people in leadership roles. I'll plan to work as early as I can, so I have a lot of work experience. I'd have to volunteer, so more job opportunities could open up for me to work. As soon as I gain access to stocks and investing, about 25%-35% of my income would go into investments, so even if I don't receive that money back, it can go toward my children. I also want to keep generational wealth going forward in my family, so teaching how to give back would put my children in a mindset of them wanting to give, and leave an inheritance on their next-generation children. To end off, having family members who received money from their parents is a great opportunity to learn from them what to do with that money. Generational wealth means receiving money, stocks, bonds, or a title of some sort, from past generations. It means having an opportunity to be successful early on, and also in the future. It gives students of giving parents a boost in their careers. My plan to achieve generational wealth is to work as much as I can, so I can get a lot of money and benefits. My next step is to begin investing, so even if I don't receive money back for myself, it'll go to my next-generation children. The last step is to teach my children, nephews, nieces, etc, to be helpful and always give back, so that they'll be willing to give up their financial possessions to their next-generation kids.

When I started as a freshman, I could never stay home and watch film on myself. I always wanted to have fun because I knew high school was going to be tough, so I tried to forget about it. My best back-to-school tip for most freshman would be, always be seeking new information! You've got four years before you move on, so make the most of it. Be a consumer and allow adults like coaches, teachers, and parents give you advice for anything. That could be in a specific classroom or sport you're striving to be good at. Make sure you're doing more than what's expected; instead of going out to parties, go home and study for that test or watch film on yourself to become a smarter athlete! Now don't let this ruin your high school fun, but always do the stuff that gives you learning experiences. If you must go home and study while your friends are out partying, do your studying first, then you can have fun! So always be a consumer of information, and this will show teachers how much you care, and they won't hesitate in writing you a letter of recommendation. Instagram: Queso_ck