Recently, I got sick at a camp. When I came home, it got much worse, and I was confined to my room for about a week. Right after, I started pet-sitting and had a rare allergic reaction which put me back in my room for almost another full week. Then, I burst my eardrum! I participate on a swim team, and now I will be missing the rest of the season. Right now, as I write this essay, I am sick again with a sore throat and a cough. This is the trial I am facing right now. I am still in it, so I can’t say I have overcome it physically, but mentally, I am not letting it hinder me. While getting ready for bed last night, I was tempted to ask God, “Why?” He told me to ask Him, “What?” What can I learn from this, what is God wanting to show me, and what will I set my mind on in the midst of this storm? There’s a quote I tell myself in these moments when setbacks surround me and try to dominate my thoughts. It’s not the highs in life that make you successful, but the lows you overcome. Then I tell myself, "I am not letting this stop me. Do the next right thing! I’m not wounded—I’m a wounded warrior! I’m not hopeless—I’m held by the king! I didn’t fall down to stay down—I fall down to get back up and rise up stronger than ever before!" Why? I don’t know why I am sick right now! Circumstantially, it seems like the most inconvenient thing to happen to me. But I trust God regardless, and by so doing, I free myself to continue pressing on. Hallelujah! I am more than a conqueror in Christ. I have high aspirations. I dare to dream, and my dreams keep getting bigger, scarier, and more seemingly impossible! This sickness has afforded me ample time to spend planning my dreams, specifically, my dream to revolutionize education. I wasn’t planning on going to college in the first place until my passions led me to the idea of starting a society, Arete Society. It means excellence in Greek, and my vision is to cultivate an environment centered around excellence in education through facilitated (or self-paced) learning, meaningful connection, and character development. It will be revolutionary in that I plan for it to have a ripple effect, starting small, but being designed for others to start their own Societies and expand it beyond what I could ever do by myself. After much discussion and debate, I feel that it would be best for me to attend college. I have the ideas and dreams, but I am lacking in the credibility and expertise to successfully run my own endeavor. Through college, I not only will have the opportunity to gain knowledge and expertise but also hope to connect with other self-driven students who may be interested in joining forces. I hope to enter college debt free and as soon as possible, but I will not be able to do so without financial support. A degree in Business Entrepreneurship or Business Leadership are two of my top choices because I know they will connect me with the right people to make my dream a reality. No matter what, I am trusting God to provide, and he can do it in so many ways, but regardless, I am so grateful to get to share my story!

I have been homeschooled all my life until this last school year. The year before, the idea of going to a physical school building five days a week never crossed my mind. But I decided to attend Landmark Christian School, a private school in Fairburn GA. I decided for several reasons: I did not want to continue with the classical curriculum I was on course with, I was curious to find out what other options there were, I knew a lot of people attending this school, and it would challenge me academically. The day I found out I was accepted into the school, God gave me the thought, “You are going to grow more spiritually this year than ever before.” This statement is so true! God has been working on my priorities of education and relationship. I love learning, I love education, and I am so grateful for the opportunities provided for me because of being homeschooled. But there are other types of education, and I was missing out on learning from other people and their unique experiences. During my homeschool years, I had the mindset that friends were to be pursued for my benefit, and I think it has weakened my connection with others. Homeschool was working out great for me as far as education, I am very motivated in learning and have accelerated my pace in a lot of areas, but I feel like it became the center of my life more than the people around me. But being at Landmark, my eyes were opened that I was putting my education before my relationships, and this entire year has been a paradigm shift in valuing both. Landmark has taught me that when ideas come into contact with ideas, you get ideas squared! The boundless conversations I have enjoyed with students, parents, teachers, and faculty workers of all backgrounds and ethnicities have changed my life because through these conversations I have forgotten my timidity, learned to embrace authenticity, and even change my personality. Seriously, my personality has changed! I took a personality test a few years ago, and I was 75% introverted and 25% extroverted. Through the leadership program at Landmark, we took another personality test and I was 55% extroverted and 45% introverted! Why? I believe it has to do with God shaping my priorities and showing me the value of personal connection rather than personal gratification. Through the opportunities Landmark has provided, God has shown me the true value of connection. I will never be the same, and I think this knowledge will have a profound impact on the entire course of my life! My career aspirations have changed because of this experience. I now hope to create my own society for facilitating connection, discussion, and accelerated education. I will never be the same because of my choice to go to Landmark, and I have God to thank for it! I am wide open to what God has for me, whether it is the society idea or some other career, but in the meantime, I am going to continue pursuing meaningful connections and growing my relationships. Praise God!

