Hello, my name is Sonya Gibby and I am applying for the Bright Lights Scholarship. Currently, I do not have a major, an undecided blank slate for the University of Appalachian State to paint upon. What I strive for is to achieve academic excellence to the best of my achievable ability, to make something of myself in my future career, and to inspire others wishing for the same job to follow my example as a leader. As for who I am, I am the daughter of a single father after the unfortunate passing of my biological mother, but luck was on our side when my stepmom helped us out of our rut. I am interested in, academically, honors-level English and Psychology classes enrolled at High Point Central, maintaining a GPA of 4.0. During my free time, however, I enjoy expressing my creativity through traditional drawing, reading, and writing. I am a somewhat lively yet shy and quiet character, who likes to create and craft ideas through a creative medium, yet also incredibly well-versed in academics, yet not so much in volunteer work. I plan to get a good career, a good family, and retire happy. I want to be successful while kind, ambitious, and hard-working yet still loving. Being a woman with a disabled left arm and bowed out left leg when I walk, I also want to fix both. I've had them so long I've practically grown used to them being messed up, but I still want them to be fixed to the best of their ability. For example, in everyday tasks, I opt to just use my right arm and hand, but if I am carrying, say, a cat litter box, I use two hands. Although not difficult, the time it takes to get tired is short. Unlike before I had the disability, I could not place my hands the proper way on the keyboard, now preferring the hunt-and-peck method, which is apparently what it is called, and having a really good typing speed despite the lack of proper finger placement. My left arm, physically, only curls up like I'm flexing but stays bent until I force it not to. In any case, this scholarship will help me to be able to cross the financial gap between me and Appalachian State University. I am determined, and willing to put in the work to go there and succeed in whatever I can accomplish. Finally, it will grant me access to a slew of new experiences, and lifelong friends, and pave a new, large, scary yet rewarding path for my future and for me to follow. In conclusion, the Bright Lights Scholarship is of interest to me because, with it, I can go into college not thinking of debt but of my education. I can also work to achieve the aforementioned plans.

Hello, my name is Sonya Gibby and I am applying for the Ultimate K-Pop Stan Scholarship. Currently, I do not have a major, an undecided blank slate for the University of Appalachian State to paint upon. What I strive for is to achieve academic excellence to the best of my achievable ability, to make something of myself in my future career, and to inspire others wishing for the same career to follow my example as a leader. As for who I am, I am the daughter of a single father after the unfortunate passing of my biological mother, but luck was on our side when my stepmom helped us out of our rut. I am interested in, academically, honors-level English and Psychology classes enrolled at High Point Central, maintaining a GPA of 4.0. During my free time, however, I enjoy expressing my creativity through traditional drawing, reading, and writing. I would say I am a somewhat lively yet shy and quiet character, who likes to create and craft ideas through a creative medium, yet also incredibly well-versed in academics, yet not so much in volunteer work. My favorite K-pop group is BlackPink, existing since 2016. They have made an impact on my life by introducing me to K-Pop properly and global culture, they've joined the wide array of other K-Pop bands with their explosive songs and their cool lyrics. I need this scholarship to be able to cross the financial gap between me and Appalachian State University. I am determined, and willing to put in the work to go there and succeed in whatever I can accomplish. Finally, it will grant me access to a slew of new experiences, and lifelong friends, and pave a new, large, scary yet rewarding path for my future and for me to follow. In conclusion, the Ultimate K-Pop Stan Scholarship is of interest to me because, with it, I can go into college not thinking of debt but of my education. The failure to make immediate mental health choices is further abolished with my college's wide variety of clubs, organizations, and social events that help better develop the new support that I will receive. I also believe that receiving the award will help foster a better, stronger bond with the group's songs and extend my knowledge to other groups, maybe BTS, as they are also extremely popular in the K-Pop community, existed since 2013.

Hello, my name is Sonya Gibby and I am applying for the Disney Channel Rewind Scholarship. Currently, I do not have a major, an undecided blank slate for the University of Appalachian State to paint upon. What I strive for is to achieve academic excellence to the best of my achievable ability, to make something of myself in my future career, and to inspire others wishing for the same job to follow my example as a leader. As for who I am, I am the daughter of a single father after the unfortunate passing of my biological mother, but luck was on our side when my stepmom helped us out of our rut. I am interested in, academically, honors-level English and Psychology classes enrolled at High Point Central, maintaining a GPA of 4.0. During my free time, however, I enjoy expressing my creativity through traditional drawing, reading, and writing. I am a somewhat lively yet shy and quiet character, who likes to create and craft ideas through a creative medium, yet also incredibly well-versed in academics, yet not so much in volunteer work. My Disney crossover would be between two shows that already had major references tied to each other and red herrings the creators loved to tease fans with. Two shows that gave Disney a thumbs-down to their rules and proceeded to create shows that left a lasting impact. I am, of course, referring to The Owl House (TOH) and Gravity Falls (GF). The episode would be titled “Lasting Signs And A Lying Guise”, following the events of the final episode of TOH and GF (Watching and Dreaming / Weirdmaggedon 3: Take Back The Falls). This would start season 4 with the title code starting with “Lasting”. Dipper and Mabel leave their home in California after a strange owl steals Waddles, Mabel’s pet pig. She runs after it and Dipper follows behind into a strange dark house. But before he can leave, Mabel walks through a doorway and he jumps in behind her to protect his twin. Fortunately, they land in a forest where the boisterous University of Wild Magic is located, as Headmaster Eda Clawthorne notices them and, in her usual fashion, happily asks them what they are doing here and so forth. The plot continues on a magical quest to find a way back home since the way to make portals has been strangely deactivated. Most of the magic is deactivated, as we see Bill Cipher (who acts nice at first) again for real become the episode’s main antagonist, messing up reality, creating chaos bubbles, and other Bill Cipher things. We see the episode close with the twins thanking Luz for one last adventure and they head home after finally defeating Bill Cipher once more. But in the credits, there is a secret message, an eyeball followed by runes that translates to “NIGHTMARE”, referring to Bill’s home— the Nightmare Realm. There is also the GF message in the three-shift Caesar cipher, “TRIANGLE IN THREES GOADING PUPPET STRINGS”, referring to the three protagonists of the twins and Luz threatened by Bill himself. This implies a sequel. In conclusion, this crossover is needed because the fans crave more of both shows and give Disney another thumbs-down. The Disney Channel Rewind Scholarship is also of interest to me because, with it, I can go into college not thinking of debt but of my education.

