My grandpa had cancer in his spine. He was also in the military. He overcame cancer twice but the effects of the surgeries and chemo is affecting him. It hurts for him to stand up, to drive, to do practically anything. However, he always has a smile on him when I am speaking with him. His personality is bigger than anything I have ever known because even in the face of cancer and pain he was smiling when my siblings and I are/were around him. He always wants to know about my day, how school is/was going, if I am stressed out being far from home, how he can help, etc. He is always looking to the bright side of things. I spoke with him about how he overcame cancer and he said what got him through was thinking about everyone he would leave behind. It showed me how resilient he is and just how powerful love really is. I wish I could be a winner like him. He influenced a lot of my life and helped me through a lot of things, especially in high school. He helped me push through the hard parts of education, my sports life, and to never give up because he never gave up. Even when dealing with cancer, he never was down. While I was supportive of him, he was so much more supportive of me in my educational goals and life goals. We had conversations on everything from living a ways away to how to be smart with money (which both my parents also taught me) to always be helpful to the ones around you. Without him being a huge part of my life, I do not know where I would be. I would probably be lost in the world to a small extent. One of my life goals, after college, is to start up a non-profit organization to help anyone with any sort of issue from homelessness and illness to widowed and newly married. Part of the reason is the conversation we had about always helping the less fortunate and the ones in the community and how I saw him through dealing with cancer (you would never know because he was always looking happy). I want to set it up like a mix between Good Will and the Red Cross because I want to reach as many people as possible in as many ways as possible. My grandpa gave me the inspiration for the non-profit organization. Thank you.

In all I do, I love being the leader of whatever is taking place. However, leadership bring with it responsibility. Responsibility all rests on whoever the leader is. I like being the one who people look to when they need help. I guess it comes from how I was raised by my parents and being the eldest sibling. In my Junior year of high school, I was part of three different friend groups. Even with the differences, I was the one to bring the groups together and took a sort of leader role as someone who everyone could look to in need. I did not see it coming, but there were multiple fractions that widened after a year. Everyone wanted me on their side, and could not bring myself to either until I knew all the facts from everyone. Anyway, the three friend groups fractioned to into five if you include mine now. I had to go with what was right, and chose to go with now my best friend who was being attacked from the other four groups. I lost a lot of friends, received threats, and only had one friend at the end of it all. (However, I learned a lesson to never lie, not that I did lie, because the truth will come out and one friend who will always be there is better than 17, how many we had as a group, who'll leave you and betray you in the end if you don't go along with their cause.) Currently, college has not presented me too many opportunities except when my buddy called me up at 1:35 in the morning and needed help getting back from a party down the street. I did not really think about how cold it was at the time (54 degrees), but I threw some sneakers on and ran to go get him. When I got there around 1:45, he was barely holding himself up using a street sign. I convinced him to let go of the sign and I'd get him back. I spent about the next half-hour walking him to his dorm and then another half-hour trying to help him find his room and making sure he was good in his dorm. I went back to sleep around 3:15; I had to wake up at 5:45. (I am not upset with him because I had told everyone I know if they ever need help to call me because I want to make sure everyone is always okay.) I am still getting texts from my high school to help with tutoring and if someone has any questions on things unrelated to school. I like to see myself as the leader of the people around me even with all the responsibilities; it is more like being a sibling to the friends I have. I see my best friend as my brother; I see the friends I have from college not so closely but as someone who may need help and I will be there whenever they need it. Thank you.

The dream version of my future self is sitting on one of the beaches of the Bahamas, my best friend to my left with his wife and my wife on my right with our kids playing in the water and sand; meanwhile, my parents are arriving ready to spoil our children and tell them stories while my brother is training in the beach house we own from all the work we did over the years.

I plan to obtain a Business Management in Technology (BMIT) degree from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (Mines, SDSM&T). I will also pursue a knowledge in the Mechanical Engineering field after completing my major. My ultimate plans after education completion are to get an occupation is which I am not living paycheck to paycheck, have a family of my own, and start my own business. The shaky part comes from uncertainty about sports and how everything will unfold over time. My passion, even though I am not playing it currently, is baseball. I could have played at any college I wanted to, but chose to get my education down first: Mines does not have a baseball team. However, I am currently part of the Mines track team, but I still think about playing baseball for one of the travel teams down the street. Getting on a professional baseball team is less than two percent. I know the chance is extremely minute, but I would love to give it a shot and see if I can complete the challenge. If baseball works out, the ultimate occupation is complete, and I can start my own business. However, as most sports stories go, I probably will not be able to make it to the next level. My education I already have, Business Administration Transfer Certificate from Wilkes Community College, and the education I will receive will help me compete with fellow job applicants to obtain an occupation. I hope to be able to save money in progress to be able to start my own business. If I receive this scholarship, it will ease the burden of getting out of the debt from college education. A college education is what will hopefully help me get out of debt from college education. However, after college, the other debts from loans start to hit: vehicle and home loans. Any scholarship in reality helps with not only school loans but the after school loans because it relieves to burden from the school loans. Being in college, the singular most important thing is future planning. As the week progresses, as the months go on, as I think towards the time after college, it all comes down to what do I want in my future. My ultimate goals have always been around, but when I was younger, the goal was professional athlete, then an engineer, now a business owner with engineering experience and perhaps an athlete if it all works out. Goals are dreams we try to accomplish. Dreams are always in fantasy; goals are dreams we are trying to bring to life. A scholarship will help me bring to life my dreams to turn them into goals. Thank you.

Recovery is coming back at the same level of work or better. When society thinks of "recovery", the main people who come to mind are athletes because athletes have media coverage all the time and especially when they come back from an injury. In fact, there is a "Comeback Athlete of the Year" in the NFL, MLB, NHL, etc. However, rarely does addiction come up in the "recovery" sector of our vocabulary. Recovery from addiction is the hardest type of recovery. There are many negative stereotypes of recovery from being addicted. There are many areas of assistance; though, people do not want to be labeled as. However, the recovery being searched for and needed is very important. Addiction is not just something that can just be willed away: addiction is wired into the brain from dopamine being released every time we participate in the addicting action or do the addicting drug. A community and surrounding support system is what is needed by anyone going through addiction who wants to get out of the circulating experiences. Overall, recovery comes down to the people we surround ourselves with. If we seek help and surround ourselves with people willing to help, there is a better chance of recovery. However, if seeking assistance, we do not surround ourselves with others willing to help, there is a smaller percentage of successful recovery. Recovery does not mean one week, one month, or one year. Recovery means years and being tempted but saying, "No!" Thank you.

My favorite thing about Disney is the lessons of friendship and family we gain. From Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to Gravity Falls, the lessons of trustworthy friends and family ties are shown from the beginning. In Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, it is more about friendship because of the younger audience it attracts. However, Gravity Falls incorporates both family and friendship lessons. The family we chose is one of the most important groups in our lives. They could lead us down successful paths or paths of misery. From Disney, we learn how true friendship is formed and how fake friends can lead us to doom. A lot of the teenage and young adult shows from Disney bring in fake friends to teach this lesson. Friendship comes from the environment we learn it from and Disney is a perfect environment to learn both true and fake friendships. Our family is always going to be an important factor in our lives. Disney teaches familial love in many of their shows and movies. Going back to Gravity Falls for example shows a brother and sister being given to their uncle who they call "Gruncle Stan" because he seems to be very grumpy. However, as the chaos ensues throughout the series, we learn Stan is trying to toughen Dipper by showing him tough love. Also, he is trying to be tough for the twins because he knows of the surrounding dangers, but inside he is full of love. Disney gives different examples of how and why love is shown and given in the way it is. The reason these two aspects, which are closely intertwined (family and friends), are so important to me comes from who has always been there for me. Whenever I have had trouble, I could always count on speaking to my parents, brother, or close friends. Without the family and friends I have, my life would be a lot worse. I owe a lot to the people I surround myself with and who were already in my life. Disney has shown the type of love I receive from my family and friends in many of their shows and movies. That is why it is important to me: Disney presents the same type of philia and storge love I experienced during my childhood. Thank you for giving me the chance to tell how Disney made an important impact on my life and how the shows and movies reflect small parts of my childhood.

I think the text is wrong on a few accounts but 100% fact on the majority of the ode. Millennials to Gen Z will either be the greatest generation in history or the worst in which humanity ends. The underemployment stems from the laziness our generation has. I, along with countless others from the bigenerational lines, have sat at home all day and done nothing solely because we did not want to face the day. However, we are ambitious in trying to correct and repair society. We started to see politics as just a way to divide us. Most Millennials and Gen Z are registered as independents when it comes to elections. It is a double-edged sword, so let's dive into some of the text from the ode. The bankrupt world is something uncontrollable by any one to two generations. Government officials need to listen to their citizens and whom they represent when we say we need to pass this law to help with the debt. Many ideas have emerged, but the officials in D.C. do not want to listen. So, to fix the uncontrollable debt, Millennials and Gen Z need to work together and, when elected into office, listen to the cries of the communities they serve. If our generations do not work together, the snowball will continue to grow. The school loans are something I will need to handle once out of college. Universities in countries such as Germany, England, Poland, France, Italy, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Africa, Brazil, etc. all cost thousands less than the USA. This is a country problem. The easiest way to get rid of student debt is to pass a law against it; however, that reverts the USA into debt, which we just crawled out of, so we need a different solution. Boycotting colleges will not work, as employers still look for a college degree to hire applicants. One solution is tax returns. If college students and graduates received tax returns just for being at college and/or graduating, it would help students pay off debt. Also, it would not revert the economy into debt because of the number of taxes the government collects and does not disburse. The medical care system is flawed in many ways. High prices for everything are just one of them. You could buy crutches for $1,000 from the hospital or go to Amazon and get them for less than $75. I do not think there is a way to fix the medical system being so expensive without causing other serious issues. Creating general free healthcare is good for cost-effectiveness, but I'd rather pay to be treated within a few hours to days than months or years if I have organs failing. I do not know how to fix the Healthcare system correctly because it is so integrated. There are flaws all across the systems of American life; however, there are thinkers and doers, and there are hopers and wishers. The thinkers and doers of Gen Z and Millennials are the ones who will be fighting to rejuvenate the American lifestyle. I don't know if there are enough doers and thinkers in the generations to create a lasting change that will not stop the downfall of America or even the world itself. Thank you.

Sports saved my life! That is the role sports have played in my life. It gave me the determination to prove the statistics wrong. Let me explain some of what I mean by sports saved my life and it gave me determination. I played baseball from middle school through high school, football for a year in high school, and ran track for a year in high school (and will in college). These are the determination factors. They are also life factors but basketball (pick-up games) is where it shows as saving my life. The determination from all the high school sports comes from an early point in my life. At the ages of 4,8, and 11 I had woken up with little to no ability to walk. (11, was the only time I was able to wobble around.) Doctors all across Florida did tests to see what was the issue. I saw the head neurologist, geneticist, lead surgeon, etc. all at Shann's Children's Medical Hospital in Gainesville. Dr. Bakist was the main doctor I saw monthly. After a muscle biopsy, Dr. King (the head doctor at the time) called my mom personally and said, "He does not have MS... We still don't know what he has. Do you want to run more tests to figure out what he may have?" Mom said, "No." Anyway, the only thing that 'treats' this condition is hyperhydration. I was also told I would probably not be walking by 18, and most likely not by 50 years old. Playing sports kept me going. I might not be able to work by tomorrow, or the next day, or the next... Playing sports throughout my high school career has given me the determination to keep going. If I might not be able to walk tomorrow, I might as well try my hardest while I can. Football was more of a factor of let me see how far I can push myself mentally. Baseball is the game I love the most and played outfield, so I had to sprint. Track is self-explanatory on having an issue with my legs. On the basketball level of saving my life. This goes to the determination of wanting to prove the doctors who told me I might not be walking today wrong like all the other sports. However, basketball was very important to me last year. I had a lot of things going on that were putting a lot of stress on me (rumors, not schoolwork in particular). I started to play basketball with adults who worked at the community college each day after lunch. I never have been even remotely okay at basketball except for my passing a rebounding. They let me play even though I was never good, and they were much better. They helped me take my mind off of everything going on outside of that gym such as schoolwork, societal issues, personal problems, and especially the rumors. (I still pick up a basketball now and then just to take my mind off of something bothering me. Of course, every other sport has helped, but I used them more as "I will be walking tomorrow" statements instead.) Business management may not seem like a sports-related field, but wanting to start a sporting and outdoor company does. I want to give back and keep others active in life. Maybe the sporting and outdoor business helps someone forget about life and just have fun. Thank you.

The best business to start in and around my community is an electrical, Wi-Fi, and data company. In the surrounding mountains, many students and workers do not have access to Wi-Fi. I have access to Wi-Fi, but a part of the community less than half a mile away has no access. It has to deal with the fact most living in the community just down the road are up a mountain with a gravel road. With how much is done online and with Wi-Fi, there needs to be an ability for everyone to access it. To start a data or Wi-Fi business, there needs to be plenty of money. Even though many communities and people across the surrounding area do not have Wi-Fi access, there is a monopoly from two companies for Wi-Fi: Spectrum and Carolina West are the two who control the region. The money will help with getting the company started up and competing with Spectrum and Carolina West. The best way would be to go around looking for investors. Then getting the supplies and materials to get availability. The next step is going up and down the mountains for who has and does not have Wi-Fi and who has access or not. Getting Wi-Fi access to members of the community that Spectrum and Carolina West cannot, would create better competition within the communities around. Having the correct workers and abilities to get up the mountains is key. The heavy trucks most companies use, which also costs more, have a harder time getting up these steep mountains. Lighter trucks built out as work trucks would be the best option, plus they would need to be four-wheel drive. Finding cable would not be that difficult because a company just down the road supplies everyone who works in the data and Wi-Fi industry. Since I already know from working in the industry, my dad has worked in the area for over 25 years, and he has a good friend who has worked in cabling since 2007, I know who my supervisors would be and can bring in workers as the knowledge about the company grows. At first, it would probably start mostly as a family-run business, but shortly, I would be able to bring in workers from the community. Being an entrepreneur is one of the most difficult things. One of my neighbors failed twice, and the third company almost failed too because he was the only worker. He worked hours from 6:00a to 8:00p each day on this third one to have it become successful. If it would take that for a business I start to become successful, it would be no issue for me. Thank you.

Faith in Jesus is what has helped me throughout my life. It has helped me through breakups with exes, getting through sicknesses, and passing classes while in school. The best instance comes from a breakup from sophomore year, plus my best friend having a breakup too, but the girl accused him of some things. I was cheated on and did not know exactly how to manage it. It took me approximately four months to overcome the regret, disappointment, and fear. My best friend had everyone turn on him because of this girl. I was the only one to back him. I was called a lot of things because I stood my ground (and still do to this day). (A situation was thrown out in which I was there, so I knew everything was untrue.) I had a great connection to God before the breakup, but it strengthened my belief and trust in God. He helped me see enjoyment comes from what he gives us, and he is setting my life forward because I became mentally stronger from this experience. (Ironically, for about 5 months straight before both these instances, I had been praying every night for God to make me become mentally tough. He sure did with that time in my life.) Because God stood by my side, I know God will assist me in my career. My ultimate goal is to become a business owner. One of the businesses, I want to be an organization dedicated to helping others who are homeless, poor, widowed, going through breakups/divorces, etc. I know what I went through was rough in just a span of 5 months; I could not imagine what others are going through. I want to create a space where people can come in and get essential needs. If able, from my engineering and cabling knowledge, I can help build and/or create blueprints for homes for the homeless in the area that they can claim. All I need to do is keep the vision of successful Godly companies before such as Chick-fil-A, Publix, Samaritan's Purse, and the American Red Cross; my business(es) will succeed. I know no matter what, even if I cannot create this vision, Jesus will be on my side to help me excel at whatever I do. He proved he was with me before even when most people were against me. When I go off into the world of work and business, I will be looking for God in everything I will do and where I work. I will continue to have God involved in my everyday life because of what has happened in my life. Thank you.

I am a Christian, an extraverted student, an athlete, a son, a brother, and a friend. The two most important aspects of my life are God and family. I am aspiring to become a business manager or CEO. I am applying for this scholarship for the same reason my peers are: paying for college expenses. I am going out of state for college, so the tuition is higher, and traveling for move-in day is more expensive than most students staying in state. My long-term goals are obtaining a Business Management in Technology from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and starting a couple of personal businesses. As an athlete, there have been many times of physical weaknesses I have experienced; however, the hardest to overcome is lasting to this day. It is affecting all aspects of being an athlete. It is not called by any name on the internet, and it is extremely hard to explain because even doctors do not understand the condition. At the ages of 4, 8, and 11, I woke up not being able to walk or having extreme difficulty walking. At 4, I woke up at 3 AM: I took three steps and fell over. It was the most painful thing I have experienced. At 8, I was able to make it to the restroom before not being able to walk anymore. At 11, I was able to wobble around with my legs straight and sometimes I could not walk. The first two times, I was hospitalized. Dr. Katerina Backus and Dr. King at Shann's Children's Hospital in Gainesville Florida were the main doctors I saw on a monthly basis. I had a muscle biopsy, and Dr. King personally called my mom with the results from Michigan's Medical Hospital: "He doesn't have [multiple sclerosis]. We don't know what on Earth he has. All we know is his Titan cell is mutated." He asked if we were going to keep trying to find out what was/is going on. Mom said, "Michael has gone through more tests than most people go through in 10 lifetimes." Anyway, I was told I would not be able to walk by 18 years old. I am going to be running track at my university. I was also told I could wake up one day and never be able to walk after that. The only thing that works is staying extra hydrated. Dr. Backus told us that I needed to stay extra hydrated, other doctors told me the first two. The muscles in my legs are weaker than they normally would be with how active I am. I will be dealing with this issue my entire life. I do many workouts and exercises to try to keep my legs strong while drinking a lot of water. (I do not drink many sugary sports drinks.) I always have the idea I may not be able to walk tomorrow in the back of my head, so I have made peace with that idea. It is scary and I hate to think about the potential, but it has not happened yet, and I hope to prove the doctors wrong. It is my motivation. Thank you, Michael

I became interested in climbing when my family and I moved up to North Carolina from Florida in January 2018. We would spend the weekends in the mountains enjoying the scenery. Another thing we would do is hike throughout the trails and always wanted to mountain climb. One of my former employers, who I did an internship with, told me about mountain climbing and how difficult but adventurous and exciting it was. I am always up for a challenge. When I was younger, rock climbing walls were always at the field trip destinations. Also, a yearly rock wall was set up for Halloween at a nearby ballpark. Being a younger boy, I saw those as competitions and did them continuously. These childhood memories fueled my ambition to rock climb. (However, I never had an interest during my childhood because it was an expectation and fun.) Florida does not have any natural rock climbing areas, which leads us to my university. Going to my university, I will be around places where rock climbing is more of a possibility. The Black Hills of South Dakota have steep areas and cliffs where they hold rock climbing for beginners to experts. I will be enjoying the ability to learn how to truly rock climb while earning an education at my university. There is also a rock wall at the university for if the weather is not ideal, such as it does in the winters of South Dakota. As for my intention of applying for this scholarship, universities are expensive. Everyone who attends a university is usually paying out-of-pocket costs. Tuition is the largest cost of any university. Most students are not able to obtain athletic, educational, or other types of full-ride scholarships. The out-of-state costs are even more so, which is my chosen path. This scholarship will help me close the financial gap I need to pay for tuition and books. Saving money in the savings account by working this summer is only helping a fraction of the price. This scholarship, along with others will help me close the gap, so I can fit the bill. Grants were out of the question for me because to obtain a North Carolina grant, you need to attend one of their colleges or universities; South Dakota requires citizenship and some necessitate having attended a South Dakota high school. It is down to out-of-pocket costs and applying for scholarships. Thank you.

