To put it simply, one of my greatest personal accomplishments was overcoming my social anxiety. I know it doesn’t seem like a lot and there are definitely better things I could have, and have, accomplished, but this is something that I think is my best accomplishment. Some things to note: I was born in Chesapeake, Virginia, but I can’t tell you exactly where I grew up and where I’m from. I usually tell people that I’m from Maryland, specifically Gaithersburg, Maryland because it’s the one place I’ve lived the longest and it’s my favorite. I’ve attended 8 different schools and lived in 4 different states throughout my life up until high school, so I was always the new girl. It also didn’t help that I was naturally introverted, so it became difficult to blend in when I always stood out. When you’re the new girl almost every other year, you start to learn a lot about how people act. Almost every school I went to, there would always be people who were friendly, which was always appreciated. Unfortunately, it never stayed that way since I would move the year after or I just didn't click with them after getting to know them. To be honest, I remember feeling a little lonely and isolated, especially since every time I took the initiative to make friends, there was always that thought in the back of my mind that I might not see them again. When you build up the courage to do something that isn’t easy and it crumbles again and again, then why should you continue to do it? Back then, I’ll admit I was cowardly and naive because that’s exactly what I thought. Thankfully, I continued to make friends, but it slowly evolved into others trying to be friends with me since I was scared to extend an olive branch myself. Moving to South Carolina was also a little difficult not only because we had moved back to Gaithersburg, MD from Suitland, MD in 7th grade after living in California a couple years before, but also because we didn't have any close relatives in South Carolina. I felt like I wouldn’t ever be able to settle down and make stronger connections with people because I felt like I never had the opportunity to do so. Luckily, I’ve stayed at Bluffton High for all 4 years and that time, I’ve noticed a huge change. I became more confident in myself, and joined school activities like Interact, NHS, and eventually YIG. I know so many people and I have created different friend groups through clubs, AP classes, and through work. I have a good relationship with my teachers, (I do remember the first time my English teacher remembered my name 3 years after I took her class) and I’ve done better in school than any other school I’ve been to. It wasn’t until I started applying to college and having to dig through my past that I really began to look back on who I was and who I’ve become. That shy, timid girl, who took 5 minutes to make a phone call has transformed into someone who can have a casual conversation with a stranger in a grocery store. That someone who picked at every detail about herself grew into someone who doesn’t care what others think. I feel like I’ve grown the most in these short 4 years. It's only natural to change as you grow older, but I’m proud to see the person I’ve become, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

To balance being a hardworking student and the inevitable obstacles of being a teenager, kindness is an essential skill to develop and define. Kindness itself aligns with my personal values to not just connect with all sorts of people, but a skill that can take anyone further. But, working hard also can take anyone further. Needless to say, being kind and hardworking are skills that I aim to use to help myself and others, and taking AP classes has given me the chance to refine both skills. Given the chance I would have liked to take IB and Dual Enrollment classes. However, given my personal circumstances, AP was the closest option I had to taking college level courses early. Taking AP has challenged me to balance discipline and personal development . It has made me more empathetic to my classmates, and not just those in AP. Behind the hardworking star students, were just regular teenagers who wanted to push themselves to become the versions of themselves they wanted to be. Of course, there will always be struggles, but I didn’t view my classmates as competition, because looking at them succeed has motivated me to want to push myself as well. So, this turned into me viewing them as role models. Needless to say, AP has transformed how I’m kind to others because I learned the value of being kind. My classmates in AP are not just high achievers. They’re highschoolers, just like me, and they also deal with stress. We’re all going through unspoken battles and problems To me, being kind isn’t difficult, but being kind and hardworking is. Before taking AP classes, I had considered myself a hard worker, but my opinion quickly changed once I started highschool. AP proved to be a challenge to my social skills and my work ethic, because pushing myself and stepping out of my comfort zone were once viewed as tasks that were necessary, but almost a burden. But, I realized that by genuinely trying to work hard, tasks such as presenting in groups and research projects transitioned from being a burden to something that became more enjoyable. Despite both being different, being hardworking and kind develops a well-rounded person, someone who looks at a problem as a challenge and who can not only face the problems in their own life but can extend themselves to help others. Now, looking back on all four years of highschool, I can say that I am more of the version I would like to be than I was at the start. Balancing my coursework, preparing for college, and financial uncertainty crosses my mind just about every single day as I start my journey towards higher education. However, I have decided to not let this weigh me down. I am prepared to do what I need to in order to further my education. Every extra hour of work, every moment of hearing that others don’t have to worry about their education has solidified my commitment to my education because it is simply what I want and need to do. It is true that the financial strain of pursuing higher education might add more to my responsibilities, but it has also motivated me to work harder. My school of choice is Winthrop University, and I was accepted into their Honors Program to major in forensic chemistry. I hope that the perseverance and lessons I have learned over my highschool career will aid in the inevitable challenges in college, and I strive to be a role model to others: someone that can be labeled as kind and hardworking.

