I was in the Egg Cup finals in Mute City- it was just Nate and me, eyes locked on the empty wall where we projected the Nintendo Switch screen. I was the underdog. Nate had won the tournament the last two years and was favored to win again. This year was my first time participating, and I'd proven myself a worthy opponent; I worked my way up the ranks, beating all my friends in Mario Kart until the final round. I was doing well then, too- I bet Nate regretted teaching me how to drift my kart earlier in the tournament. We were on the third lap of the final round, and my little Toadette held first place the entire time. My friends were in a commotion about the prospect of me usurping Nate's throne. I maintained first place while Nate clamored to catch up. My leg was shaking, and my eyes were unblinking as I got closer and closer to the finish line. Nate was nowhere to be seen right as I was inches from the checkered line when, suddenly, something crashed into my kart and veered me off course. It was Nate! I had held first place the entire race, and somehow, he caught up at the last second and won the tournament. To this day, that is the angriest I have ever been while playing a video game. Although that may sound like a negative memory, it's quite the opposite. I am so grateful for the time I spend with my friends, even if we're in fierce Mario Kart competition. And no other game but Mario Kart could bring together a group of friends and inspire such impassioned competition. Our generation grew up playing Mario Kart on the Wii and the DS, making it a nostalgic element of our childhood. This shared experience among our generation makes playing Mario Kart a bonding experience for many of us, even when we're yelling and throwing controllers around. Playing Mario Kart with my friends reminds me of time spent with my half-brother growing up. My brother is eight years older than I am, so we didn't have much in common when I was little. Every once in a while, though, he would come into my room and ask if I wanted to play Mario Kart. Those were always the best days. Mario Kart is very special to me because it has always been a way for me to bond with others growing up. Even as a senior in college, I still find myself making some of my favorite memories during Mario Kart tournaments with my friends.

Although I don't relate to every aspect of Andy Bernard's character (re: punching a hole in the wall), the first time I watched The Office, I was surprised by how much I resonated with his wistfulness. Andy spent much of his screentime bragging about his time at Cornell, specifically his singing in the a capella group "Here Comes Treble." He constantly droned on about his Cornell buddies to the annoyance of the other characters and the audience's amusement. To Andy, Cornell was always the "good old days." However, in the series finale, through tear-filled eyes and a shaky voice, Andy delivered my favorite line in the entire series, "I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them." Ever since I first heard this quote, I have thought about it often. I am frequently reminded of it when I'm experiencing gratitude for my current phase of life; I'll think to myself, are these the "good old days"? I'm also reminded of it when reminiscing on periods of my life I've outgrown, such as childhood, adolescence, and the beginning of college. I deeply resonate with Andy's nostalgia; sometimes, I even wistfully reflect on how the present will one day become a memory. Although this quote seems sad, it has also brought me a lot of unexpected consolation. Firstly, it has served as a reminder to remain present and mindful; I don't want to look back at my life and realize that I didn't appreciate the "good old days" before they were over. This mindset has helped me practice gratitude and appreciation for my current phase of life so I can relish the "good old days" while they're happening. Secondly, Andy had "good old days" in college; however, Andy also had "good old days" later in life working at Dunder Mifflin; this made me realize that you don't only get one set of "good old days." Life keeps being good to you- you just have to open your eyes to see it. Themes like this in the show: life is good, people are good, and everything is going to be okay, have given me a lot of reassurance for the future. An office is a mundane setting, but the exciting storylines of the show highlight that the human spirit makes a company, workplace, or environment unique and vibrant. The characters' banal tasks never dulled their personalities or storylines- I think that's an accurate reflection of reality, which often gets distorted by popular culture that slanders traditional jobs. The Office is meaningful because it romanticizes real life and shows us how beautiful it is to be human.

