I have had a long love of math my whole life. When I was a little kid, I had health issues that kept me out of preschool. When I got to kindergarten, I was really struggling to read because I didn't know how to pronounce the words on the page. I was in speech therapy already before kindergarten, but then I started seeing the school’s speech therapist, which helped me so much. But while I was struggling to read words, I could do math. To me, math is a universal language of numbers, and while I couldn’t read yet at this point, I was able to do math and understand it. That is exactly part of the reason I love math so much; I was able to do it before I could read and enjoy it. My love of math even helped me pick my college major. In my freshman year, I did not take any math classes. Then, in my first semester of my sophomore year, I took calculus to fulfill one of my math credits. I took AP Calc in high school, so I figured, why not do calculus for fun. All my friends were like, “You cannot take calculus for fun we need to get you a major.” I really enjoyed having a math class again. Then I went home for Thanksgiving break and practiced with my old travel swim team. During this practice, I was having a conversation with my former teammate Ellie, who was like me swimming in college and practicing with the team over break, and my other teammate Maddy who was a senior in high school. Ellie and I were both talking about how much we were enjoying calculus, and Maddy was like, “Man, you guys really love math.” It was in that conversation that I realized I wanted my future career to be math-based. That is how I picked business analytics as my degree, which is based in stats. I love math because do math before I could read, and my love for math led me to picking my major of business analytics.

Mental health is something that has affected me from a young age. I have dealt with severe anxiety my whole life. When I was five years old, I hid under the table at the doctor's office to try not to get the flu shot because I was terrified of needles. More recently, back in February of 2026, I had my last collegiate swim race. Before the race, I was holding back tears, blasting “Now or Never” from High School Musical 3, trying to get out of my own head because I was so anxious. It was my last chance to achieve my goals and the end of my college swimming career. My experiences with mental health have made it important in my life and have led to me advocating for mental health to my friends and family. I have struggled with my mental health from a young age. I have struggled with severe anxiety and OCD for my whole life. Then I moved into college, and my first semester freshmen year I really struggled with depression. I was homesick, missed my family, pets, and my old teammates. I also was not swimming as well as I wanted to either, and struggling at some practices, which just added to my depression. During this time, I was able to get my cat approved to be my ESA, which helped a lot because even when I felt alone, I always had him. During this time, I was struggling to make friends and adjust to college, and he helped me not feel alone because he is always there for me. I also had my therapist, who helped because I could talk my struggles out and navigate the big changes in college and in life in general. My experiences with my mental health have led me to advocate for mental health to my friends and family. I am a huge advocate for therapy, especially for dealing with big life changes, because it helps navigate those feelings and emotions. This past year, I was a senior on the swim team and helped make the big freshman class feel welcomed and supported. I had a couple of teammates ask me about homesickness, and I told them it's perfectly normal and that I struggled with it too. I also like to remind everyone in my life that their feelings are valid and there is no shame in getting mental health help. So in conclusion, I have been struggling with severe anxiety and OCD my whole life. Then I got to college and struggled with depression. But with therapy and my cat as my ESA, I was able to start thriving in college. Then in my personal life, I remind people their feelings are valid, and there is no shame in getting help. I also remind them they are not alone in their feelings, and I have struggled with those feelings and that I am always here with them.

Mental health is something that has affected me from a young age. I have dealt with severe anxiety my whole life. When I was five years old, I hid under the bed at the doctor's office to try not to get the flu shot because I was terrified of needles. More recently, back in February of 2026, I had my last collegiate swim race. Before the race, I was holding back tears, blasting “Now or Never” from High School Musical 3, trying to get out of my own head because I was so anxious. It was my last chance to achieve my goals and the end of my college swimming career. My experiences with mental health have greatly impacted how I set goals and my relationships. My mental health has changed how I set goals and how I go about dealing with them. In addition to my severe anxiety, I struggle with depression and OCD. When I was younger, I would be really anxious about setting goals because I believed if I failed, it meant I was a failure. I have now learned that goals are supposed to be difficult, and it's okay if you don't achieve them. I used to think I would need to get all the goals done perfectly, or I would be a failure. Nowadays, when I set goals, I remind myself that if I don’t achieve them or am not perfect, it is okay. Goals are goals; they are meant to be difficult and motivate you, and I am human; it is physically impossible to be perfect. My depression has forced me to realize the importance of setting goals. When I am at my lowest from depression, I have learned to set some basic goals to motivate myself through the day, like going to class, doing my assignment, and cleaning my dorm. Even though these are basic goals, they motivate me at my lowest. My mental health has affected my relationships. It forced me to learn that not everyone will be there when you are at your worst. When I was in eighth grade, I had my best friend since elementary school stop being friends with me in part because my anxiety became too much for her to handle. I struggled with the loss of this friendship. I learned a valuable lesson: to surround myself with those who will lift me up at my lowest, not those who will leave me. It has also impacted my trust in relationships. I have had people I thought were my friends bully me for being myself and spread rumors about who I liked and my sexuality. These rumors hurt me and made my anxiety worse. I developed anxiety about what people were saying about me behind my back. I began to struggle to trust and open up to others. As I have gotten older, I have tried to open up to others more, and the real friends will accept me with all my weirdness and flaws with no judgment. So, in conclusion, my struggles with mental health have impacted me. My mental health has affected me from a young age and still continues to affect me today. It forced me to learn to be flexible with my goals; it is okay to not achieve all goals, they are supposed to be ambitious and difficult, and even simpler goals are important to motivate you when you are at your lowest. My mental health has also shaped my relationships by teaching me to surround myself with people who support me at my lowest and to be open to others.

Picking a major is difficult. It takes a lot of time and thought to figure out what you want to do for most of your life. Going into a STEM-based major means you are usually going to male-dominated fields as a woman; it can be discouraging at times due to the sexism that can occur. I picked business analytics as my STEM major in which I use statistics in Excel to calculate various things for businesses, including profit margins. I went into college undecided. I had no idea what I wanted to do. And by the end of the first semester of sophomore year, I had to pick a major. I originally was going to be in business administration but my college didn't offer it anymore despite having it on the website. And how I picked business administration was not in the best way because no major I went through sounded right to me and picked a random one. But I had to go back to the drawing board as it was no longer available. In my freshman year of college, I couldn't take a math class because I got waitlisted for the one I was going to take the second semester, and did not get in. However, I took calculus first semester sophomore year, and it reminded me of my love of math. I adore math. It's always been something I understand and has come easy to me. I had reading issues as a kid due to speech issues and learned to do math before I could read. It was a conversation with two of my swim teammates about calculus that helped me decide to go into a mathematics-related major because of my love for math. When going back in and looking at majors again I picked business analytics because it would allow me to do math and business. It allowed me to continue my passion for math and my enjoyment of business. I have been running my own Etsy shop since 2018 called CuteTinyDiscoveries, and have been interested in learning and curious about business since I was 13 through Youtube videos I watched. I hope to make a difference in the business analytics field as a woman, by helping it become a less male-dominated field. Currently business analytics is a male-dominated field, so I hope to help aid in it becoming a more equal field. I also hope to impact the companies I work for and with my calculations, I want to help a company become more successful because then I can see the impact of my numbers and see that I aided in the company's success and made a difference. So in conclusion, my journey into the STEM field was not the most traditional, I struggled a lot to pick my major because nothing sounded appealing to me and then the major I originally picked was no longer available. But then after having a conversation about math with two of my swim teammates along with taking my first math class since high school I remembered my love of math and chose business analytics as it combined math with business which I enjoy because I have been running an Etsy shop since I was 14. My field is male-dominated so by being a woman in it I hope to help break the barrier to make it more of an equal field and see my calculations impact a future company I work at and contribute to the company becoming more successful.

Mental health is something that has affected me from a young age. I have dealt with severe anxiety my whole life. When I was five years old, I hid under the bed at the doctor's office to try not to get the flu shot because I was terrified of needles. More recently, back in February of 2026, I had my last collegiate swim race. Before the race, I was holding back tears, blasting “Now or Never” from High School Musical 3, trying to get out of my own head because I was so anxious. It was my last chance to achieve my goals and the end of my college swimming career. My experiences with mental health have greatly impacted how I set goals and my relationships. My mental health has changed how I set goals and how I go about dealing with them. In addition to my severe anxiety, I struggle with depression and OCD. When I was younger, I would be really anxious about setting goals because I believed if I failed, it meant I was a failure. I have now learned that goals are supposed to be difficult, and it's okay if you don't achieve them. I used to think I would need to get all the goals done perfectly, or I would be a failure. Nowadays, when I set goals, I remind myself that if I don’t achieve them or am not perfect, it is okay. Goals are goals; they are meant to be difficult and motivate you, and I am human; it is physically impossible to be perfect. My depression has forced me to realize the importance of setting goals. When I am at my lowest from depression, I have learned to set some basic goals to motivate myself through the day, like going to class, doing my assignment, and cleaning my dorm. Even though these are basic goals, they motivate me at my lowest. My mental health has affected my relationships. It forced me to learn that not everyone will be there when you are at your worst. When I was in eighth grade, I had my best friend since elementary school stop being friends with me in part because my anxiety became too much for her to handle. I struggled with the loss of this friendship. I learned a valuable lesson: to surround myself with those who will lift me up at my lowest, not those who will leave me. It has also impacted my trust in relationships. I have had people I thought were my friends bully me for being myself and spread rumors about who I liked and my sexuality. These rumors hurt me and made my anxiety worse. I developed anxiety about what people were saying about me behind my back. I began to struggle to trust and open up to others. As I have gotten older, I have tried to open up to others more, and the real friends will accept me with all my weirdness and flaws with no judgment. So, in conclusion, my struggles with mental health have impacted me. My mental health has affected me from a young age and still continues to affect me today. It forced me to learn to be flexible with my goals; it is okay to not achieve all goals, they are supposed to be ambitious and difficult, and even simpler goals are important to motivate you when you are at your lowest. My mental health has also shaped my relationships by teaching me to surround myself with people who support me at my lowest and to be open to others.

Mental health is something that has affected my life for my whole life. I have dealt with severe anxiety my whole life. I remember when I was five years old, I hid under the bed at the doctor's office to try not to get the flu shot because I was so anxious about needles. More recently, back in February of this year, I had my last collegiate race for swim. Before the race, I was holding back tears, blasting “Now or Never” from High School Musical 3, trying to get out of my own head because I was so anxious. It was my last chance to achieve my goals and the end of my college swimming career. My experiences with mental health have shaped my goals, my relationships, and even how I understand the world. My mental health has changed how I set goals and how I go about dealing with them. I deal with not only anxiety, but depression and OCD. When I was younger, I would be really anxious about setting goals because if I failed, it meant I was a failure. I have now learned that goals are supposed to be difficult, and if you do not achieve them, it is okay. Sometimes you just need more time to achieve them. So now, when I set goals, rather than setting a hard timeline, I will set a goal with no timeline to remove the pressure to get it done by a certain time. When setting goals when I was younger, I would need to get all the goals done and have them done perfectly, or I would be a failure. So, when I set goals now, I remind myself that if I don’t achieve them or am not perfect, it is okay. Goals are goals; they are meant to be difficult and motivate you, and I am human; it is physically impossible to be perfect. My depression has forced me to realize the importance of setting goals. When I am at my lowest from depression, I have learned to set some basic goals to motivate myself through the day, like going to class, doing my assignment, and cleaning my dorm. Even though these are basic goals, they serve to motivate me at my lowest, get me out of my bed, and not bed rot all day. My mental health has affected my relationships. It forced me to learn that not every friend will be there when you are at your worst. When I was in eighth grade, I had my best friend since elementary school stop being friends with me in part because my anxiety became too much for her to handle. I struggled with the loss of this friendship. I learned a valuable lesson to surround myself with those who will lift me up at my lowest, not those who will judge me and drop me. My mental health has also affected my trust in relationships. I have had people I thought were my friends bully me for being myself and spread rumors about who I liked and my sexuality. As a result, I struggle to both trust and open up to others. As I have gotten older, I have forced myself to open up to others and not a steal lock box. I have also learned to stop caring what others think, and the real ones will accept me for all my weirdness and flaws. My mental health has affected how I see the world as well, by helping me develop empathy for others. As a freshmen and college, I developed depression and struggled with severe homesickness. This resulted in me developing empathy for international and out-of-state students who leave their homes and come to college because they can not easily go visit home when they miss home. Suffering from my OCD and anxiety has affected me as an athlete; I am hard on myself when I am not where I want to be, and I have learned to give myself grace. So when I saw Simone Biles drop out of the Olympics in 2021 for her mental health, I had a lot of empathy for her. Not just this, but all athletes deal with mental health, and if your sport is destroying your mental health, it is time to leave. I have a lot of empathy now for those who quit their sport even when really good at it because it may be destroying their mental health. So, in conclusion, my struggles with mental health have affected me as a person. Mental health has affected me from a young age and still continues to affect me today. It forced me to learn to be flexible with my goals; it is okay to not achieve all goals, they are supposed to be ambitious and difficult, and even simpler goals are important to motivate you when you are at your lowest. My mental health has also shaped my relationships by teaching me to surround myself with people who support me at my lowest and do not abandon me. It has also made me fearful of opening up to others, and I have to learn how to open up to others. I have also developed empathy for others, shaping how I view the world by being understanding of others and what they are going through.