I can never tell people where exactly I grew up, so I always say that I’m from Maryland and it's simply because it’s the one place I’ve felt more at home throughout my whole life. But, to keep it short, I’ve lived in 4 different states and went to around 8 different schools throughout my life until high school. I’ve tried so many different sports and clubs from flag football, dance, cross country, track, band, chorus, and more, I was always doing something. However, a couple of things I love stayed with me: drawing, singing, reading, and science. I think I've always been infatuated with research and science ever since I was young. It's taken me a little while to realize it, but I'm glad I did. The very idea of science is so interesting to me because it’s one of the most versatile subjects in the world. It's so easy to forget that little things that make our lives so easy like Band-Aids, Velcro, and seatbelts come from people who came up with a little idea to help others and then spread to become some of the most common products. As I already mentioned, science is one of the most versatile subjects in the world, and I personally plan to apply this to the law because my dream is to become a Forensic DNA Analyst! I'm aiming for my B.S in a biology-related field, but I also want to try to get my masters. Being a lawyer and/or attorney sounded interesting to me because it relates to crime investigation, but it’s the actual science part that really appealed the most to me. It's one thing to connect all the evidence together, but another thing working in a lab with evidence, and that’s where I want to be. Last year, I took PLTW Principles of Biomedical Sciences, and it was honestly the best class I have ever taken. It was this class in particular which solidified my love and interest for pursuing a career in STEM. Some of the things we learned were crime scene investigation, autopsies, medical history, genetics, diseases, emergency response, and biomimicry. Needless to say, I enjoyed everything we learned in that class. I never really knew I loved science until I took that class. I learned new skills and homed in on skills I already knew by just being in the lab. I continued to learn how to work with others in a lab and how to pay attention to the smaller details. Procedures like gel electrophoresis and gram staining were fun and not another task I had to do. I learned how to write an abstract and present my findings and conclusions to my classmates, and most importantly, I learned an important lesson, one that’s incredibly important in any STEM related field: I will never always get the answer right, and there will be times where my results have a bigger margin of error. This is the most important thing in my eyes because this is the reason why science sets it apart from every other subject. However, this might seem a little contradictory because I’m the type of person where having a definite answer is something that’s more comfortable to me. But that’s exactly why I love science. It keeps me on my toes, and I have to learn to improvise or start again. Science gives me a bigger opportunity to learn because it’s expected that I won't get the answer right the first time. And that's why I have to keep trying until I get my desired results.

