I was always an anxious kid, but I didn't know what to call it at the time. I would always get super nervous whenever I had to talk in front of people or speak in front of the class. My face would always turn bright red and I would lose my train of thought. Whenever I would walk past anyone I knew in the hallways that was older then me, or even if I had a crush on my face would get hot. They wouldn't even have to look at me or say anything. During my high school years, the doctor always told me that it was something I would grow out if. To some extent, I have. But other days I have not. It wasn't until my sophomore year of college when I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. It during the year of 2020, I just got told my college softball season was cancelled and we had no idea what the future held for us. I was in shambles, I liked to have a plan and in that moment I didn't have any idea. I was talking a college class learning about different mental health disorders and was doing an assignment where I had to watch a movie and write an essay about it. The movie I chose to watch was Shutter Island. Although it was a good movie, with a crazy plot twist I started to spiral. My chest got tight, I couldn't think straight and all I could about was how I was the main character of Shutter Island and that my life was all fake, and my friends were secretly watching me and spying on me. I seriously struggled with that for almost a month, I couldn't sleep, I was restless and I was not myself. I started doing some zoom calls with therapists and trying to find answers. I eventually grew away from that but my anxiety and tight chest remained. I lived that way for about two years before I finally made the choice to get better. I finally talked with a therapist and my doctor, I was working at a police department where I thought I was making progress. I started stressing about the negatives that came with the job and was constantly in fight or flight mode. I had a rash spread throughout my whole body. I had to step away from the job, and switched to physical education where I could be moving all day and interacting with positive students. I then started to take some medications to help with my anxiety, and my life started to turn around. I was happy, I was not in a constant state of spiraling about things out of my control. Do I still struggle today? Absolutely. Is it manageable? 100%. Do I still try to avoid things that cause me anxiety? Yes, but I am aware of it now and try to overcome them. I still struggle going to my town's grocery store because I don't want my face to turn red when I run into someone I know. But I do it because I know that I can overcome it. I have a tough time in public places but I am able to address and leave situations that do not suit me. I have learned a lot about myself and what I need in my life and what I do not. Anxiety does not consume my life anymore, I have learned how to manage it and I feel as if I am honestly a better person because of it.

The game of softball brings ample opportunities into a person's life. I will showcase what it has done to positively impact myself and my family. I started playing softball around the age of ten, and I was never the best, but I always wanted to be the best, so I worked hard at it. I was told when I was twelve years old that I would never be good enough to play at the Division One or Division Two level, only Division Three if I was lucky. I made it my mission to prove that coach wrong. I did. I had an extremely successful high school season and ended up taking second place in the Minnesota State High School League softball tournament my senior year. I was an all-conference player, conference pitcher of the year, all-state selection, all-tournament team selection, and competed in the all-star game against Wisconsin. I earned a scholarship to pitch at the University of Minnesota Duluth. My time in college was unique. I was one of two pitchers my freshman year, so I was eating up innings left and right, pitching once or twice a series. I learned a lot about myself and collegiate hitters. I didn't have the best season statistically, but I did learn what I needed to work on for the following years. My sophomore season was cut short due to COVID. We ended up only playing around 20 games, and our season ended on our way home from our spring training trip. I was in shambles, the game got taken away from me, out of my control, and I didn't know when it was going to come back. It made me reflect on the choices I made, and what I want to do differently once we get the chance to compete again. Because of COVID, I received a bonus year. During my senior season, I decided it was the best choice for me to transfer because of the new coaching staff that took away the love of the game for me. I finished out the season, and then got many offers at the Division 1 and 2 level, but ended up at Missouri Western State University. When I was there, I walked onto campus only knowing the two coaches. I had to learn how to grow and be on my own. It was the best decision for me as a person and as a softball player. I had the best time of my life, I learned how to love myself and the game again. My inner child, who loved the game of softball, came back, and I am beyond appreciative of the people and coaching staff. Now I am in a different role, I have been a varsity assistant back in my hometown for three years. I am also working on completing my second undergrad to become a physical education teacher. Being a coach, I have learned more than I ever have playing. The game has slowed down, and I am able to walk through things and teach patience. I am trying to instill the young girls to be the best versions of themselves, and then be good softball players. If they can be good people first, that is a win for any coach. They need to learn how to respect themselves, their teammates, opponents, and the game of softball. There is always a lesson to be taught, and softball will always do that. I plan to continue coaching for as long as I can, teaching girls everything I know, and guiding them to a bright future.