Sustainability and reducing our environmental impact are important to preserve the world for future generations. Going into the business world wanting to be a business analyst, it is more critical than ever. With the rise of fast fashion, AI data centers, and cuts to programs like the Environmental Protection Agency, it is a very critical time to try to reduce my environmental impact. My strategy to reduce my environmental impact includes not using AI, recycling, and shopping at businesses that have sustainable practices. The rise of AI in the world has been detrimental to the environment. AI data centers consume millions of gallons of water per day. Additionally, areas with data centers struggle with their water because the data center is consuming all the water. These areas also suffer from noise pollution as a result of these data centers. AI has been rising in popularity, particularly in the business world. Business analytics is based on statistical analysis. AI is being used by some in the business world to aid in these statistical analyses. Sustainability of the world and environmental impact are something I find important, and with the high environmental impact of AI, I will not use it in my career or personal life. If I need to ask questions, I can look it up on a search engine, then read sources to find the answer, or ask another person who has more knowledge in the subject. If I need an art piece, as an art and design minor, I would create it myself rather than generate an image with AI. My next way of supporting sustainability while reducing my environmental impact is recycling. Recycling reduces my environmental impact by reducing my greenhouse emissions. Additionally, recycling helps prevent pollution in animal habitats, like the ocean. Reducing ocean pollution, especially, is something very important to me because I love the water and believe in taking care of it. My love for the water in any form, pool, lake, ocean, etc., is something I have had since I was little and has grown more as I became a competitive swimmer. Finding reliable resources that contain what can and can’t be recycled is key, so I can effectively recycle and reduce my carbon footprint both at work and in my personal life. Another way I can reduce my environmental impact is by purchasing from companies that promote environmental sustainability. It could be a clothing company that has a clothing recycle program, companies using recycled or biodegradable material or packaging, or companies that do not use or support AI. There are a variety of ways businesses can reduce their environmental impact. Supporting these businesses allows me to lower my own environmental impact by purchasing from companies that put an effort into lowering their own environmental impact. In conclusion, with today's rise of fast fashion, data centers, and cuts to environmental organizations like the Environmental Protection Agency, being mindful of my own environmental impact is critical. To reduce my environmental impact as I go into the business world as a business analyst, I will not use AI, recycle, and shop from brands that promote sustainability and reduce their own environmental impact.

John Holmes once said, “There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.” This is a quote that really resonates with me because I try to help others in ways that I can. I strive to make a positive impact in the world by donating to local women’s shelters and local rescues. One thing I do is donate to women’s shelters. Even though I am young, I have had close friends who are domestic violence survivors. Watching them escape and survive these relationships has made me want to try to help other women who may be going through similar things. This is why I have started to donate to a local women’s shelter to help other women who may be in similar positions as my friends. The way I do this is by using coupons for different products, mostly hygiene and beauty products, and after a few months, I donate to the shelter. Next, I help local animal rescues. All my pets have been rescues. My childhood dog Thomy was rescued from a kill shelter, my cat Oreo was born feral and rescued, my dog Loki was rescued from the streets of Georgia, where he had been thrown out of a moving vehicle and hit his head, causing him to go blind at one year old. So, giving back to rescues is very important to me. I have donated many times to the local humane society where I live while in college, and I even fundraised for them in high school with my best friend, and we were able to raise $400 for them. While in college I have also worked with the local rescue at my college called Dallis to the Rescue. Every semester, my college does a science blowout event with the local elementary school to educate them on the sciences. I worked with the president of the pre-vet club at my college, and we brought in Dallis to the Rescue to educate the children on animal care and pet ownership. While I am young, I strive to make a positive impact on the world. I have already taken meaningful steps to make a positive impact by donating to a local women’s shelter and a local humane society. Additionally, I have worked with a local rescue at my college to educate children on animal care. I hope to continue to donate to these and even volunteer with these organizations in the future to help make a positive impact.

I grew up being known as a pretty awkward and weird kid. This was for so many reasons, including that I am a girl who sometimes wore boys' clothes and shoes, that I had a fear of driving, that I never got crushes or a desire to date, and that when everyone else outgrew their toys and got rid of them, I didn’t. But there is something bigger I grew up with and would get teased for and judged for constantly: My thumbs. To begin, my thumbs are very different from those of most people. I was born with a genetic condition called Brachydactyly type D, which is known as toe thumbs or clubbed thumbs. My thumb is shorter and wider than it is supposed to be and looks more like a toe. It's a condition that affects about 2% of the population. I am the only one in my family with this condition, and only one out of my friends. I was reminded of this constantly. I would have people ask, “What's wrong with your thumbs?”, tell me, “You're an alien,” and “Why is your thumb shaped like a toe?” Sometimes people would just grab my thumb and move it around, fascinated by how different it looks. This made me aware from a very young age how different I am. I was further reminded of how different I was in 2nd grade when everyone started getting fake nails from the store. My friends were all getting fake nails at the store and wearing them. I even got a Monster High pair as a gift from my best friend in 2nd grade. But I never got to wear them because the thumb for fake nails are built for a normal, taller, and skinnier thumb, not my shorter and wider thumb. Then, a couple of years later, in 5th grade, came a conversation that highlighted how unique my thumbs were. We were discussing dominant vs recessive traits, and one of them was the curve of your thumb, with normal thumbs being dominant and hitchhiker's thumb being recessive. Hitchhiker's thumb is where your thumb curves further back than normal. When doing this, everyone in the class had either a normal or a hitchhiker thumb. Then there was me and I had neither. As a result of my condition, my thumb actually stands straight up and has no curve. I did not fit in either category, and everyone knew it. I was the odd one out and felt isolated. My thumbs were a constant reminder of how different I was from others growing up. As I have gotten older, I have learned to embrace my weirdness and stop being ashamed of it. This included my toe thumbs. I stopped being embarrassed by them and started to embrace them. I understand that there are some things I simply can’t do, like wear fake nails from the grocery store, or I sometimes have to modify things like what grip I use when working out to be most effective and comfortable for that exercise. I have learned they are part of what makes me unique, and how it is important to embrace them because they are a crucial part of who I am.

Mental health is something that has affected my life for my whole life. I have dealt with severe anxiety my whole life. I remember when I was five years old, I hid under the bed at the doctor's office to try not to get the flu shot because I was so anxious about needles. More recently, back in February of this year, I had my last collegiate race for swim. Before the race, I was holding back tears, blasting “Now or Never” from High School Musical 3, trying to get out of my own head because I was so anxious. It was my last chance to achieve my goals and the end of my college swimming career. My experiences with mental health have shaped my goals, my relationships, and even how I understand the world. My mental health has changed how I set goals and how I go about dealing with them. I deal with not only anxiety, but depression and OCD. When I was younger, I would be really anxious about setting goals because if I failed, it meant I was a failure. I have now learned that goals are supposed to be difficult, and if you do not achieve them, it is okay. Sometimes you just need more time to achieve them. So now, when I set goals, rather than setting a hard timeline, I will set a goal with no timeline to remove the pressure to get it done by a certain time. When setting goals when I was younger, I would need to get all the goals done and have them done perfectly, or I would be a failure. So, when I set goals now, I remind myself that if I don’t achieve them or am not perfect, it is okay. Goals are goals; they are meant to be difficult and motivate you, and I am human; it is physically impossible to be perfect. My depression has forced me to realize the importance of setting goals. When I am at my lowest from depression, I have learned to set some basic goals to motivate myself through the day, like going to class, doing my assignment, and cleaning my dorm. Even though these are basic goals, they serve to motivate me at my lowest, get me out of my bed, and not bed rot all day. My mental health has affected my relationships. It forced me to learn that not every friend will be there when you are at your worst. When I was in eighth grade, I had my best friend since elementary school stop being friends with me in part because my anxiety became too much for her to handle. I struggled with the loss of this friendship. I learned a valuable lesson to surround myself with those who will lift me up at my lowest, not those who will judge me and drop me. My mental health has also affected my trust in relationships. I have had people I thought were my friends bully me for being myself and spread rumors about who I liked and my sexuality. As a result, I struggle to both trust and open up to others. As I have gotten older, I have forced myself to open up to others and not a steal lock box. I have also learned to stop caring what others think, and the real ones will accept me for all my weirdness and flaws. My mental health has affected how I see the world as well, by helping me develop empathy for others. As a freshmen and college, I developed depression and struggled with severe homesickness. This resulted in me developing empathy for international and out-of-state students who leave their homes and come to college because they can not easily go visit home when they miss home. Suffering from my OCD and anxiety has affected me as an athlete; I am hard on myself when I am not where I want to be, and I have learned to give myself grace. So when I saw Simone Biles drop out of the Olympics in 2021 for her mental health, I had a lot of empathy for her. Not just this, but all athletes deal with mental health, and if your sport is destroying your mental health, it is time to leave. I have a lot of empathy now for those who quit their sport even when really good at it because it may be destroying their mental health. So, in conclusion, my struggles with mental health have affected me as a person. Mental health has affected me from a young age and still continues to affect me today. It forced me to learn to be flexible with my goals; it is okay to not achieve all goals, they are supposed to be ambitious and difficult, and even simpler goals are important to motivate you when you are at your lowest. My mental health has also shaped my relationships by teaching me to surround myself with people who support me at my lowest and do not abandon me. It has also made me fearful of opening up to others, and I have to learn how to open up to others. I have also developed empathy for others, shaping how I view the world by being understanding of others and what they are going through.

My name is Lilianna, and I graduated from Davison High School with a 4.092 GPA, and top 20 in my high school class of over 300. I have had the joy and pleasure of being able to continue my sport at Alma College. I swim for Alma, and I specialize in breaststroke. Balancing college swimming with college classes is a lot of hard work, but I have been able to maintain a 3.953 GPA at Alma and am a member of the English Honor Society, Sigma Tau Delta. I have been able to make the Dean's list every semester while being a 2-time CSC academic all-district for swim. My athletic and academic success at college is something I am very proud of. Additionally, I have been running an etsy shop since I was 14 called CuteTinyDisocoveries, achieving over 150 sales, being able to share my passion for sewing and art with others through my creations has been more than I ever dreamed of. I have also built an successfully eBay business, getting multiple sales a month named bub3lil5, which I started in high school. I work extremely hard both in and out of the pool to get to where I am today. Moving on from the introduction of myself, to my future goals. I have short term goals, like dropping time in my 200 breast to make the all-time top 10 performers at Alma. I also want to graduate with honors from Alma, and maintain a 3.9 GPA as I approach graduating with my bachelor's in business analytics. I also want to find an internship in the next year, to build experience in my field and make connections to turn into a job when I graduate. Now moving onto my more long-term goals in my life, the biggest its get a job and build a career and have a career as a business analyst. My next long-term goal, is to continue my Etsy shop and within the next 10 years, build it to have 500 sales total. Another goal of mine is to continue to help animal rescues every year, I have helped fundraise for local rescues in high school, and in college have partnered with another rescue local to Alma to educate elementary students on animal care. All of my family’s pets have been rescues so I feel passionate about helping them. In conclusion, I am a student-athlete who has had both academic and athletic success at the collegiate level. I am also an entrepreneur who has built two online businesses as a teenager, that I have continued to build today. I have a variety of goals, like finishing my degree with honors and a high GPA, working as a business analyst, continuing my businesses, and helping animal rescues. I know I am not a high school student, and am a college student, I hope you still consider me for this prestigious scholarship and thank you for your time reading my essay.