Since December 2021, I have struggled with my mental health being stable. Before December 2021, I never thought anything would shake my mental health which was extremely well. The shake-up in my mental well-being came from two main factors. The first was a breakup I went through where there were a lot of accusations and lies thrown my way. The second factor was a relationship of a friend turning out uglier than mine. For the first factor, my girlfriend had been cheating on me with another person she had never met except through Snapchat. I found out from her on the day of the college's final exams. I went to my math class and took the test crying and with a nosebleed. I did not care what anyone thought of me in that room. It was an easy test even though I felt like crap. I passed the test. I went on to my Spanish class in which I had a spoken exam to pass the course. The prompt was chosen through cards faced down; I picked the card that stated, "A close friend has just betrayed you." "This is going to be fun I thought still holding back tears." Somehow I went through something else I made up in my mind that was closely related without shedding a tear. I barely passed that test. The next day was the same thing for both classes; math had a more technical side and Spanish class had an entirely written exam on whatever we wanted to speak about. Those parts I passed as well. I struggled throughout the winter. The worst part, I needed to hunt to hopefully get a deer to help supply the family with food. Alone in the woods, seeing nothing, and going through a recent break-up never go well together. I would usually be crying on the drive back home because I felt like a total failure. That feeling lasted through March because she started lying about me and my best friend went through an even rougher break-up. For the second factor, my friend had a lot of accusations from his break-up going on. The school did an investigation. It was really ugly. I had to speak with the principal of the high school and the dean of the community college to tell them everything I knew. His girlfriend and her friend who accused my friend were a part of my friend group. Others also sought to get involved with the whole issue. It cooled down around March. The girls finally dropped the charges; however, the school kept pursuing them. The friend of his ex tried to get me on their side. I used the conversation to defend my friend because she lied multiple times during the five-minute conversation. In July, the school cleared my friend of the charges. It took me from December to March to get back on track, two break-ups for myself and my best friend, plenty of time being alone crying my eyes out over both break-ups, and someone I never knew before February to make me be grateful. For these reasons, I seek to always find a way to help everyone around me because I had a long 3 months. I never want someone to go through what I went through feeling like there is no hope for themself or the people they care for. I have started to collect food from the school and give it to the church for the homeless. I also want to start a business where I can help people who are struggling with their life. Thank you.

I have no personal experience that has shaped my pro-life position. My pro-life stance mostly comes from faith in Jesus and my parents' position. When I spoke with my pastor once, he told me about what happens to the child inside the womb. I almost threw up. Probably the most influential thing that I 'experienced' was not even first-hand. I once saw a movie that told of abortion and this lady who performed thousands. It was very gruesome imagery. However, she realized the evil she was committing and became a devout Christian. Abortion is now being pushed in schools by changing the language of "miscarriage" to "unplanned abortions" in classes such as Biology, Earth and Environmental Science (population control), Psychology, and even History (King Henry VIII). I said the word "miscarriage" in Psychology, and the teacher condoned me and told me the correct term was unplanned abortion." (That is the subject I came to my pastor with when he told me what happens to a child when it is aborted.) The "new" dictionary does not include the word miscarriage because it is now "unplanned abortion" even though it is still active on internet search engines. One of my actions is writing a document on the Christian view of abortions. I wrote it two years ago during COVID-19. I have not published it yet because I am including other writings with it. Also, the version needs to be more than just a few pages. It is all about how the baby is alive in the mother's womb and how abortion is equal to murder. I plan to release it once I am done with my other writings and through college. Another thing I have done is, whenever abortion comes up in school, talk about how abortion is wrong and gives no relief to the mother. I also have a very different stance on abortion than most people who are pro-life. I believe, even in rape and incest, the woman should keep the baby. This belief comes from the Bible, where there are multiple accounts of rape taking place that lead to the path of Jesus being born. I believe good things will come from a baby no matter how it was conceived. I have told fellow peers to not get an abortion (only one girl listened) whenever they were thinking about it. A few of the girls have had regrets and depression because they followed through on getting an abortion. The biggest thing I did was go to an abortion center with a group of church members and put up signs and prayed for the children and women to turn from their intentions. I did not feel like I was doing anything wrong, but one guy kept taking the signs down and kicked one of my friends. After my friend was kicked, we were told to leave or the police would be called. We did not leave until the police told us to. Every child's life, whether born or not, whether planned or not, is important. The only thing we can leave when we die behind is children. Children are not something anyone should feel a burden to have. The only gift we receive from God is children. Thank you for giving me the chance to write about this societal issue.

My career goals will foster and meet the well-being of intellectually gifted children in two ways. The first way is being a part of a business that will be in service of people. The second way is knowing to help these children thrive and my relations with intellectually gifted children. One of my dreams is to manage a company department or business committed to serving others, such as the American Red Cross or Samaritan's Purse. However, it probably will not be either of those organizations. One of those motivational speakers came to my school one day and spoke of how he used to use the library and homeless shelter as places to stay at night. He would always be studying late into the night and both organizations made accommodations for him to finish his studies. He went on to become a poet and won an international competition. If there was a way to help all children who wanted to learn and are intelligent already. Keeping computers, books, and other resources to study would be a start to helping intellectually gifted children. Also having another detached area for arts and musical needs would help children who are particularly gifted in those areas. As the business grows, it would need to create more areas and buildings to help these students and children along their journey. My cousin, his name is Caleb, is intellectually gifted. His IQ is around 160 and he is 12 years old. However, he struggles in school for some reason. He does not like to watch someone do math or teach him how to do something. He learns well by doing it himself and reading and writing it down by himself. Caleb is very smart in the realms of math, science, and animals. He lives on 20 acres in Florida where there are bears, deer, insects, snakes, frogs, birds, a bobcat, and a cougar. He loves animals. Caleb is extremely smart; except, he does not have the best grades in terms of English class and math class. Science and civics are no issues for him. He reads books and learns science and civics by himself. School is a waste of time for him. English, though, he does not understand concepts like grammar or word types (adverbs, prepositions, etc.) In Math, he struggles because there are no resources for him to teach himself algebra. His family does not own a computer, the home does not have internet access, and he does not have a phone. My experience with him has changed my mindset. I think of myself as smart; Caleb is smart. He just needs the correct resources to help him learn the way he learns. He also has a speech impediment from being in Puerto Rico at three years old and being in English-speaking areas for the rest of his life. I have given him books I have obtained for school purposes, and he usually does well on those parts through what he learns and memorizes. I plan to use my personal experience with Caleb to motivate me to help every child I can who is extremely intelligent. I want other children to be able to learn even though their situation may be unique. I learn well from any setting and way. I thought most people were like that. My cousin has taught me that is not true. I seriously wonder if children who are "failing" classes and tests are not dumb, but are not being taught the correct way for them. Thank you.

I am an ambitious and enthusiastic student. I am planning to run track at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSM&T) while obtaining degrees in Business Management in Technology (BMIT) and Mechanical Engineering. I have four siblings, two parents, and two grandmas, all of who I love dearly. I am the middle child; however, I am the oldest living with my parents and have been since I was three years old. Being the eldest child, my job has been to be a role model and leader for my two younger siblings. My upbringing taught me how to be a natural leader. Using the leadership I received, I usually take charge of situations without trying. I strive to use leadership to make the community in which I live better. One impact on one person is all I need to leave to hopefully leave the impact of making the world better. I want to create a business with the purpose of helping others in need, such as the Red Cross or Samaritan's Purse. The social issue in the current community I am living in is poverty/homelessness. We have mountains all around and do not have many large businesses. Also, many of the big businesses we have are leaving the area to get better geography. There are also two homeless encampments not established by an institution, so they are considered criminals. Multiple veterans are living in these "camps." (Our town size is approximately three-thousand.) One way I am trying to fix the poverty complication, even though I am just a teenager in high school about to graduate and go to a university, is by giving out food from school I get for free from asking for food over the weekends. However, that is not benefitting them in the long term. If I start up a business, I can help these men and women get occupations to give them long-term benefits and help with their crisis. The business will be to help others, which, if I am able to hire these people who have come out of poverty and homelessness, will be a success because the employees will know what trouble it is like. I hope to use both my degrees to start this business in any community I am living in when I have the money liquidity to start it up. I once was close to the same situation of homelessness. My family was near $0 in savings and checking with bills to pay and food to buy. I know what it is like living in fear of becoming homeless and going to bed hungry, and I do not want that on anyone. I cannot imagine how much worse it is even with being told by the homeless people I have spoken to. Thank you.

My great-grandpa on my mom's side of the family was an engineer. At the time of his graduation, my great-grandpa was the youngest person from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSM&T) to receive two bachelor's degrees. One of the degrees he had was in Mechanical Engineering. I cannot remember the second degree he received. Engineering is a part of my family history; however, my dad's best friend, Ben, is a Mechanical Engineer. My dad decided to set up an interview about some of the questions I had about engineering with Ben. Ben and I did a Zoom Meeting, and I asked eight total questions. The interview lasted approximately 90 minutes. Ben educated me about Mechanical Engineering being the "Jack-of-All-Trades but master of none." He told me it is why he became one. I also asked about Chemical, Civil, and Aeronautical Engineering. Maybe because his bias was present, and/or maybe because my great-grandpa was, but I chose to pursue a Mechanical Engineering degree. In fact, during the summer of 2020, I went to South Dakota. While there, a family friend told us how she was a good friend with some of the admissions people at Mines. Our friend gave us their number to call and find information. All-in-all, I decided to pursue attending SDSM&T just like my great-grandpa did. I applied early and only to Mines. I was accepted the first day admissions reviewed my application. After I was accepted, I called the track coach to ask a few questions. I will be running track at Mines while trying to obtain both degrees. If everything works out in track, I could be trying to run professional track. If not (which is very likely), I will use the Business Management in Technology and Mechanical Engineering degrees to find work. I could work almost anywhere with a Mechanical Engineering and Business Management in Technology degrees. My dream is to start my own business which I will probably start after years of working for another business. I aspire to start my own businesses in sporting and outdoors and another in helping others such as a Samaritan's Purse or American Red Cross. The Mechanical Engineering degree would help with acquiring the money to start the business, and the BMIT degree would help with having some knowledge to run a business. It all depends on the location of where it is set up for the sporting and outdoors company, while the other is meant to help community members in need. Thank you.

Around this time last year, my father updated me on how much money we had in the savings account. The amount he told me scared me because we did not have enough to pay bills let alone anything for food. The deep freezer was out of everything except 2 pounds of beef and 6 pork chops. We had enough canned vegetables, but we were almost done with meats. We had to ration those foods out for two weeks after everything was spent off for bills. When my dad told me, I was thinking we might end up homeless within the next couple of months, I would not be able to complete my schooling, and we would lose everything we physically had. I had known the bank account had been going down for the last 8 months at a certain pace. I was the "banker" for our expenses for about a year. That was how I calculated and overwhelmed myself with emotions of sadness and hatred. It seemed like we were done because I did not see a way around it. I did not know what to do. I was not working, and even if I was, I probably would not have been making enough to help in any way. I started to gather food from the school that was on a "share table". All were snacks such as graham crackers and granola bars, but it kept my brother and sister full. I was able to bring a couple of apples and/or pears here and there from lunch. My dad told me to stop worrying about the bills, and that he would figure it out. My dad did side jobs and was able to pay for some food during the two weeks. He worked almost 130 hours of non-side job work during those two weeks to keep a roof over our heads. He told me this, no matter how it turned out, was a lesson for me to learn from. I need to, when I start living outside my parent's house, look ahead. Instead of looking at the current time and how much money I had, look ahead to how much I did not have. "That was our mistake," my dad said. "We did not look ahead and wasted money we did not have." Anyway, from May through September, my father was working his butt off. I also worked to maybe help with expenses, but my dad never took any money. We struggled with everything until my dad got a bonus and was able to start saving money. It took him talking with my mom about their expenses, and we all set up limits on what we spent and how we needed to look in the freezer each pay period to see what we needed for the week. (Also, we received deer meat from a friend and were able to get two deer ourselves.) I learned a lot about finances during that time. This adversity showed me hard work and faith will get you through any hard time. Life is going to give us tough situations to get out of; we have to take a step back and think about it. Otherwise, it will tear us up. We need to run scenarios in our heads and believe we will get through our hard times. We also need to look ahead in time, so we can plan our money and live healthily. Thank you.

From December 8th, 2021 to October 12th, 2022, I struggled with keeping my mental health stable. Before December 2021, I never thought anything could shake my mental health, which was extremely well. The shake-up in my mental well-being came from two main factors. The first was a breakup I went through. The second factor was a relationship of a friend. He had lies and false accusations thrown his way. For the first factor, my girlfriend had been cheating on me with another person she had never met before, except through Snapchat. I found out from her on the day of the college's final exams. I went to my math class and took the test crying with a nosebleed. I did not care what anyone thought of me in the room. It was an easy test, even though I felt like crap. I passed the test. I went on to my Spanish class, in which I had a spoken exam to pass the course. The prompt was chosen through cards faced down. I picked the card that stated, "A close friend has just betrayed you." I thought, still holding back tears, "This is going to be fun." Somehow, I went through something else I made up in my mind closely related without shedding a tear. I barely passed the Spanish-spoken test. The next day was the same thing for both classes; math had a more technical side, and Spanish class had an entirely written exam on whatever we wanted to write about. Those parts, I passed as well. I struggled throughout the winter. The worst part, I needed to hunt to help supply the family with food. Alone in the woods, seeing nothing, and going through a recent break-up never go well together. I would usually be crying on the drive home, because I felt like a total failure. The feeling lasted through March because she started lying about me, and my best friend went through an even rougher break-up. For the second factor, my friend had a lot of accusations from his break-up going on. The school did an investigation. It was ugly. I had to speak with the principal of the high school and the dean of the community college to tell them everything I knew. His ex-girlfriend and her friend, who accused my friend, were a part of my friend group. Others also sought to get involved with the issue. It cooled down around March. The girls dropped the charges; however, the school kept pursuing them. The friend of his ex tried to get me on their side. I used the conversation to defend my friend because she lied multiple times during the five-minute conversation. In July, the school cleared my friend of the charges. From December to August, I was receiving threats to my life and family. I never thought to record anything, but it stays in my mind. Most of the people, I never knew before. It was because I defended my best friend about a situation that I witnessed. I was there during one of the "incidents" and it never happened. I could not say it happened because it never did. From April to August, I was with another girl. We broke up and again, more lies were told about me. I had friends coming up to me and telling me what was being said about me. I was told that she was saying I attacked her and did all this other stuff. The craziest part about that is my ex from the December break-up told me that. Also, the girl my best friend broke up with told me other things that were being said. I also got told these things by my best friend and one of her best friends. What saved me from falling was sports, specifically basketball which I am terrible at playing. Every day, I had a free period from 12:00 to 1:20. I played basketball with my peers, but some adults from the college started playing in the gym too. My buddies were afraid to ask if we could play. Next day, I asked them because all my buddies had a class. The adults let me play and I became better. I played basketball every day, until the school cracked down and told me I could not play. It was the only thing I looked forward to doing every day I had school. These people helped me forget about all the worries in the world I had for over an hour straight every day. I was reluctant, but I learned a lesson: If someone asks, let them join because it just might save them from something unseen. For these reasons, I seek to always find a way to help everyone around me. I never want someone to go through what I went through: feeling like there is no hope for themself or the people they care for. I have started collecting food from the school and giving it to the church. The church gives donated food to the homeless. I also want to start a business I can help people who are struggling with their life. That is why I am pursuing a business degree. I can start up my own business to help others in the community. Another thing is the minor in Mechanical Engineering gives me the opportunity to help others without ever getting personally praised for it by someone/the people who use what I helped build. Because of what happened to me, my best friend, and how I came to overcome through other people just saying I could join them in basketball, I just want to help people. I want to be able to save others from what might be consuming them on the inside. Thank you.

My name is Michael Broda Jr. I attend Wilkes Early College High School, NC and dual-enroll in Wilkes Community College classes. I also run Varsity Track and play Varsity Baseball for Wilkes Central High School. Some of my interests are agriculture, athletics, business, psychology, and volunteerism. I have two younger siblings and two older siblings. My family extremely loves me. After high school, I will have an Associate of Arts Degree and a High School Diploma. I will pursue a Business Management in Technology (BMIT) Degree while running track at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSM&T). I plan to minor in Mechanical Engineering while attending SDSM&T. Scholarships are meant for one thing in a student's mind: paying for school. If I were to win this scholarship, I am going to use it to help pay off tuition for college. College Debt in the United States is the longest-lasting form of debt Americans are tasked with paying off. My mom is still paying off debt from a community college she attended 17 years ago to get a certificate! My dad used athletic scholarships to help pay for college and was lucky to come out debt free, but he never received a degree. SDSM&T does not offer large amounts in terms of sports scholarships. Doing the calculations, I will be paying off approximately $48,000 for attending SDSM&T for three years to obtain my BMIT degree. The average salary for my degree is unknown, but if I use the school's average salary after graduation, I will be paying off $48,000 in about 10 years. That is if I live alone in a small home that I do not have to pay any mortgage on. It takes hard work to get through a university, It takes even more to get out of debt from attending. For some reason, I do not qualify for any grants, because all in South Dakota mean having to live in SD and all in NC mean attending a university in NC. Federal grants have already been given out and I did FAFSA on time. Scholarships are my only choice to end up going to college and not being in debt. College debt is what worries me the most about going to college. My parents cannot help me at all. The Expected Family Contribution is $3,000. The actual family contribution is $0.00. They are already struggling to pay for a small graduation party. It's all on me to not mess up and get through college. The best options are salary work and volunteering. Volunteering, even though there is no money to be made, creates connections and brings a feeling of accomplishment. Volunteering is helpful to keep others well and bring the mind and body peace. Thank you for reading my application, Michael.

Sprinting through the backyard, my father threw a tennis ball to enact the catching of a ball while moving in the outfield. My dad was teaching me how to get better at baseball after coming off an 86-hour week of working. I had no clue at the time. He worked six days a week, his only day off was Sunday, and almost every Sunday, he was working because his aunt owned 20 acres and played in the yard with us. Every Sunday evening, he told my brother, my sister, and me how proud he was of us. Then we would eat what he had cooked. I almost never saw him during the six days he worked because he was up at 4:30 and back after 9:00 every time. He never complained unless it was about people from work calling him on Sunday or food he cooked that he thought was not the best he could have done. His standards were, "Be the best no matter what you do in life. If you end up playing professional sports, be the best player. If you start a business, be the best business owner ever. Even if you flip burgers, be the best burger flipper a restaurant chain has ever seen." That is why he never complained. He knew he was the best cable puller at work. It showed too. He finally started to realize he was going to end up working himself to death if he continued. He was missing baseball games for my brother and me. He was missing horse riding practice for my sister. He found an occupation of around the same basis or running wires and pulling cables in North Carolina. It offered him more time to see us and be around the table at night. We had never gone on vacation in the nine years we lived in Florida while he was working. We have gone on one two-week vacation and a couple of long weekend vacations. (Friday evening through Monday evening because Monday is a holiday such as MLK day.) He blames himself for not trying to make it to more games and horse riding practices my siblings and I had. I told him one day, "Do not worry. I have nothing to complain about. Do I wish you were here? Yes. Absolutely; however, you never complained and you provided clothes on our backs and food to eat every day. You gave money to the horse trainers for [my sister]; you gave money to the Little League team for us to play baseball. You provided more than anything we have ever needed every day. You do it because you are living by your philosophy, "Be the best." He is my reason for all the things I pursue. I have plans that sound outrageous to everyone I tell them to. It is a long list, but I know that it takes a lot more than just wanting. It takes long weeks of working, being exhausted when I get home, and seeing progress. When I get to the debating/political/trial part of my life, I will be in speech and debating to be the best no matter who is in front of me. I would not care if the person is a favorite to win and has 20 years of experience. I will not stop and prove to everyone I am the best. My father sacrificed for me to get to where I am and where I am going. I will not let anyone tell me I will not reach the top. Thank you.

There are two reasons I am pursuing a business degree. The first one is so I can be my own boss. The second reason is so I can help people live well. I want to manage and own a business such as a BassPro or a Sports Academy. Outdoor events and sports are activities I am always active in. Being my own boss is something that has always been at the forefront of my mind. I love the freedom to choose and be myself. I love leading things all the time. I also do not want someone to choose what my salary will be when I get into the workforce. It is all about my ability for me (yes, I know this is selfish) to choose for myself what I want, and how I want it to achieve or complete a goal I want. However, I like to take suggestions on what to do. I am not going to be the boss who is "my way or the highway" kind. I have worked in an environment where I saw an easier way to complete a task and complete it quicker. I was chastised for doing it a quicker, simpler way. Instead of the tast taking over 3 hours, it took about one hour and 20 minutes. Since I know the feeling of all that, I will take the suggestion. If it proves to be better, then I will let them continue their way. A wage in any proportion is a good thing. There was a news article back around 2017 to 2018 about a janitor that made over 9 million dollars that he donated to charities upon his death. He was paid on a salary scale, under minimum wage, but still accumulated 9 million dollars to help others. Now, I will not be paying my workers minimum wage or putting them on salary, so I can save money through their working time. I will be giving employees a wage in which to help them live. I do not know what that will be until I start my business, but I know how it is to need money from a raise and not get it. It has happened to my father, my mother, and myself. I do not want the morale to be low in my workplace because they did not get the money they earned. To make a positive impact on the community through education, there is simple economics to help explain. A workplace that pays well and has a lot of positions equals more money flowing around the community. The economy within and around the community will grow. A large workplace that pays well will also be bringing in people from nearby areas to work. The population will grow. Thus, diversity within the community will grow, the economy will grow, and morale around the community will be up. That is how gaining a business management degree will help me to help the community. Thank you.