I'll never forget the Resident Assistant's smile as she told me her plan. I was volunteering at the University of Mary Washington's resource closet, the Gwen Hale Resource Center, when a customer entered needing my assistance. As a GHRC volunteer, I took weekly inventory of food and clothes, checked expiration dates, cleaned and organized the center, and helped shoppers when needed. This customer was different than most, though. My supervisors trained us not to approach customers first and instead to let them come to us if necessary; this ideally created a safe space of anonymity for those needing resources. This customer bounded up to me immediately, grinning from ear to ear; her joy was contagious, and I instantly looked forward to helping her. "I have this great idea," she whispered as if she was telling me a secret and we were best friends, "I'm a freshman RA, and I really want to make a difference in my residents' lives. I got this idea from TikTok and want to make a box of snacks and toiletries for my residents. Do you want to help me?" I spent the remainder of my shift helping the Resident Assistant choose the best snacks, toiletries, and other resources for her residents, and I had the best time. Most of my volunteer shifts were quiet, and I didn't always get the chance to help customers. I jumped at this opportunity not only to help the Resident Assistant but to help her residents as well. I had been volunteering with the GHRC for about a year, but the Resident Assistant showed me I still had more to learn from others about servitude. She showed me another way to utilize the center to help others I'd never considered. I've always loved volunteering and have regularly served at my local library, school, and resource closet since high school; however, the Resident Assistant's spirit reignited my passion for service and inspired me to encourage others to volunteer in our community. After this experience, in the fall semester of 2023, I volunteered for the first time as a peer leader for the UMW Honors Orientation. One of the orientation activities the Honors Program offers is a day of service. The UMW Honors Program highly values and emphasizes the importance of servitude in our community, so we wanted to introduce incoming Honors students to volunteering. I facilitated a volunteer session where my group painted picnic tables for a small business in our community. Every time I walk downtown now, I see our tables, and it fills me with so much pride and joy to know I may have instilled a love of service in others through that experience. This experience moved me so much that I volunteered to be a peer leader again for the upcoming fall 2024 semester. I can't wait to inspire an appreciation for service and a love of our community in the UMW Honors class of 2028.

I'll never forget the Resident Assistant's smile as she told me her plan. I was volunteering at the University of Mary Washington's resource closet, the Gwen Hale Resource Center, when a customer entered needing my assistance. As a GHRC volunteer, I took weekly inventory of food and clothes, checked expiration dates, cleaned and organized the center, and helped shoppers when needed. This customer was different than most, though. My supervisors trained us not to approach customers first and instead to let them come to us if necessary; this ideally created a safe space of anonymity for those needing resources. This customer bounded up to me immediately, grinning from ear to ear; her joy was contagious, and I instantly looked forward to helping her. "I have this great idea," she whispered as if she was telling me a secret and we were best friends, "I'm a freshman RA, and I really want to make a difference in my residents' lives. I got this idea from TikTok and want to make a box of snacks and toiletries for my residents. Do you want to help me?" I spent the remainder of my shift helping the Resident Assistant choose the best snacks, toiletries, and other resources for her residents, and I had the best time. Most of my volunteer shifts were quiet, and I didn't always get the chance to help customers. I jumped at this opportunity not only to help the Resident Assistant but to help her residents as well. I had been volunteering with the GHRC for about a year, but the Resident Assistant showed me I still had more to learn from others about servitude. She showed me another way to utilize the center to help others I'd never considered. I've always loved volunteering and have regularly served at my local library, school, and resource closet since high school; however, the Resident Assistant's spirit reignited my passion for service and inspired me to encourage others to volunteer in our community. After this experience, in the fall semester of 2023, I volunteered for the first time as a peer leader for the UMW Honors Orientation. One of the orientation activities the Honors Program offers is a day of service. The UMW Honors Program highly values and emphasizes the importance of servitude in our community, so we wanted to introduce incoming Honors students to volunteering. I facilitated a volunteer session where my group painted picnic tables for a small business in our community. Every time I walk downtown now, I see our tables, and it fills me with so much pride and joy to know I may have instilled a love of service in others through that experience. This experience moved me so much that I volunteered to be a peer leader again for the upcoming fall 2024 semester. I can't wait to inspire an appreciation for service and a love of our community in the UMW Honors class of 2028.