I would like to start by introducing myself, my name is Lilianna, and I graduated high school with a 4.092 GPA, and top 20 in my high school class of 376. I have had the joy and pleasure of being able to continue my sport in college at Alma. I swim for Alma, which is a Division 3 school, so there are no athletic scholarships allowed to be offered. Balancing college swimming with college classes is a lot of hard work, but I have been able to maintain a 3.953 GPA at Alma and am a member of the English Honor Society, Sigma Tau Delta. I have been able to make the Dean's list every semester while being a 2 time CSC academic all-district for swimming. My athletic and academic success at college is something I am very proud of. I work extremely hard both in and out of the pool to achieve both. This scholarship could do so much for me. Moving on from the introduction of myself, this scholarship could pay for my textbooks, school supplies, and tuition. It could also pay for unexpected expenses that occur, like car and electronic repairs. This would benefit my future greatly. If the money went towards my tuition, that would be $1,000 in debt that I would not have, which would not only save me $1,000 total but also the interest charged on that $1,000 until all my student loans are paid off. If it went towards my textbooks or school supplies, it could allow me to save the money I would have otherwise spent and put it towards either building an emergency savings or putting that money towards my student loan repayments, so I could save myself interest by making a big payment. It would set me up to be successful financially in the future. There is so much more this scholarship could do for me, other than financial success and financial stability. It would benefit my future mental health because it would save me some financial stress and anxiety, as I would be in a better financial position than I would otherwise be without this scholarship. Overall, this scholarship could do so much for me, both financially and mentally. I have worked extremely hard in the pool and classroom in both high school and college, which has allowed me to achieve success in both. I truly believe in the phrase “Hard work pays off”, so I know regardless if I win this scholarship or not, the hard work I put into this essay will pay off because I will either win or I will look back at this essay and see what I could have down better to hopefully win the next scholarship.

I have grown up as an athlete in a variety of sports. I focused on swimming since middle school and am now a collegiate swimmer. We learn and face a variety of challenges from various activities and situations, including sports. Student-athletes face challenges including lack of time, working with others, and mental and physical health. Student-athletes in turn also learn important lessons about time management, teamwork, and caring for themselves. Firstly, student-athletes face the challenge of having a lack of time. Not only do they have school, homework, practice, and competitions, but they usually have other things like jobs, volunteer work, clubs, or other sports. This gives them very little free time because they are so busy with school and their sport along with the additional extracurriculars they do outside of sports. This challenge can be a struggle leading to lack of sleep, lower grades, and other problems. As a result of facing these challenges, student-athletes are forced to learn time management. By learning the lesson of time management, student-athletes are better able to face some of the struggles that come with the lack of time they have. They learn to get proper sleep, study, and homework time with time management. Next, student-athletes also face the challenge of working with others. They are forced to work together with others on their respective team to try to win, get a cut time, or a qualifying score. Working with others is not always easy, you may not get along, or you may get frustrated with each other at practice, or even more. By constantly having to work with others in sports, student-athletes learn the lesson of teamwork. The lesson of teamwork is very important to the world as in high school and college require teamwork to do group projects. Teamwork is also important to any future job as with any job you will need to be able to have teamwork. Lastly, student-athletes face the challenges of both mental health and physical health. Athletes are forced to face the challenges of mental health in a different way than nonathletes. They face their mental health relating to their performance and have to learn how to not make how they feel based on their performance. Some athletes also deal with mental health challenges as a result of the other challenges they face as athletes, such as the lack of time. They are forced to deal with physical challenges as well. Athletes deal with injuries and have to face the physical health side of injuries as well as the mental health side of injuries. They are forced to learn the physical health challenge of taking care of their body and letting it heal. These health challenges teach student-athletes lessons about the importance of self-care and caring for themselves. They learn self-care from their mental health challenges because they have to learn how to treat their mental health not make it tied to their respective sports performance. They learn how to care for themselves through physical health because they have to learn how to take care of their body and let it heal from injuries. So in conclusion student-athletes face of variety of problems including lack of time, working with others, and both mental and physical health. These challenges in turn teach the lessons of time management, teamwork, and the importance of self-care and caring for their body.

Hello, my name is Lilianna and I am a 21-year-old student at Alma College. I swim for Alma which is an NCAA Division 3 school and I specialize in breaststroke. My favorite event is the 100 Breast. I have my cat Oreo at school with me as my emotional support animal and he helps with my anxiety and anxiety attacks. I love to sew, paint, and draw. I have been running an Etsy shop called CuteTinyDisocveires since 2018. I opened my shop when I was 14. On my Etsy shop, I sell bags sew, and doll clothes as while as things paint like canvases. I also have been selling on eBay for 4 years and Poshmark for 2 years. I also have a love for animals which you may be able to tell by my ESA, and work as a pet sitter. Back in 2022 my best friend and I worked together to fundraise for the Genesee County Humane Society and we raised almost $500. Moving into my family dynamics I am very close to my mom, she is my best friend and number one supporter. I am also close to my younger brother and dad. I am also quite close to our other pets which are two dogs, Bella and Wrexy, and our other cat Tango. Bella is 13 years old while Wrexy is 8 months old. Tango is 6 years old, and Oreo is also 6 years old. I have a very adoring close family who is very supportive. Next, is my schooling, I didn’t go to preschool due to health issues, and as a result when I entered kindergarten I struggled and couldn’t read. I failed kindergarten and took a grade my school offered called junior first where everything clicked for me and I was able to learn how to read. From there, I have been an academically successful student despite my early struggles including graduating 18th in my class with a 4.092 GPA. In college, I have continued my academic success maintaining as of the end of the fall semester of 2024, a 3.953 GPA. To be fully honest I do not know my future plans after college fully. I plan on moving back to live with my parents getting a job and working on paying my student loans off because I will be in $100,000 in debt by the time I graduate. I want to continue my three e-commerce businesses and my pet sitting to help aid in my loan repayments. I hope to get a job in my field within 3 months of graduating. Someday I do want to adopt some more dogs and cats. My future is kinda this blank horizon I see in my brain with vague shapes that represent the ideas I have now. But I have learned that I can not perfectly plan everything out because it will never work, you need to be a little go with the flow, and pieces of your future will fall into place. I trust that the pieces of my future will fall into place when they need to and that the horizon I see will become clear. This essay is kinda a mess of describing myself. I feel like for me it is my version of Introducing Me by Nick Jonas from Camp Rock 2 The Final Jam. I am a competitive swimmer, artist, entrepreneur, and student who is trying to pay for college and this scholarship could help me so much since I will be $100,000 in debt by the time I graduate.

Mental health is a battle most people face whether it is known by others or not. Mental health has always been a big part of life. It has shaped the way I think, was raised, and talked about mental health. My father lost his sister when I was 3 years old to suicide. Her suicide was due to mental health problems. I have suffered from severe anxiety my entire life. So I was raised knowing from about the time I was five years old that I suffered from it. Some kids didn’t know what anxiety was and didn't understand it till they received the diagnosis in high school. As a kid it sometimes made me feel isolated and different from everyone else. But my mom and dad raised me that anxiety is normal, and doesn’t make you different. It was something to never be ashamed about and that should be openly talked about. They wanted me to know it was okay not to be okay and get help if I needed it. They wanted to make sure I didn’t end up like my aunt so they removed the stigma. So I never hid my battle with anxiety, and have talked about it openly with my friends. It makes them feel safe so when they struggle they know they can come to me for help. I am glad that I am so open with my battle with anxiety because it allows my friends to know I am human and have my battles and that they can trust me to talk to about any mental health problems. So mental health has always been a big part of my life, it has influenced my beliefs and perception of the world, relationships, and career goals. My battle with severe anxiety has influenced my beliefs. It has made me realize there is no shame in mental health problems because everyone has something they struggle with. It is normal not to be okay all the time. To be having a terrible time mentally. In addition to this, it has made me believe that getting help is normal. You need help to get better and that is okay. There is no shame in getting help, it is normal. Also, it is normal to take medications for your mental illnesses. Well, I am not on any medication, my friend's battles with mental illness improving because they are on medication. It makes me happy they found something that helps them. It also makes me believe going on medication helps some people. Another belief mental health has taught me is humans are not perfect. They are going to have times in their lives when they struggle. They have problems. Life is not perfect all the time, it can be ugly. That is okay though. This is how mental health has influenced my beliefs. This then influences my thoughts about the world. It causes me not to see the world as perfect because just like people it isn't perfect. Also, I think that it is normal for people in the world to struggle with mental health and get help. My mental health has shaped me to believe that everyone has some form of mental illness whether we know it or not. This is how my mental health experience shaped my perception of the world. Next is mental health has influenced my relationships. I have always been open with my anxiety battle as I mentioned earlier. It has caused some people to cut me off and stop being friends and talking to me because they think I am weird. That is okay because doing that made it clear to me that they aren’t people I want to be involved in my life and to be friends with. Since I am so open with my mental illness it causes others to view me as a safe person. Someone they know they can talk about their problems with and trust that I won’t tell anyone and that I understand them. I even became friends with one of my best friends because both had bad anxiety and understood each other. Our anxieties affect us differently but others understand. Being open about my mental health has caused me to lose friends and made me realize they weren’t great friends anyway. It also allows me to make friends with people who are like me and suffer from mental illness, and create a safe and trusting environment where talking about mental illness is normal and a good thing. Next, it has affected my career goals. My career goals are vague but very important to me. I want to be happy in my future career. My anxiety has taught me happiness is essential. Do not put yourself into situations that bring you misery. Also, success isn’t everything. Happiness should be put before success. Success doesn’t bring happiness. At the end of the day, you need to enjoy what you do with your life, not hate it and be miserable. Otherwise, you can develop suicidal thoughts and depression. In my case, I think if I was miserable at my job it would make my anxiety worse, and make me bored and miserable or worse. So it is essential in my future career for me to be happy in my future career due to mental health. So overall my experience with mental health and my family's experience has shaped my thoughts about mental health and it being normal, my relationships and who I am friends with, and my career goals. I will continue to openly talk about my mental health and try to make it a priority because I know it is important to do so and most people struggle with mental health issues so there is no reason to hide it.

Picking a major is difficult. It takes a lot of time and thought to figure out what you want to do for most of your life. Going into a STEM-based major means you are usually going to male-dominated fields as a woman; it can be discouraging at times due to the sexism that can occur. I picked business analytics as my STEM major in which I use statistics in Excel to calculate various things for businesses, including profit margins. I went into college undecided. I had no idea what I wanted to do. And by the end of the first semester of sophomore year, I had to pick a major. I originally was going to be in business administration but my college didn't offer it anymore despite having it on the website. And how I picked business administration was not in the best way because no major I went through sounded right to me and picked a random one. But I had to go back to the drawing board as it was no longer available. In my freshman year of college, I couldn't take a math class because I got waitlisted for the one I was going to take the second semester, and did not get in. However, I took calculus first semester sophomore year, and it reminded me of my love of math. I adore math. It's always been something I understand and has come easy to me. I had reading issues as a kid due to speech issues and learned to do math before I could read. It was a conversation with two of my swim teammates about calculus that helped me decide to go into a mathematics-related major because of my love for math. When going back in and looking at majors again I picked business analytics because it would allow me to do math and business. It allowed me to continue my passion for math and my enjoyment of business. I have been running my own Etsy shop since 2018 called CuteTinyDiscoveries, and have been interested in learning and curious about business since I was 13 through Youtube videos I watched. I hope to make a difference in the business analytics field as a woman, by helping it become a less male-dominated field. Currently business analytics is a male-dominated field, so I hope to help aid in it becoming a more equal field. I also hope to impact the companies I work for and with my calculations, I want to help a company become more successful because then I can see the impact of my numbers and see that I aided in the company's success and made a difference. So in conclusion, my journey into the STEM field was not the most traditional, I struggled a lot to pick my major because nothing sounded appealing to me and then the major I originally picked was no longer available. But then after having a conversation about math with two of my swim teammates along with taking my first math class since high school I remembered my love of math and chose business analytics as it combined math with business which I enjoy because I have been running an Etsy shop since I was 14. My field is male-dominated so by being a woman in it I hope to help break the barrier to make it more of an equal field and see my calculations impact a future company I work at and contribute to the company becoming more successful.

