In April of 2022, I had just completed a long and fulfilling freshman year. That year, I served as the Underclassmen Representative for my FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) chapter, and I found myself looking for a new adventure. My DECA chapter had just sent out officer applications, and deciding to take a bold and risky step, I ran for chapter president. At the time, I didn’t understand what it took to succeed in this position, and thankfully, I did not receive this position. I was instead designated as the Meetings Preparation Officer, the lowest position in the hierarchy, and I ran unopposed for the position, since nobody else really wanted it. But where others saw a useless position, I saw opportunity. My sophomore year, I worked tirelessly in this position, often working late hours into the night just to make sure that all of our DECA meetings were running as smoothly as possible, and I was also juggling my position as the FBLA Vice President of Community Service, which came with plenty of responsibilities of its own. I was drowning in my own work, but I was determined to work even harder in order to prove my worth. At the end of the year, I ran for Executive Vice President in my DECA chapter. After proving my determination, I managed to get the position, and suddenly, my experience as a chapter officer turned completely upside down. Instead of being the one working tirelessly to do administrative work, I was one of the leaders of the team, one of the people actually delegating the tasks for others to do. My experience as the Meetings Preparation Officer of DECA taught me something very valuable about leadership, that it’s important to respect those you work with. As a leader, I quickly won my fellow officers’ respect, and I was even nominated as the Nevada DECA Member of the Year through my chapter. My fellow officers understood that I was not just delegating them pointless work, but that I was working right alongside them towards a common goal. At the end of the year, I ran for chapter president again, and for the first time in three years, I was completely qualified for the position and ready to face the future with boldness and determination. I now serve as my school’s chapter president for DECA, National Business Honor Society, and our College Entrance Exams Club. I am fortunate enough to have the opportunity to hold several different leadership positions, but in the end, leadership is so much more than just a position, so much more than just managing a team. Management is the process of making sure that tasks are completed in an efficient manner, but leadership is the process of inspiring those around you. Inspiring them to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more. Management deals with tasks, but leadership deals with real people with real emotions who have real dreams and aspirations. Because of this, I am determined to learn and grow to become the best leader I can be. Since my freshman year, I have worked in five unique officer teams, and I have learned a very valuable lesson from each leader of each team. I learned the importance of organization and efficiency, but more importantly, I learned the importance of respect, kindness, and camaraderie. In the end, leadership is about so much more than achieving a goal or reaching a destination, it is about the journey, the relationships, and the lessons learned along the way.

As a student entering the 12th grade, I have had 46 different teachers since kindergarten, and all of them have been entirely unique, both in personality and teaching style. Some have been enthusiastic and eccentric, others scholarly and detail-oriented. However, there is one particular teacher who has changed my life and left a profound impact on me, Mrs. Patricia Buono. Mrs. Buono has been my accounting teacher, business teacher, and FBLA adviser for the past three years, and every day with her was a delight. She greets every single one of her students with a bright smile every single day, and she makes sure that her classroom is not only a haven for education but a place where all of her students can be safe and be themselves. She has laughed with me on my brightest days, comforted me on my hardest ones, and my high school experience truly would not be the same without her. She genuinely cares for each of her students, and she inspired me to pursue a career in teaching. I am pursuing a career in teaching because I am determined to help the rising generation the way that my teachers have helped me. I want to not only teach but to inspire. The most beautiful part of education is the pursuit of knowledge as a result of passion, not obligation. I want to inspire this passion in all of my students and give them the safe haven that my teachers have given me. As W. B. Yeats, an Irish poet and playwright, once said, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” As a teacher, I do not just want to fill my students’ pails and send them on their way. I want to light the fire in their hearts so they can pursue their dreams the way I have been fortunate enough to pursue mine. The fact of the matter is that education is the industry of the future. All of society’s greatest minds still had teachers and mentors at some point in their lives. Even if my students do not become the next Albert Einstein, they are still members of the rising generation. It is my duty to serve them to the best of my abilities, not only for their sake but for the sake of humanity’s future. Aside from the profound implications teaching has for the future, I genuinely love to teach, whether that be casually explaining concepts to my peers in passing, tutoring elementary school students, or leading the College Entrance Exams Club in my school. Seeing others gain an understanding of concepts that were once foreign to them, and seeing the spark of passion in their eyes gives me genuine joy, and nothing in life would be more fulfilling for me than to become a teacher. Becoming a teacher is my dream, and like any other dream, I must work tirelessly to make it a reality. And once I achieve my dream, I look forward to guiding others to their own.

