My favorite hobbies would have to be reading and traveling because both are able to take you to strange new places and allow you to have life-changing adventures. Since I was a little girl, I loved the sensation of reading a new book. Growing up, I was the only child of my parents and my storybooks gave me friends that made me laugh and smile through their odd adventures. As I got older, my fascination grew and I wanted to have adventures of my own. In my junior year of high school, I got the opportunity to travel to South Korea to participate in an International Poetry competition with students from Korea and Japan. I just couldn't get enough of this feeling that traveling gave. The culture was beyond beautiful that even the air felt different. Korea was my first step toward experiencing the world beyond my neighborhood in the Bronx. In the same year, I got the chance to travel to Denmark to participate in a student debate on slavery and reparations. Both of my trips were extremely fulfilling, inspiring, and eye-opening experiences that made my passion for traveling the world grow. After the pandemic occurred, I was unable to travel for a long time so I had to find solace in my books. The pandemic gave me a chance to return to reading where I could fall back in love with the works of Dickens, Austen, and even, J.K. Rowling. My two hobbies have opened me up to beautiful ideas, nurtured my creativity, and opened my mind to beautiful, diverse cultures. I can not wait to experience travel to other countries and experience more cultures in the future. As for reading, I will always love the smell of a new book and the journey of new characters.

Guyana, the land of many waters but a country unknown to many. I can not list the many times that people have asked me where I am from and then when I answer to get a look of confusion or mistaken to be from Africa. Guyana may not be a very well-known country or a popular vacation spot but it is the place where I was born and grew up for a big part of my life. I can say that I am extremely proud to be Guyanese because reflecting on where I have come from and what many around me did not have has given me a sense of great appreciation for what I do have and have been blessed with. I moved from Guyana to New York with my father in 2008 with the great hope to pursue a better life and greater opportunities through obtaining a quality education. But I have continued to return to Guyana yearly because my mother and family live there but being able to return every year has really opened my eyes as to how fortunate I was to have had the opportunity I had and who I was. I often rave about being Guyanese and how mixed the culture is with the fusion of the Caribbean and Indian cultures. Our food, our music, the way our people speak, the festivals and atmosphere is unlike any other place. Guyana is my home and I have pride in who I am as well as where I come from. It is expressed in the way I dress, the way I speak, and my favorite foods. Being from a place that has beautiful forests, waters, and immense cultural life. There is absolutely no way to describe the feeling of being back home in Guyana and drinking fresh sweet coconut water or satisfying the cravings for some spicy salt and pepper mangoes. The experience of being back home in Guyana is unmatched because the food tastes better, the weather is heavenly and the atmosphere is free when compared to the fast-paced New Yorker life. It is a place where you clear the crazy rampaging thoughts in your head by swinging in a hammock under beautiful blue skies that are covered in fluffy clouds that look so soft to touch and it seems like all your worries could melt away as you feel the wind brushing past your face that it soothes you to sleep. Even the rain is so refreshing that I remember my childhood days of playing in the rain and splashing in our flooded out yard. Remembering those days and the progress I have made means a lot because I have worked my hardest to pursue my goals in education especially because they were not available to my parents so I appreciate the chance. I have had so much unbelievable support from my parents and family so it makes me incredibly happy when I hear them express their pride in me. Being Guyanese has reminded me of my fortune and taught me appreciation as well as acceptance for people of different backgrounds or walks of life. In the future, I would like to share the chance that I was fortunate to receive with others who have the same ambition by funding another student's education and mentoring them in their goals. It was a great surprise to me to see a scholarship dedicated to Caribbean students that included Guyanese because I had never come across one before but I hope that I can make this opportunity available to more students like myself in the near future.

My favorite film would have to be "A Walk to Remember". It is all about a simple Christian girl, Jamie who has reoccurring meetings with Landon, a popular guy who is reckless and has no goals but even though they are vastly different, they fall in love. Jamie is soft-spoken and depicted as an outcast because of the way she dresses and her reassuring trust in her faith or God. But she is not afraid to express what she believes and is confident about who she is even though she is ridiculed about it all the time by others. Jamie doesn't try to change herself for acceptance or suffer from self-doubt but she does what she wants without caring what others think of her because it makes her happy. As the movie progresses, Jamie and Landon develop a friendship after Landon is involved in a prank that sends someone to the hospital. Landon is punished by being forced to tutor a young student in an afterschool program and participating in the theatre club's play. At first, he is ashamed of his friendship with Jamie and tries to hide it from his friends and even treats her differently when she approaches him at school. But the movie shows how people can change because Landon changes so much throughout the movie. Landon changes his lifestyle for Jamie and he comes to understand her passion for life is because she is suffering from cancer. Landon learns so much from Jamie as she suffers from leukemia but doesn't blame God but instead lives her life to the fullest and achieves her goals/dreams. Landon becomes serious about his life and becomes a doctor in the end. It is a great movie with deep meaning that makes you understand about making the most of your dreams.