There are two reasons I am pursuing a business degree. The first one is so I can be my own boss. The second reason is so I can help people live well. I want to manage and own a business such as a BassPro or a Sports Academy. Outdoor events and sports are activities I am always active in. Being my own boss is something that has always been at the forefront of my mind. I love the freedom to choose and be myself. I love leading things all the time. I also do not want someone to choose what my salary will be when I get into the workforce. It is all about my ability for me (yes, I know this is selfish) to choose for myself what I want, and how I want it to achieve or complete a goal I want. However, I like to take suggestions on what to do. I am not going to be the boss who is "my way or the highway" kind. I have worked in an environment where I saw an easier way to complete a task and complete it quicker. I was chastised for doing it a quicker, simpler way. Instead of the tast taking over 3 hours, it took about one hour and 20 minutes. Since I know the feeling of all that, I will take the suggestion. If it proves to be better, then I will let them continue their way. A wage in any proportion is a good thing. There was a news article back around 2017 to 2018 about a janitor that made over 9 million dollars that he donated to charities upon his death. He was paid on a salary scale, under minimum wage, but still accumulated 9 million dollars to help others. Now, I will not be paying my workers minimum wage or putting them on salary, so I can save money through their working time. I will be giving employees a wage in which to help them live. I do not know what that will be until I start my business, but I know how it is to need money from a raise and not get it. It has happened to my father, my mother, and myself. I do not want the morale to be low in my workplace because they did not get the money they earned. To make a positive impact on the community through education, there is simple economics to help explain. A workplace that pays well and has a lot of positions equals more money flowing around the community. The economy within and around the community will grow. A large workplace that pays well will also be bringing in people from nearby areas to work. The population will grow. Thus, diversity within the community will grow, the economy will grow, and morale around the community will be up. That is how gaining a business management degree will help me to help the community. Thank you.

Attributes that make me unique are my integrity, compassion, swagger, and intelligence. I usually do not see myself as having unique attributes except when someone else tells me. My family, mother, father, siblings, grandparents, etc. all tell me about these specific attributes. However, I see it as their duty to tell me. The encouragement and belief come from when people around the community tell me or my parents. My integrity and honesty ultimately stem from my family values. I learned from an early age to stop lying because it is only going to become worse. It hurts to speak the truth always, but I do. I have lost friendships because of my blunt integrity, but the friendships I have maintained are stronger because of it. On the topic of compassion, I have a very sympathetic heart. I hate to see anyone in any sort of pain. I want to help people. In many cases, it has been detrimental to me. I let myself be exposed, so I can hopefully help the person in need. My dad has noted multiple times that I need to stop because people take advantage of me. I notice it, but I still help the ones who do not abuse my compassion. Swagger may sound bad to people, but I see it as a benefit for myself. Many people do not like me for how I hold myself and call it cocky. It is not cocky. Cocky and swagger are different. Cocky is bad because it is never backed up. Swagger is confidence and having slight cockiness but being good with what I do. My swagger is shown mostly during sporting events. I play well in the positions I play. Every time I make a difficult play, I usually do not show it immediately because I have been there before. It is off the field where I walk tall, talk, and do what many do on the field. On the field is for intimidation purposes, which I do not believe in intimidation. My intelligence comes from my father being a very smart dad and making me learn ahead of the grade I was in. At three, he was teaching me how to add and subtract all sorts of numbers. When I was 7, I heard we had to do multiplication tables in 3rd grade. My father already was teaching me everything up to the 10s. My dad also bought me books to read, and I once was reading 5 different books at the same time. I just went back and forth between all of them. My dad taught me about the Founding Fathers, the U.S. Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence around 8 years old. Now, I have passed every class of high school and dual-enrollment classes with an A. I accumulated 81 credits during my high school years. I give it all to my dad, but he points back at me because I had to teach myself algebra, statistics, and trigonometry. He also states he never could have done all I have but was just the base foundation to my education. I mean, the qualities are not unique in and of themselves. It comes to how I use them and gained the use(s) of my qualities. Thank you.

The United States Constitution is the highest-held document for the citizens of America to follow. It is the law. It provides the opportunity when interpreted correctly and followed, for everyone to accomplish their American dream. Freedoms are given and taken away to preserve sanity. It alternates because the creators knew of human folly. Amendments such as the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 19th show how ratifications to the document help rights be given to citizens of the USA. The Constitution lays out what the rights of American citizens are. The right to vote, freedom of speech, speedy trial, no uncruel punishments, and others are all constructed to give us what we see as the United States today. The 15th and 19th Amendments allow African-American men (former) and women (latter) to vote. Slavery would still be practiced if amendments were not able to be made to the US Constitution. The Constitution gave the ability for former President Obama to run and win the executive office. Americans do not need to live in fear because of the rights that cannot be taken away. The first words say it all, "We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union..." The purpose of the US Constitution is simply stated in the Preamble: an ever progressing to a better future Union for ALL US citizens. For myself, I am going for a business management degree, but I plan to have engineering with civil liberties underlying my degree. The degree and other education pieces will allow me to help continue the good fight for civil liberties. Managing a business (or a department in the business), I get to hire the "right" person for the job. I have heard stories of African Americans graduating at the top of their class, but being turned down and the occupation going to their white and Asian peers. If someone, no matter the race, graduates at the top of their class, I will not turn them down. Experience is given from being on the occupational level. Being in the community, I can find the needs of the community and what needs to be done. I can promote public officials who have a forefront to encourage the advancement of people in minorities. It is a wonder more business owners do not because we are all Americans. A child does not see race until it is shoved in their face. We need to go back to being children but helping the men and women who are also building the country with us. Thank you.

Hello committee, my name is Michael Broda Jr. I am a student dual-enrolled at Wilkes Early College High School (WECHS) and Wilkes Community College (WCC). The school is located in Wilkesboro, NC which is the halfway point between Boone, NC and Winston-Salem, NC. I am graduating from both WCC and WECHS in May of 2023. I will attend South Dakota School of Mines in Technology (SDSM&T) to earn my Business Management in Technology and Mechanical Engineering degrees. This is the journey of how I decided to pursue this degree... Looking at the world around me, I wondered how life was so advanced to the extent we see today. Massive machines hauling over fifteen tons, skyscrapers having clouds appear inside, vehicles with speeds of zero to 60 Miles Per Hour in under 2 seconds, and other innovations all brought curiosity to flourish in my brain. At this time, my father tried to educate me about business ownership and being my own boss. All the while understanding I was passionate about being an engineer; thus, my father had me video call his friend, Mr. Bigio, who works as Mechanical Engineer. It was an interview. I asked the questions about engineering and he gave me answers. From occupations for mechanical engineers to even what a civil engineer is, we covered all the questions I had. The interview set me on the path toward engineering. Next summer, we had our first-ever family vacation of more than five days! It was a trip to South Dakota where a lot of family and friends live. We were also going to see my niece (two years old at the time) who has a heart defect. Anyway, while in West River (the West side of the Missouri River), my mother's friends started talking about South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. It is an engineering school, and our friends are good friends with the admissions counselor for incoming freshmen. We started to get in contact with her. She talked about all the degrees they had available. One is called Business Management in Technology. Grisel stated, "The Business Management in Technology degree only reaches the bachelor level. We are one of about ten schools in the United States to have it. It is, at its core, a business management education; it includes the basics of engineering and technology to build a base." I was astounded. I could study engineering and managing a business within a single degree! I asked for the professor's contact information and a Junior Day for potential incoming students was discussed. Even though I was an upcoming Junior, I was certain I discovered where I was going to attend college and what I was going to study. I committed to run Men's track at SDSM&T, declared Business Management in Technology as my major, placed down Mechanical Engineer as the minor, and am interested in Chemical Engineering. It was the only college I applied to. Thank you.

Sprinting through the backyard, my father threw a tennis ball to enact the catching of a ball while moving in the outfield. My dad was teaching me how to get better at baseball after coming off an 86-hour week of working. I had no clue at the time. He worked six days a week, his only day off was Sunday, and almost every Sunday, he was working because his aunt owned 20 acres and played in the yard with us. Every Sunday evening, he told my brother, my sister, and me how proud he was of us. Then we would eat what he had cooked. I almost never saw him during the six days he worked because he was up at 4:30 and back after 9:00 every time. He never complained unless it was about people from work calling him on Sunday or food he cooked that he thought was not the best he could have done. His standards were, "Be the best no matter what you do in life. If you end up playing professional sports, be the best player. If you start a business, be the best business owner ever. Even if you flip burgers, be the best burger flipper a restaurant chain has ever seen." That is why he never complained. He knew he was the best cable puller at work. It showed too. He finally started to realize he was going to end up working himself to death if he continued. He was missing baseball games for my brother and me. He was missing horse riding practice for my sister. He found an occupation of around the same basis or running wires and pulling cables in North Carolina. It offered him more time to see us and be around the table at night. We had never gone on vacation in the nine years we lived in Florida while he was working. We have gone on one two-week vacation and a couple of long weekend vacations. (Friday evening through Monday evening because Monday is a holiday such as MLK day.) He blames himself for not trying to make it to more games and horse riding practices my siblings and I had. I told him one day, "Do not worry. I have nothing to complain about. Do I wish you were here? Yes. Absolutely; however, you never complained and you provided clothes on our backs and food to eat every day. You gave money to the horse trainers for [my sister]; you gave money to the Little League team for us to play baseball. You provided more than anything we have ever needed every day. You do it because you are living by your philosophy, "Be the best." He is my reason for all the things I pursue. I have plans that sound outrageous to everyone I tell them to. It is a long list, but I know that it takes a lot more than just wanting. It takes long weeks of working, being exhausted when I get home, and seeing progress. When I get to the debating/political/trial part of my life, I will be in speech and debating to be the best no matter who is in front of me. I would not care if the person is a favorite to win and has 20 years of experience. I will not stop and prove to everyone I am the best. My father sacrificed for me to get to where I am and where I am going. I will not let anyone tell me I will not reach the top. Thank you.

"Pop!" was the sound that came from my ribs after getting popped by a linebacker while trying to track the football down on a punt. I looked up in a crowd, so it was on me; however, the ref was right there and saw it happen but never threw the flag. I was laying on the ground for a while trying to breathe. I saw the team trainer come over. I do not know if it was a sudden rush of adrenaline or anger for being injured, but I was on my feet as soon as I saw the trainer running over. He took off my pads and helmet and started to examine me. It was difficult to breathe, but I stayed there and tried to watch the rest of the game while he examined my chest. Before it was over, my brother was next to me and started a conversation to help me forget some of the pain. At the final, the trainer told my family to think about getting me to the hospital for an examination. All they did was x-rays. My father believed I had torn my cartilage between my ribs as he did when he played. He made this assumption after I told him what occurred. The pop sound would not have happened if I had broken any bones. The X-rays showed nothing. Torn cartilage is only shown through MRI, which the doctor decided not to order for me. My football season was over, but baseball was just around the corner. (It was 2021, so football backed up right into baseball.) I knew the only way I was going to be ready for baseball was by self-training and working out. I stopped going to football practices because COVID regulations did not allow injured athletes to be on the sideline. Because of this, I also missed the last game. My father had some weights a friend gave him years ago. They have rungs to change the weight. I started out on the 1s rung for a week. During days there were only online classes, I worked out during the lessons and stayed muted. Sometimes I ended up collapsing from exhaustion and falling asleep. (I still passed all my classes with As!) I also increased the weights and started doing many exercises during my workout. I would come home after days of school and go right into working out. I ended up gaining 6 pounds of muscle and losing 2 pounds of fat according to my doctor on an examination to see if I cleared protocol to play baseball. I accomplished this in 4 weeks! I was elated to have the opportunity to play baseball without missing one practice. During the season, I had above a .333 batting average, above a .600 on-base percentage, and over 30 hits in 20 games. It was the best baseball season I had. I believe the injury I sustained led me to exercise and work out to the extent that every part of my body was in tune to play baseball fantastically. I also count doing well to gardening during the season and eating well. I have not regained that ability. Now I am in my last baseball season I will probably ever play: my college does not have baseball. I have also been injured to the point I cannot even work out until baseball season comes around. I am ready to see what my last season holds for me. I just hope college will not bankrupt me or my family when I go over 3000 miles away in August. Thank you.

There are two reasons I am pursuing a business degree. The first one is so I can be my own boss. The second reason is so I can help people live well. I want to manage and own a business such as a BassPro or a Sports Academy. Outdoor events and sports are activities I am always active in. Being my own boss is something that has always been at the forefront of my mind. I love the freedom to choose and be myself. I love leading things all the time. I also do not want someone to choose what my salary will be when I get into the workforce. It is all about my ability for me (yes, I know this is selfish) to choose for myself what I want, and how I want it to achieve or complete a goal I want. However, I like to take suggestions on what to do. I am not going to be the boss who is "my way or the highway" kind. I have worked in an environment where I saw an easier way to complete a task and complete it quicker. I was chastised for doing it a quicker, simpler way. Instead of the tast taking over 3 hours, it took about one hour and 20 minutes. Since I know the feeling of all that, I will take the suggestion. If it proves to be better, then I will let them continue their way. A wage in any proportion is a good thing. There was a news article back around 2017 to 2018 about a janitor that made over 9 million dollars that he donated to charities upon his death. He was paid on a salary scale, under minimum wage, but still accumulated 9 million dollars to help others. Now, I will not be paying my workers minimum wage or putting them on salary, so I can save money through their working time. I will be giving employees a wage in which to help them live. I do not know what that will be until I start my business, but I know how it is to need money from a raise and not get it. It has happened to my father, my mother, and myself. I do not want the morale to be low in my workplace because they did not get the money they earned. To make a positive impact on the community through education, there is simple economics to help explain. A workplace that pays well and has a lot of positions equals more money flowing around the community. The economy within and around the community will grow. A large workplace that pays well will also be bringing in people from nearby areas to work. The population will grow. Thus, diversity within the community will grow, the economy will grow, and morale around the community will be up. That is how gaining a business management degree will help me to help the community. Thank you.

Mrs. Cristy Sweeney, the lead coordinator of the American Red Cross for Alexander County in North Carolina, was at Salem Lutheran Church while I was volunteering at the blood drive to help blood donors feel comfortable. She told me, "I am grateful your generation includes people such as yourself willing to sacrifice time to succor others." This quote was ahead of me giving blood; she had to head out early. She had no idea I was going to give blood because I decided last minute. When she discovered I gave blood, she was elated. Volunteerism is the life we need to lead. I have volunteered over 200 hours in the previous three years according to my Beta Club sponsor. Volunteering is running an interminable race. It is a life-long endeavor. However, volunteering has rewards internally. The foremost of my time volunteering has come from church. I am an acolyte on ever-other Sunday. About one and a half to two hours every Sunday has brought my hours this high. I ignite the candles on the altar, extinguish them, assemble the clothing for pastor and the next acolyte and crucifer, commence the liturgy, and conclude the liturgy. Other time has been accumulated from blood drives, Beta Club events, National Honor Society events, and tutoring. The one rewarding the best, which is also the most complex of every volunteering opportunity, is tutoring. It has provided me with a new reverence for educators. Tutoring peers is the most demanding task of any volunteering I do. Tutoring presses on past knowledge, which I try to dig up like a plant in the dirt. In some cases, I am trying to recover things I was educated about three to four years prior. Teaching those subjects to peers who are straining to learn the subject matter makes it an easy topic for me to know hard. It once took me three hours to tutor a student in Math II about one subject. However, the reward of her telling me how glad she was when she achieved 100 percent on the project made me feel fantastic. All volunteering does this, but tutoring a peer and them excelling is a different type of joy. The community benefits from all volunteerism. Volunteerism makes society as a whole succeed. Volunteering may not mean being brave, and may not mean being shone on; however, what volunteering does mean is being a help to a person without any want for anything back. It is a person giving money to a homeless man, it is helping a man up the stairs on the bus, it is a teacher during office hours, and it is anyone on a battlefield helping their closest friend or worst enemy. Volunteering leads to being a role model. The younger children I know in life look up to me. It humbles me to know someone else wants to be like me. However, the point of it is to get others to be willing to volunteer and help others. I guess I volunteer because of how proud I am to see people do/be well. I rarely am doing it for satisfaction. That will come in time with everything we accomplish. Volunteering is how we show the world that not everything is as terrible as it seems. Volunteering requires persistence, little experience, and is simple to begin. Volunteering is how we help others be ready to volunteer. I have my entire life to be of service to others. As for why I need the scholarship, financially: I need to go out of state to get the best engineering education possible. Thank you.

Mrs. Cristy Sweeney, the lead coordinator of the American Red Cross for Alexander County in North Carolina, was at Salem Lutheran Church while I was volunteering at the blood drive to help blood donors feel comfortable. She told me, "I am grateful your generation includes people such as yourself willing to sacrifice time to succor others." This quote was ahead of me giving blood; she had to head out early. She had no idea I was going to give blood because I decided last minute. When she discovered I gave blood, she was elated. Volunteerism is the life we need to lead. I have volunteered over 200 hours in the previous three years according to my Beta Club sponsor. Volunteering is running an interminable race. It is a life-long endeavor. However, volunteering has rewards internally. The foremost of my time volunteering has come from church. I am an acolyte on ever-other Sunday. About one and a half to two hours every Sunday has brought my hours this high. I ignite the candles on the altar, extinguish them, assemble the clothing for pastor and the next acolyte and crucifer, commence the liturgy, and conclude the liturgy. Other time has been accumulated from blood drives, Beta Club events, National Honor Society events, and tutoring. The one rewarding the best, which is also the most complex of every volunteering opportunity, is tutoring. It has provided me with a new reverence for educators. Tutoring peers is the most demanding task of any volunteering I do. Tutoring presses on past knowledge, which I try to dig up like a plant in the dirt. In some cases, I am trying to recover things I was educated about three to four years prior. Teaching those subjects to peers who are straining to learn the subject matter makes it an easy topic for me to know hard. It once took me three hours to tutor a student in Math II about one subject. However, the reward of her telling me how glad she was when she achieved a 100 percent on the project made me feel fantastic. All volunteering does this, but tutoring a peer and them excelling is a different type of joy. The community benefits from all volunteerism. Volunteerism makes society as a whole succeed. Volunteering may not mean being brave, and may not mean being shone on; however, what volunteering does mean is being a help to a person without any want for anything back. It is a person giving money to a homeless man, it is helping a man up the stairs on the bus, it is a teacher during office hours, and it is anyone on a battlefield helping their closest friend or worst enemy. Volunteering leads to being a role model. The younger children I know in life look up to me. It humbles me to know someone else wants to be like me. However, the point of it is to get others to be willing to volunteer and help others. I guess the reason I volunteer is because of how proud it makes me see people do/be well. I rarely am doing it for satisfaction. That will come in time with everything we accomplish. Volunteering is how we show the world that not everything is as terrible as it seems. Volunteering requires persistence, little to no experience, and is simple to begin. Volunteering is how we help others be ready to volunteer. I have my entire life to be of service to others. Thank you.

Since December 2021, I have struggled with keeping my mental health stable. Before December 2021, I never thought anything could shake my mental health, which was extremely well. The shake-up in my mental well-being came from two main factors. The first was a breakup I went through. The second factor was a relationship of a friend. He had lies and false accusations thrown his way. For the first factor, my girlfriend had been cheating on me with another person she had never met before, except through Snapchat. I found out from her on the day of the college's final exams. I went to my math class and took the test crying with a nosebleed. I did not care what anyone thought of me in the room. It was an easy test, even though I felt like crap. I passed the test. I went on to my Spanish class, which I had a spoken exam to pass the course. The prompt was chosen through cards faced down. I picked the card that stated, "A close friend has just betrayed you." I thought, still holding back tears, "This is going to be fun." Somehow, I went through something else I made up in my mind closely related without shedding a tear. I barely passed the Spanish-spoken test. The next day was the same thing for both classes; math had a more technical side, and Spanish class had an entirely written exam on whatever we wanted to write about. Those parts, I passed as well. I struggled throughout the winter. The worst part, I needed to hunt to help supply the family with food. Alone in the woods, seeing nothing, and going through a recent break-up never go well together. I would usually be crying on the drive home, because I felt like a total failure. The feeling lasted through March because she started lying about me, and my best friend went through an even rougher break-up For the second factor, my friend had a lot of accusations from his break-up going on. The school did an investigation. It became ugly. I had to speak with the principal of the high school and the dean of the community college to tell them everything I knew. His ex-girlfriend and her friend, who accused my friend, were a part of my friend group. Others also sought to get involved with the issue. It cooled down around March. The girls dropped the charges; however, the school kept pursuing them. The friend of his ex tried to get me on their side. I used the conversation to defend my friend because she lied multiple times during the five-minute conversation. In July, the school cleared my friend of the charges. It took me from December to March to get back on track. It took two break-ups, plenty of time being alone, crying my eyes out over both break-ups, and someone I never knew before February to make me grateful. For these reasons, I seek to always find a way to help everyone around me because I had 3 long months. I never want someone to go through what I went through: feeling like there is no hope for themself or the people they care for. I have been collecting food from the school and giving it to the church. The church gives donated food to the homeless. I also want to start a business I can help people who are struggling with their life. Thank you.