Hello, my name is Sonya Gibby and I am applying for the Anime Enthusiast Scholarship.  Currently, I do not have a major, an undecided blank slate for the University of Appalachian State to paint upon. What I strive for is to achieve academic excellence to the best of my achievable ability, to make something of myself in my future career, and to inspire others wishing for the same job to follow my example as a leader. During my free time, I enjoy expressing my creativity through traditional drawing, reading, and writing. An anime that I can watch over and over again is a hard one, between Chainsaw Man season one and Jujutsu Kaisen (aka, JJK)  episodes one through fourteen, and after some reconsidering, I believe Chainsaw Man takes the spot. Chainsaw Man (which I’ll abbreviate as CSM), by Tatsuki Fujimoto, is a manga (simply the written form of Japanese anime) that was later adapted into an anime by MAPPA. The show is about a boy named Denji and his pet dog Devil (Devils are fears incarnate, stronger through the quantity of fear something has) with a chainsaw in its head named Pochita, and their eventual deaths and merging into the titular Chainsaw Man. Why I selected CSM as my anime of choice for its art style, tone, and score. CSM’s art style matches its genre of horror although it may at first not seem like it. Makima, a fan-favorite for her looks and a main character, captures the horror. In most of her scenes, she is either unassuming and watching everyone or... when the light of a dark scene makes her front side in shadow (but her eyes glow), making her horrifying. The audience is also greeted by her sudden death later on, only for her to get back up and presumably use her Devil powers to slaughter her assassins. This is also shown when she kills murderers using death-row inmates as lives linked to them. The anime never explains this, but manga readers will catch the secret that Makima is one of the well-written secret antagonists, the main antagonist who scapegoats the presumed big bad, the Gun Devil. The art style too reflects this. Unlike JJK’s obnoxious humor with some seriousness, CSM is dark and gritty realism. There are beats of humor within the cast but it never harms the show/manga, it adds depth to the characters and how they struggle to use humor as an escape, especially Denji (whose goal is to go on a date with Makima), Aki (who’s rivalry-turned-friendship with Denji alleviated his narrow revenge mindset), and Power (who is all-around silly and a play-rival with Denji). All of these affect the fate of these characters, and the humor is not present within those final moments. The score of the show helps impact both of the above significantly. The calm music is for the sad/calm moments (sweet dreams), while the battle score is big and boisterous (chainsaw attacks!). For me, the ending tracks are especially good as many fans created lyrics that are on loop on YouTube for me. I need this scholarship to be able to cross the financial gap between me and Appalachian State University. I am determined, and willing to put in the work to go there and succeed in whatever I can accomplish. Finally, it will grant me access to a slew of new experiences, and lifelong friends, and pave a new, large, scary yet rewarding path for my future and for me to follow.  In conclusion, The art, tone, and music are what make Chainsaw Man so endlessly captivating to me.

Hello, my name is Sonya Gibby and I am applying for the International Essay Contest for Young People Scholarship. Currently, I do not have a major, an undecided blank slate for the University of Appalachian State to paint upon. What I strive for is to achieve academic excellence to the best of my achievable ability, to make something of myself in my future career, and to inspire others wishing for the same job to follow my example as a leader. As for who I am, I am the daughter of a single father after the unfortunate passing of my biological mother, but luck was on our side when my stepmom helped us out of our rut. I am interested in, academically, honors-level English and Psychology classes enrolled at High Point Central, maintaining a GPA of 4.0. During my free time, however, I enjoy expressing my creativity through traditional drawing, reading, and writing. I am a somewhat lively yet shy and quiet character, who likes to create and craft ideas through a creative medium, yet also incredibly well-versed in academics, yet not so much in volunteer work. Receiving this scholarship would help me to be able to cross the financial gap between me and Appalachian State University. I am determined, and willing to put in the work to go there and succeed in whatever I can accomplish. Finally, it will grant me access to a slew of new experiences, and lifelong friends, and pave a new, large, scary yet rewarding path for my future and for me to follow. I plan to pay this forward by putting it into my other semesters of school, as they are all equally as expensive. One significant adversity I encountered in my life had been when my mother died in late 2019 unexpectedly and the effect of the loss shot through the quiet house of my widowed father and me, the single child daughter of 13 years old, like lightning.  I trudged through this tragedy slowly, using outlets of creativity to escape the harsh reality of the maternal death (it encompassed all my interests from then, and the themes of manipulation and internal conflicts pulled from some unseen, baffling corner of my mind) and Zoom call therapy to better express my emotions fantastically or realistically.  This experience was honestly beyond words. The death caused not only isolation from myself and my father, food splurging to drown out the pain, an empty hollowness that worked together with wide-eyed zoning out in part by all of the thoughts one’s mind has while grieving (none too serious in my case, except for the next item), and a heavy case of insomnia due to necrophobia. Fear of death. I feared that if I slept, that I would die. Every day of the two weeks in October that were taken out and for the eternity of the pandemic felt like years, years of sitting, standing, writing, school or therapy, eating, writing, drawing, not sleeping, and then waking up and repeating the same actions over and over. In conclusion, the tragedy that occurred supplied me with a grand passion for writing, at the cost of my social and mental health, which has greatly improved since then. I have adjusted to death as best as I could and I believe I have found a somewhat sturdy balance to my life, and have overcome this adversity, supplying my need to be awarded this scholarship.

Hello, my name is Sonya Gibby and I am applying for the To The Sky Scholarship. Currently, I do not have a major, an undecided blank slate for the University of Appalachian State to paint upon. What I strive for is to achieve academic excellence to the best of my achievable ability, to make something of myself in my future career, and to inspire others wishing for the same job to follow my example as a leader. As for who I am, I am the daughter of a single father after the unfortunate passing of my biological mother, but luck was on our side when my stepmom helped us out of our rut. I am interested in, academically, honors-level English and Psychology classes enrolled at High Point Central, maintaining a GPA of 4.0. During my free time, however, I enjoy expressing my creativity through traditional drawing, reading, and writing. I am now a somewhat lively yet shy and quiet character, who likes to create and craft ideas through a creative medium, yet also incredibly well-versed in academics, yet not so much in volunteer work. An impactful moment in my life that motivated me to be a better version of myself would have to be the one significant challenge I encountered in my life when my mother died in late 2019 unexpectedly. This experience was honestly beyond words. I felt introverted (from not getting out as much), monotone (for the routine), and paranoid (of everything potentially able to make me die). It also changed my character from the happy, bouncy schoolgirl to the loner, sad, and isolated writer (an almost Emily Dickinson level of isolation being the cause).  During that time of around two years and a few months, I did not want to cry, as I hated it and always screamed internally in my mind. But now, in 2024, I strive to not be that girl anymore.  Finally, although I still write the books that were primarily written in the grieving period, my mental health has evened out from then, except on days when I make too many nonsensical mistakes— to which I berate myself for them. I need this scholarship to be able to cross the financial gap between me and Appalachian State University. I am determined, and willing to put in the work to go there and succeed in whatever I can accomplish. Finally, it will grant me access to a slew of new experiences, and lifelong friends, and pave a new, large, scary yet rewarding path for my future and for me to follow. In conclusion, the To The Sky Scholarship is of interest to me because, with it, I can go into college not thinking of debt but of my education.