Every day I have a regular routine. On the weekdays, I wake up at 6:45, make my bed, stretch for 5 minutes, take a shower at 7:10, make food and eat until 7:45, etc. But there’s always one constant: going to the bathroom to look at myself in the mirror. Why is that, you may ask? Well, besides trying to see if I’m presentable enough to walk out of the house, the one thing I see every morning and every time I look into the mirror is not just myself, but my mother. People always mention that we look alike, like I'm a younger version of herself. And it’s true. If I showed you a picture of me when I was a baby, and her as a baby, it would be really difficult to tell which was her and which was me. Even walking through grocery stores now, people always think we’re sisters because we look so alike. While we are very different in a lot of ways, the one thing I can definitely say about her is that she instilled her passion towards her goals and desire to learn into me. Born and raised in Oxnard, California to a single mom, my mother is someone who had to be driven to get where she is. She went to community college for her first 2 years, then transferred to Norfolk State University. Unfortunately, there was an issue with her credits, so she had to retake all of her classes. But she graduated with her bachelor’s in 2 years. She didn't have any financial support from my grandmother to pay for college, so she basically did all of it herself, which I admire immensely. So, predictably, this encouraged her to encourage me to do more, while also giving me more opportunities to learn. As a child, my mother has always encouraged me to try new things. From kindergarten until now, I’ve been in flag football, student council, the robotics club, Girls and Boys Club, band and orchestra, chorus, piano, cross country, track, tried out for volleyball, and many more activities throughout the years. Looking back on it now, I feel like her desire to give me more than she had has inspired me to want more for myself. I look up to her because she had the motivation to push herself, and I want to have that same motivation. Last semester, I finally decided to join my school’s Youth in Government club, and while it’s not directly speech debate or mock trial, I participated as an appeals attorney at the YMCA Youth in Government Conference at the State House in Columbia, South Carolina. I presented 2 cases in front of a judge and argued for my case where the judges rebutted against my arguments, to put it simply. It was a huge step out of my comfort zone because talking in front of an audience of people had never been a strong suit of mine. However, in the 2 months before the conference, I was reading and preparing my cases religiously. I really wanted to make sure that I did my best at the conference, and I believe that I did. The funny thing is that I’m not really interested in a career in anything that heavily involves debate. My dream is to become a Forensic DNA Analyst. But I decided to participate in YIG because I knew that I could, and I really wanted to. I’m happy that I did because I have another experience in my arsenal, and I do have to thank my mother for that.

Diversity is something I value immensely, everywhere I go. I’ve always liked to be in diverse environments from when I was little because it’s all I’ve been around and what I grew up with. As I’ve gotten older, that value hasn’t gone away but I recognize how more important it is. Unlike back then, instead of just enjoying the variety of different cultures around me, I’ve come to realize that being around others with different backgrounds helped shape me as a person and fueled my creativity, and diversity as a whole should bring people together to problem-solve. To answer the question, I believe it’s important to have diverse representation in STEM careers for 3 reasons: to encourage, to learn, and to flourish. Like I said before, diversity is something that I value. But, it’s also important to have people who represent you in multiple fields. Imagine how many children or even young adults can be inspired to pursue a career in STEM when they see someone like them accomplish something great. It’s inspiring to have a role model that is doing something you want to do, and it can motivate more people to look into STEM. In my case, I wasn’t really influenced by anyone else to pursue a career in biology because I just simply love science. And I really wish I saw more recognized Black scientists in the media because that would’ve probably inspired me a lot sooner to love science. As someone who loves science and inspires to become a forensic DNA Analyst, I want to be the beacon that encourages others to build a path to the career I’m pursuing. When you have so many people from experienced and different backgrounds, you learn a lot, but you also have a better time staying in an environment. You can have more access to unique perspectives and your creativity can flourish, especially since innovation and creativity are encouraged in STEM careers. I’ve definitely learned this from my own background in living in many different states across the U.S and going to many different schools because I had the opportunity to learn other cultures through my friends, other parents, and just all the people around me embracing their cultures. While I’m still my own person, all the things I’ve learned from others brought me to this point, and shaped the person I am. Now, I believe everyone can flourish in a diverse environment precisely because we can all learn from each other. All of us come from unique backgrounds and have had unique experiences. We and I will never stop learning, so being in an environment where you’re learning about your trade and learning from the people around you is something that is really valuable! Another thing is that because we all come from different backgrounds, there are always individual problems. Having a group of people from rich backgrounds can provide more insight into specific problems within certain communities, and STEM is all about innovation and problem-solving. I think a lot of people who are a little bit intimidated by getting into STEM because they have the mindset that they have to be intelligent. But that’s precisely why we need more inclusion in STEM. It does take intelligence to have a successful career, but intelligence doesn’t get you anywhere if you’re not driven, and anyone can be driven. I want to be a forensic DNA Analyst because I love forensics and crime investigation, but I want to be part of the group that the next generation looks up to and sees all the great things we can do.