Mental health is a battle most people face whether it is known by others or not. Mental health has always been a big part of life. It has shaped the way I think, was raised, and talked about mental health. My father lost his sister when I was 3 years old to suicide. Her suicide was due to mental health problems. I have suffered from severe anxiety my entire life. So I was raised knowing from about the time I was five years old that I suffered from it. Some kids didn’t know what anxiety was and didn't understand till they received the diagnosis in high school. As a kid it sometimes made me feel isolated and different from everyone else. But my mom and dad raised me that anxiety is normal, and doesn’t make you different. It was something to never be ashamed about and that should be openly talked about. They wanted me to know it is ok not to be ok and get help if I need it. They wanted to make sure I didn’t end up like my aunt so they removed the stigma. So I never hid my battle with anxiety, and have talked about it openly with my friends. It makes them feel safe so when they struggle they know they can come to me for help. I am glad that I am so open with my battle with anxiety because it allows my friends to know I am human and have my own battles and that they can trust me to talk to about any mental health problems. So mental health has always been a big part of my life, it has influenced my beliefs, relationships and career goals. My battle with severe anxiety has influenced my beliefs. It has made me realize there is no shame in mental health problems because everyone has something they struggle with. It is normal not to be okay all the time. To be having a terrible time mentally. In addition to this it has made me believe that getting help is normal. You need help to get better and that is ok. There is no shame in getting help, it is normal. Also it is normal to take medications for your mental illnesses. Well I am not on any medication, my friends battles with mental illness improving because they are on medication. It makes me happy they found something that helps them. It also makes me believe going on medication helps for some people. Another belief mental health has taught me is humans are not perfect. They are going to have times in their lives where they struggle. They have problems. Life is not perfect all the time, it can be ugly. That is okay though. This is how mental health has influenced my beliefs. Next is mental health has influenced my relationships. I have always been open with my anxiety battle as I mentioned earlier. It has caused some people to cut me off and stop being friends and talking to me because they think I am weird. That is ok because doing that made it clear to me that they aren’t people I want involved in my life and to be friends with. Since I am so open with my mental illness it causes others to view me as a safe person. Someone they know they can talk about their problems with and trust that I won’t tell anyone and that I understand them. I even became friends with one of my best friends because both had bad anxiety and understood each other. Our anxieties affect us differently but the others understand. Being open about my mental health has caused me to lose friends and made me realize they weren’t great friends anyway. It also allows me to make friends with people who are like me and suffer from mental illness, and create a safe and trusting environment where talking about mental illness is normal and a good thing. Finally it has affected my career goals. My career goals are vague but very important to me. I want to be happy in my future career. My anxiety has taught me happiness is very important. Do not put yourself into situations that bring you misery. Also that success isn’t everything. Happiness should be put before success. Success doesn’t bring happiness. At the end of the day you need to enjoy what you do with your life, not hate it and be miserable. Otherwise you can develop suicidal thoughts and depression. In my case I think if I was miserable at my job it would make my anxiety worse, and make me bored and miserable or worse. So it is very important in my future career for me to be happy in my future career due to mental health. So overall my experience with mental health and my family's experience has shaped my thoughts about mental health and it being normal, my relationships and who I am friends with, and my career goals. I will continue to openly talk about my mental health and try to make it a priority because I know it is important to do so and most people struggle with me

@art.by.lily.17

Television shows and movies often create a love triangle and fans eagerly pick the side of the love triangle they think is better. It was done in hit shows like Gilmore Girls, Never Have I Ever, Girl Meets World, and movies like Home Again with Reese Witherspoon. The Summer I Turned Pretty is no exception with fans being passionate on both sides. Is it Conard the boy she has loved since she was 10 or Jeremiah the one who had been into her for a year? I am team Jeremiah because he makes time for her, he is there for her, and he remembers her big occasions for her. Jeremiah makes time for Belly. He comes to the debutant rehearsal and dances with her. He accepts Belly’s invitation to be her escort to the debutante ball. Meanwhile, Conard asks to be Belly’s escort because his mom made him, he didn’t do it because he wanted to. He did it to please his mom. Jeremiah gets upset at Conard for forgetting Belly’s corsage for prom because he feels like Conard is not giving her the time she deserves. Jeremiah even goes on to say that he would not have acted like it was a chore and would have remembered the corsage. Conard had to be pushed to do stuff with Belly and didn't give her a lot of time but Jeremiah never had to be pushed; he always gave Belly time. Next, Jeremiah is there for Belly. He goes on the Tower of Terror ride so she would not be alone in conquering her fear of that ride. Another example is when she got sick with a summer cold and had to be inside for a few days he stayed inside with her playing games and keeping her company. He continues to stay by her side when she needs him most. In the season 2 finale, he stays to watch her volleyball game showing not only does he make time for her, but that he is there for her and supports her. Conard never came to one of Belly’s volleyball games. Conard forgets big occasions for Belly. In season 1 he forgets Belly’s birthday. He barely talked to Belly on her birthday and did not even wish her a happy birthday. He then went on to ignore Belly during the rest of her birthday. He did not even give her a birthday gift. Meanwhile, Jeremiah got her a birthday gift and told her happy birthday. Not just that but he spent time with her too. Jeremiah remembers the big occasions for Belly, unlike Conard. So in conclusion Jeremiah is better for Belly than Conard because he makes time for Belly, he is there for her, and he remembers important moments for her like her birthday. While Conard is not there for Belly, doesn’t make time for her and forgets important occasions for her. This is why I am team Jeremiah and Belly.

Mental health is a battle most people face whether it is known by others or not. Mental health has always been a big part of life. It has shaped the way I think, was raised, and talked about mental health. My father lost his sister when I was 3 years old to suicide. Her suicide was due to mental health problems. I have suffered from severe anxiety my entire life. So I was raised knowing from about the time I was five years old that I suffered from it. Some kids didn’t know what anxiety was and didn't understand till they received the diagnosis in high school. As a kid it sometimes made me feel isolated and different from everyone else. But my mom and dad raised me that anxiety is normal, and doesn’t make you different. It was something to never be ashamed about and that should be openly talked about. They wanted me to know it is okay not to be okay and get help if I need it. They wanted to make sure I didn’t end up like my aunt so they removed the stigma. So I never hid my battle with anxiety, and have talked about it openly with my friends. It makes them feel safe so when they struggle they know they can come to me for help. I am glad that I am so open with my battle with anxiety because it allows my friends to know I am human and have my own battles and that they can trust me to talk to about any mental health problems. So mental health has always been a big part of my life, it has influenced my beliefs and perception of the world, relationships and career goals. My battle with severe anxiety has influenced my beliefs. It has made me realize there is no shame in mental health problems because everyone has something they struggle with. It is normal not to be okay all the time. To be having a terrible time mentally. In addition to this it has made me believe that getting help is normal. You need help to get better and that is okay. There is no shame in getting help, it is normal. Also it is normal to take medications for your mental illnesses. Well I am not on any medication, my friends battles with mental illness improving because they are on medication. It makes me happy they found something that helps them. It also makes me believe going on medication helps for some people. Another belief mental health has taught me is humans are not perfect. They are going to have times in their lives where they struggle. They have problems. Life is not perfect all the time, it can be ugly. That is okay though. This is how mental health has influenced my beliefs. This then influences my thoughts about the world because it causes me not to see the world as perfect because just like people it isn't perfect. Also that I think that it is normal for people in the world to struggle with mental health and get help. My mental health has shaped me to believed that everyone has some form of mental illness whether we know it or not. This is how my mental health experience shaped my perception of the world. Next is mental health has influenced my relationships. I have always been open with my anxiety battle as I mentioned earlier. It has caused some people to cut me off and stop being friends and talking to me because they think I am weird. That is okay because doing that made it clear to me that they aren’t people I want involved in my life and to be friends with. Since I am so open with my mental illness it causes others to view me as a safe person. Someone they know they can talk about their problems with and trust that I won’t tell anyone and that I understand them. I even became friends with one of my best friends because both had bad anxiety and understood each other. Our anxieties affect us differently but the others understand. Being open about my mental health has caused me to lose friends and made me realize they weren’t great friends anyway. It also allows me to make friends with people who are like me and suffer from mental illness, and create a safe and trusting environment where talking about mental illness is normal and a good thing. Next it has affected my career goals. My career goals are vague but very important to me. I want to be happy in my future career. My anxiety has taught me happiness is very important. Do not put yourself into situations that bring you misery. Also that success isn’t everything. Happiness should be put before success. Success doesn’t bring happiness. At the end of the day you need to enjoy what you do with your life, not hate it and be miserable. Otherwise you can develop suicidal thoughts and depression. In my case I think if I was miserable at my job it would make my anxiety worse, and make me bored and miserable or worse. So it is very important in my future career for me to be happy in my future career due to mental health. So overall my experience with mental health and my family's experience has shaped my thoughts about mental health and it being normal, my relationships and who I am friends with, and my career goals. I will continue to openly talk about my mental health and try to make it a priority because I know it is important to do so and most people struggle with mental health issues so there is no reason to hide it.

My dream version of my future self is to continue to have good relationships with my friends and family and a good support system, to graduate college with a degree, get a job and be happy in my future career, and of course get more pets when I can afford to, but mainly I just want to be happy and achieve my goals.

Mental health is a battle most people face whether it is known by others or not. Mental health has always been a big part of life. It has shaped the way I think, was raised, and talked about mental health. My father lost his sister when I was 3 years old to suicide. Her suicide was due to mental health problems. I have suffered from severe anxiety my entire life. So I was raised knowing from about the time I was five years old that I suffered from it. Some kids didn’t know what anxiety was and didn't understand till they received the diagnosis in high school. As a kid it sometimes made me feel isolated and different from everyone else. But my mom and dad raised me that anxiety is normal, and doesn’t make you different. It was something to never be ashamed about and that should be openly talked about. They wanted me to know it is ok not to be ok and get help if I need it. They wanted to make sure I didn’t end up like my aunt so they removed the stigma. So I never hid my battle with anxiety, and have talked about it openly with my friends. It makes them feel safe so when they struggle they know they can come to me for help. I am glad that I am so open with my battle with anxiety because it allows my friends to know I am human and have my own battles and that they can trust me to talk to about any mental health problems. So mental health has always been a big part of my life, it has influenced my beliefs, relationships and career goals. My battle with severe anxiety has influenced my beliefs. It has made me realize there is no shame in mental health problems because everyone has something they struggle with. It is normal not to be okay all the time. To be having a terrible time mentally. In addition to this it has made me believe that getting help is normal. You need help to get better and that is ok. There is no shame in getting help, it is normal. Also it is normal to take medications for your mental illnesses. Well I am not on any medication, my friends battles with mental illness improving because they are on medication. It makes me happy they found something that helps them. It also makes me believe going on medication helps for some people. Another belief mental health has taught me is humans are not perfect. They are going to have times in their lives where they struggle. They have problems. Life is not perfect all the time, it can be ugly. That is okay though. This is how mental health has influenced my beliefs. Next is mental health has influenced my relationships. I have always been open with my anxiety battle as I mentioned earlier. It has caused some people to cut me off and stop being friends and talking to me because they think I am weird. That is ok because doing that made it clear to me that they aren’t people I want involved in my life and to be friends with. Since I am so open with my mental illness it causes others to view me as a safe person. Someone they know they can talk about their problems with and trust that I won’t tell anyone and that I understand them. I even became friends with one of my best friends because both had bad anxiety and understood each other. Our anxieties affect us differently but the others understand. Being open about my mental health has caused me to lose friends and made me realize they weren’t great friends anyway. It also allows me to make friends with people who are like me and suffer from mental illness, and create a safe and trusting environment where talking about mental illness is normal and a good thing. Finally it has affected my career goals. My career goals are vague but very important to me. I want to be happy in my future career. My anxiety has taught me happiness is very important. Do not put yourself into situations that bring you misery. Also that success isn’t everything. Happiness should be put before success. Success doesn’t bring happiness. At the end of the day you need to enjoy what you do with your life, not hate it and be miserable. Otherwise you can develop suicidal thoughts and depression. In my case I think if I was miserable at my job it would make my anxiety worse, and make me bored and miserable or worse. So it is very important in my future career for me to be happy in my future career due to mental health. So overall my experience with mental health and my family's experience has shaped my thoughts about mental health and it being normal, my relationships and who I am friends with, and my career goals. I will continue to openly talk about my mental health and try to make it a priority because I know it is important to do so and most people struggle with me