Hello, my name is Sonya Gibby and I am applying for the Scorenavigator Financial Literacy Scholarship. Currently, I do not have a major, an undecided blank slate for the University of Appalachian State to paint upon. What I strive for is to achieve academic excellence to the best of my achievable ability, to make something of myself in my future career, and to inspire others wishing for the same job to follow my example as a leader. As for who I am, I am the daughter of a single father after the unfortunate passing of my biological mother, but luck was on our side when my stepmom helped us out of our rut. I am interested in, academically, honors-level English and Psychology classes enrolled at High Point Central, maintaining a GPA of 4.0. During my free time, however, I enjoy expressing my creativity through traditional drawing, reading, and writing. I am a somewhat lively yet shy and quiet character, who likes to create and craft ideas through a creative medium, yet also incredibly well-versed in academics, yet not so much in volunteer work. My experience with finances is limited, but my financial education is more so. With finances on my own time, I use my debit card and the few gift cards I receive during special occasions to purchase various items, usually coffee. However, I am not good at saving my money thanks to impulse buying, but I am working on it and trying to find a job to make some money. My financial education, however, was taught to me through high school Economics. In the class, we learned about stocks, insurance, tax forms, interview skills, and most importantly, many tax forms that will come in handy come employment time. I had been also advised by my stepmother, who assisted me in managing my money for the first time. I plan on using what I’ve learned in both scenarios to better manage my finances and to advise my children (just as my stepmom did) to be wary of their purchases and habitually check their debit/credit accounts. I need this scholarship to be able to cross the financial gap between me and Appalachian State University. I am determined, and willing to put in the work to go there and succeed in whatever I can accomplish. Finally, it will grant me access to a slew of new experiences, and lifelong friends, and pave a new, large, scary yet rewarding path for my future and for me to follow. In conclusion, the Scorenavigator Financial Literacy Scholarship is of interest to me because, with it, I can go into college not thinking of debt but of my education.

Hello, my name is Sonya Gibby. What I strive for is to achieve academic excellence to the best of my ability and strengths, so that I can make something of myself in my future career that I have not decided on yet, and to inspire others wishing for the same career to follow my example as a leader. As for who I am, I am the daughter of a single father after the unfortunate passing of my biological mother, but luck was on our side when my stepmom helped us out of our rut. I am interested in, academically, honors-level English and Psychology classes enrolled at High Point Central, maintaining a GPA of 4.0. During my free time, however, I enjoy expressing my creativity through traditional drawing, reading, and writing. I am a somewhat lively yet shy and quiet character, who likes to create and craft ideas through a creative medium, yet also incredibly well-versed in academics, but not so much in volunteer work. However, after my mother died, my father and I did not take it well. We trudged through this tragedy slowly, using outlets of creativity and fiction to escape the harsh reality of the maternal death (it encompassed all my interests from then, and the themes of manipulation and internal conflicts pulled from some unseen, baffling corner of my mind) and Zoom call therapy to better express my emotions fantastically or realistically.  This experience was honestly beyond words. The death caused not only isolation from myself and my father, food splurging to drown out the pain, an empty hollowness that worked together with wide-eyed zoning out in part by all of the thoughts one’s mind has while grieving (none too serious in my case, except for the next item), and a heavy case of insomnia due to necrophobia. Fear of death. I feared that if I slept, that I would die. Every day of the two weeks in October that were taken out and for the eternity of the pandemic felt like years, years of sitting, standing, writing, school or therapy, eating, writing, drawing, not sleeping, and then waking up and repeating the same actions over and over. My character shifted dramatically from the happy, bouncy schoolgirl to the loner, sad, and isolated writer that has now (in 2024) made me more of an introvert. My aspirations didn’t change much, as I always loved to write and draw, but I did have a better understanding of the art and, if I remember right, had started thinking this could be a career. The thought, in turn, did help me produce my books more fervently for the desire of publication at some point, easing things over. My mental health, as much as it changed from the dramatic shift in 2019, has evened out from then, except on days when I make too many nonsensical mistakes— to which I berate myself for them. Although this is usually not done around people, I still try to not let insignificant things strain my relationships with others. This, in turn, causes negative self-perception and a dislike of how I act sometimes. This can ruin my personal opinion of myself by corrupting it into a negative one. The tragedy has shaped my goals by granting me a deeper passion for writing, creativity, and character motive than before 2019. Before then, it was the trope akin to a child’s playground fantasies where the hero is overpowered and unbeatable, with either no or a constantly changing story. Now, in 2024, there is motive and character in every ounce of my books. I could (and have) written full essays on the topic alone.  My mental health has also, on good occasions, helped scare me (with a community college over my dream college)  into doing what I need to do to get to that aforementioned dream college (such as scholarships). It has shaped my relationships by bonding me closer to my father and, later, my stepmother. The pitfalls of the grief had been a crying isolation that made my father and I come closer in our father-daughter bond.  A similar but newer (as in a few years) bond also exists post-grieving period with my stepmom, who introduced me to coffee, found me clothes that fit my age, and has helped me with handling life and college (even in the short time she’s been in our lives) has revolutionized myself as a person by giving me advice and the ability to try new things and learn how to perform quality-of-life actions, like how to apply for jobs and scholarships. My mental health has shaped my understanding of the world by making me experience true isolation for the first time. First, during the grieving period, besides my father and my few friends on Instagram, I felt like I had no one. Unhelped by the lies told by my extended family (besides my grandfather), who said they’d always be there if I needed anything, which they were not. I also felt introverted (from not getting out as much), monotone (for the routine), and paranoid (of everything potentially able to make me die).  After the grieving period, though, I felt calmer, started getting out more, and had less fear (I still do, slightly). Now, my books stand as a reminder of how I felt and continue to this day to be written (about six more books left in the series as of July 2024). Despite all this, I think my health has gotten better, albeit relapsing at times of great failure. In conclusion, my experience with mental health shaped my goals, relationships, and understanding of the world (aka worldview) fairly negatively through the grieving period year and a few months, up until my stepmother helped us to see a better future. After that period, my health improved into what it is now: creative and flawed yet kind to all others and my family, even if my biological mother is not physically here.