Before I started to volunteer, I really thought that it wasn't worth my time. There were a plethora of other things I wanted to do other than volunteer, and I think a lot of people relate to that now. However, once I started to volunteer, I realized that I was extremely naive. It wasn't just giving up my time, it was giving up time for a good cause. You learn a lot about people by volunteering and interacting with people in general. The organization I've volunteered for the most was BTFD, which is my local fire department. Contrary to popular belief and based on my own experiences, firefighters go to more calls about medical needs and car accidents than actual fires. With this in mind, it's more important that firefighters are well-rounded, quick, and problem solvers. One extremely important lesson I’ve learned from them was that firefighters have to be positive. No exceptions. They (and I) come to people because they're not having a good day. The thing that made volunteering for the fire department different was the amount of trust people put in myself and the firefighters. Seeing them look at us like a ray of hope made me really grateful to even be in the position to help them. One simple way I want to make a positive impact on the world is to give back the positivity that was given to me. After a while, I got my first job, and having past volunteer experience made it easier to interact with people and focus on my job, and less on the paycheck. Another lesson that I learned from working retail was from a shopper I was helping at the register. She told me that you never know what somebody is going through, and being negative can really bring their day down, even when we don't mean to. Sometimes I have bad days. Days where I don't want to talk with anyone and stay in my room and relax. We all have days like that but we can't always hide away. I think a lot of people take kindness for granted because it's the negative interactions that stand out the most. Even so, I still want to be kind to everyone regardless of how they feel or I feel about them. I don't ever want to be the person that's in the back of somebody's mind at the end of the day because I was rude or negative to them because I want to be the opposite. I believe that one duty that every human being has to fulfill is being kind to others. It can seem that being kind is easier said and done, but we all know that one or two negative experiences in a day can sometimes bring you down. Unfortunately, the negative experiences almost always outweigh the positive ones. With all of the lessons I've learned, I want to use this in my future career, forensics. While forensics isn't very close to hospitality, I believe that it does fill part of that role because I want cases to have a resolution. I want to use my mind to bring people to justice and comfort any victims in a case. I was interested in this career because I love science, and it also gives me a chance to actually help people while doing something I generally enjoy. At the end of the day, I want to add to the idea that the simplest act of being positive will always help somebody out.

Last semester, I took AP World History and it became one of the most memorable classes I've ever taken. Not just because it was recent, but because of my teacher, Mr. Ortiz. While his assignments were tedious and we had seminars every other week (which I absolutely dreaded for the first 2 months), the one thing he repeatedly said to us was to read. It was different from anyone else saying it because he encouraged us to learn about what's happening in the world, as well as looking at how and why people have the views they do. Luckily for him, I have always enjoyed reading. In elementary school, we had book competitions and I liked to participate in them because it made sense for me to get rewards for something I did basically everyday. It's a little bit different now, but I still enjoy reading. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. This was one of the first classic books I read freshman year and it's still stuck with me all this time. Despite it being written in 1953, it's honestly really eerie how much it's relevant to this day. A brief summary of the book is that it's set in a dystopian future where books are illegal and burned. The main focus of the book is how people are often disconnected from reality with technology and how important knowledge really is (and how humans naturally pursue knowledge). However, one quote that stood out to me was, “Don't ask for guarantees. And don't look to be saved in any one thing, person, machine, or library. Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were heading for a shore.” This quote resonates with me the most because it reflects my own thoughts. I know that everything I do towards a goal isn't going to work all the time, so that's why I have to take the initiative and work hard towards a goal. One example would be my dream of going into forensics because the hard work starts now, no excuses. Putting in the hard work and “drowning” from time to time is what I'm going to have to do. While classic books are always a good read, I’ve personally been invested in murder mysteries and detective novels. One author that I've gravitated to lately is Anthony Horowitz. Unfortunately, I haven’t read all of his books, but I did read “A Line To Kill” and “The Sentence is Death”. These books are more of a guilty pleasure of mine because they’re mainly fiction, but the hidden lessons behind the story are the most interesting. The aforementioned books and “The Word Is Murder” is a series about the author and a detective working together, with the detective using the author to publish books about his investigations, and the author trying to solve the crimes as they go along. One major idea of the series is how complex the human mind is. The cases in the books have so many twists and turns because that's human nature. It's another reason I want to go into forensics because I want to show more people that things aren't always as black and white as it seems. It’s like a huge puzzle that can never be solved, but partially solving it will greatly benefit those involved because despite the complexity of the mind, it can be understood while also serving justice to those who have done wrong. In all, I believe that we all should keep reading because it gives us the inspiration needed to achieve greatness!