My name is Samantha Pederson and I am 23 years old. I was a college softball player for five years at the Division 2 level at the University of Minnesota Duluth and at Missouri Western State University. My goal in life is to be a successful woman who can empower other men and women to be in love with themselves. I want to pursue a degree in Physical Education and teach elementary or middle school students. I also want to be a softball coach so that I can teach young girls how to grow up and be strong, confident women through the sport of softball. I want to be successful so that I can empower women and men to be in love with themselves because, at the end of the day, all you have is yourself. The way you treat people is a reflection of how you are treating yourself. If you are negative and always talking down about other people or situations in your life, then that is how you are treating yourself on the inside. I want people to love themselves on the inside so that they can love and be grateful for the things that are going on around them. That is what every person deserves. If everyone was truly in love with themselves and then reflected that to everyone around them the world would be such a better and happier place. I love fitness. I think that it is crucial in maintaining mental, physical and emotional health. I think that students forget being physically active will help them in the classroom as well. Eating the right foods, and taking care of your body, will lead to improvements in all other areas of your life. I feel that if I have the platform as a physical education teacher and can teach students at a young age, they will be able to make that change in their lives with enough time to see a difference and help out other peers and family members around them. Softball has been a huge part of my life since I was young. It has gotten me to be in this position where I am now, and I am forever grateful for the opportunities that it has given me. Now that I am done playing softball as an athlete, I want to stay around the game. I feel that I must coach and give back to the game and the younger girls that have given me so much. I am a very passionate individual who loves team atmospheres and intensity. I want to be able to lead that on the field and teach the girls to focus on something bigger than themselves and be selfless. That is how you will be successful on the field and in life. I have overcome a lot of challenging times and adversity. I grew up in a home that was full of love, then I lost my little brother when I was seven. That home soon just became a house and our family was split. My parents got divorced, I went to college and softball was the thing that helped me get through it. The game itself is meant for you to fail. You succeed 3/10 times and you are still considered a great player. This game has taught me to problem solve and accept failure for what it is, learn from it, and make adjustments so that you can overcome the obstacle you are facing. As long as you don't give up, you are not failing. This is what I hope to teach everyone around me.

I lost my little brother Devin when I was seven years old. My mom was pregnant with twin boys and I was so excited because I was going to have two brothers to play with while we grew up. My sister and I left with my grandparents to stay with them for a week so my mom and dad could have time together to relax during the pregnancy. We were about six hours away when we got the call that, "Mom had the twins!". My sister who was two, didn't know what was going on, but I was so excited. I got to have two brothers earlier than expected! I didn't know the real reason why they were being delivered so early. My grandparents took us back home the next day so that we could be waiting for Mom and Dad when they got home, and so we could be a little closer when they were away at the hospital. Well, we ended up staying with our grandparents a lot longer than expected. My mom ended up having an emergency C-section and delivering my brothers three months early. Multiple problems were going on, and they needed to come out. Both of my brothers came into this world each weighing under two pounds. My dad was able to hold them in each of his hands. Bo weighed just under two pounds, and my brother, Devin weighed just over one pound. Bo came out a lot healthier than Devin did, and the only issue that he was having was a vein in his heart was not connected. He had to undergo surgery and now has an irregular heartbeat, but he is doing just fine now. Devin was not as lucky as Bo. Devin was fortunate enough to have 16 blessed days on this Earth. During that time, he was unable to breathe or eat on his own, and the only time that I was able to see him was in the ICU. He was always hooked up to countless machines and cords, and every so often I was able to hold onto his little fingers. Devin's left part of his brain was undeveloped, and about once a week for two weeks I would sit next to his incubator and read him, "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish". I loved it. I thought that this way, he was going to be able to get out of the hospital faster and come home. On the 16th day, my parents had to make the toughest decision of their lives. They decided that it was going to be best if we let Devin go. So they took all the machines and cords out, and let him go in peace. My parents decided that the way Devin was going to live his life wasn't going to be fulfilling for him. They allowed our family to spend time with Devin in his last moments, we were all in a room hugging him, kissing him, praying and crying over him. It was a very heartbreaking moment. This experience has shaped my life because it made me love a little deeper, and care for the people around me. You never know when your last day is, and you need to love with all you have every day. It also taught me how to be strong when making tough decisions. It won't always be easy, and you don't want to make the decision, but sometimes you have to do it and trust that you are making the right decision. That is why I will always be grateful for Devin.

