1. When did you find TXT? I found TXT when I first heard their song PUMA which was recommended to me by a close friend after The Dream Chapter: ETERNITY was released. I loved their songs in that album and really love the cinematography in their music videos. That is also a big reason as to why I like the songs Cant You See Me, Blue Hour, and LOER=LO♡ER. 2. What do you think is one of the most important characteristics of a MOA? I just think that the community is so beautiful. Sure there are a few people who are toxic in the fandom, but just like any other fandom there will be a few bad people. However, MOA’s are great at being positive and supporting TXT and each other. 3. Do you have a TXT bias, and if so, why did you choose them? I always had a hard time picking just one guy in TXT to be my bias because all of them had a lot of great traits I loved, but Kai really stood out to me from the start. I think I like him because of his humor and his laugh, but also I love his nose. As someone with a similar nose, I love seeing someone in the Kpop community with a similar nose. 4. Who is your ultimate bias, if any, of any group? My Ult Bias is probably going to have to be Joshua from Seventeen, my runner up is definitely Mingi from Ateez though! 5. What is your favorite TXT song, and why? My all time favorite song from TXT is easily No Rules. I love the funkyness in the background of that song and it's so incredibly catchy to me. 6. Have you had a chance to see TXT live in concert before? The one time I had the opportunity to see them in concert I was very sick so i havent. I did get to see ateez and a korean band called The Rose.I have seen The Rose a few times because they come to my state often, but kpop groups usually forget Minnesota exists. I did drive to chicago to see ateez though. 7. What was your favorite album concept, and why? I really love their concept for Minisode 3: TOMORROW. It was a different vibe to their other albums to me and I thought that Deja Vu and I’ll See You There Tomorrow were really great songs and the music video was great. 8. How are you currently paying for school? I am applying for scholarships and planning on working a lot during the school year. My mother will help me here and there but I really do not want her to at all costs. 9. How will the scholarship help you? What gaps can it fill? I don't want to jeopardize my grades just to work to pay for college. If I am going to pursue my education, I want to have good grades and have time to join clubs, organizations, bands, and attend school events and not have to work all the time. 10. How has TXT influenced you for good? TXT is my comfort group, I always find myself listening to their music when I'm down. I do have periods of time when I don't listen to them, but I always find myself chasing that feeling to listen to them again. (Pun Intended). 11. How will you use your education to do good in the world? I am majoring in art education and plan to add some form of business minor. I want to be an art teacher and also own a pottery studio where I can teach classes to the public. I would love to work in Duluth, Minnesota as that is my dream city. The image I attached is one of my favorite shots from their music video of Loser Lover. It reminds me of me and my old friend group before we all separated because of how life played out.

I am a Native American trans man who is not openly out yet to my family, but my biggest supporter has always been my grandmother, who passed away when I was eight years old. She was the only person I was openly talking to about how I didn't feel like all the other girls in my classes in elementary school. She helped me with these struggles and never pressured me into wearing feminine clothes, but I still had to model the earrings she would make. Her art was always so beautiful, and she would use every color in her beadwork. Looking back now, she had a great understanding of the color wheel and color theory. She was also the only Native American family member left in my life, as I am half white; my Native American father is disabled, and his personality was wiped out in a brain-injury accident. He no longer cares about his culture. Growing up, I felt incredibly disconnected from my heritage. I never felt "native enough" because I was never surrounded by my own culture. One thing that also impacted me was the fact that I am mixed and a lighter-skinned Native; I often get mistaken as a white person, which made me feel like I was supposed to hide my Native American half. I vividly remember when I was young telling people I was native; they would often respond with "that was impossible because Indians went extinct a long time ago." I now read books all the time about Native American lives, especially Tommy Orange's book There There, which is a book that tackles Native stereotypes and the 12 Native American main characters who all grew up separated from their culture. This book helped me realize that I wasn't the only one who felt this way. As I grew without my grandma in my life, I started painting and drawing. I snuck pieces of her in everything I made when I first started. I loved to paint bison, animal skulls, and Japanese cranes, which was her favorite animal because she lived in Japan for a long while. When I was 14, my confidence grew as I started taking actual art classes. I branched out and developed my own artistic style, though her influence never left my work. My art gave me a safe place to express myself as a trans man. Even though I am not out to any of my family, I can still quietly express myself with my art. I have a piece called "Dismemberment" that depicts a naked man sobbing on the floor of a bathroom curled up in the fetal position. This was a scene I often found myself in because I always hated showering and seeing that I wasn't physically a man. I would break down and cry every time I went to shower. I saw myself in that man I drew. Creating my art helps me process the feelings I could never say out loud. The name "Dismemberment" symbolizes the fact that my body never felt like mine. Through my art, I don't have to choose between honoring my grandmother, reconnecting with my Native heritage, or expressing myself as a trans man. Every painting allows those parts of me to exist together. Art has become more than a hobby; it is the place where I understand myself and where all the pieces of my identity finally belong. Although my grandmother never got to see the artist I have become, I like to think she would recognize pieces of herself in my work.