Mental health is a battle most people face whether it is known by others or not. Mental health has always been a big part of life. It has shaped the way I think, was raised, and talked about mental health. My father lost his sister when I was 3 years old to suicide. Her suicide was due to mental health problems. I have suffered from severe anxiety my entire life. So I was raised knowing from about the time I was five years old that I suffered from it. Some kids didn’t know what anxiety was and didn't understand till they received the diagnosis in high school. As a kid it sometimes made me feel isolated and different from everyone else. But my mom and dad raised me that anxiety is normal, and doesn’t make you different. It was something to never be ashamed about and that should be openly talked about. They wanted me to know it is ok not to be ok and get help if I need it. They wanted to make sure I didn’t end up like my aunt so they removed the stigma. So I never hid my battle with anxiety, and have talked about it openly with my friends. It makes them feel safe so when they struggle they know they can come to me for help. I am glad that I am so open with my battle with anxiety because it allows my friends to know I am human and have my own battles and that they can trust me to talk to about any mental health problems. So mental health has always been a big part of my life, it has influenced my beliefs, relationships and career goals. My battle with severe anxiety has influenced my beliefs. It has made me realize there is no shame in mental health problems because everyone has something they struggle with. It is normal not to be okay all the time. To be having a terrible time mentally. In addition to this it has made me believe that getting help is normal. You need help to get better and that is ok. There is no shame in getting help, it is normal. Also it is normal to take medications for your mental illnesses. Well I am not on any medication, my friends battles with mental illness improving because they are on medication. It makes me happy they found something that helps them. It also makes me believe going on medication helps for some people. Another belief mental health has taught me is humans are not perfect. They are going to have times in their lives where they struggle. They have problems. Life is not perfect all the time, it can be ugly. That is okay though. This is how mental health has influenced my beliefs. Next is mental health has influenced my relationships. I have always been open with my anxiety battle as I mentioned earlier. It has caused some people to cut me off and stop being friends and talking to me because they think I am weird. That is ok because doing that made it clear to me that they aren’t people I want involved in my life and to be friends with. Since I am so open with my mental illness it causes others to view me as a safe person. Someone they know they can talk about their problems with and trust that I won’t tell anyone and that I understand them. I even became friends with one of my best friends because both had bad anxiety and understood each other. Our anxieties affect us differently but the others understand. Being open about my mental health has caused me to lose friends and made me realize they weren’t great friends anyway. It also allows me to make friends with people who are like me and suffer from mental illness, and create a safe and trusting environment where talking about mental illness is normal and a good thing. Finally it has affected my career goals. My career goals are vague but very important to me. I want to be happy in my future career. My anxiety has taught me happiness is very important. Do not put yourself into situations that bring you misery. Also that success isn’t everything. Happiness should be put before success. Success doesn’t bring happiness. At the end of the day you need to enjoy what you do with your life, not hate it and be miserable. Otherwise you can develop suicidal thoughts and depression. In my case I think if I was miserable at my job it would make my anxiety worse, and make me bored and miserable or worse. So it is very important in my future career for me to be happy in my future career due to mental health. So overall my experience with mental health and my family's experience has shaped my thoughts about mental health and it being normal, my relationships and who I am friends with, and my career goals. I will continue to openly talk about my mental health and try to make it a priority because I know it is important to do so and most people struggle with mental health issues so there is no reason to hide it.

I have done a lot of work with animals throughout the years. I am very passionate about animal advocacy and have even done fundraisers for local shelters. So why am I so passionate about animal advocacy? This is because I have rescued my animals, seen the results of stray cats in a local neighborhood, and my belief every animal deserves a loving and safe home. All my animals have been rescued and came from potentially deadly, bad situations. My childhood dog Thomy was rescued with his mother and siblings from a kill shelter where they were to be killed soon. My dog Loki was rescued from Georgia where he was thrown out of a moving car along with his siblings. My cat Oreo was born feral and was rescued with his litter from outside. My other cat Tango was rescued from a trailer where she got stuck in a pipe. My dog Bella was rescued from a storage unit facility where her mom had given birth. So for me, I am so passionate about animal advocacy because my animals have been rescued from bad situations. I have also seen the results of these events from Loki being entirely blind at the age of 3 as a result of being thrown out of a car to Oreo being scared of most people as a result of being born feral. So I am passionate about animal advocacy as my pets have been rescued and I have seen the results in both their health and behavior in bad situations. The next reason is seeing the results of stray cats in a neighborhood. My best friend, Chloe lives in a neighborhood close to mine. Her neighborhood has a lot of stray cats that aren’t spayed and neutered. So one day in 2020, she went out to her shed to find three kittens and their mom. It was a stray cat she had been seeing for a couple of years. Unfortunately, one kitten passed away due to illness, but the other two she ended up keeping. She carefully caught the mom and got her spayed. Just a year later, one of her neighbors came over and said they found kittens on their property. They said she can take them or they will be shot to death. So my friend took the two kittens in and found them homes. So seeing the results of stray cats in her neighborhood has made me passionate about animal advocacy about both TNR and making sure every animal has a home. Finally, my beliefs help drive my passion for animal advocacy. I have always loved animals and my love for my own animals and knowing what they went through before we adopted them breaks my heart. I love them so much and to know what they went through makes me firmly believe every animal deserves a loving and safe home. My beliefs have made me encourage people who are looking for a pet to rescue animals because the animals deserve a safe and loving home. So my belief that every animal deserves a loving and safe home drives my passion for animal advocacy. So in conclusion, having rescued my pets, seeing the effects of stray cats in my best friend's neighborhood, and my belief every animal should have a safe and loving home have driven my passion for animal advocacy. These have even fueled me to plan and run a fundraiser for the Genesee Humane Society this year, help out animals whenever I can, encourage education on proper animal care and TNR, and for people to rescue animals.

Being a leader in my community is something important to me. I like to raise awareness for causes I care about and help others, and hopefully inspire others to be leaders and raise awareness for things they care about. Now what have I done to be a leader in my community? Well I have been a leader in my community by co-planning and co-running a charity event, tutoring kids, and being a team captain of my swim team. The first thing I have done to be a leader in my community is co-planned and co-ran the NHS pet event in Abernathy park. Me and my best friend Chloe were members of the NHS and seniors had to chair an event. So rather do events that happen regularly and need chairs we wanted to do something we were passionate about. Both of us have rescued all of our pets and are passionate about rescuing animals and proper care of pets. So we planned an event to raise money for the Genesee Humane Society. It had games, raffle baskets, and food as well as stuff we made to sell at the event to raise money. We even had the Humane Society present with pet profiles to try and help start the adoption process. We were successful and raised $475 for the Humane Society. This shows being a leader as I stepped up along with my friend to plan and run a charity event for our community. Next I have been a leader in my community by tutoring. I have been tutoring kids since 2016 primarily in math. The reason I have been actively tutoring kids in math since 2016 is because I believe everyone can succeed in school; they just might need more help to do it. Also, math comes to me easier than others, so I choose to use my abilities to help those who struggle with math. In part because I firmly believe anyone can succeed with just a little bit of help. So I have tutored some kids for free for the last 6 years to help do better at school and math shows leadership by using my skills to better help others. Finally my last way of being a leader in my community was being team captain of my high school swim this past year (2021-2022). I was a captain along with two of my other friends/teammates. We had to be good role models, always make sure the pool was put away properly, and much more. But the most important thing for us was to make the team feel like a family for everyone that was encouraging to one another. So we did a lot of team bonding events to make everyone closer. We also cheered for each other when we raced and created an overall good environment. This shows leadership as me along with my other two fellow captains had to lead a team together and set an example for the rest of the team. So in conclusion I have been a leader in my community by co-planning and co-running the NHS Pet Event which raised $475 for the Genesee Humane Society. By tutoring kids in math to help them get their grades up and better understand math. By being a team captain of my high school swim team last year in which I set an example for the other girls and helped create a good encouraging environment. This is how I have been a leader in my community over the last few years.

Mental health is a battle most people face whether it is known by others or not. Mental health has always been a big part of life. It has shaped the way I think, was raised, and talked about mental health. My father lost his sister when I was 3 years old to suicide. Her suicide was due to mental health problems. I have suffered from severe anxiety my entire life. So I was raised knowing from about the time I was five years old that I suffered from it. Some kids didn’t know what anxiety was and didn't understand till they received the diagnosis in high school. As a kid it sometimes made me feel isolated and different from everyone else. But my mom and dad raised me that anxiety is normal, and doesn’t make you different. It was something to never be ashamed about and that should be openly talked about. They wanted me to know it is ok not to be ok and get help if I need it. They wanted to make sure I didn’t end up like my aunt so they removed the stigma. So I never hid my battle with anxiety, and have talked about it openly with my friends. It makes them feel safe so when they struggle they know they can come to me for help. I am glad that I am so open with my battle with anxiety because it allows my friends to know I am human and have my own battles and that they can trust me to talk to about any mental health problems. So mental health has always been a big part of my life, it has influenced my beliefs, relationships and career goals. My battle with severe anxiety has influenced my beliefs. It has made me realize there is no shame in mental health problems because everyone has something they struggle with. It is normal not to be okay all the time. To be having a terrible time mentally. In addition to this it has made me believe that getting help is normal. You need help to get better and that is ok. There is no shame in getting help, it is normal. Also it is normal to take medications for your mental illnesses. Well I am not on any medication, my friends battles with mental illness improving because they are on medication. It makes me happy they found something that helps them. It also makes me believe going on medication helps for some people. Another belief mental health has taught me is humans are not perfect. They are going to have times in their lives where they struggle. They have problems. Life is not perfect all the time, it can be ugly. That is okay though. This is how mental health has influenced my beliefs. Next is mental health has influenced my relationships. I have always been open with my anxiety battle as I mentioned earlier. It has caused some people to cut me off and stop being friends and talking to me because they think I am weird. That is ok because doing that made it clear to me that they aren’t people I want involved in my life and to be friends with. Since I am so open with my mental illness it causes others to view me as a safe person. Someone they know they can talk about their problems with and trust that I won’t tell anyone and that I understand them. I even became friends with one of my best friends because both had bad anxiety and understood each other. Our anxieties affect us differently but the others understand. Being open about my mental health has caused me to lose friends and made me realize they weren’t great friends anyway. It also allows me to make friends with people who are like me and suffer from mental illness, and create a safe and trusting environment where talking about mental illness is normal and a good thing. Finally it has affected my career goals. My career goals are vague but very important to me. I want to be happy in my future career. My anxiety has taught me happiness is very important. Do not put yourself into situations that bring you misery. Also that success isn’t everything. Happiness should be put before success. Success doesn’t bring happiness. At the end of the day you need to enjoy what you do with your life, not hate it and be miserable. Otherwise you can develop suicidal thoughts and depression. In my case I think if I was miserable at my job it would make my anxiety worse, and make me bored and miserable or worse. So it is very important in my future career for me to be happy in my future career due to mental health. So overall my experience with mental health and my family's experience has shaped my thoughts about mental health and it being normal, my relationships and who I am friends with, and my career goals. I will continue to openly talk about my mental health and try to make it a priority because I know it is important to do so and most people struggle with mental health issues so there is no reason to hide it.