“Would I rather be feared, or loved? Easy. Both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me.” Strangely enough, my whole high school experience could be summed up in this quote. I’m incredibly involved in business related clubs on my campus, and I currently serve as my DECA chapter president and National Business Honor Society chapter president. I’ve found that working alongside my officer teams is actually quite similar to the workplace dynamics demonstrated in “The Office”, so this show holds a special place in my heart. Considering how near and dear this quote is to me, it’s no surprise that I resonate most with Michael Scott. When I work with others, I truly do want to be both feared and loved. I want to be respected as an individual, but I also want to give my peers the respect they deserve so they are not only comfortable working with me, but they look forward to it. My style of leadership is founded on mutual respect, which means that I don’t micromanage those around me, instead I inspire them. Instead of them doing something because I instructed them to, they do things because they want to work alongside me and achieve our goals together. Especially when working with others, I have a big heart and a lot to give, so it’s not much of a stretch to say that I find a sense of familiarity and belonging in this show. As well as giving me an example of leadership that resonates with me, this show truly has shaped my sense of humor, especially through the character of Jim Halpert. In the show, Jim plays countless pranks on Dwight Schrute, all of them increasing in complexity as the show goes on. I’ve learned that humor can be something more practical, and as Jim said, “It’s always more fun to mess with Dwight with an audience.” Humor is something that should be shared with other people, as long as it’s not at anybody’s expense. One way that I have shared this humor with those around me is in my business classroom. My teacher has her desk in the back of the room, and for years, her students have referred to this desk as “Megadesk”, a personal favorite moment of mine in “The Office”. In the end, this show is so much more than a show. It allows people to laugh together, learn together, and love together. It gives us all a sense of camaraderie, because even though we have our differences, a laugh is something that we can all share. Humor is the language that everyone can speak, and laughter truly is the best medicine, something I am incredibly grateful that “The Office” could give to me.

A sharpened pencil. Perhaps two. A fresh, crisp sheet of paper, smooth to sheer perfection. A soft, pink eraser, ready for use, worn by its years. As an accounting student, these are the tools of my trade. However, there is another tool I use every single day, and one I will never take for granted: math. I love math because it is so much more than numbers, more than imaginary problems. Math has real life applications, and is one of the building blocks of our society’s foundation. Everyone from an aspiring businessman to a talented engineer uses math, and without math, our world would not be the same. Nothing would be quite as calculated, quite as precise without the remarkable system that humanity has used for thousands of years. I am extremely grateful for math’s impact on humanity, but I also have a deep appreciation for its impact on my own life. Math has introduced me to my greatest passion, accounting. Math has been a constant in my life. Math has been a challenge for me to rise to, a comfort for me to turn to, a path by which I could learn valuable life lessons. Math has taught me problem solving skills and how to approach a situation logically, and these are skills that I intend to take to college and into the workforce. I’ve had a lot of experience with math, whether it be in classes or studying for my standardized tests, and in every experience with math, I’ve found it to be very much like a puzzle. For a while, I didn’t understand math very well, but I’ve worked hard, and over the years, what was once an annoyance in my life has become something very special to me. There’s something therapeutic about putting the pieces of the puzzle together in my mind, and I hope that in my college education, I can continue to learn more. As Albert Einstein once said, “Mathematics is, in its own way, the poetry of logical ideas.” I am an extremely logical thinker, so math has always been a comfort for me. In the end, math is a lot of things, and oftentimes, it means something different to different people. It’s the language we can all understand. It’s a channel through which ideas can flow. But for me, it’s something far more important. For me, math is a comfort. It’s home.

