I have always been a person that someone can lean on throughout my life. I've always tried my best to be this way because I can only hope someone would do the same for me. This means sacrificing time to do things considered fun in order to stay by someone's side in hard times, or balancing other relationships so that I can focus on someone who needs me. I have always embodied this nature through my servitude in my community through groups such as NHS and my church, but I have also embodied this nature in many other ways. Five years ago, my family and I felt called to adopt. We found this little girl from China who had down syndrome that needed a home and decided to adopt her. Because of this, I am passionate about helping people with special needs. An example of this is when I first joined the musical theater troupe at my high school called Broadway Company. In my grade, there is a boy with autism who has a massive passion for musical theater and so he joined as well. In general, the drama department contains dramatic people. So a lot of people aren't very nice or understanding because they need to be cutthroat in order to keep up with the nature of auditions for shows and competitions. This boy with autism was left alone with no friends because there was such a lack of empathy and compassion within the group for him. I took it upon myself to become his friend. Most people make the mistake of thinking that people with special needs are stupid or not as understanding as "normal" people. As I befriended him it became more and more outrageous to me that no one else would be friends with him. He is smart and kind and quickly became one of my better friends. Just by being there for him when he was in need, I found a person that is kind and uplifting in my life. Another time when I helped someone in need was when I was hanging out with some friends after school. We were in his backyard having a bonfire when the neighbor lady from next door came over. Her husband had fallen on the second floor of their house and needed help. One of my friends and I jumped to action and ran up and helped him up onto his bed, while another one of our friends called for medical help. Because of our help, he was fine and only had minor injuries. These examples are on a wide range of the spectrum of helping people, whether it be mentally or helping someone physically in need. I have helped many others in ways like these throughout my life. I enjoy being kind to others because kindness is reciprocating and always ends up being paid forward. What better life to live, than one where your kind attitude to help others inspires others to be kind to you?

As a young person, it is never on my mind to think about my legacy. The closer I get to the next stage of my life, the more I realize how important it is to change this fact. As I leave this life, I want my legacy to be one of kindness and wisdom. I hope to be someone who people can come to for advice or just to talk to. I want to be a safe person for people to lean on without worrying about judgment or mean words. This is important to me because a legacy is how you live on after death. I want to leave a legacy that continues on even after my name isn't tied to it anymore. A legacy doesn't just have to be how people remember me, but also how they remember the ideas that I stood for. This is important because it's the lasting change in the world that I hope to have.

A big part of my life has been to always give back and serve in my community using my talents as a musician. This will continue to be a big part of my life as I go on to the next stages. I hope to leave as big an impact as possible on the world through my music and financial repertoire. I hope to continue to serve through a church by singing and serving in my community for my whole life. I also plan on devoting at least 10% of my finances to giving back to those in need. It's very important to me that I remain humble and remember my roots. Using my talent is the best way I can give back to my community. I have been given a gift to share and I hope to use that gift to create a big impact on the happiness of others in the world.

The best way to live a long, healthy life is to find a purpose. If you have a reason to live, all the other areas of your life will fall into place. Some people find this purpose in a family, a relationship, or in their job. If you have a truly important reason to drive your life, then you won't want to screw it up. You'll stay away from drugs and alcohol. You'll avoid things that could jeopardize your purpose. It's also really important to create a structure in your life. As cliche as it sounds, it's really important to eat well and work out frequently. As you enter old age, it's too late to attempt these things, so having a set structure for working on these things is really important over the course of your entire life. Having a purpose and a set structure for your life is a sure-fire way to protect your mental and physical health throughout the entirety of your life.

Throughout my life, music has always been an escape from stress. An escape from anything I couldn't handle at the moment. It wasn't until high school that I realized how much more music could be to me. Music isn't only an escape, but a tool for focus and intuition. As I have gone throughout high school, music has helped me increase happiness and a desire to learn in all of my classes. Because of this, music has helped me learn how to learn. Music fills my mind at every waking moment. I love having band, choir, and broadway classes as markers throughout my school day. I can use them as restful waypoints if the rest of my classes aren't particularly interesting. As a musician, I have taken part in many musical groups and organizations. As a vocalist, I have made it into the WSMA Honors Choir every year of high school. I made it to state for Solo Ensemble 2 times. I also sang in the choir at my high school and performed in my school's auditioned group called Broadway Company. As an instrumental musician, I have performed in my school's top ensemble for 4 years and also have gone to state for Solo Ensemble 2 times. It is through groups and events like these that I have learned how to work with people and gained important leadership and teamwork skills which are very necessary going into college. Not only has music taught me how to learn, but it has taught me how to work with people. Because of all of these major impacts that music has made on me, my future goal is to become a musician. Music has shaped my goals so much that I want to do it for the rest of my life. I have made much more of an effort to stay as a musician than any other thing in my life. I would be willing to do anything to remain a musician. This is my passion and I can't see myself doing anything else. All of my goals revolving around music also bleed into other areas of my life. My last job was at my church, and I got it because I sing there. I also have made goals to do as many music classes as possible in high school. I am happy to say that this goal was accomplished. I have around 30 music credits now, at the end of my senior year. Overall, music is very important to me. It has taught me many things, and has given me my passion and drive for all of my future goals.

I have always been a very ambitious and driven person. Because of this, I loved sports all the way through middle school. I played as many sports as I could. My favorite by far was football. In my 7th grade season, I ended up breaking my L5 vertebra and tearing the muscles and ligaments surrounding this area. This was devastating to me, as I wouldn't be able to play football in my 8th grade year, inevitably meaning I wouldn't be able to be good enough to get to play in high school. During the next few months, I had to take it easy and spent a lot of time sitting or laying in bed. It was during this time that I had started to listen to music more than ever. I also started to practice guitar, piano and singing. All three of these skills grew over the next few months until I realized that I was never supposed to be an athlete: My talents were to be a musician. I had finally found my purpose. This seemingly terrible injury had turned out to be the thing I needed to show me my true passion. I truly belive that without ever breaking my back, I wouldn't be the musician I am today.

I am a very busy person, and just like many others, I sometimes don't take the proper time to rest that I should. In the past year, I have made a vow to have at least one rest evening a week. Normally this takes place on Saturday. I am a very social person, so I enjoy spending time with people and socializing to relax. I also play multiple instruments and enjoy sitting down and playing for an hour or two to take my mind off of things. Because of my busy nature, these are some of the only things that make my mind stop racing. I also like to take my dog on walks and listen to podcasts and music while driving or cleaning. Because of the way our society works, I never truly get a whole day off, but it's little things like these that give me the small moments of rest and relaxation to continue on with my day.

Throughout my life, I like many others, have been given many things to be gracious about. Up until middle school, I had always taken for granted what I have been given in life. This attitude continued until my life was abruptly halted at the end of my seventh grade. I had broken my back, and suddenly I couldn't do anything I wanted to anymore. I was told that my L5 Vertebrae was sliding and that I could possibly go paralyzed from the waist down. The one redeeming thing about this experience was that I am fortunate enough to have parents who could give me the proper medical care to heal. From that point on, I vowed to be much more gracious for the things I have and the life that I have been given. I started to serve in church two times a week and joined my school's National Junior Honors Society in order to start to give back. In high school, I joined the National Honors Society and continued to serve in my church, as well as getting a job to help my parents with some of my school costs. All of this to say, I live with as much gratitude for the people who make it so I can live in a free and easy to live in community as possible. I am so appreciative that I have been given so many resources and opportunities to thrive as I have. Because of these things, I intend to give back as much as possible for the rest of my life and to instill these ideologies into my family as well.