Biology doesn’t just exist in the neatly defined lines of an agar plate, humans are full of microbes living to the tune of an invisible drum. The complex interactions of these creatures have wide ranging impacts on health. For instance, the rate of autoimmune disorders is rapidly increasing in the industrialized world. One common theory puts the blame on modern, “sanitized” lifestyles where people have less exposure to the microbes of the world at large. These microbes tamper down the immune system, preventing overreactions to harmless particles, or even our own bodies, contributing to the development of conditions like asthma and allergies. But the hows and whys of tiny ecosystems are so unexplored that 99% of microbes are unknown. Scientists have explored the depths of the oceans and furthest northern climates in the hopes of charting new territory, but even beneath your feet right now, there could be an undescribed species. I want to be one of the researchers documenting the basic information needed for medical advances to help the 24 million Americans with autoimmune disorders, along with changing the minds of the general public and encouraging living in a way that is harmonious with nature, instead of trying to hold humans at an unnatural separation that only ends up harming our health. I currently work in a lab that does research into the effects of P-bodies on development in c. Elegans. It's been really valuable to gain a foundation in common laboratory techniques like pipetting, running gels, mini-prep, RNAi, PCR, etc. and this work has reaffirmed my desire to become a scientific researcher. As a freshman, I've tried to become involved in both the university and surrounding community. This semester, through Badger Volunteers, I've been tutoring middle school students on a weekly basis. It feels very rewarding to work individually with students who have fallen through the cracks, so to speak, and are eager to learn math yet struggling because they never learned foundational skills from years prior. I also help write and grade Science Olympiad exams for the high school Battle of the States invitational series (about three events are hosted a year, about a 20 hour time commitment total). I competed in Science Olympiad throughout high school and want to provide the type of resources that I found invaluable to practice with before competitions. Science is everything from weird looking bugs to obscure physics papers and, with such broad and varying disciplines, it’s easy for people to get lost in the weeds and scientists, with the laser focus that serves them so well otherwise, often struggle to explain the importance of their work to non-scientists. But that work is crucial. Even the oddest insect often has clinical applications. Some real examples of this are insects that produce compounds with medicinal properties or have saliva that breaks down toxic chemical waste. Those squiggly lines in a physics paper explain the world around us, the possibilities for the vast, unexplored universe. I want to be part of the generation of scientists that will make wonderful advances and know how to share them.

Biology doesn’t just exist in the neatly defined lines of an agar plate, humans are full of microbes living to the tune of an invisible drum. The complex interactions of these creatures have wide ranging impacts on health. For instance, the rate of autoimmune disorders is rapidly increasing in the industrialized world. One common theory puts the blame on modern, “sanitized” lifestyles where people have less exposure to the microbes of the world at large. These microbes tamper down the immune system, preventing overreactions to harmless particles, or even our own bodies, contributing to the development of conditions like asthma and allergies. But the hows and whys of tiny ecosystems are so unexplored that 99% of microbes are unknown. Scientists have explored the depths of the oceans and furthest northern climates in the hopes of charting new territory, but even beneath your feet right now, there could be an undescribed species. I want to be one of the researchers documenting the basic information needed for medical advances to help the 24 million Americans with autoimmune disorders, along with changing the minds of the general public and encouraging living in a way that is harmonious with nature, instead of trying to hold humans at an unnatural separation that only ends up harming our health. I currently work in a lab that does research into the effects of P-bodies on development in c. Elegans. It's been really valuable to gain a foundation in common laboratory techniques like pipetting, running gels, mini-prep, RNAi, PCR, etc. and this work has reaffirmed my desire to become a scientific researcher. As a freshman, I've tried to become involved in both the university and surrounding community. From about February-May of last year, I volunteered with GEMS (Girls in Engineering, Math, and Science), to teach educational STEM classes at the Boys and Girls Club. This semester, through Badger Volunteers, I've been tutoring middle school students on a weekly basis. It feels very rewarding to work individually with students who have fallen through the cracks, so to speak, and are eager to learn math yet struggling because they never learned foundational skills from years prior. I also help write and grade Science Olympiad exams for the high school Battle of the States invitational series (three events are hosted a year, about a 20 hour time commitment total). I competed in Science Olympiad throughout high school and want to provide the type of resources that I found invaluable to practice with before competitions. Science is everything from weird looking bugs to obscure physics papers and, with such broad and varying disciplines, it’s easy for people to get lost in the weeds and scientists, with the laser focus that serves them so well otherwise, often struggle to explain the importance of their work to non-scientists. But that work is crucial. Even the oddest insect often has clinical applications. Some real examples of this are insects that produce compounds with medicinal properties or have saliva that breaks down toxic chemical waste. Those squiggly lines in a physics paper explain the world around us, the possibilities for the vast, unexplored universe. I want to be part of the generation of scientists that will make wonderful advances and know how to share them.