Shows: “Gravity Falls” and “The Owl House” Title: “New Kids on the Block” Plot: Six years after the events of “Gravity Falls”, Dipper and Mabel return to Gravity Falls for a “family reunion” of sorts. Friendships are rekindled, and everyone is having a great time. When things settle down later on in the day, Ford asks Dipper to join him in the basement, and reveals a mysterious door that “magically appeared” there. Dipper is initially concerned with its implications, and the two excitedly discuss what could possibly be on the other side. Later on, Mabel and Stan come downstairs, looking for the two of them, and they both see the door. Mabel seems excited, but Stan is annoyed by the door. He explains that Ford had been studying it for a long time, but nothing really came of it, and in the end, Stan thought it was “just a dumb door anyway”. Stan and Ford start arguing, and Dipper and Mabel look closer at the door. Suddenly, it swings open of its own accord, and Luz, Willow, Gus, Hunter, and Amity pop out. The door slams shut behind them, and the whole group is in complete, awkward silence. Finally, Mabel breaks the silence and asks what the group is doing here, and Luz explains that the whole thing was an accident and that they all need to get back to a place called “The Boiling Isles”. Ford immediately grabs an old journal and starts flipping through it, and in the meantime, Mabel gets them all comfortable, and Dipper asks more about what happened. Amity explains that there was this magic door, and they all accidentally got sucked through it and pulled into this dimension. Willow nervously asks if they would be able to get home, and Dipper reluctantly tells her that they could, even though he doesn’t know for sure. Ford snaps his fingers, smiles, and says that he found their dimensional coordinates and should be able to send them home later that day. The whole group is really excited, and Gus asks if they could all explore “the human realm” together in the meantime. In the montage to follow, Dipper and Mabel prove to be great hosts, and manage to show the new crew a plethora of mysteries and weird things in Gravity Falls. The whole group quickly becomes close friends and are having a great time. Later on, Dipper gets a call from Ford. A frantic Ford and Stan are on the other end of the phone, and ask if there’s anything dangerous on the other side of the door. Hunter tells them that there is, and mentions Emperor Belos. He asks why, and Ford exclaims that whatever “it” is just escaped. Mabel asks if anyone is hurt, and Stan says that everything is fine, but Ford interjects and tells them that they need to hurry. The group starts to leave, but splits up in two directions, with Dipper and Mabel taking a step back towards the Shack, but the rest of the group headed off towards town. Dipper asks what they’re doing, and they all say that they’re going to stop Belos. The twins reluctantly look back at the Shack, but agree to help the witches in any way possible. In an epic fight scene, everyone manages to incapacitate Belos, and they all straggle back to the Mystery Shack, tending to each other’s wounds, but they’re actually relatively positive. Eventually, Ford is able to send the group on their way, and though everyone is exhausted, they’re all able to share a fond farewell with their new friends.