Throughout U.S history, women have truly been the underdog fighting behind the scenes. From working in the fields alongside men, fighting for women's suffrage, civil rights, and the temperance movement, replacing the men who went to the army to work in industries, to running for office and advocating for those in need all around the world. Unfortunately, it was during these times when African American women were one group at the biggest disadvantage. It seemed like they had the worst of both worlds; being a woman, and being African American. Faced with these problems, people like Ida B. Wells and Rosa Parks continued to advocate for equal rights. Despite now having the power to use our minds for the greater good, there are still some people who believe that we are lower than we truly are. My dream is to go into forensic science, either as a medical examiner or forensic investigator.. I've always been interested in crime and how people find evidence to bring the people who committed horrible crimes to justice. The career I want to go into might not be considered a “helping profession”, but I believe it is because the people who are behind the evidence are really the superheroes in criminal justice. I hope I can go into my field and be criticized for my skills and knowledge and not something as insignificant as being African American. In a field where it's crucial to rely on knowledge and accuracy, I shouldn't have to worry about being discriminated against. I also want to give reassurance to any community I'm in that I will truly help bring a person to justice, whether that means proving that they're guilty or innocent of a crime. While it doesn't seem as common as it did before, there's always a chance someone will look down upon me not because of my intelligence or personality, but because of the color of my skin and because I'm a woman, excluding the fact that I can’t really control either of those things. I want to show people that being African American isn't all there is to me. I'm not defined by the color of my skin, I'm defined by what I can give back to the community and my drive to bring closure to every person involved in a case. I want to show that while being a woman is empowering, I shouldn't be compared to another successful person just because of my gender and ethnicity. My end goal is to use my success to further change the way people look at women and to reaffirm the idea that women are as capable as men or anybody else. We can put anything to the test if we put our minds to it and we shouldn't have to prove that we “can” because we've already done so. I want to advocate for not just BIPOC girls, but for all girls to go into a STEM-related career. Our gender doesn't limit us from using our minds and when the world needs us the most, we'll be here. One of my core beliefs is to look and judge people based on their actions, mind, and personality, not on what they look like or what they are. I wish that there were more people who looked past this because I believe it would truly make society and the word progress so much faster.

