In December 2009, my two older sisters and I were given a gift for Christmas: The Nintendo Wii. While I was three years old, and my very first memory of the console was getting hit in the face with a Wiimote during Wii Sports Bowling, the Wii has still brought me thousands of childhood memories. It is also the reason I love Nintendo to this day, and introduced me to my favorite game of all time: Super Mario Galaxy. From the beautiful story to the stunning visuals, it was one of the first video games I've ever played, and by far my favorite. I have spent countless hours achieving one hundred percent in the game, and most importantly, played for hours with my sister. Now, if you've ever played Super Mario Galaxy, you would know that the co-op mode is lacking, to say the least. Player One plays as Mario, and Player Two plays as a disembodied star icon who can occasionally hold down enemies and collect star bits, small bits of currency to use in the game. Most people would want to play as a character with the same freedom and power as their counterpart, but not my older sister Avery. Avery is four years older than me, and she's never been very good at video games. That was my area of expertise as a kid, so my sister, who was more or less my best friend for most of my life, wasn't always eager to play games with me. Games like New Super Mario Bros Wii and Mario Kart were off the table for her, just because she didn't want to be beaten by her 10-year-old brother; but playing Super Mario Galaxy was different. She got to do little things to help me out, and it was a lot of fun. Through the years, Avery and I have spent a ton of time playing Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2 and even replayed the former recently when the remake for Nintendo Switch came out. Super Mario Galaxy, in my opinion, is a near perfect game, and I could not imagine playing it with anyone else.

How Has Music Changed the Way You See the World? In an episode of The Simpsons, “Marge Versus the Monorail,” there is a musical number sung by a traveling salesman akin to “The Music Man,” convincing the town to pay for a monorail. 10-year-old me, a longtime fan of the show, was obsessed. In anything I watched as a child, the music always stood out to me. Most of all when a movie or an episode of a show had a musical number. Music has changed the way I see the world, from helping me communicate to noticing motifs in film and theatre. Growing up, I didn’t care much for the music that I was generally exposed to. I grew up in a rural farming community, and country music was the main thing I had heard. Naturally, I didn’t love it. That was until my dad introduced me to “Weird Al” Yankovic. My dad and I hadn’t talked much for most of my life, but listening to Weird Al’s music was a way we could communicate. This was the first instance of music helping me be social, bridging the gap when my dad and I didn’t have much in common. However, I still didn’t have music that I loved. All my life, I would become fixated on strange genres of music, like doo-wop and ragtime piano. I liked the way these genres made me feel, even if it was a little embarrassing. Finally, after years of not being able to fit into this country lifestyle expected of me, I started doing theatre. Immediately, I was immersed in a world of musical theatre, finding every single Broadway cast album on Spotify I could and listening to them. This genre of music scratched a certain itch in my brain, that nothing had ever come close to before. After being in several musicals, and studying different sounds, I started understanding the meaning of repeated motifs. I understood how things in the world made me feel. I don’t feel embarrassed listening to musicals anymore either, even if most people don’t; I even started writing a musical of my own. To conclude, it used to be hard for me to communicate and to generally function in social situations; but thanks to music, I have been able to become a person I am happy with, and socialize and fit in, just like everyone I wanted to be like so badly. Music has helped me understand the world around me, and I will forever be grateful.

@lute_sawyer

Trust and leading by example are what I feel makes you a leader. Jyn Erso stated in Rogue One “Trust goes both ways”. This statement was in response to Cassian Amdor asking her to give him her weapon. Cassian, another member of the team, was not confident in Jyn’s ability to use a blaster. She convinces him to let her keep it with her statement above. This is my view of leadership. A leader leads and must have the respect of the people he is leading. In my experience, if I don’t trust those on my team, they will not necessarily have trust in me. I like to show trust by believing in those around me. One example of this was when I was serving as Sentinel in my FFA Chapter officer team. I was tasked with running the events during our National FFA Week celebration. We had to have spirit days, a BBQ lunch for members, and games throughout. I was able to delegate work to others and check in with them to make sure things were running as expected. We were able to trust each other to accomplish our goal. I am now working as the Community Service Chairman for our 4-H club Grace 4-H. Although I am working with younger members, I have to trust their abilities to help facilitate our community service events. As a leader, one can not do it all on their own and they have to always remember that “trust goes both ways”. Along with trust, leading by example is something that makes a good leader. Growing up in a rural community, agriculture and showing livestock has always been a part of my life. Some of my first memories involve livestock and because of my sisters’ influence, I knew I would show sheep and goats throughout high school. My experience in the livestock industry taught me the importance of hard work, dedication to my goals, and resilience. In my area growing up, there were very few boys that showed livestock. I grew up going to livestock shows monthly with my 4 older cousins and 2 older siblings, all of them girls. There was a small number of boys at these shows; and thanks to my experience and background in agriculture, I was able to mentor younger boys, leading by example in the show ring and letting them see that boys can be just as competitive as girls. I have had a number of opportunities to teach other exhibitors. One time, I was able to meet with the Kimmerle family, all 4 boys, showing them how to handle and exhibit sheep. I am still in contact with those boys and they come to watch my plays as well. My motivation was in the hopes that these boys would feel that they fit into the industry from the start, because that was something that took me a while to feel. Over the time I have spent in the agriculture community, I have been able to make a difference, by trusting people and leading by example. These precedents and methods are those that I will carry with me for all my life.