When kids grow up, many choose to mark their milestones with notches on the wall demonstrating their increase in height. I’ve taken a slightly more unconventional approach, as my growth has been marked by my relationship with a certain game, specifically “The Legend of Zelda”, the original Nintendo Entertainment system version. Allow me to explain. When I was younger, I remember not even being willing to go on the home screen of the game. I believed it to be boring and foreign, a game that could only be played by adults, or at least someone who had a basic understanding of it. If someone played the game when I was in the same room, I would immediately leave, not even willing to give it a chance. I had decided that the land of Hyrule and my own world would remain completely separate. This stubbornness didn’t last long. Years later, my mom unearthed our old Nintendo Entertainment System, and I remember watching her play. She had played this game hundreds of times as a kid. She knew every secret, every strategy, everything someone could possibly know about the game, except for one thing: she hadn’t memorized how to get through every level. Determined to beat the game, she asked me to pull up a few maps and guide her through the game. Wanting to help, I complied, my heart beginning to warm up to this new and fantastical world. Even later on, when I turned about fourteen, my mom brought out the old NES again, and we started to play together. She would be the one controlling Link, and I would guide her through the game with maps. But one day, she needed to take care of laundry, and didn’t want to set the game aside. So she passed the controller to me for a while, telling me just to give it my best and not to worry. So I did. This is when my whole world changed. I was enthralled. I never would have thought that a little 8-bit character could warm my heart so much, but from that day on, I never looked back. While at first, my playing was awkward, I slowly improved with advice and coaching from my mom. I still mostly stuck with helping out my mom with the maps, but as time went by, I could more and more confidently take the controller and take charge. Now, I’m just about to go into my senior year, just about to get ready for college. I’ve become incredibly independent, and this has shown in my experience with “The Legend of Zelda”. Now, my mom and I will play side by side, with her on one screen, and me on another. Instead of being intimidated by the game, I feel like it’s a challenge I’m ready to take on, and I can face it side by side with one of the experts. One time, playing with my mom, we were able to get through the game together in only four lives. I was so proud, and this solidified the game’s place as my top choice. “The Legend of Zelda”, to me, at least, is so much more than just a game. It’s a symbol of how I’ve grown since childhood. It’s a symbol of my friendship with my mom. It’s a symbol of growth, of change, and of the excitement I have for the future. So when I think of Nintendo games that hold a special place in my heart, there are none better than “The Legend of Zelda”.

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and as a member of this church, I have been lucky enough to attend seminary these past four years. In seminary, my peers and I meet in a church building before school and discuss our beliefs, the scriptures, and most importantly, the Savior. Every morning, I wake up long before the sun is up, stumble down the stairs groggily, and get to seminary as quickly as possible in order to be on time. For the first year, I struggled with waking up early, but now I excitedly get out of bed, earnestly seeking any opportunity to learn more about the Savior. In these seminary classes, I had a remarkable teacher named Sister White. She would always tell us, “If you don’t get anything else out of this class, remember that He knows you, He loves you, and He wants you back.” These three beautiful truths are the foundation of my testimony and my relationship with Jesus Christ. It brings me so much joy and comfort knowing that I have a Savior who knows me perfectly, and even though I make mistakes, he still loves me beyond mortal comprehension. I know that when I see Him on the other side of the veil, our reunion will be a joyous one. In Matthew chapter 17 verse 20, Jesus said that “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” Right now, my faith is as a grain of mustard seed. It still has room to grow, and I still have plenty to learn in the years to come. But with my simple knowledge, that the Savior knows me personally, loves me perfectly, and wants me back, I can move mountains, not just in my own life, but in the lives of others. I really want to take the faith that I have and implement it into my educational journey. Since I know that faith can be applied anywhere, regardless of the circumstances, I want to pursue my dream, becoming a high school teacher. As I pursue a degree, I want to bring Christlike love and light to all those around me. The way I think of it, if the Savior is like the sun, then I am like the moon. The moon doesn’t necessarily emulate light of its own, but it reflects the light of the sun. I want to do everything I can to reflect the Savior’s light and share it with anyone I can. As a teacher, I would be in a position to serve those around me, to love them the way that Christ does. I’ll be the first and most certainly not the last to admit that I have a long journey ahead of me, but I know that every step of the way, my Savior, Jesus Christ, will be by my side. I look forward to learning whatever He has to teach me and following the path He wants for me. I hope that I can have opportunities in the future to be an instrument in His hands to bring others unto Him, because I know that there is infinite joy to be had in turning to the Savior. I believe in His teachings, and I love Jesus Christ. For me, He has been a source of peace, love, and light. I hope to do His will for me and share that light with the world.

