Hello, my name is Landon Brown, and I believe I deserve this scholarship because I have a message for the world. After a long process of research, study, and writing, I have produced a twelve page paper detailing why building a strong work ethic is an absolute necessity for all people. I am obviously limited by word count, however, here is an excerpt of my paper: The third item to consider is what work does for oneself. A study conducted by Iowa State University on the work habits and mental health of college students found a strong correlation between good work ethics and a healthy mental state.. An excerpt of the study reads, “Naturally, you’d expect a campus where hard work is encouraged to be composed of students who experience a more steady flow of that content feeling and fewer bouts of laziness-produced anxiety.” (King, par. 6). The satisfaction of completing a task significantly contributes to one’s mental wellbeing. Without such progress, people stagnate like water in a puddle, becoming stale and lifeless. According to research done by Ben Sasse, meaningful work is cited as one of the top four contributing factors to a happy life. Moreover, according to political scientist Charles Murray, the type of meaningful work that leads to satisfaction in old age has a combination of three things: being important, requiring immense effort and energy over an extended period of time, and having a level of personal responsibility for the outcome (Sasse 153). The truth is, doing difficult work feels good. Few things in life match the enjoyment of full concentration on a difficult task, a task that requires one to use all of their skills. In a workflow, people feel one-hundred percent involved, and consequently, they feel one-hundred percent alive when they are so committed to the task at hand. One can lose track of time, surroundings, and sometimes their very existence (Gardner 5). The pure joy that one feels after the completion of such a task gives purpose to life. Visible success and accomplishments undoubtedly preserve and improve our mental wellbeing. People tend to agree that good work is difficult, but being accustomed to hard things prepares one for life. When a person is accustomed to being constrained, his or her denominator of expectations is easy to satisfy. Sasse later remarks that “People raised too delicately no longer find sleep elsewhere than on down; people accustomed to sleep on boards find it everywhere.” (Sasse 172). When a man learns to endure discomfort, he saves himself from being a fool in the long run. An old saying goes, “When a boy breaks “the windows of his room, let the wind blow on him night and day… for it is much better for him to have a cold than to be a fool” for the rest of his manhood.” (qtd. in Sasse 172). A life well lived is a life free from utter dependence on niceties. I hope I have inspired you. Thank you for your time.

Hello, my name is Landon Brown, and I believe I deserve this scholarship because I have a message for the world. After a long process of research, study, and writing, I have produced a twelve page paper detailing why building a strong work ethic is an absolute necessity for all people. I am obviously limited by word count, however, here is an excerpt of my: The third item to consider is what work does for oneself. A study conducted by Iowa State University on the work habits and mental health of college students found a strong correlation between good work ethics and a healthy mental state.. An excerpt of the study reads, “Naturally, you’d expect a campus where hard work is encouraged to be composed of students who experience a more steady flow of that content feeling and fewer bouts of laziness-produced anxiety.” (King, par. 6). The satisfaction of completing a task significantly contributes to one’s mental wellbeing. Without such progress, people stagnate like water in a puddle, becoming stale and lifeless. According to research done by Ben Sasse, meaningful work is cited as one of the top four contributing factors to a happy life. Moreover, according to political scientist Charles Murray, the type of meaningful work that leads to satisfaction in old age has a combination of three things: being important, requiring immense effort and energy over an extended period of time, and having a level of personal responsibility for the outcome (Sasse 153). The truth is, doing difficult work feels good. Few things in life match the enjoyment of full concentration on a difficult task, a task that requires one to use all of their skills. In a workflow, people feel one-hundred percent involved, and consequently, they feel one-hundred percent alive when they are so committed to the task at hand. One can lose track of time, surroundings, and sometimes their very existence (Gardner 5). The pure joy that one feels after the completion of such a task gives purpose to life. Visible success and accomplishments undoubtedly preserve and improve our mental wellbeing. People tend to agree that good work is difficult, but being accustomed to hard things prepares one for life. When a person is accustomed to being constrained, his or her denominator of expectations is easy to satisfy. Sasse later remarks that “People raised too delicately no longer find sleep elsewhere than on down; people accustomed to sleep on boards find it everywhere.” (Sasse 172). When a man learns to endure discomfort, he saves himself from being a fool in the long run. An old saying goes, “When a boy breaks “the windows of his room, let the wind blow on him night and day… for it is much better for him to have a cold than to be a fool” for the rest of his manhood.” (qtd. in Sasse 172). A life well lived is a life free from utter dependence on niceties. I hope I have inspired you. Thank you for your time.