I am passionate about the sport of softball because it has given me so many opportunities to be where I am right now, and allowed me to fall in love with something bigger than myself. When I was young, I was constantly pitching in the back with my mom and was always running around at practice wanting to be diving in the dirt. I loved it. I loved being a part of a team and getting to build meaningful connections. I got told when I was twelve that I would never be good enough to play college softball, maybe Division 3 if I was lucky. So from that day forward I was determined to get so good at my craft and the game of softball that they had no choice but to recruit me to play college softball. Along the way, I was able to fall more in love with the sport, learn a lot about myself and be disciplined. I was able to lean on my teammates and not have to do anything alone because I had a team around me to help me when I was unmotivated. I was able to get a 4-year scholarship at the University of Minnesota Duluth to pitch. It all paid off for me, I was able to continue to play the game that I love and further my education. Then Covid took my dream away. I was unable to compete and play the game that brought me everything. That was a tough time in my life because everything that I loved was gone. But I was able to get another year back, so I took it and I transferred to Missouri Western State University to get one more year to play the game that has given me every opportunity to be successful in my life. Without softball, I am unsure what my life would be. Softball was able to unlock a type of motivation in my brain where I will never settle for anything less than perfect. I know that perfection is not an obtainable goal, but that is what I strive for every day in my life. This has allowed me to become the best version of myself in all aspects of my life. I can work hard for everything and I am okay with the challenge. I love the challenge. I love the adversity of working hard and being pushed to your limits, it makes what you get in life more rewarding and deserving. I have learned that even when I am tired and want to give up, I can do so much more than I think I can if I just tell myself that I can. Softball is a sport where you fail more than you succeed and you still are a great player. You have to figure out new ways to get different outcomes and problem-solve, you are constantly evolving. I owe everything to the game of softball. It allowed me to go to college on a scholarship and has brought me countless friendships and relationships that I will have forever, how to be a team player and always put the needs of the team or people around me first, working together is easier than working alone, I have built relationships that now are helping me in the workplace, I can connect and communicate with my coworkers and peers confidently and positively. Softball has taught me that I can do a lot more than I think I can by working hard, and letting whatever you do pay you back by doing it the right way.

My name is Sam Pederson and I am a very driven individual. I am constantly working, doing schoolwork, or helping athletes become the best version of themselves. I am a first-generation college student in my family, and I am currently living with my single mother. I do see my father, but I split time between them when I can. I was a college athlete for five years, playing softball. I was a pitcher, and with that comes a lot of responsibilities. I was always working on becoming a better pitcher day in and day out, working on my craft, working on being a strong-minded player, who did not get flustered when things didn't always go my way. I have always loved softball from a young age, it stole my heart and now I am so grateful that I had this game to give me all the experiences that I had. It allowed me to meet some of my best friends, go to college and pursue a degree, and it taught me how to be a young strong, independent woman who can lead passionately, respectfully, and humbly. Now, all I can do is give back to the game that gave me so much by leading girls and teaching them what the game taught me. I ended up going to school for four years and receiving a degree in Criminology. I went and interned at a police department the following summer, and soon realized that this was not what I pictured it to be, and did not want to do this for the rest of my life. So I decided to make a switch. I applied to grad school and started my Master's in the Art of Teaching in hopes of becoming a physical education teacher. I have finished a year of schooling, and now I am working on my teaching license for physical education in Minnesota which will take approximately three years to complete. Not your typical schooling route, but I figured out what I want to do. I have always loved physical fitness and staying active, and I love being around kids. I am currently a softball and volleyball coach as well, and I find so much joy and passion in being able to coach and lead young women in the right direction that I want to expand my joy and leadership toward other students as well. That is why I think physical education would be a good fit for me. Sports and physical fitness can teach you endless life lessons, and you can learn to work through failures and hardships, and also push past your limits, teaching and trusting yourself that you can do anything with a strong mind. I am a firm believer that if you want to do something and you put your mind to it, the only thing that will get in your way is yourself. I plan to make a positive impact on the world through teaching physical education because I get the opportunity to teach kids every day how to be better people, and how to become strong, resilient adults. I want to be a positive role model for my students and athletes so that they can come to me with anything and everything that they might be going through, positively or negatively. I want students to learn that physical activity is good for you and that you do not always have to have a negative relationship with it. They just need to be taught how to do it positively, with a little passion and love. That is what I plan to do.

