1. Honestly, I don't deserve this scholarship! I absolutely have NOT stayed up until 4:00 a.m. writing research papers until they were perfect. I definitely have not fallen asleep in the library after spending the entirety of the day in there. I usually spend my day on the beach, reading celebrity magazines, and sipping (virgin) margaritas. That is exactly why I do NOT deserve this scholarship. 2. I want to form a colony of chimpanzees on Mars! These chimpanzees will be highly advanced. I will spend my time training them how to communicate via sign language, and how to dance the salsa! My ultimate goal is to have this achieved in five to ten years! Wish me luck! 3. Just up the road from my house is an ice cream stand. When we first moved to town, we decided to celebrate my first day of school with ice cream. I was feeling wild, and got a large vanilla cone! I was expecting a lot; however, I was not expecting an ice cream cone the size of my forarm to come out! I was absolutely shocked, but I was determined to eat it. About half way into the ice cream cone I stared to lose hope, nevertheless I did perserver!

Social media can be detrimental to mental health. While there are good intentions, social media is a platform for body shaming, political boxing rings, and the stereotyping of genders and race. Experiencing the horrors of social media, myself, I know how harmful they can be. As a young female, I have followed celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Gigi Hadid. These models have one thing in common, a glamorous appearance. Seeing the sheer number of followers and attention they get influenced me; I wanted to look how they looked. So, I made a change; I wore tighter clothes, did my make-up, and ate more salad. Every time I looked in the mirror, a new problem arose; I was too fat and found another stretchmark. Social media was destroying my mental health. I struggled to leave my bed and I stopped eating. First, five pounds, and then ten pounds gone. After losing weight and realizing I was not happy with myself, I got help. I started to feel comfortable in my body and stopped following the women who influence the so-called "perfect body". On top of the outrageous standard these women set, women have to deal with body shaming. Once I became content with who I was, I went back to social media. I started to post pictures of myself and became confident. I was doing so well; I felt good about myself, and my mental health was up to par. I felt so confident that I posted a bikini picture. So many people sent love and kind words for it—all except one. I was private messaged one simplistically-hateful word: WHALE. I immediately took the picture down and deleted the app. I remember the pain I felt; it was not physical, but it was so much worse. I did not eat the rest of the day or the next, and the next day I only pecked at my food. I was looking sick; I was soon diagnosed with depression. Every day I would go back and look at the message, and every time I would feel worse. The hurt grew so significantly that I progressed to self-harm. I was seeing therapists and exploring the use of coping mechanisms. Social media allowed for the one single hater to hurt me in a way nothing else could. My mental health went spiraling so quickly nothing could stop it. With all the good-hearted comments, that one unpleasant remark was almost fatal. Though I eventually became healthy and confident, I will always remember this time in my life. My mind was so sick that it affected my physical health, too—all from social media. Ever since then, I have spent more time loving who I am, no matter what social media has to say about me. However, I know this world is full of cruel and unusual people who enjoy using social media to hurt the people around them. Therefore, I want to encourage people to look away from social media and spread kindness to all.