Success. A word that everybody generally recognizes as one thing but can't be defined easily. For example, Merriam-Webster defines the word “success” as “[a] degree or measure of succeeding”, “[a] favorable or desired outcome”, and “the attainment of wealth, favor, or eminence.” I believe all of these definitions accurately describe success itself. But I also think success isn't as surface-level as it’s described. To me, success is a process that I can look back on and say, “I did it. I worked hard to get this, and I did it.” To go a little bit more in detail, my big idea of success is to graduate with my BS and/or MS in a biology-related degree so I can become a Forensic DNA Analyst. The journey to get there is going to be challenging, I know that for a fact. But it's something that I really want to do, and is something that I am going to do. That being said, it's going to take a little while to get there, so, the more accurate description of my idea of success is: “A process of smaller successes that lead me to an ultimate goal.” My version of success includes being prepared. One of my big personal philosophies is to deal with the most difficult things first, and the easier things last. This is easier to do for me because I don't like to do the easy things first and doing the most difficult things first makes success a little bit sweeter. I bring this up to explain that preparing for my success earlier on is one of the more difficult things at the moment. I feel like preparing for college before I even got into college was almost like a bit of a sacrifice. I don’t exactly regret taking harder-level classes or studying for hours afterschool because it's for my benefit. At the end of the day, I believe to gain success you have to sacrifice for your goals. Giving up a little at the beginning to achieve a bigger goal is reasonable, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody and you don't lose a lot from it. This opportunity will help me achieve my success by preparing the funds I need to pay for college. One thing my parents told my brother and I is that they want us to be successful. No matter what we do, they'll support our dreams. But, they're not going to hold our hands the entire way. It's ultimately up to our drive and decisions to get us to where we need and want to go. And that's exactly what I'm going to do. I've already started the process to achieve my success by doing my absolute best in my academics. I'm doing all of this extra work so that I can achieve success by not burdening anybody else and so I have as little student debt as possible. To me, it's enough that my parents support my passion in forensics, so using opportunities like this scholarship will help me truly achieve success. Not just that, but I've recently entered a new phase in the process; my first job. At first, I wanted to get a job so I can start saving for college expenses so that my parents wouldn't have to pay for it themselves. I applied to two places; GAP and American Eagle because I wanted to work in retail. Surprisingly, at my first interview with GAP (and my second interview overall) I was offered the job at the end of it! As I completed my first week, I already noticed a lot of change in myself. I’m naturally introverted but because my job involves talking with people almost all the time, I've gotten used to being able to go up to people and have a conversation or help solve a problem. All of this is to say that this is another version of what success looks like to me because it's building up the soft skills I need to be successful in forensics and in everyday life. In all, this scholarship will become a piece of the puzzle showing what my success will be, and I'm really grateful to have the resources and opportunities to gain my success.

I think I've always been infatuated with research and science ever since I was young. It's taken me a little while to realize it, but I'm glad I did. The very idea of science is so interesting to me because it’s one of the most versatile subjects in the world. It's so easy to forget that little things that make our lives so easy like bandaids, velcro, and seatbelts come from people who came up with a little idea to help others and then spread to become some of the most common products. As I already mentioned, science is one of the most versatile subjects in the world, and I personally plan to apply this to the law because my dream is to become a Forensic DNA Analyst! I'm aiming for my B.S in a biology-related field, but I also want to try to get my masters. Being a lawyer and/or attorney sounds interesting to me, but it’s the actual science part that really appealed to me. It's one thing to connect all the evidence together, but it's another thing to work in a lab with evidence. This last semester, I took PLTW Principles of Biomedical Sciences, and it was honestly the best class I have ever taken. It was this class in particular which solidified my love and interest for pursuing a career in STEM. Some of the things we learned were crime scene investigation, autopsies, medical history, genetics, diseases, emergency response, and biomimicry. Needless to say, I enjoyed everything we learned in that class. I never really knew I loved science until I took that class. I learned new skills and honed in on skills I already knew by just being in the lab. I continued to learn how to work with others in a lab and how to pay attention to the smaller details. Procedures like gel electrophoresis and gram staining were fun and not another task I had to do. I learned how to write an abstract and present my findings and conclusions to my classmates. Most importantly, I learned an important lesson, one that’s incredibly important in any STEM related field: I will never always get the answer right, and there will be times where my results have a bigger margin of error. This is the most important thing in my eyes because this is the reason why science sets it apart from every other subject. Science gives me a bigger opportunity to learn because it’s expected that I won't get the answer right the first time. And that's why I have to keep trying until I get my desired results. That being said, I want to use this scholarship to help fund further education so I can become a DNA Analyst. While I think that going to STEM related careers is the most interesting and fulfilling thing to do, I recognize that it definitely isn't cheap. One thing that I don't want to do is burden my family because of something I want to do. While we aren't poor, we aren't living in luxury, so it's important to me that I can go to school stress free and not worrying about my parents at home. I'm finalizing my list of schools I want to apply to, but this scholarship would be a tremendous help to whatever school I end up applying to. I'm working hard to be able to help others lime Dr. Jeremy Michael Higgins, but through the law, I would be honored to continue his legacy with the help of this scholarship.