I have been fascinated by the world of business from the very second I was introduced to it, all the way back in sixth grade. I remember sitting at the kitchen table with my dad, sketching out a simple business plan for a lemonade stand. That night, we spent hours at the table, talking about simple principles like supply and demand or customer satisfaction, but to me, they seemed like the most complex and fascinating concepts in the world. I asked dozens of questions, performed dozens of calculations, and after a few hours, I was finished with the business plan. Finished, yes, but not satisfied. I still had much more knowledge to pursue. Since that night, I’ve done everything I could to learn more about the intricacies of the business world. I’ve taken several business courses in high school, including a marketing course, a finance course, and two accounting courses, one of which was at the college level. Not only have I been successful in business courses in the past, but I also intend to continue my studies into the foreseeable future. I have enrolled in business management and business strategies courses in my senior year, and I look forward to pursuing a master’s degree in business as soon as I get the opportunity. Looking back, I can’t help but sometimes wonder what would have happened had I not been inspired by business, the very beating heart of our society. Perhaps I wouldn’t have found my passion in the business world. Perhaps I wouldn’t have been able to connect with like-minded peers in business related extracurricular activities. Just the idea of that fills me with dread, because I have found an incredible amount of joy in the pursuit of business-related knowledge. Because of this, I want to become a high school business teacher. There are countless things that I could do in this career that would not only make my life incredibly fulfilling, but would also help many other students find their passion in the same way that I did. I could create a positive impact on the world because as a teacher, I would help to strengthen and polish the finest minds of the rising generation. I would have the opportunity to teach our society’s future business leaders, and when my future students go their own ways in life, they will also be able to have a positive impact on the world. When I picture my own impact on the world, I picture throwing a stone into a pond. At first, the ripples are small, and the impact doesn’t seem like anything much. But as I teach more students, as I inspire more enthusiastic leaders, the ripples would grow to be something much greater. I am extremely passionate about business, and I believe that this passion, combined with my ability to teach and inspire others, will one day change the world, one life at a time. I will work tirelessly to be the best teacher I can be, because I know that my actions will have a profound impact on the lives of those around me. I don’t just want to teach the content of my classes, I want to teach life lessons, and I want my students to find their own passions, the same way I did. I want to be so much more than just an average teacher, I want to be a catalyst for the change I sense is coming for the world.

I always used to picture depression as someone crying on a bed, not wanting to do anything, or just generally being “sad” all the time. In my own experience, I’ve learned that this stereotype could not be much farther from the truth. I suffered from depression, and though I’ve been fortunate enough to find some coping mechanisms, I’ll still never forget some of the experiences I had. They have truly changed my life. It all started a lot smaller than I had thought it would. Just small things, like not getting excited by the things that once made me happy. Suddenly, the happy days weren’t happening as often, but the sad days weren’t happening as often, either. I began to feel like an observer in my own life. Just numbly going through the motions, feeling like a puppet barely held aloft by its strings. I felt exhausted, and I quickly found that the hard days were easier to come by than the good days. I didn’t know what was going on. I just felt numb, I was tired of life, and I felt trapped. Things really only got worse from there. I stopped going to social events, stopped talking to people as much, and really just focused on school and the basic necessities of survival. My mind, once excited by new ideas and concepts, seemed permanently dulled. It felt like I was in the ocean, about a thousand feet under the surface. Like I was looking around, and there was nothing for miles. And whenever I tried to move towards the light at the surface, I was trapped just by the sheer weight of the water. I couldn’t feel much at the time, but I remember feeling numb. Not excited, not sad, just empty. And I remember thinking that feeling would never go away. I did manage to make my way to a better state of mind. I opened up to my mom about the situation, and she was incredibly supportive. She helped me know that everything was going to be okay, and she encouraged me to do some of