A time when I have been "Boldly, Unapologetically Me" is in my high school varsity cheer team, alot of the girls on my team have been doing things that I personally dont agree with and that don't align with the beliefs I have as a Christian. While the easy thing to do would be to join in, I knew that wasn't who I am. I didnt tell them not to do it or judge them because that isn't my place, but I was not going to join in. One of the girls in particular was one of my best friends, for a while we were super close and shared alot of the same values. Then, she suddenly got a wild streak and began to drink, smoke, do things with boys, and was rude to others, and overall, did not put herself in the best situations. We began to grow apart because I didnt join in and didnt enable her decisions. One day, she had asked me, and I told her that I didnt agree with her actions for myself, but that i didnt judge her. Overall, I am glad that I stayed true to who I am as I am proud of what I have accomplished over the past months, like earning alot of college credit as a high schooler, saving money, getting into my dream school, and volunteering, and I dont think I would have been able to accomplish all of it if I didnt stay true to myself. I have been able to make my community a more inclusive space by being a part of a unified club at my high school. The purpose of the unified club is to make my school more inclusive, and it allows you to help the special needs students at our school build their social skills with students their age and help them feel included in our school. I have been able to help with different events the Unified Club has, including World Kindness Day, Suicide Prevention Month, and "spread the word to end the word". I have helped make posters, pass out things, and show up to their events, and have recently started to paint banners for their events. I have also been able to help make my community more inclusive from my cheer team as a captian, as a cheerleader I have helped in alot of community events and I have tried to make sure that everyone on our team feel like they have a place, like when we would take picture make sure I was taking pictures with everyone and when we would do different team bonding make sure everyone is including in the ways i can.

I am passionate about being able to help people to do simple tasks to make their lives easier; this is why I plan to become an occupational therapist. I have been in speech therapy since I was two years old, and for a while, my speech impediment was something I was very insecure about. A girl on my high school cheer team had commented on how I pronounced a word when I called a cheer. After that, I was hyperaware of my speech impediment, I hated all presentations, talking in front of people, and I even gave up being a gameday captain that basketball season because the thought of having to call cheers almost gave me an anxiety attack. Now I have accepted that while I can make improvements in my speech, I can never change the fact that I have a speech impediment. I have also realized that how I talk is something that makes me who I am. This year, I am one of the captains on my team, while calling cheers does make me nervous still, I know that I have worked hard to become a captain, and I won't let my speech impediment hold me back. Even though I have a speech impediment, I have accomplished a lot, like making varsity cheer and becoming a captain, being involved in my school, competing in states for DECA, working a customer service job, making good grades, and being at the top of my class, and being selected as a junior marshal. This has influenced my career choice as I now want to become an Occupational Therapist. This would allow me to help people overcome difficulties in their daily life like I was able to do with my speech impediment. This career also allows me to work with special needs students, which is something that I deeply enjoy, as I am a part of the Unify Club at my school. Through Unify, I spend time with special needs students in our school, which helps develop their social interaction skills. And I have volunteered with them at special olympics. I have seen the difference you can make in their lives, and I hope that I will be able to continue doing that. I hope to get my bachelor's in kinesiology, then get may masters in occupational therapy. After working as an Occupational Therapist for a few years, I hope to open my own pediatric occupational therapy clinic. With my education, I will be able to make a difference in the lives of people with special needs and hope to give them a sense of independence.

Growing up, I heard hundreds of stories about the military from my dad, but the one that stuck with me most was about a little boy in Iraq and chocolate. My dad and his best friend both served in the US Army in Iraq after the 9/11 attacks, and one of my siblings and my favorite things was to ask them about their time in the military. My dad's best friend's family is one of our family friends, so when they were together, it made the stories more interesting as they would tell the story together, always adding in details one may have forgotten, and use elaborate hand gestures and even act out some of the parts. Their stories range from their time in boot camp, how they met, when they were deployed overseas, and when they were stationed at Fort Bragg. The story that stuck with me most was one that my dad had told me about a little boy overseas. He said that the boy would come every day to ask them if they had chocolate because he had never had it before. They always told him that the didnt have any, till one day my dad got a care package from my mom, and inside it had chocolate chip granola bars. When the little boy asked the next time, he gave the boy one and told him not tell anyone he had chocolate because he knew the other kids would take it. The boy said yes and was overjoyed. My dad said the boy ran off and started eating it. He made it about twenty feet, then started yelling that he had chocolate and was swarmed by the other kids. My dad didnt see the boy again, so he doesn't know if he had to share it or enjoyed it. This story made me realize how lucky I was to have everything I do. I have a sweet tooth and love all chocolate and treats, so I couldn't even fathom never tasting chocolate. The boy was so excited about a gronala bar, when to me a gronala bar isn't anything exciting or a treat, like ice cream or a candy bar is for me. This story is what made me realise that not all kids have the same home life and opportunities that I do and the people I know. In conclusion, the stories I had heard from my dad from the military helped me to realise how grateful I am for all of the opportunities I have, as it isnt the same for everyone.

I started speech therapy when I was two years old and went through elementary school. While everyone else in my grade was graduating from the program but I never did, the only reason I quit going was because my school had gotten a new speech therapist when I was in fifth grade and she wasn't very nice. Growing up I knew I had a speech impediment, but I never knew how different I sounded than everyone else. I first began to realize how I sounded when I had to film a video project for my American History class and watched the videos over and heard my voice. I even asked my mom if I sounded different than normal in the videos and she told me that was how I always sounded. After this my speech impediment still didn't bother me until I was asked to be a game day captain for football season on my cheer team. I was already nervous to call cheers as it was out of my comfort zone. A girl on my team made fun of how I said score while calling a cheer, while she probably doesn't even remember this comment. It deeply affected me. After this I turned down being a game day captain for basketball season as I would dread and worry all day when I knew I would have to call cheers. During this time, I was working at an ice cream shop where I was asked every day ‘Where I was from?”and I would even have people try and argue with me that I was actually from a foreign country. This made me extremely self-conscious when I spoke, I would try and practice different sounds and pronounce different words and even think about going to speech thereby again to try and fix it. Now I have accepted that while I can make improvements in my speech, I can never change that I have a speech impediment. I have also realized that how I talk is something that makes me who I am. This year I am one of the captains on my team, while calling cheers does make me nervous still, I know that I have worked hard to become a captain, and I won't let my speech impediment hold me back. Even though I have a speech impediment I have accomplished a lot like making varsity cheer and becoming a captain, being involved in my school, working a job where I talk to customers, and making good grades and being at the top of my class, and being selected as a junior marshal. Having a speech impediment has also impacted my career choice. This past year, I decided that it wasn't for me, but I still wanted to work in health care. I found out about occupational therapy through one of my sister's friends. After this I began doing research about occupation therapy. This career matched everything I wanted in a career as it would allow me to help people overcome problems in their daily life like how I have done with my speech impediment. This career would also give me an opportunity to work with children with disabilities which is something that I deeply enjoy as I am a part of the Unify Club at my school. Through Unify I spend time with the special needs students in our school, this helps with their social interaction skills. You can tell it brightens their day and is something they look forward to.It has become one of my favorite times of day.