Basketball has always been a main priority for me. As a young child I can remember going to practice with my dad as he coached his girls and remembering that I wanted to be in their shoes on that very court. As I got older I begant o move around a lot and the one thing that I can remember that I could count on was the fact that I could play basketball. In the fourth grade after my first out of state move, I had already missed basketball tryouts. This for any other kid may have been an issue, but I was 5'4" in the fourth grade. After a couple conversations and the coaches quick look at my height I was promptly put on the team. This is how I made friends. Four years later I made my second move. This was the big one, the move that I really struggled ot make friends during. I clung to basketball and made varsity as a freshman. My lonliness did not go away, but the sport gave me a reason to want to come to school everyday. This was during covid. We had to eat as a team so that we were not quarentined, we had to sit as far away as possible from others in classrooms, and we even had to seperate in the weight rooms from the other athletic teams. This seperation meant that the only people I was around all day my freshman year was my teammates. As the season progressed I started my first varsity game. I felt unstoppable as my passion and dedication was finally paying off. Sadly this was short-lived. Right before my team went into the tournament I suffered an ACL tear and was out for the following eleven months. Although for anybody else this would be devastating, I realized after this injury that not only did my coaches truly care about me but so did my teammates. After this injury the dedication that I had to learn helped me keep going thoruhg my physical therapy. I had several struggle including my pain medicine not working and many spells of fainting from pain. Although it took a long time to recover, my family and friendskept me going. During the time of my basketball career I realized many things, however, one stood out apart from the rest. Dedicaiton and hard work will get you wherever you need to go, even if that feels like a never-ending road. I have decided to be a physical therapist in the future so that I can continue to help athletes like me who need a little extra help getting back onto the court, because without the court I never would have made it to be at the point that I am today.

Throughout the past ten years, many new inventions have surfaced that have changed the path that humanity will be going down. Many of these inventions have to do with entertainment, however, the upgrades in current medical technology are sending the human race in a very uplifting direction. The specific technological advancement that has made the most impact on my interests is CRISPR. CRISPR stands for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats. In simpler terms, CRISPR is frequently seen repeating gene code that can be inserted into negative mutation points in people's genetic sequences. The reason specifically that CRISPR has struck my interest is due to the medical potential it possesses. With this new technology, not only can you prevent certain medical conditions before they occur, but you can also use this to help cure cancers and chronic illnesses that develop later on within people’s lifetimes. CRISPR is not fully developed, but as years go on the potential to cure a greater number of illnesses will open up. CRISPR is at this time used mostly on animals to more accurately breed the most wanted characteristics of an animal. The sequences are entered into the DNA in as large or small quantities as are wanted. The continuation of study on this invention will help cure crippling issues that many face every day. Within my future studies, I hope to help further research the process known as CRISPR and furthermore support the future of humanity by bettering the quality of life for my peers and fellow people around me. My main goal is to become a physical therapist so that I can help those who are dealing with the physical side effects of the diseases that I hope will soon be preventable with the new invention as it develops.

My experience with mental health has not been a good one. Throughout my middle school life, I struggled with a lot of anger and sadness because of my home life and the passing of my Nana. As my life went on I felt myself slowly fall deeper and deeper into the whole. Soon I noticed I did not want to eat, leave my room, or even talk to family members. I quickly lost weight and was encouraged to do so by toxic family members. I started a new school with the hope that it would make everything easier and get a fresh start. I found out very soon that this was not the case. Hiding from your problems and trying to run away never fixes the issues within. To try to help myself get out of this worsening situation I threw myself into basketball. This only led to an excessive and unhealthy exercise habit and eventually an ACL injury. It took that injury to realize who around me really cared about my well-being. After this, I moved back to my mom's and into my old school and got the help I needed. Although these years of my life were very difficult, without them I wouldn't have the perspective that I now do. Everyone is going through something no matter how good they hide it. With this perspective, it is easier to understand why the world is always so angry. When you are not happy with yourself it is easier to take it out on those around you. It is easy to blame others for a relationship falling apart when in reality you were just not stable enough to make an effort. Now that I am in a better spot than I was, I will always have time to talk to people who are dealing with issues in their own minds. Sometimes these issues go away, sometimes they don't, but it is always better to have somebody with you while you go through it.

Throughout the past ten years, many new inventions have surfaced that have changed the path that humanity will be going down. Many of these inventions have to do with entertainment, however, the upgrades in current medical technology are sending the human race in a very uplifting direction. The specific technological advancement that has made the most impact on my interests is CRISPR. CRISPR stands for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats. In simpler terms, CRISPR is frequently seen repeating gene code that can be inserted into negative mutation points in people's genetic sequences. The reason specifically that CRISPR has struck my interest is due to the medical potential it possesses. With this new technology, not only can you prevent certain medical conditions before they occur, but you can also use this to help cure cancers and chronic illnesses that develop later on within people’s lifetimes. CRISPR is not fully developed, but as years go on the potential to cure a greater number of illnesses will open up. CRISPR is at this time used mostly on animals to more accurately breed the most wanted characteristics of an animal. The sequences are entered into the DNA in as large or small quantities as are wanted. The continuation of study on this invention will help cure crippling issues that many face every day. Within my future studies, I hope to help further research the process known as CRISPR and furthermore support the future of humanity by bettering the quality of life for my peers and the people around me. My main goal is to become a physical therapist so that I can help those who are dealing with the physical side effects of diseases that I hopefully will soon be preventable with the new invention as it develops. My hope for my future includes helping those around me who already suffer from physical abnormalities and diseases, as well as helping use the CRISPR method to prevent birth defects in the future. Other than these things I hope that I will give the kindness needed to those around me who are going through genetic-related issues as well as injuries. Giving those in my community a second chance to enjoy the world when negative things have occurred is all I have wanted since I was young. When you have gone through an injury or are suffering from long-term pain, it is hard to enjoy even the little things. I am excited to see what will come from my future career in physical therapy along with the future of CRISPR. Through dedication and research, a healthier tomorrow is only a few years away.