the things I used to love. I reconnected with old friends, I found more passion in my work, and for the first time in almost a year, I surfaced from my metaphorical ocean. Since then, I’ve managed to find the little things that bring me joy, and even though that numb, awful, depressed feeling comes back sometimes, I’ve learned to draw strength from it, because it has taught me not only about myself, but about others around me. I’ve learned that sometimes someone is hurting, but they’re too scared to show it and ask for help. Remembering how much I wanted someone to help me without judging me for who I was, I have made a constant effort to lift up those around me, and I’ve actually found that being kind to others gives me more confidence in my social interactions, which has also helped to ward off some of the effects of depression. Another thing that my experience with depression has had an effect on is my goals in life. I have immense empathy for anybody who has had to suffer through those trials, so I want to dedicate my life to helping people with mental health issues. I intend to pursue a master’s degree in psychology and receive a state certification in order to become a therapist. There is nothing in life that lifts me quite like lifting others, and a life as a therapist would be incredibly fulfilling for me. As Winston Churchill once said, “We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.” I know that with my experience and my empathy, I have a lot to give to the world and an exciting life ahead of me. Over these past few years, I’ve come to understand that having a mental health issue does not mean that you are broken by any means. I suffered from depression, but I am defined by so much more than that. I am a hard worker. I am a singer. I am a writer. I am a dreamer. I am a work of art, a collage of memories that have built me into the person I am today. I may just be one person, but I am willing and ready to stand and bring awareness to mental health issues, to lift up those in need.

In November of 2023, my dad lost his job. Less than a month later, my mom was rushed to the emergency room because of a growth in her neck that threatened to suffocate her. She went through the ER and two different surgeries, and wasn’t able to get the tumor removed until February. Times were hard for my family, and I felt guilty, somehow. I knew that none of these things were my fault, but I felt completely helpless, as if there was nothing I could do to help them. I knew they were extremely stressed about money since my dad hadn’t had a job in four months, and suddenly, I had an idea. I had a little bit of babysitting money that I had saved up over the years, and I wanted to find a way to get it to them. My original plan was just to give it to them, but I realized that they would insist I keep my own money, and my plan would be driven into the ground. I knew that it was small, but I wanted to find a way to give them a little hope. I wanted to give them something, anything, to lift their spirits. And I finally came up with a workable solution. At school one day, I asked around and managed to get my hands on an envelope to seal the money inside. Just to get my hands on the envelope, I needed to ask two teachers and a member of our school’s administration. After I had my envelope, I asked a teacher to write my last name on the envelope, that way, my parents wouldn’t recognize the handwriting and wouldn’t have anyone to trace it back to. That day, I went home, my envelope hidden in my coat pocket, and went as quickly as I could to my room to fill and seal the envelope. Then, I just needed to find a way to deliver my little package of hope. I hid the envelope in my room, and I paced around my room, trying to come up with any idea to get the envelope to them without them knowing it was me giving it. Then I realized the perfect solution was right outside my window. My mailbox. I just needed to get the key somehow, sneak out to the mailbox, slip the envelope in, and sneak back home without being caught. I quickly realized I had the perfect alibi: going on a run. I told my parents that I was going on a run, and when I changed into my running clothes, I tucked the envelope down the side of my pants, hoping that it wouldn’t crinkle, that they wouldn’t see it. I quickly went downstairs, grabbed the mail key, practically sprinted out of the door and to the mailbox, and slipped my envelope in. I managed to sneak back in the house and put the key back, overcome with joy that I could do something to support my family, small as it may have been. That night, when my parents found the envelope, I could see the genuine smiles on their faces, and just for a moment, they believed that things were going to work out for us. I’ll admit, our struggles haven’t faded yet, but finding little ways to lift up others has brought me so much joy and strength in the meantime. Kindness doesn’t need to be some grand gesture, it just needs to be genuine and from the heart. And when those genuine, small acts of kindness add up, they can change the world.