Helen Gurley Brown had a formidable hand in the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Brown was one of the most progressive feminists in the 20th century, and she held a powerful position as the longest-running editor-in-chief to date of Cosmopolitan magazine. She used her position to normalize women's sexuality, spread awareness of sexual health, and advocate for the sexual freedom of single women. During a time when society viewed women as accessories to men, Brown advocated for women's autonomy. One of her first issues in 1965 was on the female contraceptive pill, which was a new and controversial form of female healthcare at the time. Brown reinvented Cosmopolitan into a magazine for the modern woman, and her legacy has persisted through contemporary times. I took my first magazine journalism class in the fall semester of 2023. In this class, I learned about and researched Helen Gurley Brown, and since then, I have been incredibly moved and inspired by her impact on the journalistic world. I got chills the first time I read about her legacy, imagining the courage it took to publish such controversial and innovative material in a male-dominated field. I still get chills writing about it now. She risked everything, including her job, reputation, and life. People violently protested her work when she published the first issues of Cosmopolitan, burning physical copies in trashcans in public spaces. I am so inspired that she kept doing what she knew was right despite the fear she must have felt during that time. Not only does Brown's perseverance inspire me, but so does her advocacy. Brown was a true feminist for her time, encouraging women to have careers rather than remain stay-at-home wives and mothers. She argued that women had the right to have sex just as much as men did, de-stigmatizing women's sexuality and spreading awareness of women's contraceptives at the same time. Most importantly, I am deeply moved by how Brown positively impacted women's lives for multiple generations. I can only hope to have such a positive impact on the world. This journalism class redirected my life in ways I couldn't have imagined. Before, I had only a faint idea of what I wanted to do with my life. I've always loved reading and had a passion for writing, so I knew entering college that I would major in English, but I was unsure how that would translate into a career. After taking magazine journalism and learning about Helen Gurley Brown's impact, I knew I wanted to be a journalist and, hopefully, one day, become an editor just like her. As a bisexual woman, my goal is to give a voice to women and the LGBT community and uplift them just as Brown did in the 1960s in a way that was so powerful it created a revolution.

Tensions are highest when you're on the water. The shell presses against your hips, your knees are up to your chin, and your eyes are darting between the rowers, the water, the monitors, and about a hundred other obstacles. The volunteer referees shout incorrect information that you condition your rowers not to listen to, and instead, they look to you for direction. You're the coxswain. It's your job to get your rowers from point A to point B in one piece, steer the boat, give them commands, encourage them during races, and read their stats from the monitors. My time as a competitive coxswain was one of the most stressful periods of my life, but nothing has been more rewarding than the trust my rowers put in me to lead them. The looks on their faces when waiting for a command, like they would do anything I told them because they trusted in me fully, was a responsibility I never took lightly. I look back on the rapport I formed with my boatmates during that time, and today, I strive to achieve that same level of camaraderie in any group situation. I joined my high school's crew team when I was thirteen after my coach recruited me for being "loud." While it's important to be loud to project to the back of the boat, it's essential to understand different leadership styles to be an effective coxswain. That was where my strength lay. I cultivated my leadership skills throughout five years on the team, and I found that different genders typically preferred different leadership styles. While a coaching style was necessary in general since my tasks were largely coaching-based, they varied a bit based on which boats I was in. When I first joined the team, I started out coxing boys, and they communicated their preference for a fiercer, more assertive leader. Because of this, I implemented a style of authoritative or bureaucratic leadership that effectively motivated them. Toward the end of my coxing career, I was in an all-girls boat, which was foreign to me and out of my comfort zone. I began coxing them using the same mix of authoritative and coaching leadership styles I had used with the boys, but I quickly found the girls didn't resonate with that. This disconnect moved us to articulate our communication preferences, and I learned that, unlike the boys, the girls preferred more of a visionary or transformational leadership style. Although this was a learning curve, I was committed to my teammates and put all my effort into being the best leader I could for each rower. Being a leader on my team as a young girl was empowering, and it allowed me to discover my natural strength for leading people to success. Since graduating high school and leaving my crew team, I have continued leading groups in college. I have volunteered as a peer leader for the University of Mary Washington's Honors Program for the past two years. In this program, I lead a group of incoming honors students during orientation activities, giving them tours of campus and our surrounding city. I also facilitate their group project over an 8-week-long course, focusing on analyzing our city. I have enjoyed leading these students so much, primarily because I have had the opportunity to help them acclimate to their college lives, which can be scary. Having people trust me to lead and guide them has been a privilege I have cherished since high school, and I will continue to jump at any opportunity I receive to lead others to success in the future.

