I see nature as a single living, breathing organism. It has always been fascinating to me how it manages to function so flawlessly with all of its different aspects working in conjunction with one another. Nature is quite beautiful. Unfortunately, the countless cycles which function within nature are all being disrupted by one way or another through climate change and other man-made issues. We are ruining the precious balance in which nature is able to thrive. It's scary, stressful, and at times depressing. I often find myself caught up in a ball of climate anxiety myself. The stress of climate change and the feeling that I am incapable of doing anything to stop it can be crippling. When this happens, I go for a walk in the woods and I try to spot as many signs of thriving nature as I can. If I can find tracks, a red squirrel's midden, a particularly magnificent tree, or anything of the sort, its reassuring to me. I know it doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things, but seeing and appreciating the nature around me is a fantastic way to lessen any climate stress I may have.

There are actually two teachers in my life that have inspired me throughout my educational journey and helped to shape me into the person I am today. They're my parents. My mom taught 6th grade in my elementary school, and my dad taught high school not too far away. Since then, they have both moved onto more administrative positions, with my mom becoming a reading and writing specialist and my dad becoming the head of special education at his school. But regardless of that, I will always see them as teachers because they have always been teachers to me. Giving me direct education at home on top of my schoolwork helped me gain a passion for education, specifically in the department of English, which is what my mom taught. Every night, we would read together, to the point where I couldn't go to sleep unless I had a book in my hands. I read everything I could get my hands on, from fiction to nonfiction, comics to autobiographies. All of this was incredibly influential for my progressing media literacy skills. My parents taught me to love stories and everything that they represent. That's something that has stuck with me since I was young, and it's something that will continue to stick with me for a long time. Of course, when I was younger, I never appreciated all of this in the way that I should have. As children, we far too often take for granted the things that have shaped us into who we are as more mature people, and my parents' influence on my development as a reader was no different. However, now that I've grown, I can look back and realize that my parents have played a large role in my desire to be a teacher as well. I want to provide for other kids what my parents provided for me, even if it's through a classroom environment. I am of the belief that teachers can change the world, and that they do so through helping children discover their passions. For me, my parents helped me discover that my passion is storytelling, but the neat thing is that everybody's passions are different, and teachers can help kids realize all of them. If I can change just one kid's life, then it will all be worth it. That being said, as a teacher, I don't get to change just one kid's life. I get to change the lives of every student who I have the pleasure of teaching. What my parents have provided for me, I will be able to provide for everybody, and I think that's exciting, beautiful, and everything in between.

For most of my life, my motivation has been fueled by my friends and family, two groups of people that haven't always fully been there for me emotionally. While I am extremely grateful to have had a loving family my entire life, nobody, including parents, can be perfect. On the friend front, I was always kind of the laughingstock of my friends throughout my early years, and I was never really supported emotionally the way that friends are supposed to do for you. Regardless, I always relied on these people to motivate me. Coming into my freshman year of high school, my closest friend at the time decided to ditch me, and it hurt like nothing else had ever really hurt before. I was launched into a heavy sadness that I didn't get over for some time. It was at this point in time that I realized that I couldn't be purely motivated by my attachments to other people in the way that I always had been. Over the course of a long time, I learned to be motivated by myself. I discovered my own passions, and I learned to let the things I enjoyed in life motivate me. I'm motivated by the outdoors. I'm motivated by books, movies, and music. By learning to not put my emotional and motivational stock into other people in my life, I've also learned to be self sufficient in my own happiness, and I'm at a healthier emotional place than ever before because of that.

To me, growth is all about understanding when you're wrong. For a long time, I believed that I was always right, and when I wasn't, I'd blame it on outside circumstances. This was a trait of mine that created strenuous circumstances with my friends, family, and just about everybody else in my life. It took me a while to recognize that sometimes, the problem was just me. I tried adapting a growth mindset, and it worked. I decided that rather than denying or brushing off my mistakes, I would accept and embrace them, and learn from them to become a better person. I have applied this mindset to just about every aspect of my life since, and it has been freeing. I have grown and developed exponentially by using a growth mindset. Whenever I make a mistake or slip up on something, I simply make an effort to fix it in the future, and all of the little things have piled up to create the person that I am today. I am firmly of the belief that anybody and everybody should be attempting to have this mindset, and I think that those who don't are destined to remain at a developmental standstill when it comes to their character. There is no greater teacher than experience, but experience can't be a teacher unless you allow it to be.

When I was growing up, especially throughout middle school, I did a lot to convince people I was happy, even when that wasn't the case. It was a burden for me to bear everyday, to walk down the halls with a smile on my face and cheerfully greet every person that I saw. Unfortunately, it was just a façade, an escape from reality that I used to make the people around me like me more. I had this mentality that if I kept on pretending that I was satisfied with my life, then eventually I would be. When high school came, that thinking sort of collapsed in on itself, and I found myself in what has certainly been one of the lower points of my life. However, it was in this low point that I came to the realization that negative emotions are an essential part of life. What is light without its relative darkness? I learned to appreciate sadness, and to work through my emotions in a more mature way. I learned that when I was sad, it was ok for me to be that way, and completely natural as well. Since coming to this realization, I've lived a significantly happier life. It may seem redundant, but I don't really have a method for staying true to myself. I'm true to myself because I listen to my emotions and have learned to not cover them up and hide them away from the world. There's no strategy to it. Being true to myself is not a goal for me so much as it is an integral part of my identity, and I hope it stays that way for the rest of my life.