I have a vision to revolutionize education. That dream is not only the reason for seeking scholarships to fund the launching pad—college degree in business—but also the means through which I desire to make the greatest impact on the world. Every person on earth is impacted by their education or lack of one. The formative years of a child are the perfect time to lay a solid foundation because it’s always easier to build boys rather than mend men! Arete Society is the name I have chosen. Arete in Greek means excellence, and excellence is the umbrella of the three specific areas I will focus on developing in the students. We will grow everyone who participates into excellent human beings through education facilitation, meaningful connection, and character development. First, I believe every person is born with the desire to engage with the world. We are inwardly motivated to learn. For example, a baby does not need to be forced to try to speak, but some desire inside of the baby urges the baby to communicate, the desire to engage with the world. In Arete Society, there will be no teachers necessarily, but education facilitators, people who find the best teachers for the students, whether it be in the local area, another student higher up in their education journey, or online. Some of the best teachers in the world cost nothing online, but regardless of the means, the goal is the same—pursuing excellence in education. And there will be no limitations because of the schedule, so the learner can go at his own pace. What will motivate the learner? Connection. Connection is critical because the ultimate motivation for learning is being able to use what you are learning to communicate ideas and build relationships. And I think this part of the society, students motivating students, ideas inspiring ideas, will be the sweet sauce in accelerating the education process. As every individual pursues their education, they can connect to other students in the society for discussion. We will have student discussion facilitators, creating authentic and meaningful conversations about what everyone is learning, how everyone is obtaining their education, and how to accelerate their education. And the cool part is we can collect these ideas from conversations and create an "ideaverse," linking ideas with ideas and creating more ideas! The last part of the society I believe is the most important and the most significant impact I want the organization to have. Character development. We will offer discussions on character development, touching on the big questions in life I believe every student should ponder and come to their own conclusions rather than being forced into any belief system or worldview. The overall idea we will discuss is what it means to be an excellent human being. And these questions I believe will create deep thinkers, curious learners, and people who will succeed in life because they will become participants in society rather than mindless followers. They will uncover the tools to become the best person they can be. These three areas, education facilitation, meaningful connection, and character development, are the ways I desire to impact the world. But I by no means desire to keep the size small. I aspire to create a ripple effect by making students love the program so much that some will decide to create their own version, and through it, expand the horizons of what I could ever do by myself. I envision this method of education becoming the main way to educate worldwide because of the low cost and exceptional results. I aspire to be a world-changer.

I will be the head of a worldwide education revolution, creating a place for everyone to have access to quality education along with access to authentic community, motivating students not by grades, but by the joy of learning with others, removing barriers by allowing students to learn at their own pace and choose their own method and path to academic achievement, empowering students to become world-changers by igniting and cultivating their passions and connecting them to the right people to turn their dreams into reality, and I will need tons of money and support to do it!

What I love most about books is that they can give you imaginary companions to do life with. My book would be The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser. It is a medieval epic poem allegorically portraying a new Christian, Red Cross Knight, and the difficult journey one must face while pursuing the path to holiness. He set out to save the family of a princess, Una, from a nasty dragon. Through the book Red Cross Knight endures numerous pitfalls representing the common temptations we all experience in life. But as he struggles with the temptations of pride, greed, lust, cheating, and comparison, these minuscule trials prepare him for the most daunting task of all, defeating a dragon as large as a castle, with a tale longer than a football field, scales as hard as iron, and teeth as sharp as swords. Red Cross Knight, as he fights, gets brutally beaten and bruised, but he keeps getting up. At the climax, the dragon knocks him off a cliff and he falls into a well. He spends a day inside the well, and after he returns, all his wounds are healed, signifying God’s grace washing over us. He, with his new-found strength in Christ, defeats the dragon once and for all. He slays the dragon and gets the girl, just like any old fairy tale! I did not originally desire to read this book. It was assigned to me for school. But after reading it, as I would go about my day, I could not get Red Cross Knight out of my head. As I would face my own struggles, I would remember him, and I would remember how he escaped: rarely did he in his own strength resist temptations, but Una, representing Truth, would rescue him, or Arthur, representing Christ would save him. Red Cross Knight is so relatable because we all face the trials he faced. We all run into the enemies, the monsters, and the deceptions he ran into. And we always need the reminder, “Don’t do it alone!” When I was born, the nurse spoke these words to me, “You have a friend. His name is Jesus.” The Faerie Queene is a beautiful reminder of how much we need this friend. I have read over two-hundred books from fantasy to contemporary fiction, from ancient literature to modern, and the only book I think about every day is TFQ.