It wasn't until March 2020 when COVID-19 first hit the U.S. that I started struggling with anxiety disorder. I was a sophomore in college, we had just gotten back from our Spring Training trip in Florida for softball where luckily we played all our games before they cancelled everything. I was living with my roommates, two hours away from home. At first, we were excited! No school for two weeks, everything is online and we get to hang out with each other! Then, the softball season was canceled. And soon after that, we were not returning to school at all and COVID took over the country. There was panic throughout the country because nobody knew what was going to happen. I was watching a movie for one of my classes called, "Shutter Island". I was supposed to figure out what mental illness the main character had, explain my reasonings and then write about it. The main character had Schizophrenia. I was watching this movie, taking notes, and got so caught up in the symptoms and everything else that I soon was convincing myself that I had Schizophrenia. I thought that all my friends were out to get me, everyone was watching me and that nothing was real. I had a horrible pain in my chest for days and days. I finally talked to my best friend and she soon calmed me down and told me that I was fine, and I am not Schizophrenic. But the chest pain didn't stop. It was constant. I was always worrying and saying "What if?" in my head, and coming up with scenarios in my head that were not true or unrealistic thinking that they would happen. I thought that it would be a good idea to head home from college and be with my family and hometown friends in hopes of resetting and that it would go away on its own. It did not go away, I kept hoping and praying that it would go away. I wouldn't sleep at night because I could not shut my brain off and I thought that if I fell asleep I wouldn't wake up. I would cry and cry all the time, thinking that there was something wrong with me and that I was never going to be able to get passed this. I convinced myself that there was something so wrong with me that I should be put into a mental institution because of how crazy I was. I started pushing many people away and tried to battle it on my own, which made me sad, to the point where I was questioning my idea of living. This went on for about two to three years. It wasn't until I had a rash all over my body for six months that I said, "Okay I need to get some help.". I talked to multiple therapists over the years, and none of them could understand my student-athlete background. Which was very frustrating. But they were able to reassure me that I was not going crazy and that I was just worrying about things that were out of my control. I soon went to the doctor and said that I needed help, and told her how long this problem had persisted. I was diagnosed with anxiety. She introduced me to some anxiety medications to take that could help. I knew that wasn't the only thing that was going to fix it. I made some lifestyle changes. I started working out every day, and making it a priority that I make it outside for at least 20 minutes and watch what I ate. I started taking vitamins and supplements that helped me get what I was lacking like vitamin D in the winter. I transferred schools, changed my major, stopped taking prior medications, put my mental health first and started talking to people about what I was struggling with, I started journaling and writing down how I felt and what I wanted to do to improve my life. I started to feel like myself again, for the first time in three years. I was so excited. I still struggle with anxiety every day regarding social situations/interactions, my family, and my health. Now, it is manageable and I have a great support system behind me that I now use when I need help. I do not feel ashamed that I have anxiety now, and I am more open to talking about it when I need to. Some days are more of a struggle than others but I am so proud of myself for getting help, I thought there was no way out of the rut that I was in. If I didn't get the help that I needed, I don't know if I would be here writing about it. Now looking back, I ask myself why I didn't ask sooner because I cannot be more grateful for the position that I am in, and I am so genuinely happy with the life that I live. I am pursuing a teaching degree in physical education and I want to teach students the importance of physical fitness and living a healthy lifestyle. Doing those two things can impact your mental health positively, and it is such a simple task. I want students to know that it is okay to struggle and ask for help. I want them to know that you can have a healthy relationship with being physically fit and doing a little exercise every day will pay off and benefit your physical and mental health in many ways. I just want to be a good support system for students about anything because not every student will have that at home.

