1. I deserve this scholarship because .7 mm pens are the only pens I write with. Muji’s famous pen size is .38 mm, but I find that to be too small. Sharpie has a pen called the “S-Gel” and its .7 mm with bold ink and it’s my favorite pen, the only one I use, actually. Bic’s pretty cool too. .7 mm only, though. 2. When pondering about my future life having a career, I come up blank. The only thing I can ever think about is .7 mm pens. They consume my mind. My future career must have something to do with .7 mm pens. 3. Last week, I had to write an essay for my AP Literature class, but I forgot my Sharpie S-Gel .7 mm pens! Oh no! Luckily, I found a pen in the bottom of my backpack that looked exactly like a syringe with some sort of red substance floating in it. My AP Biology teacher gave it to me last semester before our exam. The pen was .5 mm, though…

Waking up early to pluck ripe zucchinis or to struggle with the weeds that are engulfing my bean plants. The morning dew soaking my shoes as the sun finally peeks over the eastern face of my house. The smell of the well-rested morning air. Feelings I will never forget from last spring. in 2021, I started a garden. Before that, I gardened with my great grandmother in her backyard, but after her passing last year, I had to learn how to do one of my favorite things without one of my favorite people by my side. Gardening without her was challenging, and I constantly felt like abandoning it all together. Even worse than that, I felt as though I were not properly honoring her impact on my life. I would often dwell on the thought that I would never be able to recreate the same feeling of joy I got when I would go to her house on early Saturday mornings knowing that warm tortillas and hours of pruning plants or picking ripe vegetables were waiting for me. Through multiple failures, I managed to sustain a garden of my own last spring that I like to think would make her proud if she were still here. The chili peppers were not as round and plump and my strawberries never bloomed, but I know that she would have loved to see it. Gardening is not just a hobby for me. It is a way I can connect to my grandmother and always feel her presence with me. Even on my worst days when school is overwhelming and I feel inundated by impending due dates, I can look outside at my sunflower plants towering over a small bed of herbs, or my cucumber plants vining around a homemade trellis my mom and I made and feel comforted by the hobby that my grandmother and I used to do together.