One of the most significant life lessons I’ve learned through golf is the importance of patience and mental resilience. Golf is a unique sport because it constantly forces you to face your own mind, where every shot and every hole presents an opportunity to either succeed or fail. Unlike many other sports, where momentum can shift quickly and teammates can help you bounce back, golf demands that you rely on your own mental strength. It teaches you to handle mistakes and successes alike, and most importantly, to keep going even when things aren’t going well. If you hit a bad shot or miss an easy putt, it’s easy to get frustrated or lose focus. But in golf, the key is learning how to stay present and avoid letting negative emotions control your game. This mindset has deeply influenced how I approach life beyond the course. Life, much like golf, doesn’t always go according to plan. There are moments of success and moments of failure, and it’s how you respond to these that truly matters. In golf, if you let a poor shot ruin your entire round, you might as well pack up and go home. Similarly, in life, if you let one setback define your path, it can prevent you from moving forward. In both golf and life, you have to maintain patience, understanding that success is often a matter of persistence and learning from your mistakes. Another key lesson that golf has taught me is the importance of consistency and the fact that improvement takes time. No one becomes a great golfer overnight. It’s a game of practice, repetition, and learning from failures. Even the best golfers will have bad rounds, but they don’t let it deter them from continuing to work on their skills. This perspective has helped me in many areas of my life, particularly in my career. When things don’t go as planned, I remind myself that it’s okay to fail as long as I’m learning from it and continuing to grow. Whether it’s mastering a new skill or navigating a difficult project, the lesson of perseverance in golf has taught me that progress is often slow but steady. Patience is not just a virtue—it’s a necessary ingredient for success. Moreover, golf has also shown me the power of focus and the importance of staying in the present moment. It’s easy to let your mind wander to past mistakes or future challenges, but in golf, you have to stay mentally engaged with each shot. Similarly, in life, focusing on the present helps you manage stress and navigate challenges more effectively. The ability to keep your mind from racing and stay calm under pressure is crucial in both sports and life. Looking ahead, I plan to carry these lessons forward in everything I do. I will approach challenges with patience, knowing that not everything can be conquered in a day or a week. I will use setbacks as opportunities to learn, rather than reasons to give up. And I will keep a calm and focused mindset, even in moments of stress or uncertainty, trusting that staying present and persistent will lead to success in the long run. In both my personal and professional life, I know these lessons will help me navigate obstacles and continue growing, just as I’ve done on the golf course.

I am pursuing a career in the HVAC field after graduating high school. HVAC is very interesting to me as it is what my Dad has done for over 25 years. The knowledge that he has acquired from his years in the field is something that I hope I can have. Something about HVAC that I've learned is that you need to be multi-faceted to be able to do the job correctly. You need to be very resourceful and think outside the box almost constantly. This is very attractive to me seeing that I regularly try to think outside the box with anything I'm doing. I am currently working on a product truck in my free time. It's a 2004 Ford Ranger that I am turning it into a pre-runner for off-road use. I've had many issues with this truck like the fuel pump, EVAP ftps sensor, thermostat, and head gaskets, just to name a few. Having a Dad who thinks outside the box for his job has taught me a lot about solving different issues that come up. Resulting back to the way he teaches me about literally anything has helped me more then anything. His wide range of knowledge acquired over his career is one of the leading reason why I want to gp into HVAC and purse the career further. Learning and being involved In the trades is something that I partake in daily. I currently go to two different schools. I go to my normal high school for the first three periods and that last part of my day is spent at a skill center where I take a construction and trades class. In this class, we learn anything from framing, roofing, painting, architectural layout, and almost anything to do with construction. I also partake in side work on the weekends with my Dad and his industry friends. We put in ductless splits, furnaces, heating pumps, and run lineset. We both put in a brand new furnace and AC unit at my house. This has allowed me to have a good starting structure of the trades that I can hopefully build off of. My goals for after High school is to attend Bates Technical in the HVAC program as a full-time student starting in the fall. Graduate Bates already hired on at a union commercial HVAC shop. Once I'm on with a company I will be going through the apprenticeship with one year's worth of credit starting as a second-year apprentice. Once I have completed my apprenticeship I hope to work for 8-10 years as a Journey Men. After this time I want to enroll in business and financing classes at a nearby university. With a business degree, I want to open up my own Union HVAC shop. This has been a dream of mine for a while and it's only fueled a fire in me to work harder and do the best job that I can. If you could call up anyone that I do side jobs with for example, They would tell you how I'm always one step ahead of whatever it is we are doing. If my boss is going to need his impact in 2 minutes I'm going to go get it for him now and put it by him. They would say that I'm very respectful to those I work with and those I work for. I believe everyone should be respected no matter who you are. These are just some of the things my employer or co-workers can say about me. I'm very hardworking and don't plan on stopping. I'm very excited about my future and can't wait to see what the trades have in store for me.

