On paper, within an application, in the minds of others, I am a highly praiseworthy person of relatively adequate social, intellectual, and financial standing. However, I’ve quickly grown tired of applying; of course, this doesn’t specifically target college applications or scholarships, but rather the general concept of applying a perception. Acquiring a job, education, friends, love, it’s all the process of application in which people beg for acknowledgment and acceptance. Yet that acceptance is not pure, not genuine, not real. It is definitively superficial. To apply is to deceive, hiding the flaws of humiliative humanity and demonstrating only that which is “best.” Colleges don’t desire students to educate, they desire additions to their repertoire of prestige; people don’t desire bonds for connection, they desire company to affirm their validity. That too, is deceptive for at the purest heart of society, people simply desire connection and authenticity. Therefore, I will not write of my “circumstances and qualifications,” I will not attempt to pedestalize features of myself deemed positive that cannot be explained in an application nor will I beg for the understanding of difficulties I have experienced in the hopes that I’m deemed profitable. I will simply humanize myself and express my reality. Despite my youth, I have lived a life of much grief that has lionized the educational setting. Diagnosed with Autism, Depression, Anxiety, and ADHD, I was blessed with a unique perspective while simultaneously damned with struggle. Academically, I am “gifted,” two years ahead of my like-aged peers, able to understand at faster speeds, perform successfully, and ultimately be a high-level student. My identity, wrapped in “disorders,” makes the academic environment rather effortless, requiring me to enroll in AP, Honors, Dual-Enrollment, whilst seeking challenge and knowledge. I am a great student. I will always try my best. I have turned myself into a puppet of praise, destroying my core with the necessity to be “great.” I feel it necessary to have my ailments acknowledged for I am incomplete without them and if someone truly wishes to understand me rather than accept me, they must acknowledge these traits. I needn’t divulge the history of my relationship with my ailments, however, I will relate them to my academic experiences. They have allowed me to learn, understand, and perform in ways that others can’t, they have gifted me incredible comprehension of rather base, analytical subjects such as the glorious STEM, they have made the hardest subjects easy and the easiest assignments herculean. I do my best to learn but I require patience. I seek to succeed and advance in college but I demand humanity. My “disorders” are not circumstances or qualifications, but they have created such realities that cannot be written for an application, thus I express them here. Another reality necessitated for verbalization is my financial standing. Previously, my family made above the income of the working class due to the success of my father as an engineer. Unfortunately, this came at the cost of my relationship with my parents. My father absent, in other states to work, and my mother absent, in the lives of my sisters to occupy my fathers absence. Despite being recognized for intellectual maturity, I was passed over and as such dealt with all academics on mine own, occasionally requiring money for my success. Yet, no money was saved for my education and time has progressed, shadowing misfortune upon my family. Neither of my parents are employed, my father is disabled, my adult sister and her child depend on our parents for income as well. Paying for college will be immensely difficult, contradictory to the tax statements of past. In application terms: financial aid is needed. This is my reality that while I do not regret, I seldom share. Because they are not desirable. Still, I will not carry shame for them. I have and will continue to relay my realities and truthful, and merely hope that they be understood with beautiful, humiliative humanity.

Few mediary works manage to bloom past the minds of creatives and into the world of literature, let alone face multiple generations with vitality; and yet, these odds were triumphed by just three words: Wealth. Fame. Power. In the birth of a timeless epic honoring history and innovation Eiichiro Oda changed the course of modern storytelling as these three words began a 26-year-long pirate tale, capturing the hearts of millions and encouraging a generation to live with passion as they follow Monkey D. Luffy on his dream to become King of the Pirates. Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece is a modern-day Odyssey brimming with methodical world-building, sincerely human characters, and fascinatingly childlike imaginatives that idolize mankind's greatest features: freedom and dreams. Oda's capacity for storytelling is unrivaled in my experience with media, especially with anime. Initially, the concept of 1000 episodes appeared daunting, a sentiment many others express towards the impressively magnanimous presence of One Piece. However, a similar sentiment exists that once you have watched all 1000-plus episodes, it is not enough. The weight of Oda's ideals impresses a powerful ambition unto viewers and readers that minimal works of fiction can. One Piece emphasizes the power of dreams as both the driving force and the center of existence for man while further highlighting the necessity of freedom aboard the journey to fulfillment, actively condemning enemies of freedom and skeptics of ambition. The genuine respect Oda offers to humanity's capabilities is enough to draw me in as a consumer, but his skill as a writer presented in the dauntless crew of misfit pirates is intoxicating. Additionally, One Piece stands upon a sturdy yet gentle balance between comedy and sincerity. Despite a deceptively immature artistic direction, One Piece tackles notably morose and tragic subjects including sexual assault, human trafficking, racism, political corruption, and more with conscious parallels between its fantasimal, inconceivable universe and Earth in order to unabashedly critique the darkest points in humankind’s history, call to attention the existence of prolonged injustice in modern society, and appraise freedom as absolute and undeniably human. Alongside this heavy matter that is necessary for the education of many youths in their journey of life, the show actively emphasizes the importance of silliness and puerile humor; whether it is Robin's chilling dark humor, Franky's odd fascination with perversion, or even the absurd nature of Luffy's attacks, opportunities for laughter exist everywhere and offered with a smile from the creator himself. It is near impossible to avoid falling in love with One Piece when the show itself loves the viewers too for their propensity to appreciate levity and understand the weight of their actions in the world. Eiichiro Oda is a connoisseur of history; One Piece an extension of his devotion in the form of a love letter to mankind. Dreaming is living and living is freedom. Within fantasy lies humanity, memoirs, and colorful concepts shadowed by a greater wish for humans: Dare to dream. Dare to live. Be free.