I stared in fascination as the brown-green streaks of the field of view snapped into focus. There’s a nematode! In a second, going from meaningless slush to a miniature world, the little worm jerks rapidly back and forth, only visible because of the chloroplast in his stomach. Biology doesn’t just exist in the neatly defined lines of an agar plate, humans are full of microbes living to the tune of an invisible drum. The complex interactions of these creatures have wide ranging impacts on health, for instance, the rate of autoimmune disorders is rapidly increasing in the industrialized world. One common theory puts the blame on modern, “sanitized” lifestyles, where people have less exposure to the microbes of the world at large. These microbes tamper down the immune system, preventing overreactions to harmless particles, or even our own bodies, causing conditions like asthma and allergies. There are also links between the establishment of non-beneficial bacteria and mental health issues, possibly due to the ways that the gut microbiome impacts serotonin regulation. It isn’t a coincidence that about 80% of people with IBS also have a mental health condition. But the hows and whys of these tiny ecosystems are so unexplored that 99% of microbes are unknown, utter mysteries. Scientists have explored the depths of the oceans and furthest northern climates in the hopes of charting new territory, but even beneath your feet right now, there could be an undescribed species. I want to be one of the researchers documenting the basic information needed for medical advances to help the 24 million Americans with autoimmune disorders, along with changing the minds of the general public and encouraging living in a way that is harmonious with nature, instead of trying to hold humans at an unnatural separation that only ends up harming our health. These goals, and that of science more broadly, necessitate not only an educated generation of scientists, but people who can bridge the gap between science and the fear and misunderstanding that often holds it back from public acceptance. I want not only to be the quiet voice looking for solutions in a basement lab, but also an advocate for better science communication, for free journal access and lay explanations of complicated things. Science is everything from weird looking bugs to obscure physics papers and, with such broad and varying disciplines, it’s easy for people to get lost in the weeds and scientists, with the laser focus that serves them so well otherwise, often struggle to explain the importance of their work to non-scientists. But that work is crucial. Even the oddest insect often has clinical applications for a new medicinal compound that it produces, or saliva that breaks down toxic chemical waste. Those squiggly lines in a physics paper explain the world around us, the possibilities for the vast, unexplored universe. I want to be part of the generation of scientists that will make wonderful advances and know how to share them.