Mental health is a battle most people face whether it is known by others or not. Mental health has always been a big part of life. It has shaped the way I think, was raised, and talked about mental health. My father lost his sister when I was 3 years old to suicide. Her suicide was due to mental health problems. I have suffered from severe anxiety my entire life. So I was raised knowing from about the time I was five years old that I suffered from it. Some kids didn’t know what anxiety was and didn't understand till they received the diagnosis in high school. As a kid it sometimes made me feel isolated and different from everyone else. But my mom and dad raised me that anxiety is normal, and doesn’t make you different. It was something to never be ashamed about and that should be openly talked about. They wanted me to know it is okay not to be okay and get help if I need it. They wanted to make sure I didn’t end up like my aunt so they removed the stigma. So I never hid my battle with anxiety, and have talked about it openly with my friends. It makes them feel safe so when they struggle they know they can come to me for help. I am glad that I am so open with my battle with anxiety because it allows my friends to know I am human and have my own battles and that they can trust me to talk to about any mental health problems. So mental health has always been a big part of my life, it has influenced my beliefs and perception of the world, relationships and career goals. My battle with severe anxiety has influenced my beliefs. It has made me realize there is no shame in mental health problems because everyone has something they struggle with. It is normal not to be okay all the time. To be having a terrible time mentally. In addition to this it has made me believe that getting help is normal. You need help to get better and that is okay. There is no shame in getting help, it is normal. Also it is normal to take medications for your mental illnesses. Well I am not on any medication, my friends battles with mental illness improving because they are on medication. It makes me happy they found something that helps them. It also makes me believe going on medication helps for some people. Another belief mental health has taught me is humans are not perfect. They are going to have times in their lives where they struggle. They have problems. Life is not perfect all the time, it can be ugly. That is okay though. This is how mental health has influenced my beliefs. This then influences my thoughts about the world because it causes me not to see the world as perfect because just like people it isn't perfect. Also that I think that it is normal for people in the world to struggle with mental health and get help. My mental health has shaped me to believed that everyone has some form of mental illness whether we know it or not. This is how my mental health experience shaped my perception of the world. Next is mental health has influenced my relationships. I have always been open with my anxiety battle as I mentioned earlier. It has caused some people to cut me off and stop being friends and talking to me because they think I am weird. That is okay because doing that made it clear to me that they aren’t people I want involved in my life and to be friends with. Since I am so open with my mental illness it causes others to view me as a safe person. Someone they know they can talk about their problems with and trust that I won’t tell anyone and that I understand them. I even became friends with one of my best friends because both had bad anxiety and understood each other. Our anxieties affect us differently but the others understand. Being open about my mental health has caused me to lose friends and made me realize they weren’t great friends anyway. It also allows me to make friends with people who are like me and suffer from mental illness, and create a safe and trusting environment where talking about mental illness is normal and a good thing. Next it has affected my career goals. My career goals are vague but very important to me. I want to be happy in my future career. My anxiety has taught me happiness is very important. Do not put yourself into situations that bring you misery. Also that success isn’t everything. Happiness should be put before success. Success doesn’t bring happiness. At the end of the day you need to enjoy what you do with your life, not hate it and be miserable. Otherwise you can develop suicidal thoughts and depression. In my case I think if I was miserable at my job it would make my anxiety worse, and make me bored and miserable or worse. So it is very important in my future career for me to be happy in my future career due to mental health. So overall my experience with mental health and my family's experience has shaped my thoughts about mental health and it being normal, my relationships and who I am friends with, and my career goals. I will continue to openly talk about my mental health and try to make it a priority because I know it is important to do so and most people struggle with mental health issues so there is no reason to hide it.

Jessie Reyez once said “ I want to be remembered for doing something bigger than myself and making a positive impact on the world. I want to make my life worth something and to die a legend and to make my family proud.” Her words really stick with me. I want to have a positive impact on the world. I aspire to make a positive impact on the world by helping animal shelters and vets out, tutoring, and creating art. My first way I try to make a positive impact on the world is helping out animal shelters and vets. When I was in middle school I read books to the cats and dogs at the Genesee Humane Society and spent time with the animals. The shelter wanted the animals to have more human interaction, so I was able to help the shelter out by reading the books to the animals and spending time with them. Another example is when my nana was getting her cat from Fenton to adopt a pet. While she was picking out her cat, I played with the cats. And while I wasn't volunteering the workers appreciated me playing with the cats because they need to be played with. They told me this as we were leaving. Finally is an event I am doing on April 16th. I am running it with my friend at an event in our local park. We are raising money for the Genesee Humane society, and two vets Fox Run and Duncles. The humane society is bringing animal profiles to the event to help start the process of adoption. So by doing this event we are helping animals get adopted and raising money for those who care for the animals. By spending time with animals at local shelters and fundraising for vets and shelters I have a positive impact on the world. One other thing I do to try to have a positive effect on the world is tutoring. I mainly tutor kids in math. Math is a subject I enjoy and don’t tend to have a lot of difficulty doing. I know other people are not like this. Some people struggle with math and hate it. So I tutor kids in math to help them to better understand math. My goal as a tutor is to help the people understand math and maybe even start to like math. I consider tutoring kids in math a positive impact on the world as it helps them better understand something they struggle with and also their grades go up as they start to understand math better. Lastly is creating art. I love creating art like paintings and drawings. Art is enjoyable for me. I post my art on Tiktok. The reason for posting my art isn’t to gain recognition or go viral like other people. My goal with posting my artwork is to inspire others to create art. I hope that when others see my art it inspires them to try to create art, even if they never have, or decided that they were not good enough at it and gave up on it. So by inspiring others to create art I create a positive impact on the world by inspiring people to try something new or they gave up on. So overall I try to have a positive impact on the world by helping out animal shelters and vets by having fundraisers for them and helping them tutoring kids in math and creating and posting my artwork. These are the ways I try to have a positive impact on the world.

Confidence is a word that is often as defined as believing in yourself. As the feeling of being self assured you can do what you put your mind to. I define confidence as believing you can achieve what you want if you put your mind to it. There are a variety of ways to work on one's confidence. I work on my confidence by being less hard on myself and reminding myself it takes longer for some to achieve their goals. I have a tendency to be very hard on myself after I fail to achieve a goal of mine. I make myself feel worthless. It doesn’t feel good and makes me disappointed in myself and shatters my confidence. So by being less hard on myself after I fail to achieve my goal it boosts my confidence because it prevents me from tearing myself apart over it and destroying my confidence. It allows me to improve my confidence instead. Another way I boost my confidence is by reminding myself it takes some longer to achieve their goals than others. And that if I don’t get my goal the first time I learned alot from attempting the first time to get it because I gained knowledge that I didn’t have before. This boosts my confidence as I now have more knowledge than I did before on a topic so when I try again I know more than before, which can increase my chances of achieving my goals as I know more than I did before. So in conclusion, confidence is believing if you can achieve your goals if you put your mind to it. I improve my confidence by being less hard on myself when I don’t get my goal and reminding myself it takes longer to achieve your goals sometimes.

Some people have a rougher start to life than others. This can be for a few reasons. Whether or not it is caused by illness, family issues, or mental issues, Then they turn around and become successful. My turnaround story is going from struggling in school to having over a 4.0 GPA and being ranked in the top 10% of my class. I suffered from health problems when I was younger. This caused me not to do preschool due to my health problems. So all those basic skills people learn in preschool I didn’t even know. I went into kindergarten with very poor speech and couldn’t read. I had been seeing speech therapists for a couple years though. Since I didn’t know how to say the words I didn't know what they meant. I failed kindergarten. At the time my school had a program for those who failed kindergarten called junior first. It was like an extra grade between kindergarten and first grade. For me this changed everything. The speech therapist at the school got word pronunciations to click with me. I could read and developed a love for it. I was now doing really well in school. Fast forward to now my senior year of high school, I am taking AP and honors classes and am ranked in the top 5% of my class. I am now academically successful. So my turnaround story of when I was little being unable to go to preschool due to illness, coming into Kindergarten unable to read due to the fact I could say the words. To now as a senior in high school taking honors and AP classes and being in the top 10% of my class. I overcame my speech and reading problems to get where I am today.

Financial freedom is something we all want. Not to have to worry about debt from college, or take out loans or borrow money from our parents or guardians or our loved ones. I think the most helpful piece of advice for financial freedom I heard was to apply for every scholarship you qualify for. Why do I think the advice for financial freedom is the most helpful? Well it is because you can apply for scholarships well in college and well in high school. College is very expensive. So scholarships help lower the costs of college so you don't have to take out as many loans or any loans. Also they can help pay off your student loans if you get them while in college. Getting/receiving scholarships help lower debt and loans that have to be taken out because they help pay for college. This equals to financial freedom because there is less money you have to borrow and payback making you financially independent. So in conclusion the most helpful piece of advice for financial freedom I have heard is apply to all the scholarships you qualify for because they lower student loans and costs of college. You can apply to them while in college too. So by applying to a lot you increase your chances of not having to pay a lot for college.

Self-care is something as people we all need to do to take care of ourselves. How we take care of ourselves is part of what makes us unique. My self care includes painting and swimming. Painting is one way I take care of myself. It is a stress relief for me and clears my mind. It is soothing and calming for me. This is self care as it takes care of my mental health, by relaxing my mind and taking away my stress while I work on it. Painting impacts my life in a few ways. Firstly it impacts me as a stress reliever so when I am stressed I paint to calm my mind. Secondly it helps me make money. I sell the things I paint on my Etsy, Muggle Crafters. While Etsy isn’t a full time job, it does help me make some money. The other thing I do for self care is swimming. I do competitive swim. I have been swimming for the last five years. I found that when I am stressed, getting in the pool and swimming relieves my stress or anger from the day. This is self care because it improves my mental health. Swim impacts my life in a variety of ways. It takes up a lot of my time as I practice 12 hours a week. It is also what I am doing for college as I am swimming for Alma college. It also is something I am passionate about. So swim impacts my life by being my passion and taking up my time and that I get to swim in college. So in conclusion swimming and painting are things I do for self care and they impact my life in a variety of ways.

Everyone has those things that fuel their life. It is unique to each person, and is part of what makes use unique. For me swim and doing well in school fuels my life. Swim has been fueling my life for the last 5 years. I started competitive swim after the 2016 Rio Olympics and fell in love with the sport shortly after. There is passion I have for the sport, and after only swimming for 3 months I knew one thing. I had found what I want to do for the rest of my life and that I wanted to swim in college. I am actually swimming for Alma college. It felt like swim gave me purpose, and it did. I am always working to be faster in the sport, and found it to be good for my mental health. It is a good stress relief for me. I am always driven to be faster and better than I was the day before, week before, month before, etc. So swim fuels my life by giving me a passion I was lacking before and a desire to be better. Next is what fuels my life is the want for academic success. I want to have academic success so I can be in the top 10 of my graduating class. I want to do well because I work hard for a reason, to be successful. I put so much time into my work because I want to do well in school. I want to have a high GPA and get good grades. So academic success fuels my life as it motivates me to be better in school. So in conclusion, what fuels my life is my sport, swim and drive to achieve academic success. These are the things that fuel my life.

Generosity is something that according to Google defines as “the quality of being kind and generous”. Generosity is a word that means to me as giving to others and being selfless, and thinking about others. As mentioned earlier generosity means to me giving to others, thinking about others, and being selfless. Why do I feel this way? Well let me explain. The most common way of being generous is giving to others. I often will give gifts to my friends just because they are a great friends. Or I give back to my community. An example of this is me and my friend are doing a fundraiser and adoption event for local shelters and vets as a way to say thank you to them. Now these show generosity to me because a sacrifice of time and money is being made to help others or say thank you, which I believe shows generosity. Next is thinking about others I think are generous. And some may argue it isn’t but to me it is. When I am on bold.org I will look at scholarships and know I don't qualify for them, but I send them to my friends who do. I think this shows generosity because it shows caring about others and thinking about things that might help them. Lastly is being selfless. What I mean by this is thinking and doing things for others more than yourself. This shows generosity because it shows you are doing things for others, not yourself which I think is a key part of being generous. So in conclusion generosity means to me giving back to others, thinking about others, and being selfless.