Helen Gurley Brown had a formidable hand in the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Brown was one of the most progressive feminists in the 20th century, and she held a powerful position as the longest-running editor-in-chief to date of Cosmopolitan magazine. She used her position to normalize women's sexuality, spread awareness of sexual health, and advocate for the sexual freedom of single women. During a time when society viewed women as accessories to men, Brown advocated for women's autonomy. One of her first issues in 1965 was on the female contraceptive pill, which was a new and controversial form of female healthcare at the time. Brown reinvented Cosmopolitan into a magazine for the modern woman, and her legacy has persisted through contemporary times. I took my first magazine journalism class in the fall semester of 2023. In this class, I learned about and researched Helen Gurley Brown, and since then, I have been incredibly moved and inspired by her impact on the journalistic world. I got chills the first time I read about her legacy, imagining the courage it took to publish such controversial and innovative material in a male-dominated field. I still get chills writing about it now. She risked everything, including her job, reputation, and life. People violently protested her work when she published the first issues of Cosmopolitan, burning physical copies in trashcans in public spaces. I am so inspired that she kept doing what she knew was right despite the fear she must have felt during that time. Not only does Brown's perseverance inspire me, but so does her advocacy. Brown was a true feminist for her time, encouraging women to have careers rather than remain stay-at-home wives and mothers. She argued that women had the right to have sex just as much as men did, de-stigmatizing women's sexuality and spreading awareness of women's contraceptives at the same time. Most importantly, I am deeply moved by how Brown positively impacted women's lives for multiple generations. I can only hope to have such a positive impact on the world. This journalism class redirected my life in ways I couldn't have imagined. Before, I had only a faint idea of what I wanted to do with my life. I've always loved reading and had a passion for writing, so I knew entering college that I would major in English, but I was unsure how that would translate into a career. After taking magazine journalism and learning about Helen Gurley Brown's impact, I knew I wanted to be a journalist and, hopefully, one day, become an editor just like her. As a bisexual woman, my goal is to give a voice to women and the LGBT community and uplift them just as Brown did in the 1960s in a way that was so powerful it created a revolution.

"'We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?'" Fahrenheit 451 was the last novel I read during my junior year before schools closed due to the pandemic, and I am reminded of its message every day. Intellectual curiosity makes one more onerous to control, and a lack of intellectual curiosity makes one more susceptible to ignorance. As a society, we have become too trusting of the dogmatic opinions uttered by corrupt politicians. We need to be curious enough to investigate and learn for ourselves, rather than being too willing to accept the notions of those in power. This negligence makes people easier to fool or mislead, which reminds me of the society in Fahrenheit 451. The citizens in that story did not stop reading because they were forced to; they stopped reading out of their own free will. They had no desire to learn for themselves and were perfectly content with believing everything they heard from leaders with ulterior motives. Just as I am bothered by the willful ignorance in this science fiction book, I am unsettled by the prevalence of similar mentalities in American society today. I have realized that few people have a desire to learn or a natural intellectual curiosity. Like the characters in the book, the complacently uneducated among us are also distracted by images and superficiality (social media addiction, designer advertising, etc.). Knowledge is crucial, and intellectual curiosity drives us to learn and retain our individuality and independence, both of which are key elements of a free society. We have a responsibility to educate ourselves on social issues, regardless of whether they affect us. In addition to ignorance, much of our complacency roots in apathy: if a social issue does not negatively affect us, we do not properly consider its significance. This inconsideration reflects our self-preservative tendencies and enables the continuity of social injustice. If I could have everyone in the world read just one book, it would be Fahrenheit 451. This book truly succeeded in unsettling me, and bothering me about "'something important, about something real.'" Whilst corrupt politicians ban books and fail to separate the Church from the State within educational curriculums, we must look to the themes in Fahrenheit 451 and reclaim our independence through knowledge and advocacy.