I have always been an anxious person. It wasn't until March 2020 when COVID-19 first hit the U.S. that it became a serious issue. I was a sophomore in college, we had just gotten back from our Spring Training trip in Florida for softball where luckily we played all our games before they cancelled everything. I was living with my roommates, two hours away from home. At first, we were excited! No school for two weeks, everything is online and we get to hang out with each other! Then, the softball season was canceled. And soon after that, we were not returning to school at all and COVID took over the country. I was watching a movie for one of my classes called, "Shutter Island". I was supposed to figure out what mental illness the main character had, explain my reasonings and then write about it. The main character had Schizophrenia. I was watching this movie, taking notes, and got so caught up in the symptoms and everything else that I soon was convincing myself that I had Schizophrenia. I thought that all my friends were out to get me, everyone was watching me and that nothing was real. I had a horrible pain in my chest for days and days. I finally talked to my best friend and she soon calmed me down and told me that I was fine, and I am not Schizophrenic. But the chest pain didn't stop. It was constant. I was always worrying and saying "What if?" in my head, and coming up with scenarios in my head that were not true or unrealistic thinking that they would happen. I started pushing many people away and tried to battle it on my own, which made me sad, to the point where I was questioning my idea of living. This went on for about two to three years. It wasn't until I had a rash all over my body for six months that I said, "Okay I need to get some help.". I talked to multiple therapists over the years, and none of them could understand my student-athlete background. Which was very frustrating. I soon went to the doctor and said that I needed help, and told her how long this problem had persisted. I was diagnosed with anxiety. She introduced me to some anxiety medications to take that could help. I knew that wasn't the only thing that was going to fix it. I made some lifestyle changes, I transferred schools, changed my major, stopped taking prior medications, put my mental health first and started talking to people about what I was struggling with. I started to feel like myself again, for the first time in three years. I was so excited. I still struggle with anxiety every day regarding social situations/interactions, my family, and my health. Now, it is manageable and I have a great support system behind me that I now use when I need help. I do not feel ashamed that I have anxiety now, and I am more open to talking about it when I need to. I am so proud of myself for getting help, I thought there was no way out of the rut that I was in. Now looking back, I ask myself why I didn't ask sooner because I cannot be more grateful for the position that I am in, and I am so genuinely happy with the life that I live. Now, I want to give back to students as a teacher and help them through all points in their lives to become better people.

Mental health is important to me as a student because it is the backbone of how you act and how you feel about yourself daily. When your mental health is low, you feel down about yourself, you feel as if you are not good enough, and that you are not worthy of the love and things that you receive in your life. When your mental health is maintained, everything you do has a purpose and a reason, you feel good about yourself and feel like you deserve what you are receiving. In school, mental health can take a toll because of how much pressure you put on yourself. When there is homework, exams and essays coming up it is easy for you to put your mental health to the side and focus on the other stressful things that are coming up. You don't take a break. I was a student-athlete and finding time for myself was difficult, and taking breaks. I was down on myself, my physical performance was dwindling, I wasn't fueling my body enough, or getting enough sleep. I wasn't putting the needs of myself or my body first. I'd push past it, and try to get everything done and it was affecting other parts of my life including relationships with my friends, and family, and my performance in the classroom and on the field. I was not giving my best effort, I was doing the bare minimum to get things done. I reached out and got help. I put myself first, listened to my body and worked on my mental health. I was diagnosed with anxiety, and that was hard for me. I was always worrying about time, my health, my family, what everyone was doing, and what could go wrong all the time. I got to the point in my life where I could not leave the house, I had a rash all over my body for six months because I was stressed all the time, my brain never shut off, and my heart rate was always high. I went and talked to someone, worked through my struggles, went on anxiety medication and made life changes. I started to workout more, do things that I enjoyed, make sure that I had time for myself, and did not put too much on my plate at one time. I got more sunlight during the day, and prioritized my sleep and what I ate. I noticed my life turning around. I talked about myself more positively, started journaling, and left notes for myself every day. Now I am at one of the best points of my life, and the busiest but I know how to manage everything at once and give myself time to do what I want. I advocate for mental health in my community by always checking in with colleagues and peers. I let them know that I am there for anything, and I share my story so that they know they are not alone. I offer workout classes to increase physical fitness which will in turn increase their mood. I lead book clubs on books that are positive and influential and have tips to improve mental health, I offer the things that have worked for me and help people learn how to change their lifestyle habits. I know that what I am doing is only a small portion of advocating for mental health, but I do hope that one day I can be a more influential role model when it comes to mental health. I would like to speak and share my story throughout the communities.