Mental health has always been a big part of life. It has shaped the way I think, was raised, and talked about mental health. My father lost his sister when I was 3 years old to mental health issues. I have suffered from severe anxiety my entire life. So I was raised knowing from about the time I was five years old that I suffered from it. Some kids didn’t know what anxiety was and didn't understand. As a kid it sometimes made me feel isolated from everyone else. But my mom and dad raised me that anxiety is normal, and doesn’t make you different. It was something to never be ashamed about and that should be openly talked about. So I never hid my battle with anxiety, and have talked about it openly with my friends. So mental health has influenced my beliefs, relationships and career goals. My battle with severe anxiety has influenced my beliefs. It has made me realize there is no shame in mental health problems because everyone has something they struggle with. It is normal not to be okay all the time. In addition to this it has made me believe that getting help is normal. You need help to get better and that is okay. There is no shame in getting help, it is normal. Also it is normal to take medications for your mental illnesses or see a therapist. It makes me happy when people find something that helps them. Another belief mental health has taught me is humans are not perfect. They are going to have times in their lives where they struggle. They have problems. Life is not perfect all the time, it can be ugly. That is okay though. This is how mental health has influenced my beliefs. Next is mental health has influenced my relationships. I have always been open with my anxiety battle as I mentioned earlier. It has caused some people to cut me off because they think I am weird. That is ok because doing that made it clear to me that they aren’t people I want involved in my life and to be friends with. Since I am so open with my mental illness it causes others to view me as a safe person. Someone they know they can talk about their problems with and trust that I won’t tell anyone and that I understand them. I even became friends with one of my best friends because both had bad anxiety and understood each other. Our anxieties affect us differently but the other understands. It allows me to make friends with people who are like me and suffer from mental illness, and create a safe and trusting environment. Finally it has affected my career goals. I want to be happy in my future career. My anxiety has taught me happiness is very important. Do not put yourself into situations that bring you misery. Also that success isn’t everything. Happiness should be put before success. Success doesn’t bring happiness. At the end of the day you need to enjoy what you do with your life, not hate it and be miserable. Otherwise you can develop suicidal thoughts and depression. So it is very important in my future career for me to be happy in my future career due to mental health. So overall my experience with mental health and my family's experience has shaped my thoughts about mental health and it being normal, my relationships and who I am friends with, and my career goals.

Mental health is a battle most people face whether it is known by others or not. Mental health has always been a big part of life. It has shaped the way I think, was raised, and talked about mental health. My father lost his sister when I was 3 years old to suicide. Her suicide was due to mental health problems. I have suffered from severe anxiety my entire life. So I was raised knowing from about the time I was five years old that I suffered from it. Some kids didn’t know what anxiety was and didn't understand till they received the diagnosis in high school. As a kid it sometimes made me feel isolated and different from everyone else. But my mom and dad raised me that anxiety is normal, and doesn’t make you different. It was something to never be ashamed about and that should be openly talked about. They wanted me to know it is ok not to be ok and get help if I need it. They wanted to make sure I didn’t end up like my aunt so they removed the stigma. So I never hid my battle with anxiety, and have talked about it openly with my friends. It makes them feel safe so when they struggle they know they can come to me for help. I am glad that I am so open with my battle with anxiety because it allows my friends to know I am human and have my own battles and that they can trust me to talk to about any mental health problems. So mental health has always been a big part of my life, it has influenced my beliefs and perception of the world, relationships and career goals. My battle with severe anxiety has influenced my beliefs. It has made me realize there is no shame in mental health problems because everyone has something they struggle with. It is normal not to be okay all the time. To be having a terrible time mentally. In addition to this it has made me believe that getting help is normal. You need help to get better and that is okay. There is no shame in getting help, it is normal. Also it is normal to take medications for your mental illnesses. Well I am not on any medication, my friends battles with mental illness improving because they are on medication. It makes me happy they found something that helps them. It also makes me believe going on medication helps for some people. Another belief mental health has taught me is humans are not perfect. They are going to have times in their lives where they struggle. They have problems. Life is not perfect all the time, it can be ugly. That is okay though. This is how mental health has influenced my beliefs. This then influences my thoughts about the world because it causes me not to see the world as perfect because just like people it isn't perfect. Also that I think that it is normal for people in the world to struggle with mental health and get help. My mental health has shaped me to believed that everyone has some form of mental illness whether we know it or not. This is how my mental health experience shaped my perception of the world. Next is mental health has influenced my relationships. I have always been open with my anxiety battle as I mentioned earlier. It has caused some people to cut me off and stop being friends and talking to me because they think I am weird. That is ok because doing that made it clear to me that they aren’t people I want involved in my life and to be friends with. Since I am so open with my mental illness it causes others to view me as a safe person. Someone they know they can talk about their problems with and trust that I won’t tell anyone and that I understand them. I even became friends with one of my best friends because both had bad anxiety and understood each other. Our anxieties affect us differently but the others understand. Being open about my mental health has caused me to lose friends and made me realize they weren’t great friends anyway. It also allows me to make friends with people who are like me and suffer from mental illness, and create a safe and trusting environment where talking about mental illness is normal and a good thing. Next it has affected my career goals. My career goals are vague but very important to me. I want to be happy in my future career. My anxiety has taught me happiness is very important. Do not put yourself into situations that bring you misery. Also that success isn’t everything. Happiness should be put before success. Success doesn’t bring happiness. At the end of the day you need to enjoy what you do with your life, not hate it and be miserable. Otherwise you can develop suicidal thoughts and depression. In my case I think if I was miserable at my job it would make my anxiety worse, and make me bored and miserable or worse. So it is very important in my future career for me to be happy in my future career due to mental health. So overall my experience with mental health and my family's experience has shaped my thoughts about mental health and it being normal, my relationships and who I am friends with, and my career goals. I will continue to openly talk about my mental health and try to make it a priority because I know it is important to do so and most people struggle with mental health issues so there is no reason to hide it.

My future is very important to me. I set goals for the future that prioritize my mental health and happiness. To me it is important to be happy in the future and in a healthy mindset. If I am happy in the future then I consider myself to be successful. My goals for the future is to be happy at my future job. If I am happy at my future job I will consider myself successful. This is because I don’t want to be stuck at a job that makes me miserable, I want to do one that brings me joy. If I find a job that makes me happy then I will achieve success because I am doing what I love. My other goal is to have a healthy mindset. What I mean by this is to have my mental health in a good place. My mental health is often in a good place when I am happy. So by being happy, I achieve my second goal of having my mental health in a good place. So in conclusion my future goals are to be happy and have my mental health in a good place. I consider these goals to lead to success because I will be doing what makes me happy which is what is best for me. My happiness is more important to me so by being able to be happy at a job I consider myself successful.

Empathy means to understand how another person is feeling. It is something as people we develop as being in similar situations as others and remembering how we felt. Or just feeling bad for someone because they are going through something terrible and you can’t imagine how they feel right now. I try my best to be empathetic towards others. When they tell me what is going on I try to listen to how their voice sounds to determine if something is good or bad. I also determine if it is good or bad by actually listening to what they say. Then I will either be happy, sad, upset, or sorry for them for what happened. I always try to make sure that they feel like their emotions are valid and they have the right to feel the way they do. I listen to them when they tell me what is going on. I offer sympathy and empathy so they know I understand how they feel. If it is a situation I have never been in that is not good for them (like sadness, anger, or stressful situations) I say I don’t know what that is like but if need help or advice let me know because I will be there. I make it clear I will always be there for them, like they have for me. So in conclusion I try to be empathetic towards my friends. By listening to them tell me what is going on and understanding and making sure they know their feelings are valid. I also offer my help to them or advice if they want it. I always try my best to understand their feelings in a situation and make sure their feelings feel valid, and them know I will be there for them.

There are those words we have been told by people, heard on TV, or read online that stick with us. We find these words to be very wise and are something that sticks with us and we always remember. The wisest thing I have heard came from one of my swim coaches and it is “Anyone can be beaten on any given day”. My coach once told me “Anyone can be beaten on any given day”. He told me this before I raced the 200 breaststroke and I actually won my heat. But anyway, these words have stuck with me since. This quote is so true in so many situations. In swim even the best swimmers have had their days where they don’t win the race such as Lilly King and Micheal Phelps. Another example is in school. In class there are those kids who always score high. They have quizzes and tests where they don’t score the highest showing they can be beaten on a day. One more example outside of sports and school in life is with stocks. Maybe one stock is always worth more than another but something occurs and now the other stock is worth more than the other. There are so many examples this quote applies to which is why I think it is the wisest thing I've ever heard. So in conclusion the wisest words I have ever heard were “anyone can be beaten on any given day,”. I find the words to be the wisest thing ever said to me because it is true in so many situations and reminds me I am capable of a lot more than I think.

Persistence is a word that means to never give up no matter how hard it is. I have had to persist many times in my life. One great example comes from when I was little and learning to read. When I was younger I suffered from health issues. This caused me not to go to preschool. So all the developmental things children typically learned in preschool were not things I knew. It was clear I struggled with speech. So I had been going to a speech therapist a year before I was in kindergarten. I entered kindergarten and was not able to understand anything. This was because I couldn’t say words, and as a result I couldn’t understand them. I started seeing a speech therapist at school too. So I was seeing two speech therapists. However despite this I still failed kindergarten, and did an extra grade called junior first. I was still seeing both speech therapists at this point. Well pronunciation and words meaning finally clicked for me in junior first. I could read and understand what was being written on the pages. It was incredible. So overall I have had to persist from a young age. I had to persist through health issues and being behind in my peers due not going to preschool. This resulted in me being unable to read due to speech issues. But by seeing two speech therapists and doing an extra grade I was able to overcome my speech issues and was able to read. This shows how I persisted in life because I never gave up trying to read and persist through multiple obstacles to be able to read.

My life has been full of things I am grateful for. I try to live my life with gratitude for everything I have and appreciation for that stuff. There are many ways I live my life with gratefulness and appreciation for everything in my life. Whenever I ask for something I say please and always say thank you after. I also give back to the community. I have so much in my life to be grateful for. I want to pay it forward. I am very grateful for my school having a junior first program that helped me get to where I am now. So I tutor kids to help them get their grades up, like junior first did for me. My best friend and I are very grateful for our local vets and animal rescues and to give back to them we are running a fundraiser to raise money for them. We want to give back to them since they rescue animals in the community and take good care of them. This event we are doing is coming up in April. I also show my gratitude and appreciation by spending my money to buy them gifts as thank you for being a good friend or for what they do in my life. So in conclusion I live my life with gratitude and appreciation for what I have. I do this by using please and thank you, giving back to my community, and buying gifts to give to people as a thank you for what they do in my life.

Hi my name is Lilianna Smith I am an 18-year old high school senior. I do competitive swim and am swimming in college. I specialize in breaststroke. The pool is like a second home for me. I also run my own small business on Etsy where I sell hand painted and sewn goods. I have been running this shop since I was in 8th grade and it allows me to help my creations reach different places around the world.In addition to this, animals are also a big part of my life. I have 4 pets. I have two dogs, Bella and Loki, and two cats, Oreo and Tango.

Encouraging my friends is something I do. When they are making a difficult choice I support them. When it is one that makes them happier I am glad I helped them make that choice or support their choice. I swim. One day one of my teammates texted me out of the blue. They said they were quitting swimming and it was a difficult choice. I told them I supported their choice and understood what it was like because I quit gymnastics for the same reason. A bad coach caused a loss of love of the sport. I told them I support them and encouraged them to do what is best for them. I told them their happiness should come first. Another time a different friend of mine was considering going on medication for their mental health issues. I told them to do it if they think it will help them. They ended up going on medication and becoming the happiest they have ever been. So overall I support and encourage my friends to do what makes them the happiest. I think their happiness is very important so I encourage them to do what is best for them and makes them happy because at the end of the day their happiness should come first.

