The Sorting Hat would likely place me in Ravenclaw, not only because I took the Pottermore quiz, but because I value curiosity and open-mindedness in others and myself. Ravenclaw is typically seen as wise and intelligent, but Luna Lovegood, who does not emanate wisdom, is the Ravenclaw readers spend the most time with. When we first meet Luna, she is talking about floating invisible creatures and Neville's plant, so readers initially assume she is whimsical and quirky instead of intelligent and wise. This is evident when Hermoine, one of the most intelligent characters in the entire series, calls her Loony. However, Luna proves to be both intelligent and wise, yet her most obvious characteristics are her openness and her curiosity. My journey up to this point has been defined by trying to be more open-minded, and I have always been naturally curious. These two traits often lead me down very fun rabbit holes, such as learning about ancient Egypt, memorizing the US Presidents, or learning about film directors. I find all of these things extremely fun, but they are exceedingly hard to build a career around. Being curious about everything has made deciding on a major to study in college very difficult, but I found a degree, Biomedical Engineering, that meshes three things I enjoy greatly. As the name of the degree implies, Biomedical Engineering is the combination of biology, the medical field, and engineering. I have always loved biology, and during my first two years of high school, I became curious about the medical field. I was interested in being a travel nurse or a physician's assistant. In my junior and senior years, I took dual credit engineering classes at a local college. I found that I was extremely interested in continuing engineering; however, I did not want to give up on the medical field or biology. Like Luna, I refuse to give up on being curious about everything. I think aspects of the different houses, and the personalities of their members, apply to more than just school. They reflect a personal outlook on life. One of my favorite quotes, by a distance runner named Tommy Rivs, is that “Everything is figure outable”. Although this quote applies to everyone, it is fundamentally a Ravenclaw thought. Ravenclaws desire knowledge and wisdom, which can only be acquired through rigorous learning, open-mindedness, and curiosity. My parents read the Harry Potter series to me in elementary school, and I later read, and re-read, the series myself. I love its fundamental themes of love winning over evil, and curiosity and open-mindedness being vital to each adventure. Curiosity and open-mindedness are exemplified by Luna and Ravenclaw, meaning that is the house where I would most likely land.

I’ve tried to live a healthy lifestyle ever since I joined cross country in 7th grade. At first, I thought it was enough just to work out a little every day but as I got older and started running in high school, I learned that there are many different aspects to health. The basics that I try to get every day are 8 hours of sleep, plenty of water, sunlight at the start of the day, and vitamins. I started making these a priority after I developed insomnia in my junior year due to a severe lack of recovery. My grades and athletic performance began to decline, and although I knew the cause (lack of sleep) I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t able to sleep. After a lot of research and listening to The Huberman Lab Podcast (my favorite health science podcast), I learned that insomnia and severe mood swings were both symptoms of overtraining which only happens when someone neglects their recovery while simultaneously pushing their body. During my senior season, I made sure to stick to the basics such as sleep, vitamins, and water; sunlight was a given since my team trained in the morning. I worked with my coach to make sure my team was also focusing on recovery and not getting sick. I reminded them to take vitamins daily and reminded them to drink water throughout the day. Convincing a bunch of high schoolers to get 8 hours of sleep is not easy, although I tried. I was hesitant to add the sleep recommendation to the ways I contributed to my team's success, as there is no guarantee my team listened to my sleep recommendation. All of my efforts, my team's efforts, and my coach's efforts to keep us healthy (and fast) paid off because we ended up winning the state cross-country meet by the largest margin in 4A history. Now that I’m no longer running competitive cross country I still want to keep my body healthy because physical health often translates very well to brain health. I am planning to run an Iron Man triathlon during the next year, and I’ve designed a training program to help me accomplish this goal. I also really enjoy lifting. Although training for an Iron Man and lifting don’t traditionally go together, I think it will help me because swimming is extremely difficult for me even though I’m in aerobically good shape. I also intentionally picked a roommate in college who wants to start working out. I enjoy sharing what I know about fitness and I love learning about working out because there seems to be a near infinite amount of ways to train, all having various benefits and drawbacks. Working out and physical health is an integral part of my life and it will continue to be something I enjoy and share with others.