Since December 2021, I have struggled with my mental health being stable. Before December 2021, I never thought anything would shake my mental health which was extremely well. The shake-up in my mental well-being came from two main factors. The first was a breakup I went through where there were a lot of accusations and lies thrown my way. The second factor was a relationship of a friend turning out uglier than mine. For the first factor, my girlfriend had been cheating on me with another person she had never met except through Snapchat. I found out from her on the day of the college's final exams. I went to my math class and took the test crying and with a nosebleed. I did not care what anyone thought of me in that room. It was an easy test even though I felt like crap. I passed the test. I went on to my Spanish class in which I had a spoken exam to pass the course. The prompt was chosen through cards faced down; I picked the card that stated, "A close friend has just betrayed you." "This is going to be fun I thought still holding back tears." Somehow I went through something else I made up in my mind that was closely related without shedding a tear. I barely passed that test. The next day was the same thing for both classes; math had a more technical side and Spanish class had an entirely written exam on whatever we wanted to speak about. Those parts, I passed as well. I struggled throughout the winter. The worst part, I needed to hunt to hopefully get a deer to help supply the family with food. Alone in the woods, seeing nothing, and going through a recent break-up never go well together. I would usually be crying on the drive back home because I felt like a total failure. That feeling lasted through March because she started lying about me and my best friend went through an even rougher break-up. For the second factor, my friend had a lot of accusations from his break-up going on. The school did an investigation. It was really ugly. I had to speak with the principal of the high school and the dean of the community college to tell them everything I knew. His girlfriend and her friend who accused my friend were a part of my friend group. Others also sought to get involved with the whole issue. It cooled down around March. The girls finally dropped the charges; however, the school kept pursuing them. The friend of his ex tried to get me on their side. I used the conversation to defend my friend because she lied multiple times during the five-minute conversation. In July, the school cleared my friend of the charges. It took me from December to March to get back on track, two break-ups for myself and my best friend, plenty of time being alone crying my eyes out over both break-ups, and someone I never knew before February to make me grateful. For these reasons, I seek to always find a way to help everyone around me because I had a long 3 months. I never want someone to go through what I went through feeling like there is no hope for themself or the people they care for. I have started to collect food from the school and give it to the church for the homeless. I also want to start a business where I can help people who are struggling with their life. Thank you.

Sprinting through the crisp air of the mountains, with no worries in the world, I smiled thinking about everything I had and was determined to complete. I was on the track, and no one could catch me. It was not for a medal or ribbon, but I was ahead of everyone. That was all that mattered to me. I thought about baseball, my family, and why I was in front of everyone. The thoughts that came through my mind were, "I am competing in track to get faster in baseball before my final season," "I am in first because I have nothing to lose, and I am a nobody here: no one knows who I am and what I can do," "Thank you, dad and mom, for telling me to never stop and go 100 mph in everything," and "Thank you, [brother], for being faster than me, so I had to get faster and have better stamina." However, the most provoking thought I had in my mind was: "I know I will win something at state competitions." It was the first time in my life I had set foot on a track to run against other athletes. It was also the first time I felt like nothing was going wrong in the world. I had the abilities, but I did not have the money. My family had always struggled with money. I talked with the coach afterward. He wanted me to keep with the game and continue. There was only one other thing holding me back: my emotions. I do not have depression or anything along those lines; however, it is rough for me to not overthink and get upset. I started to overthink the issue with money, and let something that had previously brought me joy into something that I was anxious about. Even with the sadness, every time I stepped onto the track, I felt the same way as I did the first day we practiced. Every time I was off, I kept worrying I might not be able to go to state let alone compete in any track meet. Now, the first meet I was going to run in was canceled because of a school-related incident. The second meet I have is coming up soon. Because of how I have had other things affect me, I want to one day own a business that helps others in the community. Most likely a place where people can get help with things that are affecting them or where they can relax from issues within their life. Thank you.

Since December 2021, I have struggled with my mental health being stable. Before December 2021, I never thought anything would shake my mental health which was extremely well. The shake-up in my mental well-being came from two main factors. The first was a breakup I went through where there were a lot of accusations and lies thrown my way. The second factor was a relationship of a friend turning out uglier than mine. For the first factor, my girlfriend had been cheating on me with another person she had never met except through Snapchat. I found out from her on the day of the college's final exams. I went to my math class and took the test crying and with a nosebleed. I did not care what anyone thought of me in that room. It was an easy test even though I felt like crap. I passed the test. I went on to my Spanish class in which I had a spoken exam to pass the course. The prompt was chosen through cards faced down; I picked the card that stated, "A close friend has just betrayed you." "This is going to be fun I thought still holding back tears." Somehow I went through something else I made up in my mind that was closely related without shedding a tear. I barely passed that test. The next day was the same thing for both classes; math had a more technical side and Spanish class had an entirely written exam on whatever we wanted to speak about. Those parts I passed as well. I struggled throughout the winter. The worst part, I needed to hunt to hopefully get a deer to help supply the family with food. Alone in the woods, seeing nothing, and going through a recent break-up never go well together. I would usually be crying on the drive back home because I felt like a total failure. That feeling lasted through March because she started lying about me and my best friend went through an even rougher break-up. For the second factor, my friend had a lot of accusations from his break-up going on. The school did an investigation. It was really ugly. I had to speak with the principal of the high school and the dean of the community college to tell them everything I knew. His girlfriend and her friend who accused my friend were a part of my friend group. Others also sought to get involved with the whole issue. It cooled down around March. The girls finally dropped the charges; however, the school kept pursuing them. The friend of his ex tried to get me on their side. I used the conversation to defend my friend because she lied multiple times during the five-minute conversation. In July, the school cleared my friend of the charges. It took me from December to March to get back on track, two break-ups for myself and my best friend, plenty of time being alone crying my eyes out over both break-ups, and someone I never knew before February to make me be grateful. For these reasons, I seek to always find a way to help everyone around me because I had a long 3 months. I never want someone to go through what I went through feeling like there is no hope for themself or the people they care for. I have started to collect food from the school and give it to the church for the homeless. I also want to start a business where I can help people who are struggling with their life. Thank you.

Since December 2021, I have struggled with my mental health being stable. Before December 2021, I never thought anything would shake my mental health which was extremely well. The shake-up in my mental well-being came from two main factors. The first was a breakup I went through where there were a lot of accusations and lies thrown my way. The second factor was a relationship of a friend turning out uglier than mine. For the first factor, my girlfriend had been cheating on me with another person she had never met except through Snapchat. I found out from her on the day of the college's final exams. I went to my math class and took the test crying and with a nosebleed. I did not care what anyone thought of me in that room. It was an easy test even though I felt like crap. I passed the test. I went on to my Spanish class in which I had a spoken exam to pass the course. The prompt was chosen through cards faced down; I picked the card that stated, "A close friend has just betrayed you." "This is going to be fun I thought still holding back tears." Somehow I went through something else I made up in my mind that was closely related without shedding a tear. I barely passed that test. The next day was the same thing for both classes; math had a more technical side and Spanish class had a fully written exam on whatever we wanted to speak about. Those parts I passed as well. I struggled throughout the winter. The worst part, I needed to hunt to hopefully get a deer to help supply the family with food. Alone in the woods, seeing nothing, and going through a recent break-up never go well together. I would usually be crying on the drive back home because I felt like a total failure. That feeling lasted through March because she started lying about me and my best friend went through an even rougher break-up. For the second factor, my friend had a lot of accusations from his break-up going on. The school did an investigation. It was really ugly. I had to speak with the principal of the high school and the dean of the community college to tell them everything I knew. His girlfriend and her friend who accused my friend were a part of my friend group. Others also sought to get involved with the whole issue. It cooled down around March. The girls finally dropped the charges; however, the school kept pursuing them. The friend of his ex tried to get me on their side. I used the conversation to defend my friend because she lied multiple times during the five-minute conversation. In July, the school cleared my friend of the charges. It took me from December to March to get back on track, two break-ups for myself and my best friend, plenty of time being alone crying my eyes out over both break-ups, and someone I never knew before February to make me be grateful. For these reasons, I seek to always find a way to help everyone around me because I had a long 3 months. I never want someone to go through what I went through feeling like there is no hope for themself or the people they care for. I have started to collect food from the school and give it to the church for the homeless. I also want to start a business where I can help people who are struggling with their life. Thank you.

Sitting in the chair, head down, pencil in my right hand, and flipping the paper in my left, I heard my dad walk in the room and ask, "How is the maths going?" (Yes, my dad said, "maths." But he used it as a joke.) I responded blandly, "Okay." My dad wanted to look at my paper and try to comprehend what I was gathering. He looked at my paper. I was in second grade; I was not yet learning multiplication or division because I was going to be learning that in third grade. "This is wrong," my dad stated. He was looking at the first problem. He turned the paper to me, "When we subtract, we do not subtract hundreds first, tens second, and ones last. We subtract the ones first, the tens second, and the hundreds last. The math is confusing." I explained to him, "This is the way our teacher is having us do the math. I know it does not make sense, but I am just doing what our teacher told us how to do it. I am subtracting it the correct way on this piece of paper first to make sure I obtain the correct answer." I proceeded to show him the sheet of paper I was using as a way to check myself. "I never said the answers were incorrect. I was saying the method was wrong. The way they teach you, kids, today to subtract correctly, then do it incorrectly is the most messed up part of schools today. This method makes extra steps. Just keep doing what they want, and know how you can complete it correctly." I finished the homework later. My dad checked the work. He handed it back to me smirking. I received a one hundred percent on that math piece. Dad was glad I had a good grade on the homework, but still unhappy about what they were teaching me and my peers; thus, he took teaching me math into his own hands. A month or two later, dad came up to me and asked, "What did you learn today?" "Nothing." "Come on. You were at school for 7 plus hours, and you learned nothing." "Yep." "Alright. Well, I am going to teach you multiplication and division, so you know how to check yourself in case they teach you wrong." Did he ever teach me multiplication and division? He gave me a practice test. I failed it miserably. He told me multiplication is just a repetition of addition and division is just a repetition of subtraction. We worked on multiplication and division in restaurants on napkins. He wanted me to be the best at math in third grade. I passed the next practice test he gave me which went up to 12*12 as schools teach. I also did long division with dad and picked up that very quickly. I was good at math before the 'training', but I was extremely good at math afterward. Proof came in the form of a pretest of all multiplication from 1*1 to 12*12 that we had to complete in 10 minutes. By the end of the year, we had to complete that same test in 5 minutes for an ice cream party. I completed it in 10 minutes and only answered 4 questions incorrectly. Because of this, I started to tutor other peers in math the way my dad did. Currently, because I am learning Calculus, dad is not helping me, but he was the catalyst for getting me to where I am now. Thank you, for reading this. Thank you, dad

Throwing the football across the lawn includes the fondest memories of my childhood. Education came in the form of my father teaching me two important concepts: how to catch and how to save money. "Keep your hands placed like this" and "If I just had more money, I could be able to send you to camps to help you." The times it went to money, dad would always say, "I did well for a while. I paid my bills first, then focused on getting groceries. I am too far behind now, but you need to learn from your mother's and my mistakes." He would always address my brother and me this way. Even if we had made a good play, he wish he had the money to make us able to do that all the time. The money concept still rings true today. However, it is of higher importance now than it will be or has been, at least on a personal level. I will be going to college; I will be having to pay for every expense; I will be on my own to pay for things and make decisions. Thankfully, the university I am going to has the best return rate on investment paid into the college of any school in the nation. The thing is, they do not have any scholarships except merit-based and do not super score for the ACT or SAT. Once through college, I will be paying off student loans and trying to get out of debt. Another reason why the college I chose is great for me is the placement rate is 97% without an internship and 100% with one. I can apply for an internship each summer which helps pay for college expenses too. Everything at the point I get my degree and leave college falls into "bills" and "other". I will need to pay my bills first, so I do not fall deeper into debt. Then I can buy some food that will last me till my next pay period, and the cycle starts again. For a year, I budgeted the money my father made for the rest of the family. The categories were "bills", "food", "misc", and "gas". We saved about $1,000 not including the tax returns we gained that year; We paid the bills first because of how I balanced the pay period and the bills we had to pay. Thank you

Listening to the radio, as a young child with my mom driving, Livin' On a Prayer by Bon Jovi came on. My mother turned the radio to near-max volume and rolled down the windows. It was a Friday night in September during 2017 when we were driving home. Mom acted as if no care in the world and just sang along with Livin' On a Prayer. Even though I knew the words to the song at the time, I did not sing with my mom and the radio; my brother and sister stayed quiet as well. When the song started to end, she started turning the radio down and rolling the windows up. After it ended mom said, "Bon Jovi! A great way to begin the weekend." After that, no matter when it is, even if it is dead of winter, if Livin' On a Prayer comes from the radio, I roll the windows down and play the song as loud as I can stand it. (If it is winter, I might only crack the window to the car I have and keep it a little quieter than I would otherwise.) Another reason this song sends a message to me is because of 7th grade. I had moved to a new school over 10 hours away and a guy in my class was singing the song during lunch. I joined in, and by the end of it, we had most of the grade singing along. Livin' On a Prayer is not just a song, it gives hope; no matter what anyone is going through, it brings that comfort of hope. The song talks about love of two individuals; however, we can make it our own and bring our own life and hopes into the song. Thank you.

Blasting through Walmart at three years old, I was always going through an adventure. Being juvenile and a boy, I had the inclination to be like my father and do everything he did. I always went to the golf clubs and pondered what I would be able to do if I had them and played golf with my father. One day, dad came home with them in hand. I could not believe that I was going to spend time with my dad being able to play golf with him. The first time out on the golf course, I just hit the ball around. Dad decided to drive to where his ball was where he could still see me. I crushed a hit and it hit the golf cart he and my mom were in. When I noticed that, I yelled like any respectable golfer who is at the age of three and does not know to yell before you hit someone, "FOUR!" Ever since then, I have been playing golf on and off. That is just one of many memories I have upon the topic of competing in the game of golf. I always lose the game, but it is the memories and time spent together that makes golf special. I started by scrambling through Walmart waiting for the day when I could play golf with my dad. It is going to continue that way either with friends (and) or family members. (Currently, however, I only go when I am able to go with my dad because I do not have anyone else to play the game with. If I ever have a good friend that wanted to shoot some holes, I am ready.) Golf is a game that can last lifelong. First day after getting my driver's license, the first thing I drove was a golf cart (on a crazy course hoping not to fall off the edge of the path.) It was a beautiful spring day. It had been over 3 years since I touched a golf club. There were not many people on the course, so when we were out of sight of everyone, I took a swing. We lost where the ball went because of how bad the hit was, but my dad video taped it and had commentary in the background. Still makes everyone laugh who watches it including myself even though I wish I hit it straight because I am competitive. Golf incorporates something no other sport can do: time. Indefinently, at least if we lived forever, any one person could play golf from the time they can pick up and swing a golf club. It is the only sport where everyone can play together. Yeah, we can throw the ball in the back yard or shoot hoops together. However, when it comes to competing within the game, we usually cannot spend the time together with everyone such as we can with golf. Thank you.

Cycling in that is what I find as a comfort. It is a way to get things off your mind when issues arise. It is a way for us to have fun. Plus the saying, "It's like riding a bike." You never forget it. Getting on a bike and cycling through the countryside is something I regularly did when I was younger. One day, I needed to take my mind off a fight I had with my brother. I mounted the bike and started peddling. As I tore out of the driveway to my home, it seemed like it was going to start storming. I could hear thunder off in the distance, but I did not mind. (I had recently played basketball outside during a tropical storm.) I made it a competition between myself and the thunder/rain. I was racing the storm that was coming! There were cars that passed me from the direction of the storm. All of them were drenched but one. After the first one that was not wet passed me, I knew I had a chance to outrun the storm. (Foolish thinking because I was still upset from the fight I had with my brother.) The roads were dry in front of me but cracked from constant rain and water getting in them during the winter months. I could hear the thunder getting closer; I also started to see the flashes of lightning. 20 seconds or about 4 miles away was how close the lightning was when I decided to turn around. The storm was coming in from the southwest as I was headed back south for home. About 1 mile from the house, I saw my neighbor, Caryol. She was struggling to get her horses inside the stables before the storm. My siblings and I had ridden one of the horses. I needed to get back home before my mom was home and wondering where I was and no way to contact me because I did not have a phone and before I was drenched from the storm. However, I knew if I did not stop, Caryol would get hit by the storm and have no way to get the horses inside. I turned around again and went down to help her. She had two horses left: Angel and a quarter horse. She was trying to wrangle the quarter horse, but it was too fast and kept running back and forth between the fence corners. When I was there, we finally took an approach where both the left and the right of the horse were cut off. She planned to jump on the horse if she needed to if it ran in between us, which it did. Caryol jumped onto the horse. She already had the saddle on it and grabbed the reins. She corralled the horse into the stable all the while it was trying to buck her off. Angle was easy to get in with no issues. 4 seconds was the time between the lightning and the thunder now: 4/5 of a mile away. Caryol did not want me to take off, but I did anyway. I was rained on a little bit but nothing 10 minutes would not take care of. I called Caryol to tell her I was fine. Thankfully mom was not home. She was home about an hour later. The storm slowed her down and the roads were extra rough from the cracks. However, we were all safe at home and the storm was over soon. Thank you for reading.

Mrs. Cristy Sweeney, the lead coordinator of the American Red Cross for Alexander County in North Carolina, was at Salem Lutheran Church while I was volunteering at the blood drive to help donors feel comfortable. She told me, "I am grateful your generation includes people such as yourself that are willing to sacrifice time to succor others." This quote was ahead of me giving blood; she had to head out early. When she discovered I gave blood, she was elated. Volunteerism is the life we need to lead. I have volunteered over 200 hours in the previous three years according to my Beta Club sponsor. Volunteering is running an interminable race. It is a life-long endeavor. However, volunteering has the rewards internally. The foremost of my time volunteering has come from church. I am an acolyte on Sundays. About one and a half to two hours every Sunday has brought my number of hours volunteering higher. I ignite the candles on the altar, extinguish them, assemble the clothing for pastor and the next acolyte and crucifer, commence the liturgy, and conclude the liturgy. Other time accumulated from blood drives, Beta Club events, National Honor Society events, and tutoring. The one rewarding the best, which is also the most complex of every volunteering opportunity, is tutoring. It has provided me with a new reverence for educators. Tutoring peers is the most demanding task of any volunteering I do. Tutoring presses on past knowledge which we dig up like a plant in a rock. In some cases, I am trying to recover things I was educated about three to four years ago. Teaching that to peers who are straining to learn the subject matter makes it an easy topic for me to know hard. It once took me three hours to tutor a student in Math II about one subject. However, the reward of her telling me how glad she was when she achieved a one-hundred on the project made me feel as if I had just won a game. All volunteering does this, but tutoring a peer and them excelling is a different type of joy. The community benefits from all volunteerism. Volunteerism makes a society as a whole succeed. Volunteering may not mean being brave, and may not mean being shone on; however, what volunteering does mean is being a help to a person without any want for anything back. It is a person giving money to a homeless man, it is helping a man up the stairs on the bus, it is a teacher during office hours, and it is anyone on a battlefield helping their closest friend or worst enemy. I guess the reason I volunteer is because of how proud it makes me see people do/be well. I rarely am doing it for satisfaction. That will come in time with everything we accomplish. Volunteering is how we show the world that not everything is as terrible as it seems. Volunteering requires persistence, knowledge, little to no experience, and is something simple to begin. That is how we help others, be ready to volunteer. I have my entire life. Thank you.