I believe being Native American is beautiful. No matter where you are, what you're doing with your life, or what you identify with, every Native American soul is beautiful to me. My mother is Norwegian but grew up around natives and their culture her whole life, as she is from Minnesota and lived around reservations and had plenty of Native friends. My father is from Colorado and is Lakota and Northern Cheyenne. Before I was born, my dad had a traumatic brain injury, was diagnosed with a terminal brain condition, and was disabled. Because of his injuries, my mom took on all the work and no longer had time to teach me about my culture, and my life, and take me to native events. My father didn't care about his culture after his TBI; his personality changed so much. I never even got to know the real him my mom and my brothers knew. I have been trying to learn about my culture online, through books like There There by Tommy Orange and The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline, and from my extended family on my dad's side. However, my grandma passed away when I was 8 years old, and to this day, her passing was the most pain I have ever felt. She was the only Native American person in my family besides my dad, and my grandfather moved across the world after her death. Even though I have no one to talk to, I stay involved in local native communities. I was in the American Indian education program at Pequot Lakes High School, making my own beadwork jewelry pieces and buying from Native American vendors at festivals. Once I am in college, I will be taking classes to help me learn about who I am, and I am currently registered for a Native American literature class for my first semester. I know that there is more for me to learn, but I am eager to go out and learn it. I will always hope that my father will one day recover and go back to how he was before I was born. My mom talks highly of how he was before his TBI and tells me often how much she wishes I could meet that version of him. I know there is no possible way the effects of a brain injury can be reverted, but I will never give up hope. Even though my father is no longer the noble and sweet man my mother describes he used to be like, that version of him is in his soul, his indigenous soul.

I first started painting during covid-19. I had just shattered my foot and was immobile for the entire pandemic because of it. Due to me not being outside anymore, I started drawing and painting. This hobby I started out of boredom quickly developed into this passion for the arts. I started off painting the things around my bedroom: my dreamcatchers, the view from my bed, my crutches next to me, and trying to replicate the artwork I had framed on my walls. At this point I had only been drawing. I had no paint, brushes, or canvases to use. The second I was able to put weight on my foot; I begged my mom to take me shopping for painting supplies. After I got my hands on paint, I was never the same as I was before. Over the next six years I built up my skills and competed in several competitions, most of them through Pequot Lakes High School, where I was lucky enough to have a skilled, supportive, and wise professor, Todd Knutson. I would not be nearly as skilled as I am now without his influence on my life. That is why I want to be an art teacher and one day an owner of a pottery studio and teach public classes. In high school I competed in conference, section, and state competitions. I won best in drawing in 2024 with a portrait of me as a stone sculpture falling apart. That same year I took another drawing of a man having a mental episode on a bathroom floor to the state fair and won third there. In 2025 I experimented with digital art for the first time. I thought that the medium was very fun, but I loved painting and drawing more. Regardless, one of the pieces I made went to the state fair as well and placed third. Most recently, in 2026, I had a lot of my favorite works made, and they placed very well in the contest. My favorite piece that I have ever done was on a 12' x 48' canvas, and it showed a scene of dozens of mice in a pile of trash, all fighting over one piece of food. I created this painting to show pollution's effects on animals on a small scale. The mice represent humanity and what humans will end up like if pollution continues to grow and destroy the environment. We would be no different than the mice in my painting. This piece went on to win best in show in our conference. This competition was probably the most enjoyable one for me, as we were the school that hosted it. I loved setting it up with my art teacher, and it made me very excited to be a teacher one day myself. We did not compete in the state fair this year because the year before, the people running the arts section lost one of my classmate's pieces. Our teacher did not want that happening again and withdrew from the contest. If I did compete in it, however, I think I would have placed well too. I have many other pieces I would love to talk about, but this submission would be very, very long. Three of the pieces of art I have talked about are the in photos attached.