Life is a big mystery. We can plan years in advance but in the end, we really don't know what may happen in a year, a month, a week, or tomorrow. To me, the mystery is such a delight to think about. I wonder what I'll do tomorrow, what unexpecting things will happen, what people I'll talk to each day, the thoughts just get me excited enough to get me up from my bed. Besides, who doesn't love a good mystery every now and then? But that doesn't mean I don't plan anything for the day. I always have the key goals I want to hit before I go to bed: Go to work, go to school, have some relaxation time, and make sure to buy food. Funny enough it's all of these little things that get me up in the day; to others, it may seem nothing to get excited about, but to me, it's what I love about each passing day: All the little things. The hour or so I get just laying in my bed, hanging out with my work friends, getting something to treat myself, all of it is such a delight. All of this I look forward to each day, giving me a reason to stay motivated: The things that come unexpected and the things that do come expected. To me, it's important to cherish those daily mundane details of your life because you may never get to see them again in the near future.

My best skill is adaptation to new environments. I always find myself in situations that I'm unfamiliar with or I go find those unfamiliar situations. My skills in adaptations help me learn not only how to survive that new environment but also gain other skills as well. In life, I believe being able to have a variety of skills can secure one's future. I'll take my job for example. The place I work is a mixture of a lot of things: Theaters, arcades, obstacle courses, a bar, dine-in, and a bowling lane. My job sometimes requires me to help with all 7 of these facilities so I needed to quickly adapt to how all of them function, so I learned how they worked within the first day and gained skills from each of them. But funny enough, the most useful skill I got was surviving service jobs. Adaptation is a very powerful learning technique; to be able to change my way of thinking and acting to better suit a situation. I intend to use this when going to college, especially since I'll be planning on living somewhere completely new. The power of adaptation is not merely the ability to suit yourself better for a problem. It's the ability to learn and gain something from each problem; to better improve yourself overall, which in turn, makes you more useful. It is the greatest of my survival techniques.

To be confident is to feel like no matter what, what you're doing will work out. It's to have the bravery to be assertive with your actions, even if there are things that will say otherwise. Now that's a very hard thing to do, almost like a skill you need to hone throughout your entire life. Even as I write down this essay, I'm still trying to work on how to be more confident with myself. Now I'm not the most confident person in the world. Being a bisexual man in a Christian household does those things to you. It's some dangerous territory, especially with the mystery of whether your family or anyone else, in general, can accept you. I wasn't confident of myself, my identity, my future, every day became a question of "I'm I a person worth being alive?". It was torture and I had to fix it or else I wouldn't be here right now. I've practiced with my confidence; going to large groups and socially interacting with them, wearing clothes I would've thought didn't suit me at all and being more expressive in the way I act every day. I've even come out about my bisexuality with my mom and though she's not the most accepting, she's willing to take things slow about this. But with my dad, that's a mystery that I'll tackle in the future. I still have a long way to go when it comes to being confident with myself. But where I am right now; I couldn't be happier. I have lots of friends that mean a lot to me, I'm more open to my parents, and above all else, I'm confident with myself.

When you think about it, it's honestly quite baffling how anyone can stay optimistic after the ride called life. Take me for example, how I stayed my usual self is just reminding myself why I do the things I do. The friends and family who are rooting for me to succeed in life; how can I just let them down? The lone thought of having all of their rooting being wasted on me isn't an easy thing to digest so I do my best to avoid that. But moving on to something less sad, I look back to what my friends and family have always said to me: "If you're going through something and you can't bear it, don't hesitate to come to me". Now obviously this has been said in hundreds of different ways but it means a lot to me. To be able to have people I can lean on can always give me a smile even in the hardest times. In life, it's important to be not alone; there's nothing sadder in life than experiencing what true loneliness is after all. The lesson being taught here is that I'm not alone. Even though I may think that time and time again, I always have someone beside me, even when I don't think it. I'm one of those types of people who have a hard time accepting people as friends and family so it's really rare when I do. I believe in those times when I have someone with me who can be with me till the end, my optimism becomes an unshakable force.