Hello, my name is Sonya Gibby and I am applying for the Social Anxiety Step Forward Scholarship.  Currently, I do not have a major, an undecided blank slate for the University of Appalachian State to paint upon. What I strive for is to achieve academic excellence to the best of my achievable ability, to make something of myself in my future career, and to inspire others wishing for the same career to follow my example as a leader. As for who I am, I am the daughter of a single father after the unfortunate passing of my biological mother, but luck was on our side when my stepmom helped us out of our rut. However, before then, my father and I trudged through this tragedy slowly, using outlets of creativity to escape the harsh reality of the maternal death (it encompassed all my interests from then, and the themes of manipulation and internal conflicts pulled from some unseen, baffling corner of my mind) and Zoom call therapy to better express my emotions fantastically or realistically.  This experience was honestly beyond words. The death caused not only isolation from myself and my father, food splurging to drown out the pain, an empty hollowness that worked together with wide-eyed zoning out in part by all of the thoughts one’s mind has while grieving (none too serious in my case, except for the next item), and a heavy case of insomnia due to necrophobia. Fear of death. I feared that if I slept, that I would die. Every day of the two weeks in October that were taken out and for the eternity of the pandemic felt like years, years of sitting, standing, writing, school or therapy, eating, writing, drawing, not sleeping, and then waking up and repeating the same actions over and over. My character shifted dramatically from the happy, bouncy schoolgirl to the loner, sad, and isolated writer that has now (in 2024) made me more of an introvert. My aspirations didn’t change much, as I always loved to write and draw, but I did have a better understanding of the art and, if I remember right, had started thinking this could be a career. My anxiety changed me. I was anxious about staying awake, as like I said I feared if I slept, I would die. About not thinking about it, about not wanting to cry. It was smoothed over with therapy, but mostly, from writing my fantasy novels (that in truth, harnessed and processed some of that emotion into the deeper character backstory). The main character had been like a line drawing for me to fill in with the traits I had (kind, creative, short, smart), along with the traits grief brought out that I subconsciously wrote in (naive, gullible, sad). The traits too were a painting of my own at the time, eventually developing her into “The Hero”. Despite the pain and the anxiety being relatively over, now I focus on adult things, like receiving a college degree.  In conclusion, I would want to get one because it would help me find myself and release me out in the world, making connections, finally, get out of that isolation for good, and better myself into getting into the career I want to get into. Despite not knowing what that career is, being an undecided blank slate, I'm sure with whatever I figure out I'll be happy. I hope my mother also looks down upon it and me with pride in her eyes.

Hello, my name is Sonya Gibby and I am applying for the Fall Favs: A Starbucks Stan Scholarship, which is where I write about a special fall coffee. As for who I am, I am the daughter of a single father after the unfortunate passing of my biological mother, but luck was on our side when my stepmom helped us out of our rut. My stepmom also further introduced me to coffee, making it my favorite go-to for writing scholarship essays just like these! Coffee is also, like most people, my comfort drink. I am a somewhat lively yet shy and quiet character, who likes to create and craft ideas through a creative medium, fuelled by coffee, yet also incredibly well-versed in academics, yet not so much in volunteer work. Coffee is my best friend through my creative ventures as well. Every sip is an idea forming, every cup is a finished novel. During all of this, I like to enjoy a coffee or three during the fall season. And for that, I do have a special fall drink. It is a pumpkin spice latte. It is a special drink because it is warm, silky, and smooth. It's not a spicy drink, but it's no sweet tooth delight. This drink is one of the only non-caramel drinks I drink at Starbucks, maybe even the first. This drink is a character because of its uniqueness. It's no normal espresso or a macchiato like I usually order. It's different, it has a kick of that cinnamon goodness with the coffee. It's not normal, it's atypical, like I am sometimes. In other words, I need this scholarship to cross the financial gap between me and Appalachian State University. I am determined, and willing to work to go there and succeed in whatever I can accomplish. Finally, it will grant me access to a slew of new experiences, and lifelong friends, and pave a new, large, scary yet rewarding path for my future and for me to follow and endure all the hardships with an accepting smile. In conclusion, this scholarship is of interest to me because, with it, I can go into college not thinking of debt but of my education. The use of coffee to boost my productivity is further benefitted by my college's wide variety of vibrant, nerdy clubs, helping organizations, and expansive social events that help better develop the new support that I will receive.

Hello, my name is Sonya Gibby and I am applying for the Once Upon a #BookTok Scholarship. During my free time, I enjoy expressing my creativity through traditional drawing, reading, and writing, and these books exemplify this. These books also bring out my lively yet shy and quiet character, who likes to create and craft ideas through a creative medium. In any case, my ideal #BookTok bookshelf would be in the fantasy genre of book recommendations. A Court of Thorns and Roses (by Sarah J. Maas) is a YA romance fantasy novel series, with the titular novel being the one I own thanks to a birthday gift box of assorted ACOTAR merch. This one is a must-have for any fae fan enchanted by their beauty as much as their mischief. It impacted the community by garnering attention on the platform through its slow-building world and its romance. A Trial of Fate: Valdor Series Book One (by J.E. Larson)  is the first book in a new YA fantasy romance. The plot, based on BookTok and Google research, tells about Skylar, the protagonist, a shifter who has not yet changed into her animal, who must face her darkest fears before she can compete in the trials she was marked champion in. This book is a must-have thanks to its intriguing plot and faerie inclusion. It impacted the community by the comments alone, getting excited for the new read praised for its mystery, and lured in by its romance. Lightlark (by Alex Aster) is another YA fantasy book, this time without faeries. Instead, there is an island that is accessible once every century, and a ruler, Isla Crown, must take part in its game. It is a must-have for its interesting plot. Unlike the other books, the impact was generally negative, critics say it has many tropes, needed serious editing, and worse of all– accused Aster of releasing a few copies to appear high in demand. Despite the hate, some still Lightlark for what it is. In conclusion, my bookshelf includes mostly fantastical young adult novels, and even if Lightlark got some hate, that will not stop me from trying it out. These recommendations are far more interesting than a lot of the books I’ve seen on BookTok itself.  In addition, I believe I need this scholarship to be able to cross the financial gap between me and Appalachian State University. I am determined, and willing to put in the work to go there and succeed in whatever I can accomplish. Finally, it will grant me access to a slew of new experiences, and lifelong friends, and pave a new, large, scary yet rewarding path for my future and for me to follow.

Hello, my name is Sonya Gibby and I am applying for the “Stranger Things” Fanatic Scholarship. From Stranger Things, I would choose Eleven, Dustin, and Mike with no question. Below I will explain why. Eleven is one of the main protagonists of the show and an underlying mystery that is explored in season four, as well as with the creation of Vecna (to those stating how I could’ve had Vecna in my squad, he’s a villainous maniac who’d stop at nothing to get my trust and betray me. I’ve seen what he did in season four). Eleven has psychic powers that cause the demons of The Upside Down to falter and die (especially seen in season two). She’s our line of protected offense if bats and gadgets do not suffice against them. Dustin is one of the main protagonists as well. He is brave and stands his ground, fit for a character right out of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. He also knows a lot about DnD and can be very creative with his gadgets and gizmos (helped by Lucas, who is not on this list). Mike is arguably the main protagonist in and of itself. A natural leader, Mike could simply help plan and strategize before the new threat arrives. He, with his knowledge of DnD, could find weaknesses, power levels, and the species of demon that comes into Hawkins.