Mrs. Cristy Sweeney, the lead coordinator of the American Red Cross for Alexander County in North Carolina, was at Salem Lutheran Church while I was volunteering at the blood drive to help donors feel comfortable. She told me, "I am grateful your generation includes people such as yourself that are willing to sacrifice time to succor others." This quote was ahead of me giving blood; she had to head out early. When she discovered I gave blood, she was elated. Volunteerism is the life we need to lead. I have volunteered over 200 hours in the previous three years according to my Beta Club sponsor. Volunteering is running an interminable race. It is a life-long endeavor. However, volunteering has the rewards internally. The foremost of my time volunteering has come from church. I am an acolyte on Sundays. About one and a half to two hours every Sunday has brought my number of hours volunteering higher. I ignite the candles on the altar, extinguish them, assemble the clothing for pastor and the next acolyte and crucifer, commence the liturgy, and conclude the liturgy. Other time accumulated from blood-drives, Beta Club events, National Honor Society events, and tutoring. The one rewarding the best, which is also the most complex of every volunteering opportunity, is tutoring. It has provided me with a new reverence for educators. Tutoring peers is the most demanding task of any volunteering I do. Tutoring presses on past knowledge which we dig up like a plant in a rock. In some cases, I am trying to recover things I was educated about three to four years ago. Teaching that to peers who are straining to learn the subject matter makes an easy topic for me to know hard. It once took me three hours to tutor a student in Math II about one subject. However, the reward of her telling me how glad she when she achieved a one-hundred on the project made me feel as if I had just won a game. All volunteering does this, but tutoring a peer and them excelling is a different type of joy. I guess the reason I volunteer is because of how proud it makes me to see people do/be well. I rarely am doing it for the satifaction. That will come in time with everything we accomplish. Volunteering is how we show the world that not everything is a terrible as it seems. Volunteering requires persistence, knowledge, little to no experience, and is something simple to begin. Thank you.

I am a Shakespearian actor. I have loss more than the after. My brain wonders why I am here. My soul longs for someone to be near. I am a Shakespearian actor. I am written for the human entertainment factor. My life is a screenplay. Always giving everything away. I am a Shakespearian actor. The life I live is going to blow like a nuclear reactor My power is to never feel the pain of life. The man behind me has the knife. I am a Shakespearian actor. Nothing loves me if I drive a tractor. My heart is the most hated thing on earth. But I still see others' worth. I am a Shakespearian actor. I am rarely full of laughter. My enemies are all within reach. My friends still use me as a leach. I am a Shakespearian actor. Everyone comes to attack like a raptor. My death will shed no tears. Everyone will be happy drunk with bears.

The goals I have for my future are 1.) have a loving family, 2.) get a college degree, and 3.) own a business I started from the ground up. These are my only three goals in life. Anything else I accomplish is extra. I keep it simple in my goals and broad at the same time. All the three goals are intertwined with the aspect of my life that is important. That aspect being family. Friends are just family we choose. The people who will never ask a question and come to pick me up when my car breaks down, no matter how far and no matter the cost for them. The first one I am planning to achieve, but not the most important of my goals: get a college degree. Getting a degree, any degree, gives me a better chance to make more money and help me survive. The only thing an employer asks for is what degree do you have or prior experience. Since I have not worked much in the world because I am not an adult, I do not have experience; the degree is the only way to go and survive. The second goal I want to accomplish from the remaining two could be either. Most likely, I will get a business running before I get married. On that note, the degree will help me tremendously. The college degree, most likely in business, will help me start and continue the business. Just getting started is going to be hard enough. I am going to need a lot more experience from college to educate myself on hot to become a successful business. The third goal is going to be the most difficult: family. Going through break ups is the most difficult thing a person can get through. Every one is different. I have been through 3. First one, no issues whatsoever. Second one, many issues right after, but now we are friends. Third one, wanted to continue to be friends, but we never get along anymore. The issue for me is keeping focus. Even though a family is the most important thing to me, I know that I need to get other things done before I get married and start a family. I have not gone through any hardships while pursuing a college education other than my three break ups. I have been lucky so far in my life to not have as many hardships as my best friend or others around me. However, I will experience some soon once I move to college over 24 hours away on a one-way road trip. Being away from my brother, sister, and parents is going to be difficult. Wanting to do too many sports/clubs when I first get into college. Being away from everyone I know will give me temptations. Those are the difficulties I will face. Nothing I cannot overcome, but anything that will change the plans I have for myself with one mistake. We all face challenges when we go to college to pursue an education. It is the support we bring around us to help us through the difficulties presented to us in college. We can all overcome anything thrown our way. Thank you.

The sound of the guns going off in the distance and running towards it to hopefully get a kill on Call of Duty is something many teenagers and people younger have participated in. I am not going to lie, I have done it myself a couple of times; however I have not played on an X-box or Playstation in over 7 years. I never owned one. It was usually a friend I was with for the day who was playing it, and I joined in. With the way society has transitioned from face-to-face interaction into online and phone socialization, I believe the quote above is true. I saw it in myself in games I played on my phone that were online with communicating through the phone mic. It was more difficult to communicate in face-to-face interactions. I have never been great with words when speaking, but it was really bad when I was playing games online because you can throw out words and have little chance of real-life percussions. My best friend is an avid online gamer. He has anxiety very bad around many people, and has a lot of difficulty getting his thoughts across clearly. He stutters a lot too which builds to the communication being difficult. I understand him, but most of the time, others do not. However, when it comes to him talking on the phone or through games, he is fine. I have never heard him stutter once when he has called me or when I have seen him playing games on his computer or PlayStation. Online gaming has its perks. It is a way to find a person anywhere in the world and play a game with them. It connects people who would otherwise never connect. You can easily make friends in different continents and all the way across the world. However, the knowledge of how to hold a conversation with people has dropped within the youth. Our vocabulary is not increasing through the online games but decreasing. We have lost the ability to do things that our parents and grandparents would be ashamed of if they could not do such as get their thoughts across clearly by trying to explain an idea at work. From personal experience, I know that online gaming affects adolescents and young adults in the social norms of society. Online gaming is a double-edged sword. We can make a friend plumb across the world; we can lose the ability to make friends close to home. We can lose ourselves in the game and forget about our worries for a while; we end up waiting too long and the problem explodes in our faces. We can catch gaming patterns easier; we can lose the ability to remember things in the school and workplace. All of this has happened to either me or my best friend. We do not want to and cannot end online gaming. We have to find out if we are affected by it and minimize our weaknesses if we involve ourselves in online gaming. Thank you.

The referee's whistle blared in toon to the pop in my ribs as I was blindsided from a hit. I never touched the ball that play, but I presented with a crushing blow. My ribs were on fire and my lungs did not retain the air I breathed in. Somehow I jumped up and was able to walk off the field. The trainer examined me. "Take him to the hospital for a better verdict," was told to my parents after the game ended. My dad and I went to the hospital. Dad thought I tore cartilage from the details of what I told him, because he once had torn cartillage, meaning an MRI was needed, but the doctors did not use an MRI. They took X-rays. No broken bones does not mean much when it still feels like fire is running through your lungs. I had to deal with it myself. The football season was moved back because of COVID meaning baseball was right around the corner. I did exercises and workouts. I ended up falling asleep during certain workouts because I was so exhausted. However, I kept pushing, and I ended up being able to practice from the first day of baseball with little shortness of breath. I had the best baseball season of my high school career that season. I sometimes still have shortness of breath (2 years later), but that is what recovery means to me. Overcoming any type of challenge for a better lifestyle/chance. Thank you.

The largest obstacle I have faced is overcoming favoritism in sports. My family does not have the name, the money, or the influence in the area I live. I love all sports, but I only play baseball. The reason for this is what everyone playing sports faces from every coach: favoritism. Whether it is playing the person or not, there is favoritism in play. I was getting ready for football the summer of the year when COVID-19 was big. I already knew there was favoritism because I had experienced it in baseball, football, and basketball previously. I kept working on football through the period of time that was supposed to happen. They pushed football back to February. I had over half a year to get prepared and better. (Ironically, they still had baseball practices through the period it was illegal for football to meet for practice. I attended those practices because baseball is my main sport.) By the time the season came around, I knew I was second-string in everything. The cioches already had their players from the previous season, and the quarterback was the coach's son. (Yeah, I know. It is the same story everyone gets.) However, I was better than almost everyone at what I did. The only problem is I do not like hitting. I can take a hit, but I do not and cannot hit like everyone else. Defense was then out of the question even though I read a quarterback like a book no matter who he was. (Reading a quarterback has always been natural for me, even playing two-hand touch on the playground as a little kid.) I needed to find out how to get extremely better, so I could play. I began to workout every morning before school. I was up at 5:00 and bringing the weights to the back porch. I would do an insane amount of reps (not weight so if something did happen, I would be able to stop from getting more injured). I started to do better on the field. Even with the couple hours lost in sleep, the exercise helped me get through the days. I finally started a game. I did not want to stop there. I finally became the number one quarterback. I then became a co-captain on the field. It was a lot of hard work and being hopeful that I would make it. I do not believe in back-up plans because we usually start to look at the back-up plan to make sure it will be good. "I do not want to fall back I want to fall forward, so at least I will see what I am going to hit" - Denzel Washington. I used this positivity and persistence to make it to become the co-captain of the team. I stayed humble though. I was not even close to the best player I knew down in Florida. He was also one of my best friends. We talked about everything during his season and then my season. He told me, which I never acted up on the field, but it impacted me, "The children in the stands look up to us. They see us as we see college and NFL players. It is because we are not that much older than them and they are able to talk with us if they want to." This (loose) quote from him helped me be kind to everyone because they might want to know something that I could lead them to. Thank you.

There are two reasons I am pursuing a business degree. The first one is so I can be my own boss. The second reason is so I can help people live well. I want to manage and own a business such as a BassPro or a Sports Academy. Outdoor events and sports are activities I am always active in. Being my own boss is something that has always been at the forefront of my mind. I love freedom to choose and be myself. I love leading things all the time. I also do not want someone choosing what my salary will be when I get into the workforce. It is all about the ability for me (yes, I know this is selfish) to choose for myself what I want, and how I want it to achieve or complete a goal I want. However, I like to take suggestions on what to do. I am not going to be the boss who is my way or the highway. I have worked in an environment where I saw an easier way to complete a task and complete it quicker. I was chastised for doing it a quicker, simpler way. Instead of the tast taking over 3 hours, it took about one hour and 20 minutes. Since I know the feeling of all that, I will take the suggestion. If it proves to be better, then I will let them continue there way. A wage in any proportion is a good thing. There was a news article back around 2017 to 2018 about a janitor that made over 9 million dollars that he donated to charities upon his death. He was paid on a salary scale, under minimum wage, but still accumulated 9 million dollars to help others. Now, I will not be paying my workers minimum wage or put them on salary, so I can save money through their working time. I will be giving employees a wage in which to help them live. I do not know what that will be until I start my business, but I know how it is to need money from a raise and not get it. It has happened to my father, my mother, and myself. I do not want the moral to be low in my work place because they did not get the money they earned. To make a positive impact on the community through the education, there is simple economicsto help explain. A work place that pays well and has a lot of positions equals more money flowing around the community. The economy within and around the community will grow. A large workplace that pays well will also be bringing in people from nearby areas to work. The population will grow. Thus, diversity within the community will grow, the economy will grow, and moral around the community will be up. That is how gaining a business management degree will help me to help the community. Thank you.

The one event that changed my life happened last September through December. (It continues till now but the main course of events is from October through December.) I was in a relationship with a girl that I liked. She blew off many other guys, so it surprised me when she said she liked me too. It was going really well; however, in December, she started to seclude herself from me. It turned out that since late November, she had been speaking to a girl in New York. She had never met this girl nor had she seen this girl outside of Snapchat. I found out through a friend on a Friday. I wanted to talk to her in person, so I waited to talk to her about the whole situation. Monday, I met her when we had about an hour-long break between our classes. I started the conversation casually. (It was hard to start it casually because she had changed her hairstyle, dress style, and demeanor.) It felt like forever for me to ask her if she had someone else. She and another girl there did a nervous laugh and smile. My heart dropped. The best part about the day? I had two finals for college classes I was taking. I had one in PreCalculus-Algebra, written. I also had one in Spanish, spoken. I easily passed the Math final all while crying and having a nosebleed. For the Spanish final, we had to pick a card and act it out. I picked a card that read, "A close friend has lied and betrayed you." I about died when I read that. I do not know how I did not end up not acting and using what had happened to me earlier in the day. But stories get better. My family hunts. We did not have meat in the freezer, so every morning and every evening, I went hunting. Sometimes my brother came with me, other times, he did not. Either way, we were on different parts of the property we hunted. I ended up multiple times going back to the vehicle wanting to not go home because I felt terrible. I did end up crying a couple of times while hunting. (I never saw a single deer.) Hunting season was awful. The rest of the story up to today is insane. She ended up getting with and breaking up with 4 more people before February ended. In April, I started to talk to another girl; we were in a relationship later that month. She, the ex, started to talk to a boy at school I knew was a good kid. I told him to go tell her how he felt. She has been with this guy since. I and the girl I was with broke up on the second day of school for similar reasons of secrets. I was over that within the week because I accepted our relationship would not last. I will not get into another relationship until I am out of college. But the craziest thing, the latest girlfriend wanted to still be friends but has cut herself off from me; the girl that I thought would hate me forever is being the nicest person in school to me. From this, I learned valuable lessons: let things come together before making a decision on who you want to be with, and do not stop trying to help others cause we never know what they are going through. Yes, it was rough. But I would not change a single thing because I learned beneficial lessons. Thank you.

I am pursuing a STEM career in engineering. I am passionate about engineering for two reasons. The first one is my friend who is an engineer. He has given me personal experiences of being an engineer. The second reason is my great-grandfather was an engineer. He worked on Mount Rushmore along with my great-great uncle. (My great uncle was not an engineer.) Thus, engineering has been around me for a long time, and it came to mind because of my friend and my great-grandfather's work(s). I was speaking one day with my friend about engineering. The conversation we had intrigued me to become one. Later, I came up with questions about engineering and the types of engineering. We had a zoom meeting, and I asked him the questions. He told me everything he knew about the different types of engineering. He was a mechanical engineer and called mechanical engineers jack-of-all-trades, masters of none. The conversation was great, and it inspired me to become an engineer or something along the lines of being an engineer. (Right now, I am trying to decide between being a mechanical engineer and a chemical engineer. I have one semester once I reach my university to make a decision because I already have many base credits.) My great-grandfather being an engineer made me think about how it runs in my family's blood. It had been since the mid-1900s that anyone in my family had been an engineer or related to it. (My grandfather on my dad's side was a mechanic and electrician but not an engineer, but that relates too.) He worked on Mount Rushmore. The monument in South Dakota is incredible. I had seen it many times on videos or through pictures, but when I saw it in person, I was shocked and in complete awe. How did my grandfather and great-uncle help make that work of art, in granite nonetheless, without all the equipment we have today? It inspired me about the abilities of engineering and how anything can be accomplished. Another thing is engineering helps everyone every day. It is in the construction of the home you live in. It is in the phone you use. It is in the road you drive on. It is in the car you use to drive on the road. Without engineers, the world would look completely different. Maybe the world would be non-existent since the world is so influenced by engineers even before they were called engineers. That is what makes me so passionate about engineering. It is the layout of the engineers and their work that has made the world an easier place to live in. We have the ability to see the world. We have the ability to learn more. We have the ability to do so much more than our ancestors over 100 years ago could do, or if they did, it took them longer. Those reasons make engineering a great occupation to pursue.

I am not an immigrant, but I am a first-generation college student. My father has talked to me about college and how it is more important than ever because every job that I will apply for either asks for prior knowledge in the field or is asking for the level of education passed high school. I am a high school student. I do not have much experience in working except in a couple of fields. Even then, those fields did not last a long time. So the only other option I have is to get a degree and hope I love the field I will be going into. To comment on the last sentence, I am going for a business management in technology degree from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. This degree will incorporate three things to give me a variety of what I can go for. First, it gives me the business management side. Second, it gives me a technology side to better work with the ever-growing technology of today. Third, it gives me engineering basics. This influence of needing a degree has brought to me a passion to go for it all. If I want to get it, I will. I want to be the one to have as many options available to me, but also find one that does work for me. That way I can be glad in my field that I will be working in and using my degree for the benefit of having one instead of letting it go to waste, trying to find something different, and then getting into more debt. It is a gambling game of going into college because the average number of times someone changes their degree major is 3 times. That is the easiest way to hit a high debt amount. If you get through multiple semesters both times and change, that is extra classes not needed and wasted money because each credit costs money too. This is all affecting my beliefs that college is needed, but there is a chance it is also a waste of money if I do not do the right thing. That is why I am going after a degree that incorporates 3 things. It will be a journey that is for sure. I just need to play my cards right (no pun intended) and hope for the best. I have already scouted out the major and what is going on with people who graduate with that degree. I think this is going to be the best one to possibly pursue. Thank you.

The best back-to-school tip I have is to get homework, projects, and studying done as quickly as possible. For example, once a teacher assigns something, get it done that same day or as soon as you possibly can. If a teacher states there is going to be a test, study early and a little before the test to remember the questions but also have some fun in the middle. School is meant to help us learn about the world around us and how it works. If we get all we need done early, we can then hang out with our friends/family without the worry of not getting something done weighing down on us. It is important to remember to have fun but also to get your work done. If you get the important work done, it is easier to enjoy things because there is nothing you will need to do later. Enjoyment is important because soon you will have bills to pay and our parents cannot help us all the time. The responsibilities grow after school years end. Thank you.

The plan for me for college is going to South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSM&T) and obtaining my bachelor's degree in Business Management in Technology with a minor in Mechanical Engineering. The Business Management in Technology degree only goes up to a bachelor's degree. The Mechanical degree goes up to a Doctorate at SDSM&T. I do not know if I will go after the Doctorate. Getting out of college with a degree in Business Management in Technology is the first goal. Second from college, play sports and get noticed by the pro leagues. The goals I have are tremendously large. I once listened to Arnold Schwarzenegger say something along the lines of "Do not have a back up plan." Denzel Washington also said, "Do not fall back on a back up plan. I want to fall forward. That way I can see what I am going to hit." With those in mind, I want to get the degree, run and own a business that I built from the ground up. I also have aspirations to go into the MLB and NFL. I push my body and mind to the limits to obtain these dreams. I do whatever it takes to fight for these to be accomplished. I will graduate high school with my AA and NC Academic Scholars Diploma. If I fall, I am falling forward. I know somewhere, I will get what I need. I do not have a back up college, a back up plan. It is all or nothing for me. I might end up homeless, but that will not stop me from getting the new goals accomplished. It will, in fact, push me forward to get the new goals done. However, I will not go on what ifs until it happens. I do not let the people who are saying I will never accomplish my dreams drag me down by being around them. I pushed people to the side to be the best player on my baseball team two seasons ago. My family is always behind me. They are all I need to get every goal and dream accomplished, then surpassed, then shatter why I thought so low by gaining more heights. I do not back down to challenges. I love them. They are a way to get better at every single thing, from schooling to real life senerios. My goals may seem outrageous, and that is what I want them to seem like. I love it when I prove people wrong because they said I would never do it. I do not boast about it in their faces because I let my actions speak for me. I am cocky. I get that. The only way I see is through. Pushing through pain, pushing through heartbreaks, pushing through nay-sayers, pushing through everything that wants to bring me down. They all quit on their dreams and do not want me to climb the mountain. Funny thing is, I will try to bring them up with me until they become to heavy to carry. It is currently what I am doing with my ex-girlfriend (Pushing through heartbreak). I am trying to still help her climb the mountain until she becomes to heavy to carry or quits trying on me. I will accomplish the degree, I will get the business running from the ground up, I will get into both the MLB and NFL. It all seems crazy, I get it; I will get them accomplished. I guess my back up to the pros is the degree, but at least I will be falling forward. Thank you.

My favorite Disney character would have to be Mushu (cartoon version). He is a unique character that makes the movie better than it would have been without him. He helps Mulan in a couple of ways. Mushu makes jokes out of a lot of things. He is also indestructible as a god. The most prominent way Mushu helps Mulan is by giving her courage at the beginning of the movie. She does not want to go into the camp because if she is found to not be a man, then she will be killed for breaking the law that only men are able to fight. He also helps her not be found during the time when everyone is bathing. Mushu has to bite one of the guys to make everyone afraid, so Mulan can escape and not be seen to be a woman. He also helped her to make food, have a flaming arrow, and light rockets to shoot. Eddie Murphy plays Mushu. Eddie Murphy is a comedian, so Mushu is made to be funny. He makes jokes about his abilities when Mushu and Mulan first meet. He says (not word for word), "I'm not a lizard. I don't do that tongue thing." Then does the flicking of his tongue in and out right after. My favorite quote of his, "YOU MISSED!!! HOW COULD YOU MISS?!!! HE WAS THREE FEET IN FRONT OF YOOOOUUUUU!!!" He yells this after Mulan shoots a rocket at a mountain to cause an avalanche to kill all the Huns instead of just killing Shan Yu, their leader. He says things that anyone can laugh at and have a fun time watching the movie. The indestructable part is to prominate him as being the best. The part about him being a god is just to place him up in greatest character. No other main character is a god that is lowly then rises to the top. I try to be like Mushu in the ways I mentioned I like to help anyone if possible. I like to see people laughing, so I have made it my goal to make up jokes on the spot to get a smile out of people. Also, I see myself as indestructable in a sense that no one will stop me from accomplishing my goals. Mushu is the best Disney character. I want to be the best at whatever I do.