I stared in fascination as the brown-green streaks of the field of view snapped into focus. There’s a nematode! In a second, going from meaningless slush to a miniature world, the little worm jerks rapidly back and forth, only visible because of the chloroplast in his stomach. Biology doesn’t just exist in the neatly defined lines of an agar plate, humans are full of microbes living to the tune of an invisible drum. The complex interactions of these creatures have wide ranging impacts on health, for instance, the rate of autoimmune disorders is rapidly increasing in the industrialized world. One common theory puts the blame on modern, “sanitized” lifestyles, where people have less exposure to the microbes of the world at large. These microbes tamper down the immune system, preventing overreactions to harmless particles, or even our own bodies, causing conditions like asthma and allergies. There are also links between the establishment of non-beneficial bacteria and mental health issues, possibly due to the ways that the gut microbiome impacts serotonin regulation. It isn’t a coincidence that about 80% of people with IBS also have a mental health condition. But the hows and whys of these tiny ecosystems are so unexplored that 99% of microbes are unknown, utter mysteries. Scientists have explored the depths of the oceans and furthest northern climates in the hopes of charting new territory, but even beneath your feet right now, there could be an undescribed species. I want to be one of the researchers documenting the basic information needed for medical advances to help the 24 million Americans with autoimmune disorders, along with changing the minds of the general public and encouraging living in a way that is harmonious with nature, instead of trying to hold humans at an unnatural separation that only ends up harming our health. These goals, and that of science more broadly, necessitate not only an educated generation of scientists, but people who can bridge the gap between science and the fear and misunderstanding that often holds it back from public acceptance. I want not only to be the quiet voice looking for solutions in a basement lab, but also an advocate for better science communication, for free journal access and lay explanations of complicated things. Science is everything from weird looking bugs to obscure physics papers and, with such broad and varying disciplines, it’s easy for people to get lost in the weeds and scientists, with the laser focus that serves them so well otherwise, often struggle to explain the importance of their work to non-scientists. But that work is crucial. Even the oddest insect often has clinical applications for a new medicinal compound that it produces, or saliva that breaks down toxic chemical waste. Those squiggly lines in a physics paper explain the world around us, the possibilities for the vast, unexplored universe. I want to be part of the generation of scientists that will make wonderful advances and know how to share them.

During the pandemic, a lot of lower income students fell through the cracks. Online school, requiring stable wifi connections, environments, and attention spans, simply did not work for a large number of students. Now, we are left with a situation where these students need to catch up on years of schooling and executive functioning skills. I want to be a scientific researcher, which might not sound related to this, but public communication of science, even among academics, will always be important to gaining funding and disseminating information that can tangibly help people. This is especially so in times like these. That’s why I’ve found volunteering with students to be important. Senior year of high school I helped teach STEM educational courses to girls at the Boys and Girls Club, a non-profit daycare service. Science is so fascinating, but you wouldn’t know it from the way it’s taught in my elementary school, where they had long experiment write ups to explain insignificant concepts. I wanted to introduce these kids to the most engaging side of things, to supplement their curriculum with more hands-on work and show more varieties of ways to engage with STEM fields. This semester, through Badger Volunteers, I've been tutoring middle school students on a weekly basis. It feels very rewarding to work individually with students who are eager to learn math yet struggling because they never learned foundational skills from years prior. I listened to one student tell me how she desperately wanted to be an artist but was scared that she’d be unable to attend college because she couldn’t get through math classes. This taught me to develop greater empathy. You can sit dumbfounded and wonder how a 7th grader doesn’t know what ¼ means, or you can take action and help them. In the end, it doesn’t matter what stage someone is at, what matters is meeting them where they are and trying to bring them to their goals. This was my first time tutoring, so I had to learn how to lead small group lessons as I went along, printing out resources and making helpsheets to supplement coursework and explaining problems they went over in class. Sometimes, something I put the most thought into, like cutting out cards to play a fraction version of the game spoons or bringing a chocolate bar to illustrate fractions, didn’t work out and I needed to pivot to something new without getting caught up on it. I bear no allusions that I can teach better than a real math instructor or make years worth of progress, but what I can do is show up and try. And, that’s true of any pursuit in life. In the future, I want to do impactful research into the ways that the human microbiome influences health along with creating better relationships between scientists and the general public, and these skills, of tenacity and effort, will go a long way.