I hope to go to college for biology. I believe that it is humanity's responsibility to take care of the world that we live in, whether that's by ordering and organizing nature through research, or by taking care of it firsthand, in the field. I plan to work for the Department of Natural Resources over the summer to take care of parks and preserve the nature that we are so blessed to have. I live in West Michigan which is blessed to have so many beautiful parks and beaches. I feel it is my responsibility to see that it stays that way. Besides this, I've worked a number of farm jobs, be that succulents, produce, or chickens. I have a passion for plants and animals. My father calls me green-thumbed. My favorite time of year is spring. Want to know why? I absolutely love to plant and tend my garden. Hours feel like minutes. Really, I could spend all day doing even the simple tasks of weeding and watering. While all of the planting and tending phase is wonderful, the real joy comes around harvest time when we finally get to pick our tomatoes, peppers, beans, etc. My family has a tradition of canning salsa every year. It's something that brings us together again and again throughout the year, as we all (my grandparents, aunt and uncle, and my family) grow salsa gardens which yield an abundance of produce. Another great experience I have is living on a Christmas tree farm. I'm a second generation Christmas tree farmer (my grandfather planted hundreds of trees) and I have helped him tend to his fields for a number of years. I know the ins and outs of how to grow Christmas trees, including certain types of pests, and even how to make them grow in specific ways. We grow blue spruce and Fraser first specifically, both of which are beautiful trees. Blue spruce are prickly and blue looking, they are your typical traditional Christmas tree, while Fraser firs are soft and have more of a green appearance to them. I hope I can win this scholarship to preserve the beautiful nature which surrounds me, and to obtain a deeper and more technical understanding of it. My dream is to become an ecologist or environmental scientist someday, which would help me to help our environment to thrive and maintain its beauty. Thank you.

I hope to go to college for biology. I believe that it is humanity's responsibility to take care of the world that we live in, whether that's by ordering and organizing nature through research, or by taking care of it firsthand, in the field. I plan to work for the Department of Natural Resources over the summer to take care of parks and preserve the nature that we are so blessed to have. I live in West Michigan which is blessed to have so many beautiful parks and beaches. I feel it is my responsibility to see that it stays that way. It pains me to see litter on the side of the road, and it upsets me when I see other people participating in littering. A great experience I have is living on a Christmas tree farm. I'm a second generation Christmas tree farmer (my grandfather planted hundreds of trees) and I have helped him tend to his fields for a number of years. I know the ins and outs of how to grow Christmas trees, including certain types of pests, and even how to make them grow in specific ways. We grow blue spruce and Fraser first specifically, both of which are beautiful trees. Blue spruce are prickly and blue looking, they are your typical traditional Christmas tree, while Fraser firs are soft and have more of a green appearance to them. I hope I can win this scholarship to preserve the beautiful nature which surrounds me, and to obtain a deeper and more technical understanding of it. My dream is to become an ecologist or an environmental scientist someday, both fields which would help me to help our environment to thrive and maintain its beauty. Thank you.

I hope to go to college for biology. I believe that it is humanity's responsibility to take care of the world that we live in, whether that's by ordering and organizing nature through research, or by taking care of it firsthand, in the field. I plan to work for the Department of Natural Resources over the summer to take care of parks and preserve the nature that we are so blessed to have. I live in West Michigan which is blessed to have so many beautiful parks and beaches. I feel it is my responsibility to see that it stays that way. Besides all of this, I've worked a number of farm jobs, be that succulents, produce, or chickens. I have a passion for plants and animals. My father calls me green-thumbed. My favorite time of year is spring. Want to know why? I absolutely love to plant and tend my garden. Hours feel like minutes. Really, I could spend all day doing even the simple tasks of weeding and watering. While all of the planting and tending phase is wonderful, the real joy comes around harvest time when we finally get to pick our tomatoes, peppers, beans, etc. My family has a tradition of canning salsa every year. It's something that brings us together again and again throughout the year, as we all (my grandparents, aunt and uncle, and my family) grow salsa gardens which yield an abundance of produce. Another great experience I have is living on a Christmas tree farm. I'm a second generation Christmas tree farmer (my grandfather planted hundreds of trees) and I have helped him tend to his fields for a number of years. I know the ins and outs of how to grow Christmas trees, including certain types of pests, and even how to make them grow in specific ways. We grow blue spruce and Fraser first specifically, both of which are beautiful trees. Blue spruce are prickly and blue looking, they are your typical traditional Christmas tree, while Fraser firs are soft and have more of a green appearance to them. I hope I can win this scholarship to preserve the beautiful nature which surrounds me, and to obtain a deeper and more technical understanding of it. My dream is to become an ecologist or an environmental scientist someday, both fields which would help me to help our environment to thrive and maintain its beauty. Thank you.