Being transgender is honestly the best thing I could have realized about myself. I am proud to call myself a part of the LGBTQIA+ community. I changed my name, cut my hair, and I really started feeling happier once I accepted myself as a non-binary man. I changed my name to Paxton, but people just call me Pax, which is Latin for peace. I feel like the hardship and adversity I faced due to my trans identity made me a stronger person and a more resilient person. I will never go back to being the scared "girl" in the closet that I once was. I see beauty in transness. I see the courage to defy gender norms and stereotypes that capitalism has systematically fought so hard to ingrain in all of us. I hope that one day we can live in a society where gender doesn't matter and people can express themselves freely and love who they love. I believe that no matter the circumstances, everyone deserves kindness and compassion and empathy. Everyone deserves to feel seen for who they really are. I believe that no matter what someone's identity is, they deserve unconditional respect. It is for these reasons that I aspire to become a high school English teacher. High school was a very challenging time for me due to my mental health struggles and trying to learn how to accept my transgender identity, and I often found myself turning to books to escape my often unpleasant reality. Through reading and writing, I discovered not only new worlds, but also more about who I was and who I wanted to be. That sense of discovery, that feeling of being understood, is something I hope to bring to my classroom someday. I want my future students to see themselves in the characters they read about, to feel validated and inspired by literature. I want to give them the ability to use words to give them the power that society tries to take away from them. I believe that the way we use language affects the way we interact with the world, and it is the way we use language that is first and foremost the most important defining factor in our identity. Above all, I want my future students to know that they have a voice that deserves to be heard. My goal is to create a welcoming space where students can find knowledge and a sense of belonging and self-expression. To make this goal a reality, I plan to pursue my Bachelor of Science in Education (BSED) in secondary English education. I am committed to working hard throughout my college years, taking every opportunity to learn how to be an effective and compassionate educator, which is why I feel I am the most deserving candidate for this scholarship.

I've learned that despite all our differences, we are connected by all the traits that exist within the core of our humanity. We all share the human experience, even if there is slight variation about those experiences. Another thing I learned is that we all believe there are different cores to humanity. William Golding's Lord of the Flies teaches us that violence is the core of humanity. Kate Chopin's The Awakening teaches us that self-fulfilment is the core of humanity. Authors like Thoreau and Whitman believe self-reliance and appreciation of nature is the core of humanity. Being well-read in a variety of authors can give you multiple perspectives into the observation of human nature and human experience. Literature does not only teach us how to view ourselves, but also how to view society. Stories like Ayn Rand's Anthem and George Orwell's 1984 teach us the importance of individuality. Melville's sad tale of Bartleby teaches us how capitalism and mundane work kills our spirits. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley serves as a warning for how the modernization of technology can destroy our humanity. All of these stories can be compared and contrasted, and from them, we take on a greater meaning as to what this all means to us. I have learned most importantly from books, to treat others with kindness. Human beings need each other, as shown in The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. Books are my life. My life is written out on the pages, reflected in millions of stories. You just have to read it at the right angle to understand what it is trying to tell you. And if you read a book and then you look within yourself, it is here that you find growth, and understanding of self. Books teach us how to move about in our day to day life. Books teach us lessons we will never forget and give us warnings about where our future is headed. I find it unfortunate that some people are not given the gift of literacy, like I have been so fortunate to have. My love for reading has made me want to share this incredible power with those less fortunate. I want to become a teacher. I want to shape young minds with literature, as well as gain their perspectives in hopes to enlighten my own understanding of the world around me and within. If I win this scholarship, I will go to school to become a secondary English teacher, so I can share this amazing world of knowledge with young minds.