I’ve tried to live a healthy lifestyle ever since I joined cross country in 7th grade. At first, I thought it was enough just to work out a little every day but as I got older and started running in high school I learned that there are many different aspects to health. The basics that I try to get every day are 8 hours of sleep, sunlight at the start of the day, and vitamins. I started making these a priority after I developed insomnia in my junior year due to a severe lack of recovery. My grades and athletic performance began to decline, and although I knew the cause (lack of sleep) I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t able to sleep. After a lot of research and listening to The Huberman Lab Podcast (my favorite health science podcast) I learned that insomnia and severe mood swings were both symptoms of overtraining which only happens when someone neglects their recovery while simultaneously pushing their body. During my senior season, I made sure to stick to the basics such as sleep, vitamins, and water, sunlight was a given since my team trained in the morning. I made sure my team was also focusing on recovery and not getting sick by helping my coach provide daily vitamins and reminding everyone to drink enough water. Convincing a bunch of high schoolers to get 8 hours of sleep is not easy although I tried, there is no guarantee my team listened so I was hesitant to add it to the ways I contributed to my team's success. All of my efforts, my team's efforts, and my coach's efforts to keep us healthy and fast paid off because we ended up winning the state cross-country meet by the largest margin in 4A history. Now that I’m no longer running competitive cross country I still want to keep my body healthy because physical health often translates very well to brain health. I am planning to run an Iron Man triathlon during the next year and I’ve designed a training program to help me accomplish this goal. I also really enjoy lifting and although training for an Iron Man and lifting don’t traditionally go together I think it will help me because swimming is extremely difficult for me even though I’m in aerobically good shape. I also intentionally picked a roommate who said they wanted to start working out because I like sharing what I know about fitness and I love learning more about working out because there seems to be a near infinite amount of ways to train with various benefits and drawbacks. Working out and physical health is an integral part of my life and it will continue to be something I enjoy and share with others.

My parents and church leaders have had an important influence on my life; however, since entering high school I have been tremendously influenced by my cross country coach, Wes Kirton. Coach Kirton helped me improve as both a distance runner and as a person. Through Coach Kirton, I have learned the values of patience and gratitude. I have also seen leadership exemplified in the best way possible. I became interested in distance running in junior high, and I entered high school excited about joining the cross country team. Coach Kirton helped turn my interest in running into a passion. I readily adapted to his enthusiasm for the sport, and his joy of teaching was evident in his informative way of coaching. We did not just train; Coach Kirton wanted us to understand why we were training, why we became fatigued at minute eleven of the race, and why our legs sometimes felt like they had no energy. To help us understand this, his coaching included a lot of science about how runners respond to hydration, nutrition, sleep, cold (ice baths) and, of course, high mileage training. As someone who loves science, this resulted in me absorbing everything Coach gave us and asking him for additional readings and even book recommendations. Reading about how the body makes energy at the cellular level when exercising, and how to make sure this process works as efficiently as possible (through hydration and well-timed energy intake) strengthened my passion for both running and science. It has even influenced what I want to do for a career. Because Coach Kirton cared about the athletic, academic, and personal success of each of us, it bled over into how we treated each other. Our team became a tight-knit community under his guidance. For the four years in which I ran under his tutelage, he coached with kindness and sincerity, but expected accountability with respect to training. Even with high mileage days and solo weekend runs, accountability within the team was not an issue. Because of Coach, we all wanted to perform our best. We did not want to let him down or let one another down. Through his coaching, I learned the best principles of leadership. Coach Kirton taught me how to set long-term athletic goals and trust in the process of achieving them. I understood early morning runs, high mileage summers, and heat training would lead to improved results on race day. Because of Coach Kirton’s guidance, I achieved more success on the cross country course and track oval than I ever thought possible. Knowing how to set goals and commit to the work necessary to achieve them is a life skill, and thanks to Coach Kirton I will be leaving high school with four great years of practicing this skill. Perhaps more than anything, Coach Kirton demonstrated how to overcome adversity. During my junior and senior years, he battled a serious form of cancer in the most stoic and graceful way possible. He continued to coach in between his treatments, did not complain, and did not slow down. He even joined the team in weekly games of ultimate frisbee. In comparison to the adversity Coach Kirton dealt with, the challenges of our workouts seemed very minor. I could not have imagined a better role model than Coach Kirton. He turned my interest in running into a passion and made cross country the most important part of my high school experience. He taught me an approach to being a great person and a great leader that I will take with me for the rest of my life.

The “dream version” of my future self works as a biomedical engineer, benefiting society by developing, advancing, and applying technology used in medical research and healthcare.