There are probably so many things many of us don't know about the world, such as other cultures, lands that most of us haven't walked on, and animals that most people don't dare to go near. That's what I want to do; I want to travel around the world to learn, eat, and have experience. This desire to travel originated from the TV screen, seeing how different people are on the screen filled me with excitement and curiosity. So when I was a kid, I promised myself to travel with any chance I get. That's one of the reasons why I decided to go to college: To grab the chance to study abroad and learn what I can in that semester. But the world wasn't the only thing I want to learn. I want to refine my sketching skills, both real and digital. I find drawing to be one of the most exciting things in the world. Around Middle School, this fascination came to be thanks to a few supporting friends and since then, I can say I'm on my way to becoming a capable artist. That's why, with the possible scholarship money, I'll get myself to a college with a great art program that can help me in my efforts. It's pretty funny how these goals came about when I was a little kid. It really shows how much an impact my childhood made on my future, it even affected what I wanted to be.

Believe it or not, I made an actual bucket list back when I was a kid, the goals were obviously a bit much but many of them were still stuff that I wanted to do. Now traveling, I'm 100% sure at least 90% of the people on Earth want to go somewhere that isn't their home. Even though we have access to a boundless amount of information about the world around us, we don't know much about the world. I want to change that for myself, I want to learn, I want to see other people's cultures and see how they differ from us. This goal I'm hoping to achieve once I grow older and hopefully I can accomplish this by studying abroad at my college. But even though that's something for future me to accomplish, there are goals that I did complete already. One such goal was to be a good artist, I was interested in art as a kid and wanted to see if I could grow, and behold, I'm aiming for my bachelor's degree in art. Another goal was to eat lots of food. When I was a kid, I was a very picky eater; I didn't want to eat anything that wasn't rice, chicken, fries, or pizza. Now I'm not picky at all. I love all sorts of food; Mexican, Italian, Chinese, Korean, and the list is growing. But I cannot eat pickles, I'm sorry past me, I still can't eat pickles.

To live a long healthy life is to live a life where you're both mentally and physically great. The best way is to learn consistency and know yourself. Consistency is key, it won't mean much in the long run if you start taking care of yourself but quit halfway, you'll only end up back in square one. A great way to do that is to have someone help you, a friend who can bring you something healthy to eat, or a coach who can constantly remind you to go to the gym. It's always helpful to have that little push since that little push can really affect you long term. Consistency is great but to live long enough, you have to recognize the problems with your health. Take a visit to a doctor and see what needs to be fixed. We all have some sort of problem with ourselves, I used to have asthma when I was a kid. Now I can run just fine, for the most part. Learn more about your body, any allergies, and the strength of your immune system, all of these will be paramount for your health.

"If you're gonna live, live being satisfied, you only get to do it only once after all." When we all eventually will pass away, what will your last thoughts be? Will you have happy thoughts, thinking about your family, friends, or lover? Maybe the regrets you'll have, we all will surely have some by then. But will you be satisfied with life, will you lay there on your death bed and say, "Well, it was a good run". That's how I want it to go for me, I want to make sure my life has been a blast, and when I lay on that death bed, a smile across my face. For a few years around my high school year, everything felt like it was on pause like nothing was happening yet the people around me were living. I couldn't stay like that, that depressed feeling of suffocating nothingness. That's why I'm fighting that feeling by living my life to the fullest. I take hobbies, I exercise, I work in a job I want to work at and meet people that will change my life. I only get one shot at living life, I can't afford to waste it afterall.

My belief is that it's important in life to be able to list what brings you some sort of joy. For me, it's a little bit of everything. I have a close inner circle of friends that I trust. the ones I hang out with, and the ones that bring me joy every time I see them. But they're not just sources of joy, but also sources of motivation, all of us at least had one friend who supported us or motivated us to do something. Friends can go a long way to help build your future and even teach you things you might've never would have otherwise. Now that being said, I have sources of joy and motivation in doing things myself. My hobbies, for example, I love drawing and writing. Drawing brings a rush for such a peaceful hobby, each careful pen stroke, the detail put on it, nothing could replace it. The same goes for writing, instead replaced by the detail put into the story, the feeling I get with each word written, all has the same rush that pushes me to keep doing it. Then it's the goals I have for myself. I want to become an artist, someone who can make art to inspire others. My family said this is difficult and although I agree to an extent, I want to prove them wrong nevertheless and that is a good source of motivation for me. It's important to have something that can motivate you or bring you joy. It pushes you to learn, to improve, to be a better person. I'm happy that I live in a good enough life where I can have all of that and wish that college will help in increasing that fuel.

