My dream version of my future self is to be a successful lawyer that has been a voice or provided comfort to people who need help.

Taking on roles to be a part of a cause bigger than myself is what inspires me to be involved in my community. I strive to be selfless and help people out in any way I can because I understand how it feels to be alone or excluded. I've realized that doing small tasks like volunteering can go a long way for someone and make them feel seen or cared about. To influence change in my community I've helped out at different events like soup kitchens, umpired little league games, and worked scoring tables at youth wrestling tournaments. I have also spent some of my time lending a hand to other events around school and the community like United Way or Girls on the Run. One of the most meaningful contributions I've been a part of in my community was my position as the ambassador of Project Quarantine (P.Q.). P.Q. was a student-led organization where we delivered food to frontline workers and people in need during the pandemic. My role was to lead meetings over Zoom. We were working on a food drive and brainstormed ways to advertise to get the most donations. I went to local stores and asked to hang up flyers and passed them out to people on the way to promote the event. We also got meal donations from small locally owned businesses. Also, I have had the privilege to be in extra-curriculars like National honors society which have given me opportunities to get even more involved in my community. Through NHS I have worked as a course marshall for a Girls On the Run 5k and helped run 3 blood drives at my school which was assisted by the Red Cross. Lastly I have volunteered with United Way where aided in the organization of a book fair for young kids to get free books. All of these platforms have influenced my life and made me realize how much a simple act of kindness could help someone. Though being active in the community has had an impactful effect on me it has also inspired others to get involved as well. Volunteering brings unity to the community and I hope the small roles that I have played in trying to help others makes a change. Feeling alone or disregarded is hard to endure and that is why I endeavor to make others feel included, cared for and apreacaited.

Growing up I didn't have a great relationship with sports. My family is extremely competitive which made it hard to thrive and have fun while I was constantly compared to my older brothers. I threatened to quit countless times until my freshman year. My wrestling coach, Jim Palmisano, started to treat me like I was my own person instead of a little brother to other wrestlers. Coach genuinely cared about my life, he was understanding when I had conflicts with other activities I enjoyed participating in and pushed me in the wrestling room to be the best athlete/young man I could be. After years of doubting my athletic abilities, he had given me a sense of confidence that not only allowed me to perform better on the mat but to be the loudest cheering on my teammates, show them new moves, and be someone they could talk to when they had their own doubts. Throughout that season my perspective changed. I once went onto the mat with the negative mindset that I would lose or wasn't good enough, different from how I now prepare myself for each match to make sure I do my best for myself and my team. When the season came to an end the confidence and skills Coach had taught me came into play in other matters such as being captain of other sports teams to student government meetings. He had completely flipped my perception of sports from an activity I felt forced to do to one where I made friends and felt appreciated. After freshman year, junior high wrestling, I moved up to my first year on the high school team. I was immediately discouraged by the upperclassmen and our season was not promised due to Covid. Feeling overwhelmed in the room I managed to earn a varsity spot on the team. At my first match, I was incredibly nervous even after many pep talks from teammates, I still didn't feel confident about my match. Coach Palmisano, despite having his own junior high team to focus on, stayed for my match yelling to me what moves to hit and what to watch out for. He never failed to give me tips after my matches. He's played an essential role in my desire to make my present-day teammates and peers feel more assured. Now I hold leadership roles and use my voice when others can't beyond being a team captain, like organizing school events that bring students together as class Vice Presidents because of the reassurance and support I got from Coach.

From a young age, I have been described as a bold and expressive individual. I took interest in things like dancing and singing where I would bust out some moves on the baseball field after a little league game or sing my heart out to whatever was on the radio in the car. At that time, it didn't matter to me how dumb I looked or that if I were to go one America's got talent all four judges would hit the red x button on the first word I sang because of how bad I sounded. All that mattered to me was that I was making people laugh and bringing energetic vibes so that sometimes others would even break out of their comfort zone and join me. It felt good to know that I was someone other people felt comfortable around. I started to fixate on that and tried to include people in conversations or activities if I thought they may have felt left out. It was around junior high were my personality became more reserved. I was made fun of for being too emotional or compassionate for not going along with a "joke" that might've hurt someone. I silenced myself and disregarded the urge to be myself when a Taylor Swift song started to play because of the fear someone might question my manliness. I felt weird for not being like the other kids on my sports teams. When quarantine happened I isolated and dissociated myself from my peers. I convinced myself that they wouldn't like me so instead of talking to others I would draw pictures, write poems and make horrible attempts at writting songs that I never finished. These were fun and provided a release for me but I still wasn't sharing myself with other people. After a while, I made an account on Tik Tok where I posted videos about how I was feeling. I was overwhelmed by how many people related to me through the comments and likes on my videos. I started to gain a sense of confidence that felt familiar. I began sharing other things like my outfits and joked about things I was going through. I made friends online that made me realize I wasn't weird because I was different. As a result, I started to open up again about how I was feeling and just expressing myself. I was later diagnosed with severe anxiety and depression which allowed me to understand why I was so paranoid about what people thought of me. In the future, I plan to give back to the community by becoming a lawyer. I want to be the voice, the reassurance I needed back then for other people. With this, I hope to promote fairness and justice for those that may be discouraged by society.

Growing up I didn't have a great relationship with sports. My family is extremely competitive which made it hard to thrive and have fun while I was constantly compared to my older brothers. I threatened to quit countless times until my freshman year. My wrestling coach, Jim Palmisano, started to treat me like I was a leader. Coach genuinely cared about my life, he was understanding when I had conflicts with other activities I enjoyed participating in and pushed me in the wrestling room to be the best athlete/young man I could be. After years of doubting my athletic abilities, he had given me a sense of confidence that not only allowed me to perform better on the mat but to be the loudest cheering on my teammates, show them moves, and be someone they could talk to when they had their own doubts. Throughout that season my perspective had changed, I once went onto the mat with a negative mindset that I would lose or wasn't good enough, different from how I now prepare myself for each match to make sure I do my best for my team and myself. When the season came to an end the confidence and skills Coach had taught me came into play in other matters such as being captain of other sports teams to student government meetings. He had completely flipped my perception of sports from an activity I felt forced to do to one where I made friends and felt appreciated. After freshman year, junior high wrestling, I moved up to my first year on the high school team. I was immediately discouraged by the upper classmen and our season was not promised due to Covid. Feeling overwhelmed in the room I managed to earn a varsity spot on the team. At my first match, I was incredibly nervous even after many pep talks from teammates, I still didn't feel confident about my match. Coach Palmisano, despite having his own junior high team to focus on, stayed for my match yelling to me what moves to hit and what to watch out for. He never failed to give me tips after my matches. He's played an essential role to my desire to make my present day teammates and peers feel more assured. Now I hold leadership roles and use my voice when others can't beyond being a team captain, like organizing school events that bring students together as class Vice Presidents because of the reassurance and support I got from coach.