I want to go into education, so I want to help foster growth and a love for learning amongst underprivileged kids. My mom is a teacher, and she always told me this: "There are two types of kids who come to school. Those who are loved at home, come to school to learn. And those who aren't loved at home, come to school to be loved." I want to be the love that these kids need. I am so lucky that I have had the privilege of growing up learning how to read and write, and ever since I learned how, I have loved both dearly. But I also understand that not everyone has had that privilege. I hope that in getting enough scholarships to attend college, I can make a difference in young people's lives. School should not be miserable. It should not be something that kids dread. It should not pile onto the already mountainous mental health issues these kids are facing. School should be a safe haven. I strongly believe school should be a safe haven for those who have no other safe haven. I want to put books in the hands of every kid who just needs to escape reality for a little while. I want to hand pen and paper out to every kid who's been bottling up too many thoughts, and just let them write, without falter or frustration. Literacy is a blessing. Please, let me share it with the underprivileged youth. I would even, in my spare time, volunteer at underfunded libraries. I'd tutor kids who struggle in their English classes. I'd read to people in nursing homes, and donate books as well as canned food to homeless shelters. I believe that so many of the world's problems can be solved by reading. Some may try to argue that STEM is more important, but ultimately I believe our humanity is reflected in literature. We can find everything within ourselves reflected on the pages of classic literature. All of our societal issues can be solved if we just unravel what the authors are telling us. History will stop repeating itself if we all just pick up a book and learn to read and digest what it says. Brilliant new ideas come from brilliant old ones. We are so much more than the home we were raised in or the street we grew up on. We are written in the pages of books, and these are our stories. We deserve to know what they are.

For me, success would mean impacting others' lives in a positive way. If I can make just one person feel like they matter, then I've done something right. I want to go off to college to study education, and this money would really help me out a lot with that. I've always pushed myself really hard in school (and in general) to be the best that I can be because I have always wanted to be the best version of myself for everyone else around me. Everything I do, I do for other people. I believe everyone was put on this earth for a reason. My reason was to do everything I can possibly do for everyone else. I've always really loved reading and writing. I know that's not something that everybody loves as much as I do because, frankly, not enough people in this country are afforded the opportunities to learn these skill sets enough to enjoy and appreciate them. That's really what I want to do. I want to help underprivileged kids get the best education they deserve, and I want to work with them to help them become powerful adult leaders. I want to shape a positive future by creating a positive environment for the youth of this country. I want to work in the schools that teachers don't want to work in: underfunded city schools. I want to work with the kids who other teachers don't see hope for. My mom is a teacher, and she always tells me this: "There are two types of kids who come to school. There are the ones who are loved at home, and they come to school to learn. And then there are the ones who aren't loved at home, and they come to school to be loved." I want to be the love and the safe space that these children don't have, and in doing so, I want to foster a love for learning and a love for literature. I firmly believe that knowledge is power, so please, grant me this scholarship, and I will use the knowledge I gain at school to empower young minds and foster growth in the community. I want to do great things and change the world, I just need a little support getting there. I know I am young and ambitious. I know I will fail. I also know that I will pick myself up and keep going because that is what I have always done. I am a strong, brave, kind individual. We need more of that quality in the world. Please, consider me and let me make change for the better. I work hard for everything. I know the value of hard-earned reward. I have a 4.6 GPA in school as of right now, and I did that by taking all the hardest classes, even when I doubted if I could do it. I persevered, and I proved to myself that I can do anything that I put my mind to if I try hard enough.

I would choose Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, and here's why: I think it is important to be able to learn about the effects technology can have on humanity. This is a book that makes people question if advancing technology really benefits us overall, or if it will subsequently be our downfall. Furthermore, I think there are some obvious flaws to the book, which is also a good reason why everyone should read it. There are obvious economic oversights within the structure of Huxley's fictional society. The whole point is that nobody ever moves up or down a social class, but if there is a general flow of capital, then technically couldn't someone gain more power by gaining more wealth? See? It doesn't add up. I like that there are flaws, though. It makes the book better because it reminds you that people aren't perfect, just like the author wasn't perfect when he wrote the book. This one is kind of obvious, but still important to note that Ford is significant to the novel because he mass-produced automobiles the same way the society mass-produces genetically engineered humans, and he is often referred to in a religious or god-like manner. So while religion itself no longer exists, the feelings associated with religion and god and spirituality still exist which are manipulated and directed towards Ford (a symbol of eugenics, dysgenics, mass industrialization, capitalism/consumerism–essentially what Huxley is criticizing). Also keeping in mind, this novel was published in 1932, so around the time the Nazi party would have just started growing (a lot of scary similarities with race and eugenics Huxley’s society and Nazi parallels). The world’s first IVF “test tube” baby wasn’t born until 1978, so in a lot of ways, Huxley’s thinking was very ahead of his time, which I also find very interesting.