Though this will be my second year attending college, I will always be excited about going back and reliving the feeling of college life once more, but maintaining a healthy body, mind, and soul during college can be quite the challenge. I found during my first semester of college that I wasn't taking good care of myself and soon found myself behind in classes and homework, which lead to an unneeded amount of stress in my life. Unfortunately for me, the stress I felt had severe consequences and lead to my diagnosis of chronic spontaneous urticaria, or chronic hives. The more stressed I was, the worse the hives got, so by the second semester, I knew I had to change. I began going to our university's gym and began to do light workouts in order to keep myself in relative shape and keep my body and mind healthy. I began to monitor what I ate and was careful with portioning what I was eating, and how many times a day I was eating. After realizing how much I was eating, I began my plan of attack and began to go for the healthier alternatives that my university provided. I created a routine for myself to keep my mind at ease, which in turn reduced the stress my mind and body were feeling. My soul was a different story for me really. I have never taken time to think about my soul, but after my first semester of college, I came to understand just how important taking care of your soul is, just like taking care of your body or mind. I began taking some time out of my day, whether it was five minutes or thirty minutes, to find a spot to myself and just meditate. Sometimes I meditate once, sometimes I meditate multiple times. It all depends on what is happening. When I meditate, I use that time to clear my mind, reflect on the day, relax my mind and body, and listen to my soul. Though it can be hard sometimes to take care of myself, or even get out of bed, I understand that it's just a bad day, and there will be many more good days that outweigh them. I just need to be patient and kind to myself, my body, my mind, and soul.

I remember the first time my parents brought home a computer. I was probably around 5 or 6 years old when they carried in this big hunk of a box and set it down on the kitchen table and I watched as they unpacked their first ever home pc, the EMAC. I have very distinct memories of this particular computer, as my grandparents had one, as well as one of the other older models of the mac. I watched in awe as they hooked the hefty block of computer and wires to the wall and booted it up. Watching the screen flick on and the apple logo appear was a sight to behold for a young me. I remember watching my parents work on that computer with such curiosity, and soon they let my brothers and me play some games on that computer. That memory is one of the earliest ones I have of my interest in computers. Since growing up and getting older, I was introduced to more computers and other forms of technology and found that I was fascinated with the thought of them, but could never really do much with them until my more recent years. After a sixth-grade trip to the Polaris®, I was introduced to the idea of computer science and programming, and my interest in computers soared even more than I ever thought it could. I remember going home after that and looking up those 2 words that they had told me, "Computer Science" and "Programming," and soon the door to new horizons had opened up further, and I found myself fixated on these two things. When I had gotten my first computer, one of the very first things I did was type into the search bar, "How to program." I was introduced to a world of programming languages, and my curiosity took hold. With eager eyes, I looked through the different languages of programming and found one that stuck out to me. Python was my very first introduction to the world of programming. I watched endless hours of YouTube videos and online tutorials to learn Python but found I had no real use for programming at the time. I was young and unsure of what to do with the language, so I ended up giving it up for a bit. It wasn't until my sophomore year of high school that I knew for a fact I wanted to work in a field involving technology. I had no idea what in particular I wanted to do, so by my junior year of high school, I enrolled in Post-Secondary Enrollment Options and applied to a community college about 30 minutes away from me. I decided to take an intro to engineering class and was shown the amazing world of engineering. That was where I was introduced to software engineering and was reintroduced to programming. We programmed a robot for one of our class projects, and I was so in awe with the behind-the-scenes of programming itself that I knew I wanted to go into a computer-based field. After another class in programming and my interest in how computers work, I found my love for computer science. Though I have yet to work on any major projects, the little ones I have made always feel like an accomplishment because it is something I have created, and the fact that they have come to fruition is something that is an achievement to me. Working with computers and technology has inspired me to further pursue that interest in college, and share it with the world.

Let me tell you about the time that technology saved my mom and gave her another chance at life. It was a winter afternoon, back in 2010-2011. My mom and dad had gathered us to our living room and sat us down. I remember the looks on my brothers' faces when she said those words. "I have breast cancer." That moment changed our lives. I was young at the time, about 7 or 8 years old, and had no concept of what cancer was, but seeing my family's faces made me understand just how bad it was. It was subtle at first, she left the house more frequently to go to doctor's appointments, and then things progressively got worse. Her cancer had grown from stage 3 to stage 4, and the doctors recommended she did chemotherapy. I remember her going in more frequently to get the chemo done, and slowly watched her deteriorate as more treatments went on. Soon her body began to ache, and her hair began to fall out in clumps. I watched with sadness as my mom had enough of the painful hair loss and had my aunt shave her head. My mom could've been dying in front of my very eyes, and I had no idea. Soon enough, she had to stay in the hospital, stuck in an uncomfortable bed in pain, weak, and tired all of the time. We went to visit her frequently, and seeing her connected to all the monitors and machines was a confusing sight. After enough time, her cancer had cleared, and she began to get better slowly. She has been in complete remission ever since. If it wasn't for today's technology and modern medicine, I could've lost my mom to cancer, but with the help of doctors and technology, they managed to find the cancer and treat it immediately, and I couldn't be happier and more thankful for it. With the ideas of younger minds and motivated people, this technology for cancer will continue to grow and improve, and may eventually get to a point where cancer is no longer a worry in the world, but the improvement of cancer detecting and treatment technology isn't the only thing that could improve, but the world around us as we know it. As long as there are motivated people, technology will continue to grow better and better every day.