Never get into debt. This simple piece of advice ensures freedom. I don’t want to be stuck paying off thousands of dollars in student loans for the rest of my life, potentially having it negatively impact my credit score and limit future decisions. I’m applying to scholarships like this one so that I can afford college without living far above my means and ending up in debt. In addition to scholarships, I plan to be an RA from sophomore to senior year, which would entitle me to free housing and meal plans, and to work part-time during the school year and full-time during the summers. Statistically speaking, once people have enough to be financially stable, to pay for bills and indulgences without worry, there isn’t much of a difference in happiness between the guy earning $100,000 a year and $1,000,000. So, naturally, I don’t strive to have money merely for the sake of having money, but for the security of being able to buy my own house, be debt free, and occasionally make indulgent purchases. I believe in the FIRE movement, living frugally, and saving enough money to retire early and pursue my interests. I’ve worked for one summer so far and plan to get jobs for the next four summers between college, which could add up to over $10,000, accounting for living expenses. That is, if I’m able to pay for college itself through financial aid and scholarships, I can continue to save money even during that time. That initial $10,000, even if no money were added to it, would be almost doubled in ten years with a 7% return on investment, but by graduating without debt and gaining employment in a biology-related field, with regular deposits into investments this could greatly increase. This highlights the difference financially between graduating without debt, already able to save, and graduating with debt, which would not only prevent savings but also require continuous contributions, making establishing an emergency fund or retirement savings more difficult. About 40% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and, in addition to the lack of a social safety net in the US and other socioeconomic factors, I think that debt is partially to blame. Not including mortgages, almost 80% of Americans have debt of some sort. That's a huge burden that we are carrying as a society. As the child who researched average rent prices to make budget pie charts and made up scenarios to calculate the rule of 72 on, I’ve always found thinking about money fun. Many adults are uncomfortable discussing it. This has many downsides; comparing salaries with co-workers can allow inequities to come to light and promote equal pay and someone whose parents didn't discuss budgeting probably isn't going to be able to effectively manage money themselves. But, among young people, there is much more interest in having open conversations about how money can be best spent and managed. I want to be part of this new generation that strives to live debt free, make sensible decisions, and retire early. Money is shallow, it can’t bring happiness or fulfillment, but it can, in many ways, bring freedom. By making smart plans now and setting myself up for future opportunities, I can hope for the freedom to live comfortably and follow my dreams, whether that be saving a struggling opera house or paying for my children’s college.

Everything that I want to do, see, and become can't fit within a sentence, but hopefully in a million silent ways my future self will be showing my care for others and giving back to the local community.

Our minds and bodies are completely, intrinsically connected. A lot of people see healthy eating as something that will only help them in the long-term by allowing them to live longer, but it also impacts us in the day to day. On days when I used to eat junk food, I felt ill and tired, in contrast, when I eat healthy I feel more alert and happier. I can exercise and get through the day without the struggles I would have on a poor diet, where my body is operating on a subpar level because it isn't getting the nutrients that it needs. This change, in my mood and mental health, started when I learned how to cook. When I was a little kid, I didn't like new foods, but in middle school, when I cooked my own meals, I was able to see exactly what went into them (as I was the person choosing and compiling the ingredients). This new autonomy made me more comfortable with trying new things, learning that the thing on that plate isn't white goop, it's ceviche! Soon this also became an outlet for my creativity. I can combine a mild pear muffin with a low sugar, zesty rasberry cream cheese frosting to make a novel, healthy dessert or make up new recipies for veggie burgers, adjusting them in response to feedback to create an ideal texture and flavor. The possibilities are endless! Making my own food also allows me to tailor it to me and my family's individual needs. Both my parents are prediabetics, so when I make dinner I make sure to choose dishes that are high in unsaturated fats and low in carbs, which research has increasingly shown is the best way to limit insulin spikes. Through a program at my school, I was able to get my colesterol levels tested. They were so low that the woman testing my blood smiled and asked "what's your secret?" I responded that I didn't have a secret. Health can't be achieved through magic pills or quick fixes, it requires continued effort and sustainable lifestyle changes that anyone can make. These changes aren't always easy. I work at an amusment park resturant serving fast food to help pay for college. I'm constantly confronted by unhealthy foods that I wouldn't otherwise crave. It takes willpower to avoid that funnel cake or burger staring me in the face. My advice to anyone wanting to improve their diet is to start small. If you suddenly go from having McDonalds every day to eating nothing but salads, you'll likely relapse. Start by cooking one or two nights a week from home and replacing an unhealthy snack, like chips, with nuts or fruit. Then increase the frequency that you cook from home and avoid more junk foods over time. Eating healthy has enriched my life by improving my physical and mental health and giving me the creative outlet of cooking. Though it isn't always easy, maintaining a healthy diet can greatly improve quality of life, not just physically, but also emotionally. Knowing that, I'm ready to take on the world of oven-less college dorms without fear of falling back into a poor diet.