Well, the first question is complicated. I do but do not currently own a dog. The dog is named Meadow, and she is living down in Florida. We still pay for any expences that are needed to help her. We live in North Carolina. The only reason she is not up here is because our land lord did not want to have to clean up after Meadow or have scratches on the floor, and other reasons. He offered to build a doghouse for her. However, Meadow is an inside dog except for when we let her out to roam while we were in Florida. She was potty trained, most of her puppy years were done. She had no issues with her health or anything. My dad had trainer her well when it came to listening to sit and stay. Anyway, another dog, Mia was her name, I had from the time I was born to until I was in 6th grade. She was a yellow lab. She was there on bedrest with me, my bother, and my sister. She had become attached to us because of sitting next to my mom when we were in the womb. Mia did not like any man she did not know, and protected the family above all things. She once ran into a bobcat that was on the property at full speed broad side. We did not see the bobcat for over 3 months. We also believe she went after a bear; it had been inside the back porch, and Mia took off after it. She came back with many deep, long cuts; however, we did not see the bear or the cubs for 7 months. I remember all of this because I was attached too. I loved, and still do, both Mia and Meadow. I once had a thought in my mind to own a dog through all the years I was alive. It is kind of sad because it won't be possible once I go off to college, and the situation of not having Meadow in the house. I know they affected my sister in a very deep way. (Any animal does, but specifically dogs.) She had a concussion down in Florida, twice. My sister has always been sweet, but when we moved up here, she became irritable easily and her grades started to drop. She rescued a cat over the summer of 2020 and started spending more time with the neighbor's dogs. My sister now has great grades again, and is back to her normal way of acting emotionally. Both dogs, especially Mia, played a role that I cannot describe in my life. She protected me from so many things. She was my only pet for the longest time. Meadow was the next pet I had that is taken up a huge part of my life. She was a rescue. I watched her grow from barely being bigger than both my hands to over 25 pounds. (Meadow is a beagle mixed with a lab.) I wish I could be with them every day. They helped me be happy and reminded me that life is not always in the bad state it seems. Even when Mia was injured from the bear, she was always trying to play (she was 14 years old at the time.) Dogs are always willing to be on top of you trying to lick your face to cheer you up. They are trying to teach us that life is always better than what it could be. They live a short, happy life that forever affects us. Thank you.

In December of 2021, I went through a break up. It was really bad. I found out from a friend that my girl friend had been cheating on me, for a while, with another girl she had never met before in New York. My friend had found out the day of when he told me. I did not have any time to ask her in person until the next day because it was late. She did not even blush when I asked her; just said, "Yeah. I am." I had two final exams for the college classes I was taking. I passed both while crying the entire time. The next day, I barely passed my spoken final exam in Spanish because the topic I chose out of the flash cards (blindly of course) was the worst experience I had in my life spoken solely in Spanish. However, none of that was the worst part. The worst part was having to go hunting ever day (my choice but I did not go on Christmas) and be alone in the woods with nothing to do but wait. Nothing ever came either. I started to ask why any of this had happened to me. My thought process was, "Not only can I not keep a girl friend, I cannot hunt worth crap." Now mind you no one else I knew had either shot a deer that hunting season. But all because of the break-up. I started to decline in mental healthy and my physical health was declining too. I started to eat less; not from the break-up, but because I was depressed. I lost a lot of muscle I had gained from working out. I was sick twice for about a week each time. This lasted until about March of 2022. It started to get better once I started to realize I had it better than she did. She went through 4 more break-ups between December with me and March. I also started to get passed everything that happened. In result, I started to help her. There was another guy she liked. I told the guy. I helped him get the courage to ask her out. It worked, and they have been together for 5 months now. A big improvement of what happened in her previous relationships of 4 in 4 months. There was a quote I read from Johnnie Calloway, a youtube who reacts to music videos and talks about political topics on live streams. He wrote a quote of his own in July that states, "Remember this: Be kind to your mind." Another one he wrote was in March (coincidence, maybe), "You are a mind with a body! Since your brain controls your body, know that sound physical health is dependent upon a positive mental attitude" by Napoleon Hill. All mental health is important, not just my own. Your mind controls everything. A healthy mental state means a healthy physical state and a healthy spiritual state. That is why mental health is important. That is why I helped my ex get a boyfriend because I saw how happy she was around this man and how happy he was around her. I fixed myself, then went out and helped others around me starting with her. I have since, gained back all the muscle I lost, started to eat right again, and feel way better than I have since I moved to North Carolina 4.5 years ago. I wish I did not have to go through this, but I am glad I did because of how much it helped me. Thank you.

There are two things that are guiding me to welding. The first thing is the adventure of going places and working in those places. The second thing is the amount of money made from welding. Both of them are selfish, but I enjoy going places and experiencing new things. Making money to do an occupation in those areas I will be travelling to is something that is interesting and cool to me. Going to places to work is something that draws me to any occupation. I love to travel and want to see the sights of anywhere and everywhere all at the same time. Welding gives me that opportunity. I have seen people welding, in person, underwater on bridges while I was living in Florida. It seemed impossible to me because water hurts fire, but I guess not and found out later that it works because it is so hot. I want to be able to go to places that most people do not get to see, or if they are, they are unlikely able to see the all the previous places and future places I will go. All those places will give me challenges and welding in general is very dangerous, but I like challenges and after doing it for a good time, I will be able to minimize risks I will have to take or have taken. The amount of money made is something that I noticed about welding. This comes from the need of welders, but it also comes from the risky part of welding. Welding would help me make a lot of money and get a chance to get ahead of the 8-ball before too many more responsibilities come into my life such as a family. Welding would also give me the chance to make enough money to go on vacation once in a while to places I was as a child, or I could visit new places as well. The money is something that is always secondary, tertiary, etc. to me, but it does not hurt to be making a little bit more money so I am not barely scarping up enough money. Also, the money gives me a chance to be generous and give some away to homeless people and new couples. The reason we need welders is because of everything around us. Metals need to be welded together to make structures. Sports stadiums, interstate signs, vehicles, and plenty more things are made from welders doing a fantastic job and being proud of their work. Without welders, it would be hard to build strong structures that can hold millions of pounds of pressure. It also helps people. People need those large signs on interstates for help with where they are and where they are going. Pipes in the system of houses are made and placed in the house by welders. A lot of needs are done by welders who are understaffed as it is. We need welders. Welders get to travel the world or country if possible. Welders make money that gives them a better chance to get ahead. That is why I am drawn to welding as a profession. Thank you.

Legacy is just what someone leaves behind such as children and name. My bringing taught me to work my hardest at everything to be the best at everything I try to be. I push myself to have the best grades. I push myself to be the best athlete I can be. That is the legacy I want to be placed behind me: He worked his hardest at everything to be the best at whatever he tried to do.

I am passionate about animal advocacy for a couple of reasons. The first reason I am passionate about animal advocacy is because all life is precious, not just one species or one type within a species. Another reason I am passionate about animal advocacy is because with little to no animals in a place, it becomes a worse environment. For the first reason, "ALL LIFE IS PRECIOUS." Everything was made to serve a purpose. Humans all do one thing or another. A loss of a human life leaves a void in someone else's life. We see the same thing in elephants. When one dies in a herd, the other elephants as they are passing by years later, seem to mourn in their own way. The animal has a life that is precious. They all help make a place the way it is. A dog, cat, snake, fish, deer, etc. all have a life that affects everything else around them. Even the animals that I dislike the most, insects, have a precious life. Some people do not see any animal's life as precious, which I do not see how that is possible, but then we have people who are advocating to help keep animals around for the next generation. When an animal goes extinct, it leaves a hole that cannot be filled back up. It is impossible to bring that animal back. Even if it was, it would be impossible for it to do its original job in the ecosystem because it does not have a mate. Even it if did have a mate, then the animal would get so inbred that the abilities of the animal would fail. That leads me to my next point, animals leaving an ecosystem or environment, hurt the environment and make it harder for humans. It is hard for humans to live in an environment with just other humans. Just look at where most of America's ancestors come from: Europe. In their agricultural revolutions, it killed off many different types of animals if they were not killed off already. Europe has some of the highest pollution ratings out of all the continents. They had the ambition to show their power by taking aim at the USA. They had already lost a lot of resources in their home countries and they started to look elsewhere. They needed lumber, sugar, fields to grow crops, and more. They looked at the Americas and said okay and went for it. They destroyed their home countries and started to take over the Americas in the same fashion. They were afraid of animals and killed as many as they saw fit. By 1900, there were less than 250,000 of each of the proceeding animals: deer, turkeys, bears, hawks, buffalo, ferrets, prairie dogs, etc. Through scientists and conservationists taking action to save, all those animals are currently above 1,000,000. If they would not have taken action, we would have more pollution from not trying to save the animals and the earth we live on. These are the reasons I am passionate about animal advocacy. There were times when I was younger when I would try to save a moth that was attacked by a bird, save a frog, or save a snake. I know that all animals are helping keep the environment as they need to be. I just hope that we can keep all these wonderful animals alive as long as the earth is moving.

There are two reasons I love superfoods. The first reason I love superfoods is because of the nutrients I get out of them. The second reason I love superfoods is the energy and power I get from eating and/or consuming them. I have two superfoods that I have eaten and continue to eat. One is occasionally because of its cost is higher than I can afford most of the time. The second one is something I try to eat daily because it is readily available, cheap in cost, can be included with anything, and also tastes great by itself. I am an athlete and a student. I need nutrients to keep up my ability to perform at the top of my game in sports, and I also need them to continue being the top student in my class. The nutrients of Vitamin A, B, and C are something I look for in foods. Most have all three of those vitamins in them. Vitamin A helps with healthy skin, eyes, hair, and outer looks. However, healthy eyes and skin help me on and off the field. Hard to learn without seeing. Hard to play baseball with week skin because sliding, diving, etc tear up your skin. Vitamin B gives energy by helping process food better. Vitamin C, probably the most used and known vitamin, helps keep us healthy and helps the immune system fight diseases and foreign objects that are deemed bad by your body. The number one superfood I like is Salmon. It may not have the vitamins, but it definitely has the minerals. It is rich in iron, potassium, fish oil, agents helping prevent/fight certain cancers, etc. I usually have it from a restaurant grilled or grilled at home. It is a powerful food that is usually expensive but every now and then I will have it to help with a deficit of not having a portion of food that had something salmon has. The second superfood I like is Blueberries. It has vitamins B, C, and K. It also has minerals such as manganese. Blueberries have multiple of the 9 essential amino acids. Essential amino acids are ones we cannot produce without consuming them. They, like salmon, have agents that help prevent and fight certain cancers. They also help with inflammation and are anti-inflammatory. I have a blueberry bush outside my house, so I can eat them fresh. I get yogurt with blueberries in them to help them as well. Overall, I try to eat blueberries every day, but sometimes I do not. That reminds me that I need to eat some today. There are other superfoods I like such as eggs, broccoli, and almonds. However, eggs, I sometimes like and other times I do not. Broccoli is the same way. Almonds, I rarely buy and I do not have any idea exactly why. They all help me have the energy and nutrients I want and need; I just eat them when I am craving them I guess. I wish I ate them more. Today, I did have eggs for breakfast. I usually have eggs once to twice a week. The other two are much rarer according to the amount I consume. I love eating superfoods. There are probably other ones I do not know of that I eat, but the superfoods I mentioned all give me the nutrients and energy I need. I wish I had access to more superfoods to try and hopefully like them. I guess I could do that in college when I will be buying things for myself. Thank you.

The most prominent time that I think of that was a challenge but strengthened my faith in God was COVID-19. Everyone went through trials. I know of a lot of people who stopped believing in God. For me, however, the belief I had in God was strengthened. When it first started, I was getting through the last parts of catechism and about to celebrate my first communion for passing. However, on the Saturday before Palm Sunday of 2020, the day I had to pass questions asked by pastor, only my direct family and the other graduating with me and their families were allowed in the building besides the elders and pastor. It was supposed to be a celebration that anyone who came to witness could congratulate me and the others with me and have time to eat food and other things were going to happen. COVID-19 stopped the possibility of that. Even with my passing, it was a good time. However, it hurt knowing a lot of people I had not seen in over 5 years were not going to be there or for the next day when it was official and I took communion. One good thing that came out of all of this was I still received gifts to help me in my relationship with God. I use them to this day. My confirmation was over 2 years ago. I have a study Bible I use and actually study it instead of just reading it. Also, we planned a trip to go see family members and friends two summers ago. It gave me time to finish reading the Bible for the first time all the way through. (I started in the NT and was very close to finishing the OT.) I finished it and started reading (the NT again) and making connections between different passages of the Bible. COVID-19 never hit my family hard. We had a few times where we were quarantined because my dad had a mandatory job and was "exposed" twice. No one in my house has ever received any type of COVID-19 though. I grant that to the time we were given by being kept away from things was used to study God's Word more. We were faithful to God and knew that even if we contracted COVID-19, he would protect us in every way we needed to stay his. The only thing that hurt me in COVID-19 was my brain. I lost a lot of knowledge I could have and did learn. However, I am up to the top of my class and still playing sports. God is still protecting us and I am still studying the Bible to continue learning about him. Sure a lot of things were taken from me, but nothing that is replaceable and nothing that makes me regret something. That's something I am thankful for every day. Not everyone had the easy time I did going through COVID-19.

God has helped me in every aspect of my life. I have noticed a few things about my life that encourage me to continue pushing forward and never give up on anything I have started or give up on anyone I care about. I have been successful enough to play sports in high school and be at the top of my class. I would be unable to do all that without God directing my life. I believe that God will continue being my director and lead me to be successful in my plan to build a business from the ground up. I have been thinking for a long time about creating and building a business from the ground up. I have a few ideas such as sports and outdoors, something along the lines of music, and/or doing a mix of a restaurant in one part of the store with the sports and outdoors. I have a passion for all of them. I have played many different competitive nature activities from the regular football, baseball, and soccer to the irregular archery and shooting competitions. I have created a few different songs since December of 2021. I also love to cook food and try different things in different foods. Maybe I could combine all of them, but I would have to start with one and build onto it after I have enough money. Most likely, I will only ever be able to pursue creating and building a business of one type. God has given me the ability to play sports even with a rare disease that inhibits my abilities. I have succeeded in all the sports I have ever played. Even from a young age, I have done well at sports; however, I know I will not be playing them forever; however building a business focused around sports gives me the ability to help others, be around sports for a long time, and maybe see one person that will be playing that sport at its highest level(s). That is a dream of mine: help a child become an athlete that is able to make it to the pro level of their sport and helps their family. God has always been there for me. He has helped me accomplish all my dreams in sports and academics. I do not see any reason why he would not want me to have this dream accomplished too. I pray every night to one day own a business that I love to have and that helps spread His News as well. I think the only reason God would tell me "No" is because the business would take me away from loving him and obtaining eternal life.

I just started to tell people I knew and ask them if they wanted to buy anything. I sold things to peers in my school and surrounding schools. I made a small profit. It was not much. It ended up failing because it was just me.

Higher education is important to me for three reasons. The first reason is gaining knowledge. The second reason higher education is important to me is meeting new people and experiencing once in a life-time opportunities in college. The third reason, more knowledge and more degrees usually means more money. Those are respectfully listed in their importance to me. Gaining knowledge is one of the most important things for any one person in the world. Without knowledge, the society that humanity has built through the years would crumble. Knowledge is meant to continue to want to know things. Socrates, one of the smartest ancient people knew a lot of things that we currently could not figure out until recently. He was the most prominent person that people in Ancient Greece asked for help. It is meant to help people with issues they have. When someone is considered smart, an expert in a certain field, people start to ask that person for help. In college, there are once in a life-time opportunities such as foreign studies paid for by the college through the tuition you paid earlier, being on TV during sporting events (even if you do not play), and meeting new people that will be connections for your future (i.e. lifetime friendships). If it were not for college, my parents would have never met. I would not be on this computer writing this essay for your scholarship. My father seeking higher education, which he is missing the degree by a couple of credits, is what led him to meeting my mother. He also had a chance at playing sports, which he excelled at during his time in the college he was at. My mom also seeked a higher education at a community college, but did not get a degree either. My dad met a friend while in college that has become like an uncle to me. The only reason any of this happened was my dad went to college to try to get a computer degree back when he was 18. Both my parents have told me, "During your time in college, work your butt off to obtain that degree. Without it, because you are considered inexperienced, you will not have many chances to get a better paying occupation." That leads me into the final reason I am going to college to pursue a higher education. Money is something society has created that we cannot live without. It is a trade of money for goods and services. (Economics.) We all use money and are trying to obtain money. The best way to do that now-a-days is through obtaining a higher education at a college because you are considered smarter and more capable of helping the company. Bigger, higher paying companies are willing to hire someone with a degree because they are considered to have more knowledge. Those are the reasons I am pursuing college and a higher education. I need it to survive. To have respect as being smarter, to having experiences I can relate to others with, and to have the money to not be living off food stamps or always struggling to pay all the bills. Education leads to knowledge. Knowledge leads to respect. Respect leads to a healthy life.

The STEM major I am pursuing is Engineering. I am pursuing engineering for two reasons. The first reason is it interests me: it is a way to make a living while being behind the scenes to help everyone directly and indirectly. The second reason engineering is the STEM major I am pursuing comes down to familial history in engineering and a friend in engineering. My great-grandfather was an engineer and was the last person to graduate college within my family. He was also the first to graduate college. He attended the college that I will be attending this time next year. My friend has been an engineer for years. He is a mechanical engineer. (Also what my great-grandfather was.) I called him up to ask him questions about engineering in general, the different types of engineering, and what opportunities there were as being an engineer. He is smart and probably convinced me, if I was not already convinced, to be an engineer. (I am in the middle of being a chemical engineer or being a mechanical engineer as what I think I will choose for my major once I get to the university.) From the point of science, it is what is real. Science tests what is true and what is not. How gravity exists, how much gravitational pull black holes have, and how oxygen is not equally distributed throughout the atmosphere like all other gasses are. All of this interests me in science and the technology needed to be used to figure all of this out. However, science is important to society because it is the pursuit of knowledge that will help everyone and everything. We are trying to find out how to end Alzheimer's. We are trying to find out how to create insulin faster and more efficiently to give it to diabetic patients. We are trying to find out how to end the use of fossil fuels. We are trying to figure out how to get better batteries that will last thousands of miles, so there is less chance of running out of energy in the middle of nowhere. Without science in society and scientists (from the doctor in the operating room to the woman finding a new dinosaur fossil) trying to make knowledge grow and continue, the world would fall. It would be harder for humanity to continue. We all depend on each other to help each other to survive. Scientists are a piece of the puzzle that helps more than it destroys. This means science is a larger piece of the puzzle that helps society continue.

The only book I am able to think of that has transformed my life is the Bible. I have always tried to read the Bible all the way through, but never could. Then, my family and I moved up to North Carolina from Florida. We started attending church more. I was given a Study Bible by the church after I completed catechism. I read the Bible on and off. I do not remember what made me to read the Bible more, but I started in Matthew which is one of my favorite books of the Bible just because it is simple and easy to read and understand. Anyway, I started with the book of Matthew and finished the New Testament fairly quickly. The Old Testament was harder to complete. It took me over a year. Then I started again on the New Testament. Currently I am in my second time through Psalms, studying it hard as I have done with every book since I started my second time through the New Testament. I started to learn a lot I did not know since I was actually studying the Bible and not just going through it as a reader. It has made me realize what I do wrong every day, but how much I am loved to be forgiven million times over every day for every sin I commit. However, the Bible has made me look at life in a positive outlook. Yeah, there are hard times going on right now, but the people of the Bible sometimes had it a lot worse than I do currently. That gives me inspiration to continue. The most prominent thing the Bible has helped me with is being more generous and happy. I am involved more in the community. I am always looking for a way to help others. I have started to donate blood to the Red Cross. I also help blood donors with getting food and drinks to help them recover after their donation from the group at my church giving out food and drinks during blood drives. I am happier and try to make other happier. My life is okay compared to what it could be. Yeah, I may be on food stamps soon, but I might not be on them either. I am always trying to get others to laugh and have fun around me because I do not know what they are going through. Without the reading of the Bible, I would not be anywhere near the person I am today. I have my flaws, I am still human, but I would be more flaws and worse flaws if I did not read the Bible. It has helped me in many ways get through issues and see the hope that I am working for. Such as, the hope is winning this scholarship, and other ones to be able to get out of college debt free. Thank you.