Hello, my name is Sonya Gibby and I am applying for the Zendaya Superfan Scholarship. The aspect of Zendaya I admire is her singing. I looked at three songs and for this essay, I want to share my general review of them all. Butterflies is from the album “Zendaya”. The beat is enough to let an earworm of the song into the brain. The emphasis on butterflies could represent thoughts or adult actions, but the target of the song seems to be a fickle man who wants it and she’s trying to escape him. She doesn’t love him, but “My heart keeps telling me the perfect lie”, and his innocence fools her. Excellent use of symbolism. Neverland is from the Broadway musical Finding Neverland. The quietness contrasts the previous upbeat Butterflies, the love song is beautiful and makes its place as a definite musical hit despite Zendaya not being all that known to me. The love song gives off runaway feelings as the singer calls out to someone to run away with her from the world she was back home. Forever young, forever free, they shall be in Neverland. Keep It Undercover is the theme song of the show titled K.C. Undercover. Of course, since it is the theme song of said Disney show (that I’ve never watched), it must be poppy and upbeat, which it covers in the first few notes. I originally was going to say this was the first song not to have any in-depth meaning, but thanks to Genius’ lyrics, it does. The main character, KC Cooper, suffers from moral questions from living her double life as a secret spy and teenage student, where she wants to tell people but is afraid to. In conclusion, these three songs diversify her music portfolio and give her a wide range of possible genres, also bleeding into her acting career (with KC Cooper). This is very admirable as she does so much with her career and it’s inspiring.

I believe my mental health is important in the student sense because it aligns itself with my social skills, academic performance, and personal life where, if provoked, it can disrupt all manner of myself and figuratively crush me under the weight of self-doubt and other negative emotions. Whenever it is compromised, I become sad and aggressively put down myself for every little flaw of my person. This is unnerving, as usually I am kind and sweet, but the person I become when I fail is nothing like that. This, unfortunately, can cause a ripple effect on others around me, making them angry at me, only fuelling my emotions. It also leads to decreased productivity and creativity. In saying that, I still strive not to let insignificant things strain my relationships with others, however, with my tenderheartedness, it is hard to maintain composure and not be hung up on little mistakes. This, in turn, causes negative self-perception and a dislike of how I act sometimes. This can ruin my personal opinion of myself by corrupting it into a negative one. Academically, from a negative mentality, my assignments could become less creative and more thrown together as if they were nothing more than a pile of words. It could also lead to me hating the work I created, ending up deleting or redoing it, adding more stress towards completion. Any of these, socially or academically, can be repeated as a cycle of one or both types, endlessly hating and negating until I talk to someone. Usually, the mentality issue is spur of the moment, not long-term, but sometimes it crops up after a mistake. I advocate for mental health by listening to others’ problems, acting almost as a therapist friend as they vent their problems. Casting no judgment and different opinions, I hear them out and help in any way I can. I like to be just a small ray of light in their darkness. It may not amount to much, but I still try. Anyone can help another, it’s just a matter of understanding the issue at hand and heart rather than by preconceived notions about the person. My advice? Be rid of all opinions, and act on an open mind and heart to better calm the raging tides of a soured mentality. In conclusion, helping others in their struggles empathizes with the point of a community, school-wise or not. When one is isolated, the higher the risk of mental instability they are. But when one is around people, suddenly they can bounce off their issues on one another, learn to work through them together, and ultimately cultivate their mentality into a positive one.

Hello, my name is Sonya Gibby. What I strive for is to achieve academic excellence to the best of my ability and strengths, so that I can make something of myself in my future career that I have not decided on yet, and to inspire others wishing for the same career to follow my example as a leader. As for who I am, I am the daughter of a single father after the unfortunate passing of my biological mother, but luck was on our side when my stepmom helped us out of our rut. I am interested in, academically, honors-level English and Psychology classes enrolled at High Point Central, maintaining a GPA of 4.0. During my free time, however, I enjoy expressing my creativity through traditional drawing, reading, and writing. I would say I am a somewhat lively yet shy and quiet character, who likes to create and craft ideas through a creative medium, yet also incredibly well-versed in academics, but not so much in volunteer work. My disability affects me by weakening the prior two-handed effectiveness by partially disabling my left arm and left leg because of a benign basal ganglia brain tumor being worked on aggressively, named “Evil Unicorn”. This scholarship would benefit me by being my bridge to cross the financial gap between me and Appalachian State University, and it will grant me access to a slew of new experiences and lifelong friends. This scholarship, if I am awarded, will pave a new, large, scary yet rewarding path for my future and for me to follow. In everyday tasks, I opt to just use my right arm and hand, but if I am carrying, say, a cat litter box, I use two hands. Although not difficult, the time it takes to get tired is short. In school, however, it is like a fixture to my side unless I stretch it out and move it. Unlike before I had the disability, I could not place my hands the proper way on the keyboard, now preferring the hunt-and-peck method, which is apparently what it is called, and having a really good typing speed despite the lack of proper finger placement. My left arm, physically, only curls up like I'm flexing but stays bent until I force it not to. There are no physical deformities, however, people do occasionally ask “Why is your arm like that”, which makes me give the whole spiel. It has not shaped my career goals much, other than limiting military eligibility and possibly a few jobs that would require precision with both hands.

I believe my mental health is important because it affects others and myself, giving me self-doubt and making my motivation (and in tandem, productivity) collapse. It also affects the people I care about around me. I, wanting to keep the peace with everyone I am around, strive to not let things affect me. But, my tender, sensitive heart does take fault for minor and major failures, even if I knew I could try again, causing my mind to think ill of myself afterward. A perfect example is my first time attempting a driver’s permit test. Having got four hours of sleep, taken one practice test, and perused the manual the night before, I was underprepared. However, on the computer test, I had gotten 19 out of 20 right and 5 out of the limit of 6 wrong. I was on the final question, praying to God, that I had gotten it right and selected the answer I had in my head as wrong but still selected B. “Incorrect. The answer was C.” The monitor read, and I had been crushed in aware, hateful disbelief then. Tears in my eyes, I told the lady assigned to me my score and she said I could come back in a week. I berated myself in the car later on, swearing and crying, and my father had to calm me down. I sat in silence after that, still warring with internal thoughts and self-disappointment. I now take this as a learning experience of trusting yourself. If after careful consideration, you know it’s C, but you choose B, you’d fail because you didn’t believe in you and didn’t think you were capable of choosing the correct answer. On a more calmer note, I maintain my mental health by pursuing creative outlets such as writing, (now less of the time) reading, drawing (typically not of the subject matter, but a doodle based on my emotions where I scribble without picking the pencil up), and/or talking myself through it. The last one works, but also battles intrusive thoughts in a rough, dirty war. And in that maintenance, I uphold the air of kindness I am praised for without any storm clouds chaining me to a dark and lonely corner of the mind, as the sharp colors, typed/written words, and creative sparks beckon me towards positivity. This, in turn, makes others feel good and empathetically makes me feel good as well.

