As a child, Jack and the Beanstalk was my favorite book. It envisioned a guy who had magical seeds, and when planted, it sprouted beyond what the human eye could ever imagine. Though a classic fairytale, this story teaches a valuable lesson: that planting a seed in your community can bring wonders unlike any other. Within my community (Rutherford), I strive to be like Jack. For starters, I’m quite active within and outside my church walls. As I serve as a vital, media team member who displays scriptures, creates visuals, and regulates the sounds systems, I’m providing a skillset for the betterment of service, as well as delegation to assist my pastor. But beyond these walls, we as a church supply core goods and the gospel though our outreach ministries. And we do it locally, around the spring valley region. In a recent outreach, I came across a woman needing a mattress. Her previous one had broken, and we wanted to go above and beyond, eventually gifting her a bed larger than her request. It meant the ‘absolute world’ to her. Because of experiences like these, I’ve grown to appreciate the little things more. As I've developed a more nuanced understanding of the Rutherford community, time after time, I'm left with enriched feelings beyond words. Since this pivotal moment, I've started to serve other communities within school-related organizations. For two years through JROTC, I have presented the colors at the American Legion World Series to a multitude of veterans and patriots. From this opportunity, I, and a couple of my buddies, were recognized by a WWII veteran for our act. On our trip, we polished fighter jets, and before this trip, cleaned headstones at the Stones River National Cemetery. What I thought to simply be another act of kindness was much more to others. The smiling faces, appreciativeness, and completed work has all kindled a fire in me to never stop giving. Moreover, to give abundantly. In my senior year, as I’ve enrolled in Youth Leadership Rutherford (YLR), EPIC (a freshman mentoring club), and National Honor Society, the doors to serve Rutherford have been plentiful. As I’m off to college, even though I’d be hours away, I still hope to benefit every community I cross paths with, just like the one of Jack. In these four forthcoming years, I plan on pursuing a B.S in Finance. With a thought-out plan of joining four revolutionary clubs, that serves as a catalyst toward my career development, I'll pursue leadership positions that pour into the UTK, financial community. I hope to inspire this generation’s next emerging leaders through my diligent efforts of mentorship and sacrifice.

There are three things you can do with money. You can either spend money, by deducting the value of your financial possessions on things that bring temporary satisfaction, referred to as liabilities; you can save your money, typically in a bank, allowing the value of the dollar bill to depreciate due to inflation, by nearly seven percent annually, correlated to the amounts of money being printed each day; or you can invest your money, in places such as the stock market, real estate, or a 529, which is an educational investment plan for college, which collectively will multiply the dollar value, enabling you to allocate more money and worth, fundamentally increasing your spending on valuable resources and decreasing the chances of you going impoverished. This is single-handedly the most important piece of guidance that I recommend for those who are new or interested in becoming financial literate. This tip of knowledge enables me to consider where I should distribute my funds, and it improves my decision-making in favor of what is required over the long term as opposed to the short term.