There is a medical condition called viral myositis. I was suspected to have it. When I was 4 years old, I had woken up and needed to use the restroom. I was able to take 1 maybe 2 steps. I do not really remember how many I took. Anyway, I fell forward into my brother's bed because I had a massive pain in my legs and it hurt to put pressure on them. I could not walk. I was screaming, somehow did not wake my brother up, and mom and dad came in. They had to carry me around the house we were in at the time. I went to the hospital, and the only thing they found was my CPK levels were off the charts. They asked if any trauma had happened to me such as a car wreck, a hard hit to my legs or anywhere else, or any injury. All the answers were no. I had not had any trauma. They gave me an IV and that helped me walk again. Everything went back to normal. Then when I was 8 years old, it happened again. This time though, I was able to walk to the restroom. However, when I tried to get up from sitting down to use the toilet, I couldn't. I called for my parents. They helped me get up again. I was able to put some pressure on my legs, but it was difficult to walk again. My dad definitely could not carry me like when I was four. I had to hobble around the house. (This one was 2000+ square feet!) We went to the hospital again. This time we went to Gainsville's Children's Hospital because the doctor we had before who helped previously moved and worked there. She (my doctor who helped me) was actually behind the receptionist when my mom called the hospital. The receptionist said my name, and my doctor took the phone out of the receptionist's hand and asked, "What is wrong with him, momma?" That's why we went in. It took 2 days for me to be better. Nothing was found in the blood work or anything. I continued going to the hospital in Gainsville. I had the top neurologist, top muscle doctor, top this, and that type of doctor looking at me. Dr. King was the top guy I remember besides my doctor who asked my mom. He had been in Massachusetts at the beginning of his career. There was a girl there who had the same symptoms I had. I forget the name. However, a muscle biopsy was required to find out for sure. It took my parents two years and another case of me having the symptoms to say yes. The third time was at age 11. I had very mild symptoms. Could walk by myself, took a week because we didn't go to the hospital. Also, it was spring break, so no missing school. The muscle biopsy was done. Dr. King called my mom and told her the good news, not MS; bad news, they didn't know what I had but my titan cell is mutated. So unknown disease. Yay. The only thing that stopped the symptoms is plenty of water. We lived in Florida, so 100% humidity all the time meaning sweating and losing water. Also, I played sports which hurt too. I am 17 and we live in NC now. It has not happened since. I still play sports. It just means I have to make sure I drink plenty of milk, water, etc. It is hard, but there's a solution.

The only way I can maintain my mental health is through reading the Bible, listening to good music, and going to the counselor to talk. Also, speaking with trusted friends. However, they might not know what to do to help. When I read the Bible, I am able to focus in on what is going on to the people mentioned and how it is not that terrible compared to what is going on around me and to me. Listening to music that is inspirational is helping me currently get through a breakup and stop worrying about tomorrow. I have gone to the school counselor for help with worries and just to say hi sometimes. Communication is key, so talking with my friends is a great way for me to relieve stress and worries. But most of the time, I do not want to put the burden on anyone because of what is going on with my life. My physical health is in decline right now. The only way for me to bring it up and or keep it up is through eating breakfast and lunch from school which costs too much even reduced for me. So that also hurts my nutritional health. They are both on a steep decline. My back has started acting up again from not being healthy when eating and being careful when I try to lift weights. My muscles have not been getting stronger. I have been getting weaker because my nutrition is terrible. I will not be surprised if soon I am living on food stamps. I guess I just worry too much. Being in school helps my health a little at least. The food is not the best, but I stomach it to relieve the stress off of always eating a lot of food at my house. There are plenty of people who are friendly towards me and help me get through just struggles going on for any high schooler such as not wanting to go to a class or do homework from a class. I am just glad that everyone I try to surround myself with has a positive attitude. That is what most helps me in school because the atmosphere of everyone is family in the school. Everyone is willing to help everyone. I am trying to get to a college that will do the same thing for me that the high school and community college I am at are doing for me.

Healthy skin, healthy hair, healthy eyes, healthy teeth and bones, healthy heart and blood, healthy lungs, and other healthy organs. That is just a small list of physical qualities that are healthy because of healthy eating. There are mental benefits of eating healthy such as better thinking and better control of emotions. Having healthy eating habits is important to working, maintaining energy levels, exercising, maintaining a healthy body style, and more. When it comes to what we ingest as a society, it is not healthy. There is too much sugar, addiction from tobacco, drugs, alcohol, etc, and not enough vitamins and minerals from rich foods. Healthy eating habits help us be strong, fit, and sleep well. Everything else that is not healthy (in copious amounts at least) hurts the human ability to sleep well, burn excess fat and weight, and make the frame look better to others around us. Personally, my physical health is in decline from the fact it is getting difficult to afford fruits ad vegetables daily. Thankfully, the garden in our backyard helped us a lot through the summer. However, the garden does not produce enough food to provide us through the winter. Hunting for meat is an option we have. Last year we did not get, let alone see, a deer to shoot. We did not go turkey hunting either. We cannot afford anything better than 80% lean meat at the store and that is getting hard to afford too. My physical health during the summer was okay. Now, it is getting worse and worse. I do not get any of the healthy foods I need. No one in my house does. I just hope this year, we fill our tags from deer hunting and then get turkey during the springtime before I move away to college. At least then, I will be comfortable knowing that my family has food to last them through the time I will be gone before summer comes around. It has hurt all of us. We are all unhealthy physically because of the food amount we can afford and can not afford. I have lost a lot of weight, my brother is leveling off in his muscle amount, my parents sometimes do not eat, and my sister is losing weight too. A healthy diet helps in every aspect of life. Without it, your life changes completely and the former way of life is hard to get back to. A healthy diet is hard to maintain, but if possible, maintain it.

Learning is important in multiple ways. The first way it is important is because it can help improve the world. The second way learning is important because it helps us know more about how to help others. We need to continue to pursue education and learning because of its ability to help us help others and for us to help keep the world moving forward. If we all stopped trying to learn, the world would crumple and the truth would stop flowing. There are ways that learning can and does improve the world. We learned about how the world is changing from the speed of the earth turning. Scientists and mathematicians figured out that the Earth is spinning faster than before. We are lost about one-tenth of a second. They believe it could be from rockets being launched into space and/or the moon getting more elliptical meaning less pull during certain times and stronger other times. There is no way to stop it if it is the moon's pull, but if it is because of the rockets, there may be a way to stop it from spinning faster and faster. Another way is by stopping the extreme highs and lows of the climate. We need to reduce using coal and oil. We need to start using natural gas and nuclear power which are cleaner to reduce the effects of climate change. Using battery-powered/hybrid vehicles is important too. We get the electricity from coal and oil, but more electricity being used from natural gas and nuclear power instead of gas is a way to help slow climate change. To help our fellow humans, learning is very special. Doctors and lawyers are very important in helping other people keep their lives on some level of normal. Without learning, it is difficult to find the solution to our neighbor's issues. We struggle already to find the best solutions to problems. If we stopped learning, the number of solutions or our ability to find the best solution is decreased. Doctors can look at a small lump and go through one physical test to eliminate the fact that it may be cancer. Then they do an ultra-sound to find out what it truly is. Without the four different possibilities that one little lump could be, a lot of people would have unneeded surgeries and tests because everyone would automatically think it is cancer. (Most lumps are not cancer but lymph nodes that do not need surgery.) It is insane the knowledge out there to find solutions to physical issues. Not only that but issues between two people, so we can find compromises. Without the pursuit of knowledge, we lose what we used to have. We need to try to seek out knowledge and learning, so we can help others and help the world improve. We do not want to repeat history. We do not want to lose the ability to think rationally. We do not want to lose something or anything that we have already learned about. That is why I plan to continue to learn by continuing my college degree after I achieve my AA and high school diploma this spring. I will pursue engineering which helps me continue learning once I go into the field. I will also pursue business management which means I will have to learn about the culture of the area in which my store is and how the market changes and how nothing is the same but everything is ever-changing meaning I have to learn about the change more.

I love math for a few reasons. Everything is math related. Prices of everything from gas, food, water, kids' toys, and everything else we need to know about. We need to know which item is cheaper because it is not always the items in bulk. Other daily tasks require math too. How long before I have to leave before I will be late? How we balance ourselves is done subliminally through math in our brains by the small bone in our ear sending signals. Math is the only subject that is exact. While, yes, there are estimates, there is always one correct estimate. There are not two, three, four, or more answers that could be correct like in writing using different words, or like in science on how to end pollution, or like in history on what may have happened to Alexander the Great or to Jesus. Math is precise and exact. There is no, well if this happened, then this would eliminate that, and then this would be true. That is how any other subject is taught in school. Math is a large part of human existence. We use it to price items in our life and decide if we need something. It is used to help us be organized. Without math, it would be hard to get a lot of things done.

More opportunities, more money, being better known, being seen as more intelligent, and more are all things that come from getting a degree from college. Most occupations make it mandatory to have a degree or prior experience. My dad only has experience in wiring and telecommunications. That is what he will be in until he retires. I want a degree, so I can move between different areas of work. It gives me a chance to have more money and not live paycheck to paycheck. I do not see any other way than getting a degree and going into debt to get a good paying job. However, I could easily be in debt for the next 20 years. This scholarship is what is going to help me pay to not be in debt for years after college. Even though it is $1,000, any amount of money works to get out of debt faster and pay off certain things from college easier. College is important to me for many reasons. I get to learn things I am interested in, and apply those things to my career. I am planning on running or owning a business. Engineering is going to be a minor in the pursuit of my business degree. I wish to get both of those on my resume to hopefully stand out. I find engineering interesting because so many things rely on engineering. The car we use every day, the road we use that the car is driving on, the phone we use as a GPS to navigate the car through the roads, the satellite that took pictures of everything and is sending signals to the GPS, etc. It goes on and on and on the benefits of engineering in every day tasks. The project may have taken years to complete and be a success, but we use it daily and sometimes instantaneously. The business management side is so I can hopefully run the business and be an engineer. The degrees I am pursuing will make me more noticeable when I apply for occupations. They will cost a lot money without scholarships. I need scholarships to pretty much survive the process and not be in debt for many years after I get out of college. If I can escape debt free or be less than $5,000 in debt, I will count college as a success. The degree regardless, will take pressure off me when looking for an occupation to apply for and what career I will pursue. Thank you.

Dirt and grime all over the place, dead insects under the shelves, tools and items missing for years, and more were all apart of things I found in a warehouse that I worked at trying to clean. It took all day to clean the warehouse of 2500 square feet. That was just the floors. I am glad I did not have to clean other areas of the warehouse on top of the shelves. There are over 50 workers for the company owning the warehouse. I was the due boy at the time, so I just cleaned. It had been over two years since they cleaned everything. The only reason why they were doing it was for an inspection coming up. Now, at my home there is a little bit of dirt here and there. Cleaning the dishes quickly is a daily task. Vaccuming and swiffering is a weekly to bi-weekly task. Sweeping is every day. There are no bugs except the occasional spider or fly. We have 5 people living in our house. It only takes about 30 minutes to clean the 998 square foot house. The more dirt in the building, the more likely a person is to get sick. People at the place I cleaned had people dropping like flies because of the mold and other things in the entire work area. The last time a person was sick in my house was two springs ago. Cleanliness is good to make sure your body is healthy. If a place is not clean, bugs and roaches come in a settle. Roaches carry many diseases. Bugs could attract more bugs. Spiders, for example, come inside for bugs and mates. Spiders, while not likely to kill you, can hurt when they bite you. Flies can bring disease if they land on your food. Mosquitoes getting into the house is probably the worst bug to get inside. Mosquitoes kill more people than any other animal across the world. Having a clean house is very important. It decreases the chances of getting an illness that could be avoided. It increases the chance of stuff not building up and making it harder to clean the area. Sweeping is something that needs to be done at least every other day. Vacuuming is also important. Dusting is probably the most important thing to do but only needs to be done weekly to bi weekly. Dust takes a long time to accumulate but is easy to clean up if and when it does. However, dust is dead human skin cells and dust mite droppings. Both can damage your lungs and other parts of your body if they get inside you. I love sweeping. It is easy. I do not love vacuuming because it shows the fact that I waited to long to clean sweeping. (Not including carpets because you cannot really sweep them.) Washing dishes is another thing I like to do. I do not like dusting, but it needs to be done. Cleaning not only makes the house look good to outsiders, but makes it easier to live and keeps your mind on something good instead of wasting time.

I am passionate about engineering for two reasons. The first one is my friend who is an engineer. He has given me personal experiences of being an engineer. The second reason is my great-grandfather was an engineer. He worked on Mount Rushmore along with my great-great uncle. (My great uncle was not an engineer.) I was speaking one day with my friend about engineering. It made me intrigued to become one. Later, I came up with questions about engineering and the types of engineering. He told me everything he knew about the different types of engineering. He was a mechanical engineer and called mechanical engineers jack-of-all-trades, masters of none. The conversation was great, and it inspired me to become an engineer or something along the lines of being an engineer. My great-grandfather being an engineer made me think about how it runs in my family's blood. It had been since the mid-1900s that anyone in my family had been an engineer. My grandfather on my dad's side was a mechanic but not an engineer, but that relates too. It made me think about it being in my blood even more. Engineering helps everyone every day. It is in the construction of the home you live in. It is in the phone you use. It is in the road you drive on. It is in the car you use to drive on the road. Without engineers, the world would look completely different. Maybe the world would be non-existent since the world is so influenced by engineers even before they were called engineers. That is what makes me so passionate about engineering.

The three leadership experiences that I can pick off the top of my head are football, baseball, and Beta Club. I was one of three team captains on the football team, I lead my baseball team, and I was the leader of a grant that Beta Club was applying for. For football, I played one season: my sophomore year. I was the team captain for the team. I tried to lead by example of hard work and dedication. I stayed extra time after practices to get better. I worked out longer in the weight room. I did everything possible to become better. I worked on football drills, given to me, not by the coaches of the team but, by my dad who used to be a semi-pro football coach. I continued to study as well. This was the hardest time for me to succeed in the classroom as well as in the sport I was playing. (I mean, COVID restrictions were, for the first time, starting to take a toll on me.) I saw that I could not continue football into the next season and do my classes with how they panned out because I dual-enroll. I stopped after my first year in high school, my sophomore year, of playing football. Baseball is the sport I am most passionate about playing. I played in my Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior years. I also plan to play it this final year I am in high school. I have led my team to wins through pitching. I led my team in On Base Percentage, number of hits, wins pitching, number of stolen bases, and fielding percentage my sophomore year. I only played three games my freshman year before COVID shut us down for the remaining part of the season. However, I was in second place for the number of stolen bases, and the number of hits. I was in the lead for hits, Ks pitching, and fielding percentage when the season was shut down. Junior year, I did not do as well. But this year, I plan to get back where I was in my Sophomore year, but better. It has been easy to keep my GPA up during baseball season. I was elected the leader of the T3LC grant for Beta Club by my peers apart of it. It was meant to help get books for elementary students to bring them home if they wanted the books and to read to them. We proposed to also use school funds to the account to pay to get to the elementary school and back. The county denied it. However, I am in talks with the sponsor of Beta Club for our school to try again, get more peers on board, and push harder to help the elementary students. I had experience down in Florida when I was in elementary school where high schoolers came and read books to us. I remember it as fun and I want to give that to the elementary students around here. This has actually helped keep my grades up because it helps me stay after school to try for the grant then when we dismiss to work on school work until I decide to leave or get picked up. I have never had trouble with my grades. Football was hard, but I still maintained it. Being a leader on the baseball field has never affected my grades. Being the leader of the grant for Beta Club has helped my grades. I just want to inspire the younger people in the community to take lead in whatever they do.

Gloom and doom are all around us, or so it seems. That is all the news talks about. The world is getting fatter. The world is on fire. The smoking population is on the rise from teens vaping. The alcohol population is growing. My personal favorite: Teens are ruining the world. It goes on and on and on. However, if you look around. Look for the good. Find the good. An easy way I have found to do this is in two ways. The first way, eat healthy (if possible) and find time to exercise and/or work out. The second way, find something you believe in and trust it. Whether your trust is put in another person, God, an item you are working for, whatever it may be, place your trust in it. Working out and exercising is something people always say, "I never have time to do that." Yes, you do. You watch more than an hour of TV a day, and you are on your phone for more than an hour a day. It only takes one doing a one-minute plank to relieve stress and anxiety a study found that it takes the pressure off the muscles, bones, and areas of the body correlating with stress, such as the lower back. Doing exercises that increase oxygen intake (i.e. aerobic exercises), helps decrease blood pressure and the oxygen intake helps relieve the muscles of stress. Doing exercises that do not increase oxygen intake (i.e. anaerobic exercises) relieves stress and helps build muscles. A healthy diet, the most important part of any lifestyle, helps maintain healthy blood pressure, reduce cholesterol, and helps give you energy. A healthy diet, while it is the most important, is also the hardest to keep up. It is hard to buy all the foods for every day to have a healthy diet. However, taking supplements help a lot and cost less over time. Going out in the sun for 20-30 minutes every day is all someone needs to get enough Vitamin D to have healthy levels. Finding anything to trust in is very important to have a healthy life. It gives you something or someone to work towards, with, or make sure you stay on track. It gives you something to measure progress by and helps you to have the motivation to work towards something greater than just yourself. Leading a healthy lifestyle is important because it influences everything we do every day. It gives us something other to focus on than the evil world. Having a healthy life is something everyone wants but not many take the time to work towards it. It gives many great things to you, not just physical but mental too. The mind controls the whole body. If the mind is healthy, the body is healthy. If the body is healthy, it helps keep the mind healthy.

Case Cleared! was declared. It gives a sigh of relief to the defendant. It gives feelings of grief to the plaintiff. Unknown for sure unless you were there to witness the entire thing that never actually when to court. My best friend had charges brought against him. I never chose a side because I was friends with both people in the case. I did not want to get involved, but eventually, the one friend was too far gone and did not ever want to talk to me again. Also, they started spreading lies that I could verify. Months after the beginning of all this, I was taken into a room with executives from the area in which the allegations were made. I stayed neutral. The executives thanked me for staying neutral throughout the process. I was asked if I ever saw anything wrong. I said, "No. There was nothing wrong ever done between the two or from one to the other while I was present. Being which, my best friend is involved, I was there for all incidents you have brought up." Then came 26 days later. (Sorry, I know it was 26 days later because I had to recount all the dates a few weeks ago to give another testimony.) An acquaintance, a good friend of the plaintiff, came to me. I was thinking, "Oh great. I really do not want to do this right now." I thought this because I thought she was going to try and tell me I was wrong. (I still had not picked sides so far.) She started apologizing and saying all this stuff. Most of it, if not all of it, were lies. Blatant lies were thrown at me. The apologies were sincere because she was telling me how sorry she was that it affected me. (I had a bunch of things happen in such a short time, it hurt me to the point I wanted to not go to school anymore and just move to get away from all the issues.) The other parts never made sense. They never added up. I think she was trying to pull me to her side, but it, in fact, did the exact opposite. I told one of the executives about what happened. My best friend was right there to listen to the whole thing, but he still asked me about it, and I told him. It made me finally pick a side. Because I picked a side and the lies were told to me, I had to answer more questions through email over the summer. I gave them everything they asked for that happened after the acquaintance talked to me about the case and everything else that happened. A few weeks ago, two of the people on the plaintiff's side recanted their interview answers. One of them stopped pressing charges. A couple of days ago, my best friend called me right after he received the news that the executives ended the case and cleared him. He told me, they were waiting for me to pick a side, but the fact that two people changed their stories and one of the plaintiffs dropped the charges they brought just made it easier to dismiss what happened. Plus, he showed me the executives' letter to him, which stated, "There is no evidence [anything alleged happened between the plaintiff and the defendant.]" I showed up for both sides. But then lies happened and I had to back the person I had more trust in that was not lying to me. It worked out. "All is happy in the end."