I love math for my teachers. In my experience, some of my best teachers were math teachers. I had my middle school seventh-grade old lady teacher who was always kind and helped me to learn to love math, not despise it solely on its difficulty and ability to make one angry from all the formulas that needed to be remembered. There were also my junior and senior year teachers who both put in good words about me and helped me when I struggled. Math is a subject I love for the teachers who taught me and for pi, although I struggled with other circle-related math (like in circles, circumscribed circles, and the like, as their calculations were confusing) and mathematics in general. However, I still give it my best shot. I always loved the concept of pi as a number that is infinitely ongoing, randomly without a pattern. An avid reader between the lines like myself could associate Pi's unique behavior with breaking the shackles of monotony and routine. Pi, in this humanized context, instead flourishes into a beautiful unpredictability without anything to lock it into unison, unlike its numerical cousins. And my mathematical love, in conclusion, is derived from good teacher experiences and the concept of pi.

Hello, my name is Sonya Gibby. What I strive for is to achieve academic excellence to the best of my ability and strengths, so that I can make something of myself in my future career that I have not decided on yet, and to inspire others wishing for the same career to follow my example as a leader. As for who I am, I am the daughter of a single father after the unfortunate passing of my biological mother, but luck was on our side when my stepmom helped us out of our rut. I am interested in, academically, honors-level English and Psychology classes enrolled at High Point Central, maintaining a GPA of 4.0. During my free time, however, I enjoy expressing my creativity through traditional drawing, reading, and writing. I would say I am a somewhat lively yet shy and quiet character, who likes to create and craft ideas through a creative medium, yet also incredibly well-versed in academics, but not so much in volunteer work. My disability affects me by weakening the prior two-handed effectiveness by partially disabling my left arm and left leg because of a benign basal ganglia brain tumor being worked on aggressively, named “Evil Unicorn”. In everyday tasks, I opt to just use my right arm and hand, but if I am carrying, say, a cat litter box, I use two hands. Although not difficult, the time it takes to get tired is short. In school, however, it is like a fixture to my side unless I stretch it out and move it. Unlike before I had the disability, I could not place my hands the proper way on the keyboard, now preferring the hunt-and-peck method, which is apparently what it is called, and having a really good typing speed despite the lack of proper finger placement. My left arm, physically, only curls up like I'm flexing but stays bent until I force it not to. There are no physical deformities, however, people do occasionally ask “Why is your arm like that”, which makes me give the whole spiel. Finally, the additional funds would benefit me by being my bridge to cross the financial gap between me and Appalachian State University, and it will grant me access to a slew of new experiences and lifelong friends. This scholarship, if I am awarded, will pave a new, large, scary yet rewarding path for my future and for me to follow.

I help others by providing support through their issues, giving them a shoulder to cry on and a chance to talk it out with me. I am also a very sympathetic person who can wholeheartedly be both a listening ear and a speaker of kind words and thoughtful advice. I plan to use my studies and future career to support others in any and every way I can. Since I am undecided, it is hard to say for sure what specifically will help them, but I can imagine that Appalachian State University will help paint me, the blank canvas, into a hard-working, sustainable artistic masterpiece of some type of Bachelor's degree provided, just like their art hall in the Student Union.

The loss of my mother caused me to focus on trying to understand my emotions and keeping my father in the state of ‘okay’. She died in late 2919, unexpectedly at night, and it shattered the nuclear family dynamic we had. As a result, our personalities shattered. We were isolated, darkened in our thoughts, and as such we took to fiction as our escape. He was isolated into the wonder of his movies and his games, where I released my inner, harsh emotions found within a deep, unseen abyss through my fingers and onto a keyboard. With this, I wrote and rewrote my fantasy books, writing intricate characters serving as vessels of my darkest emotions and some of the lighter ones. I had to focus on my isolation. The effects of that were: food splurging, necrophobia (for me), insomnia, and a monotonous routine (sitting, standing, writing, school or therapy, eating, writing, drawing, not sleeping until late, and then waking up) for the eternal two weeks and the quarantine I had to sit through. Thankfully, the tragedy happened after the fight with the Evil Unicorn, my benign basal ganglia brain tumor had ended in my victory. But I still wanted to fight to achieve a new normal. After months of Zoom call therapy (to express myself) and general support, I'd established what my state of being had become: that of an introverted writer who paid the cost of social and mental health due to the passing. I had since found that new normal, winning that fight as well, and that new normal gave me gifts. An adjustment to death as best as I could and a somewhat sturdy balance in my life, and with it. This was the end of the isolation, and it was freeing, to understand my emotions clearly. I stayed by my father, making sure (almost constantly) that he was okay, comforting him during the funeral, and making sure to spend what little interaction we had to the highest it could be. The same could be said vice versa, as he allowed me to sleep in his bed on insomniac nights, stayed bedside when I could sleep in my room (during the necrophobic phase) until I fell asleep, and generally made sure my needs were met, sometimes I believe before his own. In conclusion, this concern and care for my father and emotional understanding link back to my focus of mine. Even in the mass grieving that took place, my father was my anchor and, when it was all over, I could confidently say I reached semi-normalcy and better understood myself as a whole, and just how deep I could go when enshrouded by grief.

A hardship I encountered in my life was when my mother died in late 2019 unexpectedly in the night, where in its devastation aftershock, my father and I trudged through it slowly, using fantasy as a way to escape. He was isolated into the wonder of his movies and his games. I released my inner, harsh emotions found within a deep, unseen abyss through my fingers and onto a keyboard. I wrote and rewrote my fantasy books, writing intricate characters serving as vessels of my darkest emotions and some of the lighter ones. The pitfalls of grief were, for us, a crying isolation that sometimes made us draw closer. We would splurge on food, I’d zone out, I’d not sleep for fear I’d die in my sleep, attaining severe necrophobia, and I associate the days with monotonous routine (in order of sitting, standing, writing, school or therapy, eating, writing, drawing, not sleeping until late, and then waking up). It got slightly better during Zoom call therapy where I could better express my emotions fantastically or realistically. My current state then was an introverted writer who paid the cost of social and mental health due to the passing. Since then, all of those have greatly improved. The new normal provided an adjustment to death as best as I could and gave me a somewhat sturdy balance in my life, and with it, I have overcome this hardship. I embodied Agape love in and after this hardship by staying close to my father, making sure (almost constantly) that he was okay, comforting him during the funeral, and making sure to spend what little interaction we had to the highest it could be. Now, I do the same every so often. The same could be said vice versa, as he allowed me to sleep in his bed on insomniac nights, stayed bedside when I could sleep in my room (during the necrophobic phase) until I fell asleep, and generally made sure my needs were met, sometimes I believe before his own. Now, we spend quality time together, having shoulders to cry on, and not hiding anything. I give back to the community with my kindness, providing others with support through their issues. I give them a shoulder to cry on and a chance to talk it out with me. I also recycle and haven’t yet done volunteer work, though I am not averse to trying it.