I love art, how a single circle can progress into a breathtaking art piece. I'm fascinated by the penwork of an art piece, the hidden shading of an object, and other sublime details of an art piece. Art is such a masterful way to communicate with people, it's a skill that requires lots of time to do, but like any skill, the effort will bear fruit. That's why I love art, my mind bubbles with so much creativity and inspiration, and I would be driven mad if I didn't have the ability to share it. But it's not just that, there are so many forms of art to the point it seemed infinite, where each person has their own style and penwork, just thinking about it is making me excited as I write this essay. Art holds so many possibilities, with a combination of color, strokes, and patience; a person can feel a wave of emotions just from looking at it. This is why I love art and I hope one day I can influence someone with my art just like the artists that influenced me.

My mind works in a weird way. Once I'm told I'm able to apply some sort of creativity to a situation, whether that be in the form of a project or something else, my mind starts going through a process, quite similar to a factory until my mind forms some sort of idea and I just execute it. In my first step, I create vague ideas, almost like painting with my eyes blind and seeing what madness happens. I keep waving that metaphorical brush until something interesting appears in my head. Once that happens, I isolate that idea in my head and move on to the next step. Next is building upon that idea to somehow meet the goal, I would debate within my mind until I could come to a conclusion. Then once I got all of that in the way, comes the execution phase, wherewith enough luck, plus winging it every now and then, the plan works out. I know, it sounds like a slow process, but this process can easily be done in seconds within my head. Thanks to this process, I'm able to break my creativity into a process that's efficient.

The way I study is a bit child-like but I'd admit it gets the job done. My brain and body have a love-hate relationship; if my brain wants to do something, my body would just turn off or do something else. Either way, it was impossible for me to do any work unless I was gonna have my brain and body in some sort of agreement. That's when I thought of the perfect strategy. I would bribe myself to work. By breaking my work and study into smaller pieces and promising myself that I can get some sort of "treat" after each piece, it was easier for me to work. The "treats" would vary; from small snacks, allowed reading comic time, or having chat time with friends. This practice was common for my mom, it was one of the few ways she could convince me to study and my body just adapted to it. Now, of course, as I grew up, so have the relationship between my mind and body. I've slowly lessened the rewards I get to have my body used to work unconditionally. This isn't the only way I prepare for studies, sometimes I would seclude myself from everything around me in order to optimize my studying, or have someone keep me in check. How I help myself study can be a bit unorthodox, but as I said, it's what's helping me succeed academically, but whether it can apply to real-life situations, well, I'm still working on that.

When I was a kid I didn't feel like I was a person. I felt like I was more surviving than living. I didn't get to experience things lots of kids usually do like the joy of friends hanging out outside of school or being able to ride a bike, and yes, I still don't know how to ride a bike. Being socially active wasn't really the top priority on my list, it was more just surviving elementary to high school by studying the bare minimum and for the future, well, I didn't have plans for it. I didn't even know if I was gonna go to college or not, and if I was, what was I gonna pursue? I didn't really develop any other skill that would benefit me outside of school. But high school changed that, instead of just wasting my life away, I accidentally met some friends who helped me walk a different path. Almost like a weird turnabout of fate. Having a group of friends made me see how their childhood was largely different from mine. It felt like opening my eyes for the first time to see what I was missing. That's when I started to clean myself up. I did keep up my studies but I was more focused on improving myself in other ways. I'm more social now, I got myself a job that I like, I realized my sexuality which helped me become even more open, and I even knew what I wanted to do for college. This is probably why I admire having friends so much, there's only so much you can learn from your family and school. It takes meeting people from different parts of the world to really change your perspective on not only the world but your life.