Never get into debt. This simple piece of advice ensures freedom. I don’t want to be stuck paying off thousands of dollars in student loans for the rest of my life, potentially having it negatively impact my credit score and limit future decisions. I’m applying to scholarships like this one so that I can afford college without living far above my means and ending up in debt. In addition to scholarships, I plan to be an RA from sophomore to senior year, which would entitle me to free housing and meal plans, and to work part-time during the school year and full-time during the summers. Statistically speaking, once people have enough to be financially stable, to pay for bills and indulgences without worry, there isn’t much of a difference in happiness between the guy earning $100,000 a year and $1,000,000. So, naturally, I don’t strive to have money merely for the sake of having money, but for the security of being able to buy my own house, be debt free, and occasionally make indulgent purchases. I believe in the FIRE movement, living frugally, and saving enough money to retire early and pursue my interests. I’ve worked for one summer so far and plan to get jobs for the next four summers between college, which could add up to over $10,000, accounting for living expenses. That is, if I’m able to pay for college itself through financial aid and scholarships, I can continue to save money even during that time. That initial $10,000, even if no money were added to it, would be almost doubled in ten years with a 7% return on investment, but by graduating without debt and gaining employment in a biology-related field, with regular deposits into investments this could greatly increase. This highlights the difference financially between graduating without debt, already able to save, and graduating with debt, which would not only prevent savings but also require continuous contributions, making establishing an emergency fund or retirement savings more difficult. About 40% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and, in addition to the lack of a social safety net in the US and other socioeconomic factors, I think that debt is partially to blame. Not including mortgages, almost 80% of Americans have debt of some sort. That's a huge burden that we are carrying as a society. Imagine a living history museum in a fully restored, historic building. With period wallpaper and kitchen appliances creating a bubble around the 1890s, allowing guests to feel the labor it takes to rub lye into clothes and wash them by hand, to gain a picture of the day-to-day realities of the past for one-night stays. Sounds like those washboards are reflecting the next Disneyland, right? I bear no delusions that my dreams for passion projects are highly profitable, but they do have an educational value and could potentially get a lot of people to think in different ways about the past. When sponsors came through to fund the maintenance of the Tabor Opera House in Leadville, my heart swelled with joy, just as it falls when another of Denver’s last ‘30s movie palaces gets knocked down. What’s holding those neglected buildings back from being widely used and enjoyed is often primarily a lack of investors willing to take on the project. With extensive savings, I could save one of those last vestiges of the shining opulence of early Denver. As the child who researched average rent prices to make budget pie charts and made up scenarios to calculate the rule of 72 on, I’ve always found thinking about money fun. Many adults are uncomfortable discussing it. This has many downsides; comparing salaries with co-workers can allow inequities to come to light and promote equal pay and someone whose parents didn't discuss budgeting probably isn't going to be able to effectively manage money themselves. But, among young people, there is much more interest in having open conversations about how money can be best spent and managed. I want to be part of this new generation that strives to live debt free, make sensible decisions, and retire early. Money is shallow, it can’t bring happiness or fulfillment, but it can, in many ways, bring freedom. By making smart plans now and setting myself up for future opportunities, I can hope for the freedom to live comfortably and follow my dreams, whether that be saving a struggling opera house or paying for my children’s college.