My favorite aspect of Minecraft is its ability to craft memories I can hold in my heart with its creative-inducing game play. On my sixth birthday, for instance, I was gifted Minecraft for the Xbox 360 and I remember what the first thing I did had been: I was in a swamp flying around before hovering over the water and throwing an ender pearl to teleport me into a lily pad, as I giggled with joy. However, this wasn’t my first time, as I had been familiar with the game thanks to having an iPad Mini, playing it there, and watching Youtubers play the game. My first memory of the game was being killed by a zombie after punching it with a block of clay in my clay dirt house, pinned in by two wood fences. Yet nothing compares to the memories of PS4’s Legacy Edition, which my father, mother, and I all used to play together back in 2014. We would go into worlds and explore while my dad built his castle base and I’d have to teach my mom how to play. We would play mini-games, such as Battle (a Hunger Games free-for-all that my dad would win), Tumble (a game where you have to remove blocks from the other players’ feet with shovels, snowballs, or fireworks to win), and Glide (flying through lush, unique areas through rings to score various amounts of points). We had so much fun until Microsoft bought Minecraft from the game’s creator company, Mojang. The company steamrolled the PS4 compatibility thus deleting minigames and changing the menu layouts, locking updates behind using the new version instead of Legacy, and overall destroying the memories for the fresh coat of paint that is Bedrock Edition. This is not to say I hate the new edition, as it is my primary source of Minecraft now. However, there is still a part of me that yearns for the good old days of building my dad’s old job building with my cake factory next door, exploring the mine he carved with our decked-out gear and our diamond swords raised high, and playing those fun but challenging minigames. What stings to me is my realization that only a few months before my mother died, Microsoft stopped updating Minecraft, killing the game on the console and foreshadowing a very real death in my family. The memories we had made were killed off, and it seemed for a while that my solo Minecraft games were the last bit of Minecraft in the house. But then Dave and Buster’s, the restaurant arcade franchise, introduced us to Minecraft Dungeons Arcade. After we played a bit of the game, we were curious and we Googled it. That is how Minecraft Dungeons replaced what Minecraft used to be in my family. On our first inexperienced playthrough, there were times when we’d get focused on mistakes and times we’d run recklessly, but we defeated the final bosses and felt proud of our accomplishment. Up until our game corrupted. Years passed with no luck, up until a couple of months ago when a copy was ordered and received very, very late with delays, but we had it. A fresh start. After playing for a few days, now I can say we did it again. Today, we completed the main game of Minecraft Dungeons, which is more powerful, and taking it into strategy this time around. But, Minecraft soon became one of the staples of the household, mining up tactics used in later games and most importantly crafting memories that would last a lifetime.

n Olivia Rodrigo's ‘GUTS’, the lyric from the song all-american bitch’s outro is stated as “I scream inside to deal with it / All the time / I'm grateful all the time / I'm pretty when I cry / Oh, all the time”, which resonates because, in 2019, I lost my mother to her declining health, which not only affected me mentally but my now widower and single father as well. Isolated but also growing closer, my adolescence was forever altered unlike most children my age of thirteen. I screamed inside to deal with the grief all the time where I had been unable to verbally express all of my feelings, only external crying and internal screaming. I am grateful all the time for my father, who never abandoned me, even through sleepless nights caused by my sudden necrophobia, thinking I’d die every time I did something remotely atypical, repeatedly. When I was grieving, I felt like I shouldn’t cry because I hated to cry, to show my tears. I hated feeling like this and that. I felt like I needed to remain tearless, “pretty” as the song puts it. Thanks to the overall collapse of my pre-loss personality, my fictitious fantasy books became my primary outlet, distracting me from my act of isolation. While they are fantasy, I like to compare them to a grieving artist slashing a canvas with a paintbrush dipped in their negative feelings. This would shape the portrayal of the main character. She had been like a line drawing for me to fill in with the traits I had (kind, creative, short, smart), along with the traits grief brought out that I subconsciously wrote in (naive, gullible, sad). The traits within her were a painting of my own at the time, eventually developing her into “The Hero”. The title was challenged when she later learned it and outright stated that she didn’t believe in being a hero, thanks to all the deceptive acts and life’s tragedies that occurred beforehand, doubting and ignoring the good she did, like how many she saved. This may also be a mirror to how I, for a time, forgot what it had been like to be myself. In the end, I was able to return to the new normal thanks to my support. In relevance to the song, the lyric pertains to the essence of adolescence by highlighting screaming and crying as common things a teenager has in their mind. They want to be tough, but in reality, many mentally struggle with self-doubt and its spawn. Middle school is where many teenagers are at this point and this stage has been stereotyped as the “angsty” or highly emotional stage where hormones of both genders run rampant. Due to this, they cry more. And when god forbid, tragedy strikes, they become blank and hollow shells before they are filled back in by love and hope. Unfortunately, some do not have support and end up giving up on living at such a young age. Teens make up more of that giving up community more than adults. It’s a sad, sad reality we must live in. And in conclusion, the selected lyric from all-american bitch defines the essence of adolescence as the grievances of teenage life, where many develop doubts and fall into a potentially dangerous depression of self-doubt and self-hate. In my personal experience, it also defines how merciless grieving can be, causing the stories I wrote to take dark tones along with negative traits placed onto characters, and causing my normal to forever be altered by death.

Tobey Maguire is my favorite Spider-Man, as he makes the character aloof, but also gets serious in Spider-Man 3 (my favorite solo Spider-Man movie). The dark, uneasy tone of SM3 represents a themical change in the series' otherwise friendly neighborhood Spider-Man premise (much like Harry Potter slowly getting more mature as the movie plots progress) after Pete gets the symbiote of Venom. With this, the other ordinary or even main characters become more prone to notice Peter's change of behavior under symbiote influence instead of mindlessly unaware like an NPC in a video game. Plots become deeper and thought-out and a new villain that would spawn his own sub-fanbase and novie trilogy is introduced. Just as a great movie should accomplish. The movie also proceeds to do this all without having a overbearing humor element Spiderman is known for in the comic book/animated style. Instead, it maintains just a mild level of humor that is short and gets to the point. Eleven years later, the plot of the seemingly sudden character of Eddie Brock in SM3, the man who receives the symbiote after Peter, reappears and is retold in an entirely new way, with the movies of Venom, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and the upcoming Venom: The Last Dance. Without Tobey Maguire's stellar movie role of Peter Parker in Spider-Man 3 and the comics the movie was based on, the Venom trilogy (and its fanbase) would not be as big as is it for the iconic villain whose first debut was in the movie with the best Spider-Man.