Growing up in a rural community, my dad and grandpa are in agriculture construction building hay barns and dairies that hold thousands of cattle. I always felt the pressure to pursue “the family business,” being the only boy in the family. Growing up, I knew that agriculture was going to be a part of my life. Some of my first memories involve livestock, and because of my older sisters’ influence, I knew I would show sheep and goats throughout high school; and I have continually worked with my dad in the summertime learning concrete, welding, equipment operation as well as other skills. These experiences taught me the importance of hard work, dedication, and resilience. However, while doing that summer work, I realized more and more that it was NOT what I wanted to do with my life! Over the last few years, I discovered a passion that transcended beyond my rural upbringing. In February of my sophomore year, I decided to pursue my new-found passion for singing and acting. I auditioned for my first school musical “Once Upon a Mattress” and was initially cast in a small role. After some time, the actor who played the Minstrel dropped out, and I was asked to fill in. I felt an immediate spark. It was so incredible to be out on that stage and know that the audience was really enjoying my performance. I now have a new goal to learn everything I can about theatre. This summer, I was in a show called “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” at Actors’ Youth Theatre. I also attended a musical theatre audition weekend in Texas this summer. I received some very positive feedback from some of the 21 college representatives present but they also told me that I have natural ability but they can tell I do not have much training. Although this may sound bad, they said it was a good quality because when I get into a program, they will not have to break bad habits that I have learned previously. I have always found education important and worked hard in all my classes, which can be seen by looking at my transcripts. However, it is clearly evident that the only way I can be successful in musical theatre is to get all the education I can. I need to learn English, acting, music theory, dance, and writing; just to name a few. I am currently writing my own play and taking all the classes I can to make musical theatre my career. I have a long way to go, and I am so excited to go to college and learn more to improve my skills.

Hit the ball, watch it fly into the horizon, talk with friends, smell the grass, take a walk on a beautiful day. These are the things I love about golf. My first memory with golf was when I was a sophomore and tried out for the team. I later started my first practice and I was terrible! My coach, Mr. Jenkins had to spend extra time with me just showing me how to hold the club and what they all were. After all of those practice hours and the dedication of my coach, I now feel confident on the course. It is something my sister did in high school as well, and although she is off pursuing her masters program in education psychology, we hope to be able to play golf together soon. It is such a joy to play and be out in nature. Although I was only able to play one year, I am so glad I learned the sport and can continue to play in my off time. In high school, there are so many things someone can spend their time doing. Along with sports, in February of my sophomore year, I decided to pursue my new-found passion for singing and acting. This is so similar to sports in the amount of practice and dedication it takes to be successful. I auditioned for my first school musical “Once Upon a Mattress'' and was initially cast in a small role. After some time, the actor who played the Minstrel dropped out, and I was asked to fill in. I felt an immediate spark with the art form. It was so incredible to be out on the stage and know that the audience was enjoying my performance. Now all my time revolves around working at and gaining new skills in musical theatre. I have to learn dance and voice as well as acting. Dance is not a skill that comes easy to me, so it requires extra time and commitment. Just like when I started golf and had no idea how to hold the club or hit a chip shot, these new skills take work to acquire. I am now dedicating my time to theatre and pursuing a musical theatre degree. I will be going off to college to pursue my dream in musical theatre because it is truly where my true passion lies; but I love that I can always do golf as a hobby something that I can enjoy with my family and friends.