The sun bore down upon the Earth in that unrelenting, Colorado way. Not a cloud in sight, the heat enraptured me, feeling suffocating on the oven of a court. When I started playing tennis, other kids just “got it.” They swung and hit the ball. Whereas, to me, my limbs felt more akin to the floundering tentacles of an octopus, unable to hold the racket properly, and spinning wildly when returning shots. As an academic sort, it is easier to fail at physical activities because one can simply fall back on that other aspect of self-identity. But the kids I was competing with weren't jocks, they were just as smart as me, if not more so. And I lost a match to an eight-year-old boy who was 4’5’’, so clearly, strength was not the issue either. This led me to reflect that one ought not to place identity in external ability. I’m not who I am because I’m good or bad at X, Y, Z. My personality is internal and failure doesn’t detract from it. After this point, I decided that the health benefits of exercising made playing tennis valuable regardless of whether I was winning any awards, and resolved to just have fun. I kept at it, working hard at practice, month after month, year after year, and eventually saw improvement. I play for 10 hours per week during the spring season out of pure, hedonistic enjoyment. Nothing beats being outside on a cool day, feeling the high of exercise, and returning a shot in such a way that your whole body falls into unison, connects with the ball, and forces it into the corner. This is a sport that I can continue to play for the rest of my life, staying healthy and active beyond the age limitations that other sports, like football, generally pose. Tennis has taught me to grind, to put in the long hours necessary for improvements. Every time I play, I need to continuously evaluate how I can do better, putting me into a growth mindset that I didn't have before. During the school season, games conflict with classes and other school activities, so I need to plan around it and ask my teachers for makeup work, through this learning communication and advocacy skills, and to be highly efficient with my time. I can now rally competently and, although the eight-year-old mentioned previously still beats me, I put up a good fight.

I squeal in excitement as the brown-green streaks of the field of view snap into focus. There’s a nematode! In a second, going from meaningless slush to a miniature world, the little worm jerks rapidly back and forth, only visible because of the chloroplast in his stomach. Biology doesn’t just exist in the neatly defined lines of an agar plate, humans are full of millions of microbes living to the tune of an invisible drum. The complex interactions of these creatures have wide ranging impacts on health, for instance, the rate of autoimmune disorders is rapidly increasing in the industrialized world. One common theory puts the blame on modern, “sanitized” lifestyles, where people have less exposure to the microbes of the world at large. These microbes tamper down the immune system, preventing overreactions to harmless particles, or even our own bodies, causing conditions like asthma and allergies. There are also links between the establishment of non-beneficial bacteria and mental health issues, possibly due to the ways that the gut microbiome impacts serotonin regulation. It isn’t a coincidence that about 80% of people with IBS also have a mental health condition. But the hows and whys of these tiny ecosystems are so unexplored that 99% of microbes are unknown, utter mysteries. Scientists have explored the depths of the oceans and furthest northern climates in the hopes of charting new territory, but even beneath your feet right now, there could be an undescribed species. I want to be one of the researchers delving deeper into these creatures that have been too long underlooked. I’m majoring in microbiology to document the basic information needed for medical advances to help the 24 million Americans with autoimmune disorders, along with changing the minds of the general public and encouraging living in a way that is harmonious with nature, instead of trying to hold humans at an unnatural separation that only ends up harming our health. These goals, and that of science more broadly, necessitate not only an educated generation of scientists, but people who can bridge the gap between science and the fear and misunderstanding that often holds it back from public acceptance. I want not only to be the quiet voice looking for solutions in a basement lab, but also an advocate for better science communication, for free journal access and lay explanations of complicated things. In speech and debate I compete in an event called Original Oratory, where a 10 minute persuasive speech is written and performed. My topics have been about PCR testing, virus life cycles, and the human microbiome because I want to teach my audiences about important scientific discoveries and get them thinking about things in a new way. I’m thrilled when I hear someone say that the research is cool or, even better, introduces them to something they’d never heard of and gets them excited to learn more. Science is everything from weird looking bugs to obscure physics papers and, with such broad and varying disciplines, it’s easy for people to get lost in the weeds and scientists, with the laser focus that serves them so well otherwise, often struggle to explain the importance of their work to non-scientists. But that work is crucial. Even the oddest insect often has clinical applications for a new medicinal compound that it produces, or saliva that breaks down toxic chemical waste. Those squiggly lines in a physics paper explain the world around us, the possibilities for the vast, unexplored universe. I want to be part of the generation of scientists that will make wonderful advances and know how to share them.