The little things are the things that make me most happy in life. It leaves me a much bigger impression than something like getting my driver's license or getting my first job, don't get me wrong, were things that made me very happy, but didn't give me as much of a rush of joy as the daily little things I do now. For example, buying that daily Dr.Pepper, which I know probably isn't the healthiest option for me in the world, I really looked forward to it after school, the window of sleep I can use before I go over to work, the weekly ramen pack I get to eat for dinner, all of these are probably meaningless in people's eyes, are the type of things I enjoy in life. It's easy to take for granted the small things but it's what helped me survive my daily routine in life without me knowing it. People may call me weird for me acting all excited about going to buy soda from the nearest vending machine but part of me just doesn't care because I'm happy.

This came from my Economics teacher I had in High School. He would tell us how to use the news as a way to predict when's the best time to utilize his money. The news is a great way to know when the best time to start investing in something such as a house to knowing the best time to buy snacks from your favorite snack company after/before they decide to change the price. Yeah, the news is very boring, I didn't imagine seeing myself watching the news or at the very least skimming through it daily til now. But once I become older, this will definitely help. If I need to get a house and the banks are making loans easier to get and payback for a period of time, that would be a good time to start getting my mortgage. Besides knowing the best time to get loans, it also helps in knowing when a company might experience inflation. If I see a company that might start increasing the prices of their products, now would be a good time to start stocking up on their products, especially if they're food-based, or maybe if a company is planning on lowering the prices of their products, then it would be best to wait till then. This advice will help me save up lots of money in the long run, it may even be the difference between me getting that car I needed, or that house, or just those stock of chips.

I have a deep fascination when it comes to learning about certain things when it comes to relating to art, writing, food, and a whole lot more. If I want to learn something, I'd go ham on learning and practicing if it's some sort of skill. I'd even clear schedules if it'd allow me to practice/learn more. Now, why do I love learning? It's because, in the world, knowledge is one of the greatest tools in the world. I can get out of a few problems if I had the ability to use my knowledge. Plus, isn't it cool if you could be able to brag to others about your knowledge of certain facts? This is a skill I developed over time as a kid, my ability to learn born from doing lots of math assignments in my elementary school, evolved to allow me to learn skills that may benefit my future. I love art, I plan to take a future where I can take my art skills and use them as a job, and I love myself for being able to learn.

There was a time when I had some self-value issues. I didn't feel like I was worth anything and saw no reason to have friends, take care of myself, or even go outside. But one thing that helped me feel better, was knowing I wasn't alone. Someone with sincere empathy who went through the same thing I went through. Lots of us deal with mental issues, some of us may feel alone like we're in the toughest battle in our lives and we're the only ones fighting. But we're not, there are people who went through the same pain as us and can sympathize with us. This mental burden becomes a lot easier to lift if there's someone next to me who knows what I went through. One of the saddest things that can kill someone inside is the feeling of being alone, that it's just you, no one else, in some dark void called your life. Not only do they know how it was, but they can also help you more than that. They can point you to what helped them, like a professional, be there to take in your venting, or them being with you can help you out. Now you can argue that it's hard to find someone to sympathize with you, but I'd argue otherwise. Sometimes it takes you to take the first step, and get out there, interact with people, find that person. Friendship is a two-way street after all. Besides, all of us need someone in life that we can lean on anyway.

You know, "deserve" is a very strong word for this context. I don't feel like I deserve this scholarship but I really want this scholarship. Is that enough for you? Because I really want that scholarship. Like I really, really, really want that scholarship. To be honest, I really don't know. I really don't have a whole sheet of plans for my academic future or anything, let alone my career goals, so I don't really think this question applies to me. But I do have the goal to go to and don't judge me, Whataburger. Back in middle school at the gym, there were times when all of us had to run through the track and one day, the coach set up hurdles for us to jump over. I wasn't able to successfully jump over the hurdles until the last one where I did it perfectly. It was easily one of the greatest obstacles that I literally overcame.