Mental health has always been something that prevalent in my life since I can remember. My Dad was an alcoholic for my entire life leading up to November of last year. His struggle with mental health has been something my whole family has seen and dealt with for his duration of drinking. My Dad has taught me everything I know and I give almost all my knowledge to him and couldn't be more grateful for him. He was a very sad drunk. He would come in and be very sad and depressed every night after his daily benders and it affected me deeply. All I ever wanted to do was make him happy and it seemed like I could never make that happen. I felt like I was drowning in a pit and I couldn't swim out. My Dad was my world. It gave me really bad anxiety every night when that back door would open and I would just see my sad depressed dad come lay down on the couch next to my mom who shared the same struggles that I did. All she ever wanted to do was make him happy and it seemed to never pan out for her either. We were both drowning, we couldn't get out. It is the leading cause of my anxiety and depression up to today. The times my parents would fight and argue almost every night gave me deep cuts that I'm still dealing with now. My dad would yell and scream at me and my mom for seemingly no reason. My dad was drowning. I never really understood this concept until I got older and realized that he was struggling deep within himself and her was lashing out and taking it out on me and my mom. He was fighting his fights that he felt like he couldn't escape. He has to take an assortment of medication for different kinds of depression and anxiety disorders and I believe that a lot of that has gotten passed down to me. I feel this same sort of thing sometimes and I have Sought out consoling and therapy to hopefully not go down the path of my dad and end the cycle. I can see a lot of him in me and I love it. I love my dad and everything he stands for and all of the hard work that he puts on the table to provide for my Family. He shows me how to take care of the ones I love, while at the same time giving me anxiety about him being in the room because I don't want to get yelled at or screamed at. My father has since gone to treatment and hasn't had a drink in over a year. He is much calmer and has a lot better attitude about life post-rehab. This has shown me what a true man is, Noticing a problem and fixing it. This is something that I apply to everyday life and am so grateful to have someone to show me the light and show me how to be the best man I can be.

Going into the trades is something that I'm fortunate to have the opportunity to do. My father is in the trades and one of the smartest people I know. Ever since I could remember my dad would make and tinker with the most random things out in his shop. From wiring up all his receptacles to rebuilding the whole front end of his Dodge Cummins to doing really weird and crafty things that I could and would never even think about. I just remember him being very resourceful and smart with almost everything he did. I've always wondered how he knows what to do, and he explained that in HVAC, you use skills from various trades. I've had the chance to accompany him on calls and side jobs, and I've learned a lot from his 25 years of experience in HVAC. All of my dad's friends are in HVAC and they are some of the smartest, most knowledgeable people I know. Everyone in my family calls my dad whenever something is wrong with their home or car's HVAC system, heating system, or electrical issues because he uses all these things every day in the field.   My goals in the trades include many different things such as going to Clover Park Technical College to study HVAC. My goal for Clover Park is to go into the program with as many Scholarships as I can because my parents are going to help pay for my college. Still, I don't want them to have to pay a lot so I want to make it not only easy for them but easy for me knowing that I did something to help them out. After Clover, I would like to go to a shop with good higher-ups and good personnel to give me the best structure and guidance for my first time going into the field. This will help me with on-the-job training which is equally as important as in-school learning. While at a job I would still be working my way through the apprenticeship totem pole one step at a time. By the time I become a Journey Men, I would like to get 5-10 years of working under my belt before I start pursuing online business classes. Getting some sort of business degree or learning about business is something that is gonna help me when I try and start my HVAC shop. This is something I've been wanting to do since I could remember. I've always thought of myself as a business owner type and HVAC is the perfect avenue for both of the things I want to do.   I know this is no small task and is going to take a lot of hard work and dedication, but that's why I think this scholarship would be so helpful because it would remove one roadblock out of my and my family's way. It would relieve some weight off my back knowing that It's not something I have to worry about later and I can use those resources for other things that are going to propel and give me even more of an advantage in life and the trades.