Poe just floats near the surface of his jar, slowly producing a biofilm over the kombucha and silently judging me through the glass. Poe is a SCOBY, a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast, and was named for his contemplative and brooding nature, after the poet, for I imagine both would take a darkly ironic approach to the situation. He begrudgingly ferments the tea, through that producing a wealth of probiotics in the delicious glasses of kombucha. Increasingly, research has shown that the health or our microbiomes impacts our health in general, from serotonin production to digestion. The biodiversity hypothesis is the theory that, by exposing ourselves to beneficial microorganisms, our immune systems are tempered. In Western nations, where people spend large swaths of their time indoors, they aren't getting enough exposure to the world at large, causing the immune system to attack harmless particles, or even our own bodies, leading to asthma, IBS, and other autoimmune disorders. It is no coincidence that 80% of people with IBS also have a mental health condition, as the gut is a large, vibrant community that plays a role in regulating serotonin production in the brain and other chemical pathways. Once harmful bacteria are established, they are very difficult to get rid of and have wide ranging negative health impacts. I brew kombucha, along with other fermented foods and a healthy diet in general, to ensure that my gut microbiome is being colonized by good bacteria, supporting my overall health and wellbeing. It is often seen as "icky" to interact with the smallest creatures among us, especially since the pandemic, but in truth these creatures are everywhere. Even in such an intimate place as your very DNA, 7% of it comes from strands inserted by viruses. Microbes have an incredible biodiversity, seen deep in hydrothermal vents, on top of the most frigid mountain tops, and, yes, on your kitchen counters. They live and breath to the beat of invisible drums which we are only beginning to comprehend, with 99% of species siting undiscovered. What we do know is that the health of humans is inextricably linked with the health of these little critters.

For money to mean nothing, it has to exist. Statistically speaking, once people have enough to be financially stable, pay for bills and indulgences without worry, there isn’t much of a difference in happiness between the guy earning $100,000 a year and $1,000,000. So, naturally, I don’t strive to have money merely for the sake of having money, but for the security of being able to buy my own house, be debt free, and occasionally make indulgent purchases. I believe in the FIRE movement, living frugally and saving enough money to retire early and pursue my interests. I’ve worked for one summer so far and plan to get jobs for the next four summers between college, which could add up to over $10,000, accounting for living expenses. That is, if I’m able to pay for college itself through financial aid and scholarships, I can continue to save money even during that time. That initial $10,000, even if no money were added to it, would be almost doubled in ten years with 7% return on investment, but by graduating without debt and gaining employment in a biology-related field, with regular deposits into investments this could greatly increase. Imagine a living history museum in a fully restored, historic building. With period wallpaper and kitchen appliances creating a bubble around the 1890s, allowing guests to feel the labor it takes to rub lye into clothes and wash them by hand, to gain a picture of the day to day realities of the past for one night stays. Sounds like those washboards are reflecting the next Disneyland, right? I bear no delusions that my dreams for passion projects are highly profitable, but they do have an educational value and could potentially get a lot of people to think in different ways about the past. When sponsors came through to fund the maintenance of the Tabor Opera House in Leadville, my heart swelled with joy, just as it falls when another of Denver’s last ‘30s movie palaces gets knocked down. What’s holding those neglected buildings back from being widely used and enjoyed is often primarily a lack of investors willing to take on the project. With extensive savings, I could save one of those last vestiges of the shining opulence of early Denver. As the child who researched average rent prices to make budget pie charts and made up scenarios to calculate the rule of 72 on, I’ve always found thinking about money fun. I want to be part of a new generation that lives well without credit card debt and student loans. Money is shallow, it can’t bring happiness or fulfillment, but it can, in many ways, bring freedom. By making smart plans now and setting myself up for future opportunities, I can hope for the freedom to live comfortably and follow my dreams, whether that be saving a struggling opera house or paying for my children’s college.