My favorite Netflix series right now is The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Originally when I first watched it, I gave up on episode two, getting bored quick. But with new pair of eyes a year later, I have since rewatched episodes one through five and have loved its dark, Wednesday-esque themes, its horror, and macabre storytelling. The show tells the story of Sabrina, as she fights against not only demons, but her own fate as the first Spellman to not to write her name in The Book of The Beast, not being a full witch but half-mortal as well. Throughout the five episodes, the show takes off with its story. Sabrina, after escaping her Dark Baptism (where she does not to write her name in The Book of The Beast), suddenly has a whirlwind of guilt as now she must live with the scrutiny of the witch coven and of the very Beast himself tormenting her and egging her to sign the book. Eventually, she and her aunts arrive on trial after Sabrina finds out her aunts were rapidly aging from her discontentment to the Beast, which ends in a adjourned case, followed up by several more visits. The verdict of not guilty by the show of evidence towards an actual secret church Baptism done when Sabrina was born before the earlier bombshell of her warlock father forcing her to write her name in the book as a sacrifical newborn to marry his mortal wife. The trial did not come without its drawbacks, as she would have to attend Academy of Unseen Arts that young witches attend to gain power for three days, lying to her mortal friends and covering it as a farming expo of all things. The Academy starts off like any school does, with meeting with the head of the school (so happens to be the human representative of the Beast who went against Sabrina in court) who talks for a bit about Sabrina's case, and Sabrina uncovers much of the mystery of the place— with "harrowing" or a ritual of torture thrice being done, suspiciously ignored by the head Father Blackwood, the mysteries of her father being uncovered, and of the mysterious nightmare demon that was locked inside a impossible puzzle that Sabrina opened. With all of these epic-long hourly episodes all summarized in this essay, this show seems to be great for the horror lovers and fans of last year's Wednesday, as the horror begins the same but soon trumps over Wednesday in its dark tones and darker themes.

I resonate with Angela Martin the most, as she loves cats and her approach of no nonsense is alright and needed to displine the lousy Michael Scott into running a more lucrative business environment. The show has shaped the humor of the workplace by seeing how the many flaws of each character bounce off of one another, and the lack of many positive feelings parallel what a workplace should be all about. However, the few that have them usually have connected negative traits as well, such as Schrute's capabilities as a assistant being only connected to his social inexperience and Halbert's people skills are haunted by his wavering balance of work and lovely passion for Pam, another co-worker at Dunder Miffin. Everyone has good or bad traits about themselves, and in the workplace (like The Office's Dunder Miffin Paper Company), any and all personalities can walk through the door and set an impression, an impact, at the workforce setting. Erin Hannon, for example, could be considered as "innocent", but she is also content with the lousy and unprofessional workings of the regional manager she typically gets along with, Michael Scott. Her flaw could be her naivety, though it is never put out there. So, in conclusion, "The Office" does not have a flawless character. This is like real life where no one is truly perfect, but flawed like all of the characters of the show.

My education will shape the future by my books reaching out to those who have a love for fantasy, young and old. As for whatever I major in, I'm sure there will be something there. Its ambiguity and intrigue make it a perfect blank canvas for me to draw my own path in this revolving chunk of land we call the Earth. But for my freetime writings and continued effort to further revise my fanfiction series, The Abyssal Series, I envision (if they ever see the light of store shelves) that they could one day inspire a future generation to lead on a path of penmanship (or penwomanship!) marketed by people who dream of their silly little stories or fleshed-out fantasy worlds to become reality atop the colossal books of our era. Even in this day and age, books are getting banned left and right by schools that deem the content inappropriate for young audiences. According to The Week, even the dictionary was banned in 1969! Many scholars and word prolifics alike utilize that textbook of a resource for their own needs, and whoever proceeds to deny them that resource for little reason is unworthy of having the authority to take away from a reader's experiences. Here's a ban of one of my personal favorite series to levy this fact, from the Marshall website, "The Lincoln Parish Library in Ruston (LA) ... ...expressed concern that children could encounter a topic the parents didn’t want them to." This apparently was due to "...censoring any book due to race, gender, sexuality, religion, nationality, or political views..." One of the removed books was in fact Wings of Fire, a series about talking fictional dragons with different races and political views (and later LGBT dragons). This has since been removed as of 2022, but this book was almost banned for little reason other than to protect the kids. However, I'm certain that the author (Tui T. Sutherland) did not intend her books to be so obscenely viewed, as they were marketed to children just like the ever-popular Warriors (AKA Warrior Cats). I say all that to say this: my future impact is still yet undecided. Just like my major, I am still a blank canvas. Sure, I may have my personal books but they are far from completely revised, even less so for their publishing. However, I believe that whichever way my impact comes, I shall either seek the masses of aspiring writers or live a quiet life of that same seeking out except through fantasies across a page. My final word to the readers is this: They say "Shoot for the stars", so why not do it with a pencil in hand? Write what you want if it makes you happy, and do not let anyone hold you back from your undying passions!

The first song is Shake It Off. It's peppy, upbeat tones match my personality, except for going on dates, which as of now I've never been on. I personally enjoy music to the point where I get the music in my mind, and do not care what the haters say or what the players play, because I simply, as the song goes, shake it off. I never miss beats, with music, life, or academics, as I always strive to be the best I can be. Making it up as I go, living life how I do, and dancing to the results. The next song would be Say Don't Go. The original, proposed meaning of this song was about a couple breaking apart when one had already gone, however I impose that this is the realization that my best friend and I would soon never see each other again. I am going to college, she's becoming a senior, and it feels like a knife twisted in my chest. So someone with similar, more passionate interests in books like I do suddenly vanishing behind the closing door of life's opportunity? It hurts bittersweetly to see her going, going, gone just like that, however the silver lining is messaging– rather than see her in person, we could chat– and maybe even reunite at the end of college. Maybe we could meet when the college breaks come around. The last song would be the song Out Of The Woods. This song's purely, to me, meaning the feeling of leaving everything you knew behind. Going off to college, recognizing that I have mere days with my best friend being with her in person, and leaving my family behind hurts worse than almost anything else. I would be missed by many after high school, and this song feels like memories being remembered. Dancing with the man representing memory and hearing the airplanes representing each passing thought of every family member, dead or alive, every friend, my best friend, and all of the good times. Slowly, those planes pass, carrying with them stitches over one woman with a little girl in her heart and mending the open wound of loneliness, loss, and grief little by little, until one day, it is just a scar. Getting to the clear is fully making my own in the world, still missing them without a doubt, but making a way in the world that is impactful.