As a Gen Z member, I sometimes think that I belong to the wrong generation, and other times I think that I fit right in. There are times when I consider myself old school. For example, I love taking notes with pen and paper, I would prefer to read out of a physical book, I don't like to watch TV, I like to call instead of text, and I think that men should open the doors for women and that men should ask women out on a date. But on the other hand, technology is such a convenient tool and has made a lot of difficult tasks easier to handle. I love that I can communicate with my friends and loved ones quickly over text and that I can work on my schoolwork just about anywhere with my laptop. I also like how we are big on the work-life balance and prioritize our well-being over the production of our work. Gen Z and Millennials are always connected, whether that be through phone, text, email, social media, or television, everyone is connecting to someone, somewhere and somehow. This is great for staying informed and connected with your surrounding community, and other communities around you and throughout the world. But it also comes with a lot of overwhelming amounts of feelings, and unnecessary stress that can influence and change your current mood or your day. We also like to have FOMO (fear of missing out) which is crazy to me because if you wanted to be there, you would have been invited or could just simply find a way to go. If you are not there, there is probably a good reason as to why you are not. The older generation likes to think of us Gen Z as lazy, and/or entitled. But in reality, we are searching for meaning in our lives. We want to make a difference and contribute to society in a meaningful way. We are always looking for purpose and sometimes that takes a while to find. We don't want our job to be our life, we want to have a work-life balance and be able to have a flexible schedule where we can still get work done. We are the type of people who value experiences over material possessions and prioritize mental health alongside career success. I think that as a whole, we like to have time off and have a life outside of the workplace, we do not like to bring work home with us. You want to be able to come home and deal with other things in your life than constantly worrying about work. There has to be a work-life balance and I think that the older generations don't understand that because they were raised that you need to work to make money and that is the purpose of life. There were not as many job opportunities that were accessible from a computer on a beach, or remotely. Everything was in the office or a shop, factory, or facility so there was not an easy way to do work remotely. One commonality that Gen Z, Millennials, and older generations have in common is the lack of job security and financial stability. Gen Z and Millennials are constantly struggling and trying to manage student debt from higher education. They are always told and pushed to go and get a job, move out of the house, live independently and stop relying on their parents. That is very hard to do when you are 30k in the hole, with loan payments every month, and other expenses if you have them. Older generations dealt with the same amount of unemployment, and not being financially stable. But I think they sometimes forget that or do not want us to follow the same path. That is hard to do when we share the same amount of unemployment rates decades later. There is a gap between Gen-Z, Millennials and older generations but I would not say that it is a big barrier that needs to be overcome. Each party has to be willing to hear the other side and not get frustrated when things are not going the way that they think it should be. The younger generation likes to live freely and with passion, and the older generations like to work and get stuff done right away and move on to the next project. Both sides share the same interest when it comes to families and life challenges. But both parties often miss that similarity. If we can understand that we are more similar than we are different, we can work together and fight problems together instead of trying to do it "our way". We should try to adapt to both sides' way of getting things done, and then we could get even more done. If we pushed our pride and stubbornness aside and just listened for once instead of everyone blowing up, getting defensive and running away when things get difficult (Yes, this is a shot at my Gen Z/Millennial generation) then we could be a lot more successful when it comes to working together with older generations and future generations to come.

The first in my family to obtain a college degree means that there is hope for my younger siblings. It was not that my parents could not go to college, they chose to not go and pursue other career opportunities. I want to be able to complete college, to have a degree and to show my siblings that they can do it too. I played college softball for five years, and I learned a lot during that time. I learned about time management, pushing past my limits, and making sacrifices for different priorities in my life, family being one of them. I was able to see them as often as I could, but when I transferred 500+ miles away, it became very difficult. I want to be the first member of my family to have a college degree so that I can help my siblings do the same thing, I want my siblings to surpass all of my accolades in all aspects of life. I want to set the standard and have my siblings raise the bar to unimaginable heights. If I obtain a college degree, I will be able to start that legacy for my family and my siblings. I am looking to pursue a degree in Physical Education. I recently made a career change, I ended up going to school for four years and receiving a degree in Criminology. I went and interned at a police department the following summer, and soon realized that this was not what I pictured it to be, and did not want to do this for the rest of my life. So I decided to make a switch. I applied to grad school and started my Master's in the Art of Teaching in hopes of becoming a physical education teacher. I have finished a year of schooling, and now I am working on my teaching license for physical education in Minnesota which will take approximately three years to complete. So I am not taking your typical path to become a teacher, but I figured out what I wanted to do and I will not stop until I achieve it. I am very passionate about physical fitness, and living a healthy lifestyle. I want to learn the correct tools and ways to teach students about staying physically active so that they can have a healthy relationship with staying active. My long-term goals are to be a physical education teacher at a middle school for about ten to fifteen years while coaching softball at the high school level as the varsity head coach. I strive to win at least one state championship at that position, hopefully more but you can't get two or more without one. I want to be a passionate teacher, who can be a positive role model for students. I hope that I can lead my students to become better humans in all aspects of life, and I want to be the teacher that every student goes to when they need help, or when they want to share some exciting news. I would like to also go back to school again, and work to get my administration license so that I can become an athletic director at a high school, and then work my way up to the collegiate level. Another goal of mine is that I want to start a family, be financially stable, and be able to give my children a loving and happy childhood while having zero feelings of financial struggles or burdens. I want to build my own house and have two dogs as well.

