"You are overeating!" "You are eating too little, are you dieting?" "You should not be eating that at this hour." Throughout my life, I have been told to look a certain way, "Stay in shape or no man will want you." At times, I eat healthily. I'll eat a salad or a relatively balanced breakfast. But then others, I get tired of maintaining my body and just sit on my couch and pig out on whatever junk I can get my hands on. With my family's harsh criticisms of body image and my lack of consistency, I find my weight and mental health fluctuating between healthy and unhealthy. There is also a social media aspect where I criticize every single photo of myself before I post it because I refuse to have my friends and family see an ounce of belly fat. My closest friends are all thinner than me, and I compare what I eat to theirs and think, "I should eat that instead of this." I find myself going for smaller portions when I eat out with friends because I do not want to be judged by others as I eat a plate bigger than theirs. My biggest obstacle when it comes to my eating habits is my mind; I cannot seem to get her to shut up for once. I wish to change this mental and physical inconsistency because it is taking a toll on me. I love myself, but there are days when I struggle to even look at myself in the mirror and insist on eating as little as possible. There are days when I feel great and indulge in my cravings. In the end, I am stuck in a relentless cycle of torture. I want to work out when I want to and have the energy for it, and I want to eat whatever I want without feeling guilty. It is not fair to myself that I push myself to extremes to seemingly look healthy while feeling like hot garbage. I will maintain this change by sticking to a strict but lenient (and I mean lenient) workout and diet routine. I will eat what I wish in moderation and work out when my body feels like it is ready. I will not punish myself for eating or not getting up to run. I have to work on the mental aspect, which I think will take copious self-therapy sessions in which I tell myself that I have to take better care of myself to do things I love, like read or go out for walks. I have to, or who knows how bitter I may become.

One change that would make education better for future generations is prioritizing a student's mental health. Homework, tests, projects, and college applications are taxing on the mental health of a student. By lowering the number of homework students receive and allowing for extensions on due dates, there will be an increase in students' abilities to grow in the classroom and enjoy themselves at school. Students need time to reconnect with not just their family and friends but with themselves. There are moments in life that one does not expect, such as familial deaths, which can be taxing on many individuals. The mental health of a student must come before any essay or test. By allowing extensions, a student can process grief and any other emotions they may be going through. The future generations should not have to worry as much as the present when it comes to turning things in on time and losing precious hours of sleep. If a student needs a day or two to recharge, they should not be penalized for it. Some schools do allow for mental health days. However, the majority do not, and oftentimes, students must take harder exams than the ones their peers took because of their absence. Teenagers especially are under particular stress. They must balance schoolwork, work, extracurricular activities, and any familial obligation. By lifting the burden of having to submit five assignments by the end of the week and understanding that they need rest, the resulting products will be grand. A student may be present in school physically, but if mentally they are not, then they should be allowed days to rest and recharge. A student should not sacrifice sleep and meals to please a teacher for a grade. A student's overall well-being should be the biggest concern among teachers for future generations.

Leah Castillo leahmjcastillo@gmail.com (551)257-8683 After I started tutoring in January of 2021, I realized that the sparkle in a student’s eye when they finally understand a subject and can solve questions on their own makes me feel happy. I never thought I had the patience for it, but after spending time with the students I have tutored, I learned that teaching is my calling. Teaching and helping students reach their full potential makes me feel like I am doing something good with my life. Moreover, as a student myself, I understand how it feels when a teacher makes us believe we are incompetent. My goal as a future teacher is a. the eye sparkle, and b. never have a student doubt their intelligence. I have been blessed with having great teachers that have assisted in the cultivation of my passion for literature and have influenced my future career path immensely. Thus, I hope to utilize my education and my love for literature to bring the stories of Salinger, Shakespeare, and Brontë to life. I want my students to feel at home in the classroom and excited about attending school rather than feeling like a chore. Education, to me, is what makes civilization move forward. The world needs doctors to treat the sick, engineers to build houses, and teachers to instruct doctors and engineers on doing their job. Without an education, I would not be writing this essay. Ignorance is bliss, but knowledge is power. Sometimes we wish we did not know how to read to spare ourselves from worrying about current world crises, but without that knowledge, how else will we learn to end matters diplomatically rather than by force? Every day is a new learning experience, whether, inside a classroom or outside, all of our actions teach us how to move on in life, and without it, we would still be living in caves hunting dinosaurs.

We start small before we bombard students with thoughts of student debt, college applications, and futures that will change like a river changes its course. Students, especially those from low-income families, are pressured to excel in every subject and extracurricular they can join. Unfortunately, though A's and a long list of activities look fabulous on a college application, they slowly burn out when a student transitions from childhood to adolescence. One change that must happen in the education system is allowing students to take care of their mental health before looking at a textbook. There needs to be more focus on student mental health. This reform would begin with pre-kindergarten students, allowing them to admit that they're struggling and continue this openness until their senior year of college. The more we permit students to accept that it is okay to not be good at everything and take much-needed breaks for them to refresh and recuperate, we would see much happier and healthier students entering our schools. My hair falls out when I'm stressed, my eczema flares, and when it gets too much, I faint. As someone whose life relies heavily on a college degree, I do not have the time to sit back and take care of myself on a mental level. I tend to stare at my assignments piling up on top of each other like Jenga blocks because my motivation died three tests and four projects ago. I'm one in billions of students worldwide that are desperately clinging on to a future that might never come if there isn't any help for them. With social media influencers, celebrities, and athletes now speaking up about their mental health, there is hope that it finally comes to the attention of educators. Educators have to begin to prioritize the well-being of a student's mind before blaming them for not completing an assignment because they could not find it in themselves even to start it. Education will not change for future generations if there are no more generations left to teach.

I want to pursue higher education because I want to give back to those who have helped me grow. Even though they are pains in the neck sometimes, my family has always encouraged me to go after what I want. My family is the most important thing for me. If I could buy my grandmother her house in Malaga and help cure my mother of her illnesses, it would mean the world to me. I am an editor for the school newspaper and the yearbook (for both classes of 2021 and 2022). I also volunteer at my local Salvation Army, giving out meals to people in the community whenever I can. At the moment, I am most passionate about teaching. I tutor an incoming freshman during the school year and am currently giving his mother math lessons to prepare for her GED exam. It's exciting seeing them get the answers correctly on practice problems, and I find it satisfying to help them understand subjects that I struggled with at first. Teaching so far has been one of the most stressful yet wonderful experiences I have had to date.