My mom grew up in India, while I grew up in suburban Ohio, resulting in two very different perspectives on all matters. Our conversations have ranged from how the moon affects your mood, to who should be the next president. For the most part, we would simply argue, trying to prove each other wrong. During one argument, however, our conversation went differently. I believe in scientific Western therapies, but one day, my mom was preaching her views on the Indian alternative medicine: Ayurveda. Because of our clashing views, this conversation had the potential to get out of hand, but before it did, I stopped to think. My mom had believed in Ayurveda her entire life, and I wasn’t going to change her opinion. Even though I completely disagreed with her, I realized that I couldn’t “win” this argument. Instead, I engaged her in a constructive conversation because I wanted to learn about her rooted beliefs. We debated cordially for hours. I learned about my mom’s convictions, and how they were more deeply rooted in her culture and religion. I appreciated that Ayurveda was not just a medicinal philosophy, but a facet of cultural identity for millions of its followers. Most importantly, I learned the real reason we engage in some arguments should not be to prove the other person wrong, but to gain new knowledge and perspectives. Challenging my mom’s ideas and having my own challenged in return, showed me how to consider others’ perspectives in a different way.

Speedcubing: the sport of solving Rubik’s Cubes and related puzzles as quickly as possible. Speedcubing to me is a lot more than some nerdy sport, rather, it is what I invested nine months of my life into, and continue to do today. In February of 2020, I got seriously into speedcubing, and for the next several months, that's all I did. By the peak of my speedcubing experience, I could solve the Rubik’s cube in 13.3 seconds. I could solve all types of cubes quickly, from a 7x7 cube to a 3x3 blindfolded. However, the speed of these solves wasn’t the only reason I did it. What intrigued me the most was the depth of the sport and the intellectual challenge. Within the simple Rubik's cube, there are so many different ways to solve it and get faster. Even after nine months of cubing for five hours every day, I still have much to learn. Every day I got deeper into this vast rabbit hole of cubing, and it brought me so much joy to keep exploring. Seeing how my time spent learning the cube yielded faster solves gave me something to be excited about, especially in the pandemic when there was little to look forward to. Recently, cubing has brought me closer to a new group of friends who have similar interests. It now brings me joy to be able to share my passion with my friends, and I look forward to continuing in the future.

Junior year I signed up for AP Research thinking it was just another AP class. It seemed routine at first, but as I got deeper into it, I unraveled a new world that I didn’t know existed. I had no idea what a valuable experience it would be for me. Our objective was to investigate and research a topic for a whole year. While deciding on a topic, I wanted to center it around a scientific experiment. Initially, I had grand ideas, however, the limitations of my high school chemistry lab forced me to narrow the scope of my project. After exploring multiple topics, I found myself interested in the algae problem of Lake Erie, which is right next to where I live. For the first few months, I spent my time doing the preliminary research, learning about my topic, and really digging into what I found. From there, I developed a research question and experimental design and was finally able to dive deep into my project. Growing up, I have always had ideas for experiments, but without resources, I was never able to execute them. Now with the resources, I had the freedom to explore my ideas. I was studying the effects of phosphorus and algae on aquatic plants. To do this, I set up small habitats with a chosen aquatic plant and algae to represent the Lake Erie Environment in six different fish tanks. I then tested the effects of different phosphorus concentrations on those habitats. To get quantifiable data, I had to test the water to measure the phosphorus concentrations. I had originally planned for this chemical reaction to take only two weeks, but it ended up taking three months to complete. For the next few months, I worked for 42 hours a week trying to figure out the chemical reaction. As the days progressed, I continued adding layers to this experiment, and I kept going deeper into my process of measuring phosphorus. Every day during school, I would carry out procedures I wrote the night before, make observations, and collect data trying to perfect my methodology. Every night after school, I would analyze my data, and adjust procedures for the next day based on those findings. After months of working hard and experiencing multiple setbacks and failed trials, I was able to generate six relevant data points. Using those points, I wrote my paper, made my presentation, and turned it into the college board. At the start of this process, my goal was to get a 5 as my AP score. But as I progressed through the weeks of experimentation, I started to realize that I was no longer doing it for the grade. I noticed that I was putting in the extra effort because I enjoyed it, and I wanted to see my project succeed. Usually, in our science labs, we get a standard procedure and we follow it during class. But for this project, I was the one who designed everything from scratch. The application of my scientific process brought me back every day, and even though there was so much stress and work involved, I completely loved it. Over a year, I learned so many things like time management, planning, lab skills, and research, and I also built incredible bonds with the teachers who supervised me. I ended up getting a 5 on the project, but the greatest thing I learned from this experience is that I want to do research again. What began as just another AP class, turned into a genuine passion that I plan to pursue in undergrad and beyond.