I am pursuing a career in physical education because I want to make the future generation better humans and feel excited about physical fitness. I am a big believer in physical health and living a healthy lifestyle. If you can be active every day and learn how to form healthy habits, that will lead to success in many other aspects of your life including the classroom. I was fortunate enough to go to college and play softball for five years while earning my degree. I loved being able to stay active every day and then head to school, and feel like I was being productive throughout the day. It was hard to manage my time, and some days I was burnt out, but I stayed the course and trusted the process and journey that I was on and it has paid off for me. I ended up going to school for four years and receiving a degree in Criminology. I went and interned at a police department the following summer, and soon realized that this was not what I pictured it to be, and did not want to do this for the rest of my life. So I decided to make a switch. I applied to grad school and started my Master's in the Art of Teaching in hopes of becoming a physical education teacher. I have finished a year of schooling, and now I am working on my teaching license for physical education in Minnesota which will take approximately three years to complete. So I am not taking your typical right to become a teacher, but I figured out what I wanted to do and I will not stop until I achieve it. I have always loved physical fitness and staying active, and I love being around kids. I am currently a softball and volleyball coach as well, and I find so much joy and passion in being able to coach and lead young women in the right direction that I want to expand my joy and leadership toward other students as well. That is why I think physical education would be a good fit for me. Sports and physical fitness can teach you endless life lessons, and you can learn to work through failures and hardships, and also push past your limits, teaching and trusting yourself that you can do anything with a strong mind. I am a firm believer that if you want to do something and you put your mind to it, the only thing that will get in your way is yourself. If you have a strong mind and a positive attitude you can do anything. I have had to make countless sacrifices to get where I am today. I have spent hours and hours in the library, studying on the road before sporting events, and staying up way too late to finish assignments and study. I have given up a four-year degree so that I can do something that makes me happy, but at the same time, I would do it over again if I could. I am certain that this path was meant for me, and I am learning so much along the way. I am currently a substitute teacher, and I fill in wherever I am needed. I was able to sub for a physical education class and I was over the moon. I knew in that moment when I was in the gym and teaching the kids, that this was exactly where I needed to be and exactly what I wanted to do with my life. And I am so thankful.

I am interested in pursuing a career in teaching because I love to help people and teach children how to become better humans. I would like to teach physical education and coach. I want students to learn the importance of physical health and how it benefits them throughout life. Living a healthy lifestyle and learning to be active, can improve performance in the classroom as well. I want students to have a healthy relationship with exercise and with being active daily. A lot of times, students can have a negative attitude towards physical education because of their experience with other physical education teachers in the past. I want to be the teacher that students can go to for anything and everything. I will strive to be the best teacher I can be for my students, I will put my personal life aside to be able to give my full attention to my students. I want the students to learn how to be good people, and learn how to work through tough times in their lives and feel like they are never alone. I always looked toward my teachers when I was struggling in school and my personal life and I want to be that person for my future students. When students go through the ups and downs, they can struggle with their emotions and don't know how to handle them. I want to be there for them so that I can help them work through those struggles by providing them advice, care, respect, a shoulder to cry on if they need it, and a non-judgmental zone. I recently wrote a personal mission statement for being a physical education teacher, "My mission statement as a future physical education teacher is to provide students with a positive experience with physical activity and personal health. My mission is to engage all students in physical activity, teach them the importance of physical activity and a healthy lifestyle, and how it can impact your life. I will ensure that each student feels valued and give them the tools to make healthy lifestyle choices, no matter who they are, what they look like, and the challenges they may face. My goal is to make every student feel safe and can use me as a resource or an outlet for anything and everything that is going on in their lives. I will always put the needs of my students first. I will strive to do my best by showing a positive attitude, constructive criticism, passion, and respect for my students every single day." I want my students to enjoy being active and living a healthy lifestyle. I want to give them the tools to be successful in life, and when making the right steps to maintaining a healthy, and happy lifestyle while being physically active.