Monsters are all around us Just look at the political bus It is a mess with everyone fighting I look in shock because it is sloppier than my handwriting Everyone just needs to get together Or we'll end up in the wind like a feather I mean what is all this confusion for Is it from the slammed-in-your-face door from 1924 Animals all around have more sense than humans The light from them is more than 1000 lumens They do not grope about things without reason It is like there is no rhyme or reason while everyone is standing in treason Bet if there are aliens watching, they are laughing Maybe looking at this experiment photographing Having a ball in their ship While everyone down here continues to slip and tip

Playing the game of life gives us many opportunities to take leadership roles. It makes us more likely to succeed in something we pursue when we take the chance given to us to take the lead. Hopefully, by you taking the lead, it gives confidence to others to take the lead later on in their life. I have been the leader of many things in my life. When I have been gardening with my neighbors, I have taken the lead to plant the entire fields by myself and gather up the produce when it was time without anyone knowing until I was almost done. I took a whole day during the summer once to dig up all the potatoes we planted. It came out to be over 30 pounds in all the rows I was able to dig up! We did not do full rows because we had to go short from plumbing issues messing with the other end of the garden and a fallen tree later in the growing season. Last summer, I gathered 148 ears of corn by myself and shucked them. Some were my neighbors. I took the leadership role during a T3LC Grant in which we had the plans to get books for a local elementary school, go there occasionally to read to them in class, and let the elementary students take books we bought with the grant home. We came up with this idea in case the students were not fortunate enough to have enough money to buy the books they wanted to or if they did not have any books at home because their parents were not able to take them to the book store to buy books. Unfortunately, the grant was denied by the county. However, we are going to pursue it again this upcoming year when more of our peers join and we can get more books to apply for the grant. (We did offer to use school money that we raised and had in the account to go to the school and read when we did go to read.) Overall, leadership is not going to be the easiest thing, but even in the face of adversity, it is a chance to get better and help others in the process. Always take the chance to lead when you are given the opportunity. It is rewarding to lead and helps you and others around you. The key to leading is to actually not. It is to delegate some of the work to other people to find solutions for. But, to be considered a leader, taking a chance is the best bet. Most people do not. It helps others and you become the leader of everything you need to get accomplished. It also may help others in the community.

The quiet peacefulness, the birds chirping, and the rabbits and squirrels eating vegetation all happen within the woods/forest. The forest is a lovely place to be, until you get injured and cannot do much but call out for help. That is what happened to a neighbor of mine down in Florida. It was a hot, humid day. My neighbor had slipped climbing over a stump and injured his ankle. He laid there for multiple hours calling out. I heard him off in the distance and followed the sounds through the pathways he traveled through the woods. He had gone off his trail, and it was getting really thick where I found him. We had to work to get through the brush with his foot being near impossible to put weight on. If you have ever watched football, that is how we looked just in the forest. He had his arm around my shoulder to take the weight off his ankle and foot. We had to take a few breaks, so we did not pass out. We were closer to my house, but he wanted to get back to his. We finally arrived at his home, and he offered me water and some food while hobbling around his home. I had to decline because it was getting late and I knew mom was going to be upset because I had been away for more than I said I was. (I did not have a personal phone to call my mom to update her on what was happening.) He still gave me the water. I drank it all, said, "Thank you" and took off running down the trails and the road to get back home. It only took me about 5 minutes running, full speed, to get back home. By the time I was home, mom had received a call from our neighbor telling her everything I did for him. I do not see it as much because I think anyone else would do the same thing I did if put in the same situation. You hear a voice calling out in pain and for help, you go to it and try to help them in any way you possibly can. I was young, so my body was able to take it a little more I guess, but I think anyone would have done what I did. My mom was shocked by how everything went over. My neighbor did not go to the hospital. He walked with a strong walking stick whenever he went about. When he did not have the stick, he was limping when he walked. He limped for about 4 months after the incident. I am just glad that I heard him, so I was able to help him.

Lighting the candles for church, giving out food and beverages for blood drives, helping neighbors with gardening and taking care of their animals when they are away. Those are things are part of what have given me over 145.5 hours logged into Beta Club. I have done the entire planting of the garden of my neighbor twice. I have dug up and picked the produce from neighbors' gardens for the past three years by myself. I have been on the baseball team for three years. This will be my fourth year. I have been the leader of that team by never failing to give everything I have. I led the team my sophomore year in On Base Percentage (OBP). OBP is the number of times up to bat divided by the number of times earned getting on base. I also led the team in fielding percentage and number of hits. I only played football one year. Sophomore year is when I played football at the high school level. In doing so, I earned status as one of the three team captains of the team. I represented the team well while I was with them and showing how to run the team. In Beta Club, I was the leader of a T3LC Grant. We had the plans to get books for an elementary school close to ours, go to the school and read to elementary students, and let them pick out books we had available if they wanted some to read at home if they were less fortunate and could not buy books to keep. Unfortunately, the county did not accept it, but we are going to try to give it another shot after we clean up the last one and get more club members involved to help us get this grant passed. I have won two awards with Senior Beta Club in North Carolina. I won the 4th place position for National BETA Club State Convention in 10th grade. I also won the 5th place position for National BETA Club State Convention in 11th grade. What that means is I represented Wilkes Early College High School by getting 4th and 5th places those years out of the entire student body in North Carolina that attends Senior Beta Club and took the test for math each year. I will also try to get in the top five (hoping for 1st) this year because I will be a senior. In church, I am an alcolyte. That means I light the candles before the service most Sundays. I have been doing it since I was in 7th grade and have took it upon myself some Sundays and Wednesdays to do it when the one scheduled to be the alcolyte did not show up. Overall, I take on a lot of tasks myself, and I try to lead by example. My wish is the younger people see me and want to take it upon themselves to do tasks and projects to make the world a better place.

My health journey has been up and down. The summer between my 5th-grade and 6th-grade year, I had a goal to get visible abs. I was already skinny, but I wanted to get stronger and look better than just a skinny guy. I started to eat more vegetables, and I did over 100 situps every day. I also did over one-minute situps every day. I kept it up through school and through half of the 7th grade. I had moved from Florida to North Carolina. I did not feel like working out. We also lost a lot of money and eating healthy was hard. We took a trip back to Florida to see a family member who had a stroke. My dad started to talk about me and how I was working out. (He still thought I was working out because he had to work away for the first few months after we moved up to North Carolina.) He told me to show some of his friends my abs. Then he said, "I guess he became lazy and stopped working out. He's lost them a little bit." That did not hurt but made me think that I was being lazy and needed to get back into routine. Back in North Carolina from the trip to check in on the family member, I incorporated even more exercises and workouts. I did so many things for about a year and a half. I made it through part of 9th grade, then stopped working out again. Eating healthier became easier because we started to save money. COVID-19 hit during my 9th-grade year, but COVID is not why I quit working out. I did it during the winter break before COVID shut down the USA. Eating healthy was impossible. However, I did not lose a lot of visible strength because I had built it for so long. I wanted to play football in 10th grade. I did the summer workout that the coaches had for us. I also started to get back into doing push-ups and sit-ups again. Then football was pushed back into the spring and I stopped working out even while it was taking place. However, an injury two weeks before football ended. It crushed me because the doctors did not do much for me besides tell me to take Advil and Tylenol. They only did an X-ray, not an MRI which is probably what I needed to tell if I tore my cartilage between my ribs. My dad knew I tore it because of the symptoms and the fact he had torn his when he played football too. We saw this as the perfect opportunity to work out. I had 4 weeks before baseball started its season, and I was more passionate about baseball. I instituted more workouts than I had ever done before. I fell asleep doing workouts. This was still during COVID so A day B day was going on, but we could still stay home just had to log in online. I pushed myself so hard that, even with the injury, I became stronger. It paid off because I had the best baseball season I have ever had and since. I have since kept the workouts on and off. I continue to get stronger. I have also incorporated intermittent fasting into my health. My current health is fantastic because of what has been my crazy journey of ups and downs.

College means more learning, making new friends, getting away from parents (which can be both bad and good), and having to make life-long decisions. It is a chance to have a good time but also a bad time. One decision could make your college experience the worst one you have or end it altogether. What excites me the most is the freedom I will have. I will not have to worry about my parents always looking over my shoulder. I get to figure out a few things in life. I get to choose the degree I want and how long it will take me to get to finish it. I love freedom, so I will love the freedom given to me by the college experience. However, "with great power, comes great responsibility." In college to maintain a healthy mind, I will need to find people that I can get along with. People that I can talk to about anything and everything. Whether it is a project from a professor I am having trouble with or just to hang out and have some fun. Joining clubs I think will be the best way to become involved early and get to meet people that I can get along with. In college to maintain a healthy body, I will need to keep working out. Going to the college gym and playing sports is the way I will be able to keep my body healthy. (It will also help with the mind being healthy, but mostly the physical, active part.) Minding how my classes work with how I can work out and/or exercise is key to keeping my body healthy. Eating foods that are full of vitamins is the other way to help maintain a healthy physical body. The way I will, and currently do, keep my soul healthy is through church and reading my Bible. They are activities I enjoy doing. Joining a good church in the area is what will help. Joining a club that is Christianity-based will help me keep a healthy soul. Overall, I need to space out everything from spending time with friends to joining certain clubs to getting some down time to relax and/or read the Bible. It all deals with time. If I mess up the timing of doing things, one or more things in my health will deteriorate. I will have to meet with some college peers that have been there for a while to ask some questions about how to space everything out. Hopefully, then, I will be able to come up with ideas on how to get through college and still be healthy in mind, body, and soul.

Growing up in a rural part of Florida, running threw the woods and trying to find things I did not know about was a huge part of my childhood. I was always looking for rocks, skeletons/fossils, 'cool looking' tree(s) or tree branches, and more. I once found a coral rock that floated when in water. It is about the size of my palm, not heavy, and has holes all throughout it. However, the coolest part was right below it was a fossilized shark tooth. I was over 20 miles from the nearest ocean shore line. My favorite scientific discovery is not that interesting or cool to most people, but I love the fact Florida was once underwater. A few years after learning that is when I found the fossilized shark tooth. It intrigued me to look for more things on the property but I did not find anything, sadly. I have always loved the ocean and respected it and the animals, specifically sharks, in it. It is interesting to me how I found two items, more than 20 miles inland showing Florida was once underwater. It is crazy in my mind to think about how a land mass so large and with so many people today was once all under the salty sea. What is more interesting to me is the chances of finding a new species because of fossils in the Everglades, how Florida could be going back into the Atlantic, and the animals that are a part of Florida that still live there such as Turkeys, Deer, Storks, Ibises, etc. How could a land mass so large with so many people, wildlife, and undiscovered things have been underwater at one point? What happens if it submerges again? This discovery is what gives me these questions.

From massive highways and power plants to the small devices we call cell/smartphones, the world is in need of engineers to create these things. Without engineers, the ability to travel would be more difficult: highways and other roads would take longer to get repaired. Without engineers, phones would not be around. Without engineers, nuclear power plants would 1.) be impossible to have and 2.) would have meltdowns many times every decade. The world would be an unrecognizable place without engineers. Back in 2019, I did a video call with a friend. I was thinking about engineering. I had always thought about the profession. (My great-grandfather had been an engineer.) He is a mechanical engineer in Texas. My friend stated, "Mechanical engineers are the jack-of-all-trades master of none." He answered questions I had about engineering and showed me what each type of engineer (mechanical, electrical, civil, chemical, etc.), that I had questions about, did. I settled on going to being either a mechanical engineer such as my friend is in Texas and my great-grandfather was or a chemical engineer because of the cool stories I heard from both my friend and my older brother. Mechanical engineering is what I think I will pursue to get a degree. It sounds like something I would love to do and explore the careers available to me. I wish I knew how car parts worked better and mechanical engineering will help me better understand how they work. Mechanical engineering opens a lot of doors around the world. It helps run the world with components we use every day. Chemical engineering is not on the back-burner. It is still at the forefront, but I like the idea of mechanical engineering a little more. I love to know how everything works and to help others. Engineering gives me that opportunity to learn about the world and how things work. I am passionate about it because my great-grandfather was an engineer. Engineering is the ability to know how things in the world work and how to fix certain things if I need to. It is the ability to make a living helping others fix issues in their equipment, buildings, etc.

The smashing of football pads and big collisions are a part of the sport of football. During the pandemic, my school played football during the spring. The game was the second to last game, I was the team captain and the only quarterback. I rolled out of the pocket and passed the ball right before I took the hit. I was hit hard by the linebacker. I felt a pop in my ribs right as he hit me. I did not think too much of it because I thought maybe it was the pads. However, I started to get tight on the sidelines and knew something was not right but I knew I needed to continue playing. Also, it did not hurt too badly; it was just getting tight in my ribs. Later in the game, I needed to block for a trick play. I was blindsided by an illegal hit. I felt another pop in my ribs, and I was hit in the same area as the clean hit from the linebacker. This time, I had to stay on the ground for a few seconds to catch my breath because of the pain. Right as the medical personnel for the team reached me, I jumped up to show I was alright. I was upset because I was injured. To make matters worse, the doctors only X-rayed me instead of doing an MRI to see if anything else was wrong. My father told me that he thinks I had torn cartilage because he had it before. was injured 4 weeks before official tryouts for the baseball team. Football was over for me, but baseball was around the corner. I needed to get ready for baseball by strengthening my ribs. Even though I was injured, I lifted weights every day. I lifted weights every day to get my shoulders, ribs, hips, and lats stronger. I pushed myself to the point where I was sleeping in the middle of the personal workouts I did. I ate protein-rich foods with little fat. I ran every day against my younger brother. My younger brother is faster than me because of his muscular build. I worked out with a Personal Trainer. I looked up everything possible to get stronger. The worst part was finding harder things to do instead of situps and leg raises to get my abs stronger because it was too much pain to handle. I fought hard to get through the pain and get stronger. I did a recovery on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Tuesday was the tryouts. I made the team and noticed that I could throw farther and was more accurate. That season I had my best season in baseball besides my first season ever. Because of the injury and workouts, I had the stamina to pitch an entire game when the rest of the team was too sore/injured to pitch. I also was faster and caught more would-be hits in the outfield. I continued my workouts in the summer but stopped once school started again. As a result, I did not have as good a season last year. However, I know how to get better and have started my weight training up again. The personal trainer moved a few months ago, but I still have my brother to compete with. I will not slack again because the hard time I had because of football pushed me to be better. I started up a few weeks ago and have noticed I am getting stronger and I like what I see. Injury is just a way to get stronger.

When you are looking up at the night sky, there are many different things to see such as stars, planets, the moon, comets, shooting stars, and man-made objects (satellites). When I see how everything is so unique and how the objects in our night sky make other symbols (constellations), it leaves me in awe every time. Even the day makes me stand in awe when I look at how clouds look like certain things and how the sun is painful to look at but it shines the light on the moon that reflects us but the moonlight is not painful to look at. The sun also gives light to the entire earth. It also brightens the world around us which is amazing too. How everyone is different. How there are millions of plants and animals across the globe. How each one is slightly different. Everything about the world intrigues me. The world is an amazing place that we adapt to and change in. To understand the universe, you first have to look home. Literally, your home, land, neighbors. How does everyone interact? How do animals interact? How do plants interact? How do humans, plants, and animals interact? What you see is how a lot of things interact. Our ability to observe our home and the world is the most important tool we have to understand the universe. All things react with each other differently on the periodic table. It is the same thing for relationships of everything around the world. Since all stars are made of Hydrogen, the universe is reacting the same way in some for or fashion. Most planets are made of Boron and Carbon. Most of the universe works this way: Hydrogen turns to Helium which produces heat and light. Boron and Carbon come together and circle around the Hydrogen/Helium. Probably the scariest thing to think about when talking to someone about space is Black Holes. They are so powerful that light is bent at extreme angles and cannot escape. Black Holes grow forever and bent space and time even. Objects close to black holes (that are not being pulled into them) may be older in our time, but are actually younger. Light moves faster (and slower) because of the pull of Black Holes. Scientists have actually made a new observation that shows, because of Black Holes, that the universe in younger than we thought. They still say it is billions of years old, but it is crazy to think about something that came from the Big Bang and dying stars are strong enough to change age and bend space. The only thing we can do, is observe. It is important to observe to know if we are in any danger, have made uncorrectable mistakes that destroy the universe and planet, etc. We use telescopes and big dishes to look at outer space. We do experiments in space and on earth to test hypothesis. We need to continue doing all these things, so we better understand the universe and on the planet we live on. The world is crazy and so is the universe. There are so many unknowns on our planet as there is about the universe. How is it harder to explore the oceans than it is to explore space? How can we send a satellite (Voyager 1) passed the farthest point in our system but we can not send humans more than a few months in space? We need to start wondering how we can accomplish all these things. We need to explore the ocean(s) more, we need to explore space and other planets more, we need to see if more humans want to push the boundaries, etc. To accomplish all of this, the governments of the world need to stop bickering about little things that do not affect anyone and start caring about what is affecting us: the environment and the universe. The environments around everyone affect everyone differently; it usually keeps getting worse. The universe affects us through the objects we see, how light appears to us, how the world's environments are affected. An asteroid could easily destroy the earth if it is just a few miles in diameter. The dishes of the world only cover about 1% of the sky and space. We could easily be missing something that changes everything like a super nova creating a black hole that is near us or an asteroid that is headed our way. We need money. The government gives money. We use the money to observe the world through new technologies, get telescopes that are stronger to look into space personally, and get more dishes to look into space. The government is so concerned about the things that do not affect us, but never do anything about the things that really matter. We need to find a way to do it ourselves, so we can the world and the universe is intriguing to future generations, and so that we can continue learning about the universe.

Honesty and being hardworking are the two most important qualities that I value the most in myself. When I was taking a college music class, the teacher had it set up online but we also met in person weekly. You had to complete each assignment before being able to go on to the next one. The instructor accidentally would post the unit test every time we started one. However, I would find out because I would finish all the assignments first then email the instructor to take down the test before anyone else finished and take the test before the day we were supposed to. She was very pleased. In fact, I talked to her a few days ago and asked if I was ever going to email her again about a test that was posted early. Honesty is important in everything. Even if it hurts. Relationships die because of dishonesty within. Dishonesty creates trust issues and trust issues brew contempt for each other. I may not have many friends, but that is because I make sure my friends are honest and that I am being honest with them. I trust my friends to be there when I need them like I have been there for them, and they can continue to trust me to be there when they need help from me in any form or fashion. Being honest is about fearing what may happen if you are dishonest and that comes to light. It is about being trusted by a person to keep their conversations with you private. It is about making a relationship last. It is about making that relationship stronger and more important. I have never missed an assignment or fallen behind on an assignment. I attribute that to my energetic qualities and being hardworking. My English high school teacher was amazed by my ability to get these projects done within the first week. I finished my graduation project (which usually takes about a year and a half) in a little over half a year. The graduation project was headed by that same English teacher. I once completed an entire book report she wanted to be done (started in November so about 4 weeks) by the end of the semester within 3 days. I had nothing better to do, she was upset with me until she read it through. (We had already completed the book by the time she said there was a book report due.) Once I start something, I keep at it until it is finished. Whether it is in academics like the examples I provided above or if it is in sports. (I am always trying to set an example and lead.) Honesty and hard work are what are going to help me graduate college and accomplish all my academic goals. Maybe not all my non-academic goals will be achieved but I am not going to stop until I cannot chase them anymore. Thank you, Michael

Even though I have played almost every sport, and was not too great at any of them, applying for scholarships has been one of the hardest things I have ever done. Essays, paperwork, answering questions, and more all factor into many scholarships. There are also many scholarships out there to apply to and choose from. I never realized there were this many scholarships. I knew there were many scholarships out there but not close to the number I have experienced on my journey as a senior in high school. I have applied to many scholarships but have not been accepted by any yet. Scholarships are a unique tool or resource for anyone to use. They help with eliminating the chance of student debt or eliminating it even after you are finished with college. Scholarships are needed for many people across the world and the country. It is a competition to say and type what everyone thinks the person on the other side who is giving the scholarship wants to hear. Scholarships are given by people because of their needs for them and because someone looks and communicates with the grantor and is pleasing to them. I have also learned that scholarships are sometimes localized to one specific thing and place such as a cancer survivor from a town/city in Florida. I have not found any scholarships like that for myself, but this one does not hurt because I am still eligible to apply. I just wish I knew more people that needed scholarships that I could tell. I also wish I could thank everyone for giving any amount of money to students applying for scholarships.

I am pursuing a college degree for two reasons. The first reason is to be the first person to graduate college in my family since my great-grandfather. The second reason is to be able to accomplish my dream of owning a business or running one. Simply, I want to make my parents proud and to have a chance in an ever-growing world of technology.

A friend of mine has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and works in it. My great-grandfather also worked in Engineering and had a degree in Mechanical Engineering. I called up my friend one day, he told me all about it because I had a few questions about if engineering was a good career to pursue. He inspired me to take it on and I have not thought of anything since besides running a business through an engineering degree.