One of the most favorite hobbies has to be writing. I like making a good story that bubbles up in my head until I decide to put it on paper or on a doc. The fact I can write about a whole world with its own characters, stories, and rules excites me. But for sake of keeping this organized, I'll make sure to separate the reasons why I enjoy this hobby of mine, starting with an easy one to grasp. It's mentally healthy for me. Not only does it help keep my brain working, but it just overall makes me happy. I don't know how to explain it, it's just like a feeling that bubbles up inside me and puts a dumb grin on my face. When I picked up writing around middle school, my mental health definitely improved and considering it was middle school, that was very helpful. Now, what was I writing good back in middle school? No. Far from it, but I would lie if I said I wasn't happy nevertheless. I'm sure I'm not the only one who loves being creative. There just's something about making a whole world with nothing but your head and a pen/keyboard that really gets me. From the smallest detail of the world such as languages, currency, to the bigger details like races and world differences. I just absolutely love creative writing and world-building.

When I hear the 'wisest thing', I think of something that has impacted my way of life and how I live. People dwell on how life is so boring. Lots of people like to just pick an easy job to get and just live the rest of their life with a suitable income. But I heard numerous versions of this argument but what I feel sums it up best is Freddie Mercury's quote: "Boredom is the biggest disease in the world, darling". Let me first explain what I mean by using this quote. Boredom is something that can easily happen and when it does, it's devastating, people feel less inclined to do things, it makes people depressed, it causes anxiey, and a mountain load of other stuff. How can we live without anything exciting happening to us? Now let me explain how this affects me. One of the reasons I was excited to be an adult is that I was free. When I was a teenager, it was absolutely boring, to do the same thing: Sleep, school, go back home, sleep some more, and the loop continued. Now as an adult, I can do more, I can drive, I can shop, I can eat what I want (With funding in mind of course). But that's just the tip of the iceberg. For me, the best way to kill boredom is to go out, explore some countries, and learn about the world. If boredom is a disease then I have cured it. My life changed from this and I intend to make my life more exciting once I get into college, especially with studying abroad being an option. So the rest of the world better watch out.

For me, when it came to learning and striving for self-care, it was a bit harder than me compared to others. This was partly due to a few personal problems in the past but those problems are long gone and I have been making great strides. How I got to learning and using self-care is actually the harder part. What's important in self-care is consistency. It wouldn't matter if you take care of yourself for one day if you just drop the ball the next. So I made it my mission, along with making it the mission of the people around me, to remind me to take care of myself. Now was it annoying? But it was effective so I can't complain too much. It's important to have someone or something remind you to take care of yourself if you can't do it yourself. Though that is essential, what did I exactly do that is self-care? It's the main things you'd probably suspect: Brushing my teeth, showering every day, and getting some amount of sleep. Now there are other ways as well; I take mental breaks from stuff such as work or school if it proves to be too much for me, I make sure not to eat too much that it could threaten the health of my body, and so on. But I'm still trying to improve. There are days that I can't shower due to work or I'm too lazy to brush my teeth. I still have some bad habits that I need to do less, but I can happily say what I'm doing is improving my life positively. I feel and perform better in life.

As a senior who’s taking care of both the stresses of a new job and applying to a college; add in other sources of stress such as friend drama and family business, then we have what people call, “The Adult Life”. Now for context, I have a pretty stable grasp of my mental health, but there are times when cracks appear, where I can get on the verge of breaking, but my solutions in dealing this are efficient in a way. Eating. I love eating, my friends and family call me out on it. So it was easy for me to form somewhat of a eating habit whenever I get too much stress. Now it wasn’t anything serious, I wouldn’t raid my kitchen for any snacks. I would just heat up something with my microwave, normally just hot pockets, and just eat it while reading something. I barely gain weight from this, I checked. But eating isn’t the only way I relax. I like to draw on my sketchbook from time to time. It’s both a calming and a creative experience for me. So I grab a pencil and my sketchbook, then just draw what I want in the moment. Now this can vary from a lot of things; character art, landscapes, everyday items, whatever my mind wants. I would say that’s a more healthier option than my stress eating habit. Now there are other ways I can relax but can’t exactly fit into their own paragraphs. Sleeping, games, talking, I have a variety of ways to help with my mental health. Stress and depression is still a big problem I’m facing today and I doubt it’s gonna go away any time soon, but at least I got hobbies I can lean on.