Mental health is a battle most people face whether it is known by others or not. Mental health has always been a big part of life. It has shaped the way I think, was raised, and talked about mental health. My father lost his sister when I was 3 years old to suicide. Her suicide was due to mental health problems. I have suffered from severe anxiety my entire life. So I was raised knowing from about the time I was five years old that I suffered from it. Some kids didn’t know what anxiety was and didn't understand till they received the diagnosis in high school. As a kid it sometimes made me feel isolated and different from everyone else. But my mom and dad raised me that anxiety is normal, and doesn’t make you different. It was something to never be ashamed about and that should be openly talked about. They wanted me to know it is ok not to be ok and get help if I need it. They wanted to make sure I didn’t end up like my aunt so they removed the stigma. So I never hid my battle with anxiety, and have talked about it openly with my friends. It makes them feel safe so when they struggle they know they can come to me for help. I am glad that I am so open with my battle with anxiety because it allows my friends to know I am human and have my own battles and that they can trust me to talk to about any mental health problems. So mental health has always been a big part of my life, it has influenced my beliefs, relationships and career goals. My battle with severe anxiety has influenced my beliefs. It has made me realize there is no shame in mental health problems because everyone has something they struggle with. It is normal not to be okay all the time. To be having a terrible time mentally. In addition to this it has made me believe that getting help is normal. You need help to get better and that is ok. There is no shame in getting help, it is normal. Also it is normal to take medications for your mental illnesses. Well I am not on any medication, my friends battles with mental illness improving because they are on medication. It makes me happy they found something that helps them. It also makes me believe going on medication helps for some people. Another belief mental health has taught me is humans are not perfect. They are going to have times in their lives where they struggle. They have problems. Life is not perfect all the time, it can be ugly. That is okay though. This is how mental health has influenced my beliefs. Next is mental health has influenced my relationships. I have always been open with my anxiety battle as I mentioned earlier. It has caused some people to cut me off and stop being friends and talking to me because they think I am weird. That is ok because doing that made it clear to me that they aren’t people I want involved in my life and to be friends with. Since I am so open with my mental illness it causes others to view me as a safe person. Someone they know they can talk about their problems with and trust that I won’t tell anyone and that I understand them. I even became friends with one of my best friends because both had bad anxiety and understood each other. Our anxieties affect us differently but the others understand. Being open about my mental health has caused me to lose friends and made me realize they weren’t great friends anyway. It also allows me to make friends with people who are like me and suffer from mental illness, and create a safe and trusting environment where talking about mental illness is normal and a good thing. Finally it has affected my career goals. My career goals are vague but very important to me. I want to be happy in my future career. My anxiety has taught me happiness is very important. Do not put yourself into situations that bring you misery. Also that success isn’t everything. Happiness should be put before success. Success doesn’t bring happiness. At the end of the day you need to enjoy what you do with your life, not hate it and be miserable. Otherwise you can develop suicidal thoughts and depression. In my case I think if I was miserable at my job it would make my anxiety worse, and make me bored and miserable or worse. So it is very important in my future career for me to be happy in my future career due to mental health. So overall my experience with mental health and my family's experience has shaped my thoughts about mental health and it being normal, my relationships and who I am friends with, and my career goals. I will continue to openly talk about my mental health and try to make it a priority because I know it is important to do so and most people struggle with mental health issues so there is no reason to hide it.

Mental health is something everyone has struggled with at one point. Unfortunately not everyone can afford to get help for their mental health. I think one way to help more people with their mental health is by creating a program to help those who can’t afford to get the help they need, get the help they need. Mental health care includes going to receive dianoges, seeing a therapist, and getting medication. All these are expensive. So those who don’t have room in their budget to get the right care and those who just don't have the money for it, won’t get mental health care. This isn’t good because it results in them suffering. So to help them I think there needs to be a program made to help the less fortunate get the mental health care they need. This would help make mental health care more mainstream, and affordable for people and for some free. The care being free and you having to pay for some would just depend on yearly income of the home. They would also advocate for mental health awareness. Now how would they get the money to do this? By hosting fundraisers to raise money to pay for the care. And also selling clothing that brings awareness to mental Health that when purchased the money goes towards paying for the care those can’t afford. So overall, a solution to help more people who struggle with mental health is by developing a program dedicated to helping make mental health care more affordable and mainstream.

Mental health is something everyone deals with at one point. As a whole people are not great at making their mental health a priority to take care of. This is because as a society as a whole we tend to attribute self worth with success. And you can’t have mental issues when you are successful. This is very wrong and a toxic mindset society set. During the last few years this mindset has started to come down and mental health issues have been normalized. I will admit I haven’t always been the best at taking care of my own mental health. Something I do to relax and take care of my mental health is painting. For me painting is soothing. It is very relaxing for me. So whenever I am stressed I try to put aside about 10-15 minutes to paint. Depending on how stressed I am, I may try to give myself a whole day to paint so I can breathe and just relax. For example I was fully online the entire 2020-2021 school year. In January we were taking midterms. I was so unbelievably stressed. Since I was full online I got to take mine at home and my midterms had certain days I had to do them. I had six classes so I had 6 midterms to do. After I finished the midterms I had to take for a day, I would work on a painting of Baby Winnie the Pooh and Tigger. By the end of the week I had finished the whole painting. Doing that painting really helped me breathe and it was very soothing too. So overall, I try to relax and improve my mental health by painting because painting is something that allows me to breath and calm down when I am stressed.

College debt is something everyone dreads. They don’t want it. So they try to do everything they can to not take it on. Unfortunately their plans don’t always work and result in student loans and debt. I am trying to avoid having to pay for college to avoid student debt by applying to lots of scholarships. For me I don’t qualify for any financial aid and I don’t get anything from my FAFSA. So I really have to rely on scholarships to help cover the costs. I have applied to so many scholarships. In total at the moment I am writing this I have applied for over $100,000 worth of scholarships. And I am applying for more. I know i'm not going to get every single scholarship I apply for. Including this one. As much as I hope I win there is a good chance I won’t. That is why I am applying for so many scholarships in hopes of winning at least one or two. I am applying to every scholarship I qualify for. This increases my odds of at least winning one in hopes of being able to cover my college costs fully. So in conclusion my way of attempting to graduate debt-free from college includes applying to every scholarship I can, l know I can’t win them all but I hope to win enough to cover my college costs. So that way I can graduate debt free from college.

Some people have a rougher start to life than others. This can be for a few reasons. Then they turn around and become successful. My turnaround story is going from struggling in school to having over a 4.0 GPA and being ranked in the top 10% of my class. I suffered from health problems when I was younger. This caused me not to do preschool due to my health problems. So all those basic skills people learn in preschool I didn’t even know. I went into kindergarten with very poor speech and couldn’t read. I had been seeing speech therapists for a couple years though. Since I didn’t know how to say the words I didn't know what they meant. I failed kindergarten. At the time my school had a program for those who failed kindergarten called junior first. It was like an extra grade between kindergarten and first grade. For me this changed everything. The speech therapist at the school got word pronunciations to click with me. I could read and developed a love for it. I was now doing really well in school. Fast forward to now my senior year of high school, I am taking AP and honors classes and am ranked in the top 5% of my class. I am now academically successful. So my story is of a young girl failing kindergarten and becoming a successful high school student who takes difficult classes to challenge herself, and finding success in those classes. And becoming one of the top students in her class.

Each person has an unique set of study strategies that work for themselves. Since no one has the exact same brain and thought process, the study techniques that work for them and help them achieve academic success. Personally I find writing my notes in different colored pens helps me study. To some this may sound really weird, and not even like a study strategy, and well I totally understand that. I take all my notes in a different colored pen. As I am writing I associate the color I am writing in with the facts, key ideas, examples, and other notes I am taking. So then for tests and quizzes I review my notes. I write so that no color is back to back (Example: I took a note that the French and Indian war started in 1754 in blue ink. Then my next note on the same page was that it ended in 1763, which would be in pink ink) which helps me study more. So when I study everything stands out. Not only do I remember what I wrote but the color I wrote it in. So when I am taking a quiz or test, I remember what color I wrote my notes in. So overall one of my study strategies is taking notes with colorful pens to help me remember what I need to know for quizzes and tests.

There are many problems facing the world. Everyone has their own idea of what is the biggest problem the world is facing now, because unfortunately the world is not perfect and has a lot of problems. To me the biggest problem facing the world right now is abandonment of animals. The current Covid-19 pandemic has caused a lot of changes to society and problems. When the pandemic first started in the United States on of the effects it had was people were adopting animals at a very high rate. This was in part due to people not being quarantined by themselves, so they got an animal companion to keep them company. Since the U.S has begun to reopen animals have been abandoned at some of the highest rates. There are a variety of reasons for this. This has become a huge problem because shelters have started to become overcrowded. Then the shelters have no more space for animals. This is also a problem because when animals are surrendered or abandoned it causes the animal to fear it happening again and can really affect them. I think the best way to try and lower the abandonment rates is to educate people before adopting pets the time and money that goes into their care. For those who have become really tight on money, set up care and help programs to help them continue to be able to take care of their animals. So in conclusion the biggest problem facing the world is the abandonment of animals and the best ways to fix this is to educate people the time and money pets take and setting up care programs to help those who are on tight on money be able take care of their pet.

Motivation means something that is your reason for doing something. Everyone has a different motivation. For some it might be their dream career or dream college, while for others it might be doing good in school so they can be successful. For me my motivation for life is success. Success can be a broad term. My definition of success is doing a career I enjoy while also being able to achieve success in it. I want to be happy while doing my career because I don’t want to be stuck doing something I don’t enjoy. Being happy is important to me because life is suppose to be something you enjoy. The other part is being able to be successful in the career. What I mean by this is being able to make money with the career I do. Also being able to get high up in the career. I want to be able to get high up in the career I chose. So in conclusion my motivation in life is being successful. My definition of success is being happy in my future job and being able to get high up in the future job of my choice.

The meaning of life. A question that has stumped people for generations. One that people are afraid to answer in fear of being wrong. A question that makes people think. While the question what is the meaning of life is different for everybody. To me the meaning of life is enjoying what you do and being happy. Life means to me being happy and enjoying what you do. Everyone has something different that will make them happy. Something different that they enjoy doing. I think people need to enjoy what they do and be happy doing it because you only get one life. Since you only get one life why not enjoy it. Do what brings you happiness. There isn’t a reason to do something that makes you miserable. Because at the end of the day a lifetime of happiness is better than a lifetime of misery because you are doing something you enjoy and brings you joy. So in conclusion my meaning of life is doing something you enjoy and brings you happiness. This is due to living a life that brings you happiness is better than one where you are miserable, and you only get one life so might as well do what makes you happy.

For all of us we have that one piece of advice or reminder someone said to us and stuck with us. It has shaped us as a person and our mindset. One we would share to the world. For me it is a quote my coach told me once before I swam one of my races, “Anyone can be beaten on any given day”. As a competitive swimmer this stuck with me because I have raced some really fast people. And instead of getting nervous before my race and freaking out I remind myself, “Anyone can be beaten on any given day”. It reminds me I got this and I can do this. While to some “Anyone can be beaten on any given day” is a quote or advice only applicable to sports to some people, it has so much more applications. It means even people who seem perfect aren’t perfect and you can beat them. Say you have a friend who always outscores you on tests. Then on one test you outscore them, you beat them proving this advice true. This piece of advice is also a reminder that we are human. Even if you seem to win all the time you will eventually be beaten by someone who you don’t expect and you can do better than your own expectations. So overall the one sentence I would share with the world is “ “Anyone can be beaten on any given day” because it serves to remind people they can are human and can do better than the expectations they have for themselves.

We all have that one skill we work really hard on that stands out for us. For some it may be studying, or creative thinking. While for me it is sewing. I originally taught myself how to hand sew when I was 11 with a needle and thread and tiny fabric squares. I was making clothes for my Barbie dolls out of these fabric squares. As time went on I started getting more fabric and eventually got a sewing machine. I was improving and starting to make a variety of items. I soon found out about local sewing classes and started doing them. As the next couple years went on I continued sewing classes. I made myself a raincoat, a duffle bag, and so much more. I even took my passion and skill for sewing and open my own Etsy shop Muggle Crafters. While I started by being self taught in sewing and not being very good within the next few years I have made a business with my skill and consider my best skill because it is one I worked to earn and have become good at. It is a skill I have been able to make great quality out of and continue to improve on.

I have had many times in my life where I had to preserve. One of these times was when I was going for a YMCA State Cut in the 100 breast. I started travel swim when I was 15 years old. When I started travel swim the 100 breast YMCA state cut for 15-18 girls was a 1:21.99. So I worked really hard throughout the season. However, at the last chance meet the last chance to qualify for States I ended up going only a 1:22.30, missing the cut by .31. I was devastated. The next year I used my devastation as motivation. I was working harder than ever. I started doing weight room work to help my swimming. It worked I was dropping a lot of time in all of my events. I had reworked my devastation of failing as motivation and it was showing I was better than ever in the pool. However, I still failed my goal missing the cut by only .09 of a second. I was absolutely crushed by this. Then quarantine hit. Quarantine hit shortly after the failure to meet my goal. I was working out daily. I got a pull up bar and started daily pull ups. I knew I had the high school season starting in August and I was going to get the cut time then. I finally able to get back in the pool in June and was making intervals I never had before and was a new swimmer, it was great. So I kept training all summer. Then in August high school season started and I was dropping a lot of time in all of my events. Then I got the state cut with a time of 1:21.23. I had finally did it.

One of my hobbies is art. I love painting. I have painted canvases, funko pops, and even old toys. I enjoy painting so much I have started selling the things I paint on Etsy. I love being able to sell my artwork to others because it lets me know that I enjoy what I do and others enjoy it as well.