My heart is an earth, my emotions its citizens, and my life its history. Within this earth, there is one treasure held so dear that the world would collapse without it; Music. I love music. For seventeen years, blossoming in the womb and growing into a full-fledged human being, music has consumed me. I feel rhythms reverberating in my heart, melodies coursing through my blood, and I can definitively say that my existence is incomplete without music. Regarding the strongest influences in my relationship with music, there are three: My mother, my icon Shoji Meguro, and myself. Starting from the earliest influence possible, my mother played classical pieces while carrying me as part of herself, further teaching me the joys of hip-hop, R&B, soul, and the blues from the ripe age of 3. My earliest memories include sneaking out of the house to my mother's car, procuring her Earth, Wind & Fire CDs, and playing them for myself in a very old, well-loved, Dora the Explorer CD player. I've grown up in the age of technology and as such have had unlimited access to music from all over the world in all kinds of mediums. What was my innocent and childlike enjoyment and connection for music became a fierce passion and love the more I spent online, especially at the age of 6 when I discovered my greatest icon Shoji Meguro through his works on the hit game Catherine. Shoji Meguro is a highly prolific composer who has shaped my experience as a musician greatly. His ability to birth human emotions in diverse instrumentation astounds me and his creative drive and passion for music elevates every game he touches to iconic stature. Listening to Meguro's blending of instruments into a fine, intoxicating experience sparked within me a fire unkindled. I continued to fall deeper in love with the world of video game soundtracks with Sonic the Hedgehog, The Legend of Zelda, and another of Meguro's works, the Persona franchise. I took to musicianship myself at 10 by acquiring my violin. My knowledge expanded through the glorious study of music theory, performance, and composition, and my hunger to create grew stronger. However, alongside my insatiable desire for anything musical came a deep darkness in my heart that threatened the stability of my earth. Depression. Depression swallowed most joy from my life, leaving my earth floating in a blank abyss. While I still live with this disease, my earth has survived, and from this experience of emptiness, my inspiration grew and continues to grow. Even in the depths, sound remained, adding melodic texture to a desolate world. No one enjoys melancholy, but it is very hard to not appreciate it. I cannot help but appreciate how impenetrable the love between me and music is, and I cannot help staying alive with hopes of sharing music with others. In a strange way, I've learned to inspire myself. I dream of making music that will reach the souls of others and bring peace and smiles into their lives. I want to save others with music the way music saved me. Using what I've learned and what I'll continue to learn, creation is my only choice and music is my hope. A hope I will share with the world.

My heart is an earth, my emotions its citizens, and my life its history. Within this earth, there is one treasure held so dear that the world would collapse without it; Music. I love music. For seventeen years, blossoming in the womb and growing into a full-fledged human being, music has consumed me. I feel rhythms reverberating in my heart, melodies coursing through my blood, and I can definitively say that my existence is incomplete without music. Starting from the earliest influence possible, my mother played classical pieces while carrying me as part of herself, further teaching me the joys of hip-hop, R&B, soul, and the blues from the ripe age of 3. My earliest memories include sneaking out of the house to my mother's car, procuring her Earth, Wind & Fire CDs, and playing them for myself in a very old, well-loved, Dora the Explorer CD player. I've grown up in the age of technology and as such have had unlimited access to music from all over the world in all kinds of mediums. What was my innocent and childlike enjoyment and connection for music became a fierce passion and love the more I spent online, especially at the age of 6 when I discovered my greatest icon Shoji Meguro through his works on the hit game Catherine. Upon turning 10, two major events placed themselves in my development: Buying my violin and being diagnosed with depression. My knowledge expanded through the glorious study of music theory, performance, and composition, however, I began to sink lower and lower into my depression and felt truly lost. A few years passed and I grew capable of performing on a stage for my orchestral group, yet my earth was still floating in a blank abyss of emptiness. Then began the first real conversation I'd ever had with my violin. I played and played and played and began to connect with the beautiful light of my youth brought out by pure musicality. After so long, I felt truly alive. Of course, I'm still alive. Seven years have passed since the diagnosis and I am living to my best ability. I listen to music at least 8 hours a day, I practice my violin at least 1 hour a day, I play in my high school symphony, and I am chasing my dreams to learn even more about my precious treasure. My interminable passion for music keeps me alive and has given me the honor of saying I have a dream: to create music and engender powerful emotions in others. I want to create music, I want to spread hope, I want to save others and make them feel understood when they are lost just as I was saved by my violin. Music is beyond powerful in uplifting humanity's hearts, connecting us to one larger planet together and I want to expand this connection as far as I can.