There are hundreds of thousands of millions of books in the world right now, many that have already been read, and more being written. Books can be a hindrance to others, but to me, books are something that has comforted me ever since I was a child, and I don't believe I will ever stop reading books as I get older. Opening a book and smelling the pages is very nostalgic, and imagining and creating worlds and characters from words on a page is one of the best feelings ever. Now, there is one book that I have read that I don't think I will ever forget, and everyone should read this book, and that is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. This book is definitely a popular choice for school projects, but in my opinion, it is a good choice. I chose this book for a project for my English class freshman year, and I'm so glad I did read it. This book left me somewhat satisfied with the ending, and in anticipation for a continuation of the story after I was done reading it. Now, what really made me interested in this book was the irony and criticism of modern society that displays itself throughout the story. While similar to other stories, like "The Giver," by Lois Lowry, I think "Fahrenheit 451" is its own classic masterpiece because of the immense amount of irony the story has. One being that the main character, Guy Montag, is a fireman who starts fires instead of putting them out. A real world example is the story's plot, which is the burning of books and censorship of the people, while the book itself has been banned in schools for its plot, which is extremely ironic and only proves the point Bradbury was making while writing this story. Another example is the setting of the story, which is eerily similar to today's advancements and society. I think a lot of people were drawn into the story because of this exact situation; the book's plot almost exactly predicted and critiqued the future, one example being people being dependent on technology and entertainment. If everyone in the world would read this book, I think the majority of people would have no choice but to laugh at the irony of the story's contents being similar to a lot of people's lives nowadays.

The dream version of my future self is a person that is able to overcome difficult changes and situations thrown in my direction, to be more confident in speaking and in myself, to be more open and outgoing with others, and is able to make changes that impact people and the world in a positive way.

Generational wealth is something that is different for everyone. It could mean that wealth is a constant in your family, or it could be something you wish to obtain. However, in my case, I wish to continue and evolve wealth in my family. My family isn't exactly rich, but we're able to live comfortably and have extra things because of my parents' hard work. Both of my parents didn't come from wealth themselves, so they had to work hard to get where they are today. My dad decided to pursue a career in cooking, and went to culinary school. One of my favorite quotes from him is, "You either eat, or you die, and I didn't want to work in a morgue." He started his career while he was in highschool, and today, he's a professional chef and pastry chef, and continues to work hard with passion and with food. (which is the best combination, and he makes the absolute best food ever, in my ever so humble opinion) If you ever met my dad, you can tell that he had been through a lot of things, even if he doesn't tell you he had. But nonetheless, he is an inspiration for my brother and I, and I look up to him everyday. My mom isn't working in the career she had gotten a degree in, (psychology) but I don't think she needed a degree to prove herself. Her mom (my grandmother, who was the one of the most memorable people in my life, for having the greatest personality, and an obsession with the color purple) wasn't in the best financial place through her childhood, and wasn't able to pay for my mom's education. Despite that, my mom went up and beyond, and went to graduate school. After graduating, she went to a university (after joining the Navy) where most of her credits weren't transferred over from her graduate school. She had to take all of her classes again, and I remember her telling me that her counselor told her she wasn't going to be able to graduate in 4 years. Well, her being my mom, and being fueled by the constant reminder that her friends were going to graduate in around 2 years or so, she started to work. And my mom graduated in 2 years. Despite what her counselor told her. She told me that she graduated early because of pure spite and hardwork. Both of my parents are such an inspiration to me, and I hope that I can be just like them in the future. So, to answer this essay question, generational wealth is to continue where your family stopped, and aim to succeed them with your success to make sure that future generations will be able to do the same, and never take it for granted. I will achieve this goal by doing the most with my life, by pursuing a career in the thing I want to do most (forensics) and I will continue to work hard. Right now, I'm doing that by keeping my grades up and using what my parents gave me, an opportunity. Some kids in my school have jobs while going to school, and I don't have to do that, and I recognize it everyday. It is a privilege to have to only worry about my grades, but if that's the only thing that I have to worry about, I won't take advantage of it. I definitely still have work to do and much to learn, but I'll make sure that I'll achieve generational wealth with my education and determination.