It is insane how a life can change before they are born, as it did for me. I am the youngest of four children, my older two siblings have no medical issues, but my other older brother was diagnosed with NF1 when he was only three years old, a disease passed down from my father. Until this point, my parents had no clue my dad had this disease, so when my mom became pregnant with me, they did a test, and their fears were confirmed. They had another child with neurofibromatosis. Up until I was eight, neurofibromatosis was just the disease that made funny little spots show up on my body or made my bones just a bit more fragile than others. However, the summer before third grade, everything changed when I was diagnosed with a severe case of scoliosis that the doctor believed was caused or, at the very least, was worsened by my NF. Thus began years filled with surgeries, numerous doctor appointments, and more. Scoliosis was not where the effects of NF on my body stopped. I have a bone deformity in my left arm where one of the bones formed backward, so I am unable to maneuver it properly, making it hard sometimes to do everyday tasks. When I had my last surgery at the age of twelve, I was certain I was done with surgeries for good. Though, just last year I remembered that my journey with neurofibromatosis will never really be over as there was a benign growth between my gum line and nasal cavity that had to be removed. This is exactly the reason why I am pursuing higher education. I am currently a student at Missouri State University on a path to get a writing degree with the hopes of one day being able to write and share stories that represent the rarely seen world of diseases in modern media. My goal is to change that and have my stories reach kids like me who are dealing with their medical issues and have them be able to read about strong, powerful characters who have diseases just like they do. Diseases that they don’t let stop them from achieving their dreams. Which is what I am trying to do here by applying for this scholarship. While I never want to say I am glad that I have NF or scoliosis, I am thankful for how they shaped me into the person I am today and the dream to bring more representation for the future generations to come.

Writing makes my life worth living, which is why I want to write novels. The qualities most important to me in a career are cultural awareness, open-mindedness, and kindness. I have scoliois and because of it had ten surgeries starting when I was eight, and I still face pain daily. What is shocking to me as a disabled person is the lack of disability representation of disabled people in the media. That is why I want to become a writer; it is terrifying not to feel represented in the world surrounding you. It would have brought me so much comfort when I was going through my struggles because of scoliosis to see people going through their own medical battle. That is why I want to bring the qualities of being culturally aware, open-mindedness, and kindness to my career as a writer. More than likely I will be working with a publishing company, so I am going to make sure the companies I am working with hold similar qualities that I have. Since my qualifications/values are so important to me it might make the job search a bit hard as I want to work with a company that strives to help represent minority groups both through the people they employ to the stories they put out. For a business to be culturally aware they have to employ a wide range of from people who are POC, people who are a part of the LGBGTQ+ community, and people who are a part of the disabled community like I am. The next quality that is important to me is just to be open-minded, even today disabled people, myself included, face a lot of discrimination within the workforce. It took forever for me to find a job in high school because people did not want to hire me because of my scoliosis and the limitations that came with it. Whether I work whether it be a publishing company or even just the fast food restaurant down the street has to be open-minded for me to work with them because there is a lot of stuff I cannot do because of my back, and I have to work at a place that works with people's medical problems and not against them. It is also important to be open-minded as a writer because you are going to connect with people who have different opinions than you, and sometimes you are going to have to let go of that to work together. Finally, the most important quality to me in a career and just life in general is just to be kind. Kindness is one of the most important qualities a person can have. It is important to be kind because it inspires kindness in others as well. I would have not survived my medical journey as well as I did without the kindness I was shown. As sad as it is, these qualities can be hard to find in an employer, but I am willing to work long and hard to find a company that represents my values because I want to be proud of where I work. Even if I have to make sacrifices to achieve that. In my future job, I hope I can be culturally aware, open to change, and kind so that way the novels I write can even have a chance to reach a little kid fighting their own medical battle and feel a little bit more seen in the world we live in.

It may not be the most unique answer, but Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone transformed my life. My parents, when my siblings and I were growing up, had a tradition; once we all reached a certain age they would read the Harry Potter books to us. I am the youngest of four children, and I remember being so impatient and excited for when it would finally be my turn to read the Harry Potter books with my parents. Ever since the words “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much"; I was hooked into the longest and one of the most loving relationships I will ever have: reading. The magical and creative world that J.K. Rowling built sparked what I now know is a lifelong love for reading. Harry Potter first sparked my passion for reading, but the book taught me to not only embrace others' differences but to love who I am as a person. Harry finding his true family, Hermione not letting the long-beholden stigma against muggle-born witches ruin her passion and drive for success, and Fred and George being completely and unapologetically themselves despite the trouble it brought them, are some of the many lessons that taught me to love and accept myself unapologetically. This lesson only became more valuable to me when I got diagnosed with scoliosis at eight years old. During the four years full of surgeries, stints in the hospital, and weeks spent recovering, Harry Potter and varying arrays of other books became my haven. When I was not allowed to play outside during recess or recovering at home, curling up with a book, especially a Harry Potter one, made me forget all the things causing me pain and emersed me in a world that reminded me to love myself, flaws and all. Not only did Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone itself change my life, it also sparked my desire to read more. I carry around a book with me wherever I go to this day if it is to the dentist or even when I go out to eat with my family. This has all been a result of the enchantment of reading that was sparked by the first Harry Potter book. Harry Potter, on top of teaching me both how to love reading and to love myself, also changed the course of my whole life. When I was young I had the stereotypical kid answer of wanting to be an actress or a singer, but as I grew older and older writing drew me in just as much as reading. I still hope to create such a fantastical series that began with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. I am currently writing a novel and am constantly calling back to the pages filled with character, imagination, diction, and heart in the first Harry Potter book and the series as a whole. I am even going to university to double major in both English and Journalism with the hopes of one day writing something that changed even one person's life as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone changed mine. In the end, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone transformed my life into something amazing. Harry Potter helped me find not only security in my future but security in myself. I wouldn't be who I am without reading, and I wouldn't be who I am without Harry Potter.

I define success as the drive to succeed and trying your best to achieve your goals and even when you fail, you don't give up and continue to fight to achieve your goals in life. I believe my mindset differs from my peers because even when I fail, I see success within failure. When I don't succeed as I planned whether it be how many good reviews I get while working or the grade I end up with on a test, instead of seeing it as a current failure I see it as a future opportunity for success. I see it as a chance to learn from my mistakes and succeed in the future. I believe this will bring me success in life because I don't ignore the fact that I failed at something, and I don't act like it was a great thing to fail. I accept the fact that I failed. I accept the negative feelings that come with that failure. Then I look at what worked and what I could've done better in my plan for success, and I take these as lessons and continue to try and succeed more in life. I try, I fail, I see the small grains of success within this failure and continue on till I succeed. This will prove to be beneficial for me because accepting this failure allows me to realize what I did wrong, and use this lesson to help me succeed even more as I continue in life.