Reading about Kalia's story made me feel an instant connection with her story. I, as well, run cross country and track. I fell in love with running and the feeling of freedom it gives me. I can run wherever and whenever. There are no rules to running. I run when I'm stressed, mad, sad, happy, excited, anxious... I run because it makes me happy. I ran cross country for the first time in my junior year of high school and immediately regretted that I hadn't joined the team sooner. The people on the cross-country team became my family instantly and I immediately built life-long friendships. I learned discipline, toughness, and strength during this sport. I learned that cross country is one of the most mentally tough sports, but that also taught me how to be mentally tough and that sometimes people have to want something a lot to put themselves through hard times. I ran track in my freshman, and sophomore and will be running it my senior year as well. I was unable to run track during my junior year because of an arm surgery I had to have, and I felt so lonely during that time. I spent all of my time doing schoolwork and focusing on grades. I have always had great grades in school and have taken school to be my top priority. School is a big part of my future career, and I hope to be able to achieve that one day. I have always set myself tough goals and had a strong passion for succeeding in them. I always dedicate my time to putting in the best effort and work I can give. I hope to continue my education in medical imaging and specialize in the pediatric field. Winning this scholarship will allow me to better financially complete my education and pursue my passion. I will be able to motivate young, scared children, as I once was, from being nervous about getting X-rays, into being brave and curious. I have had a passion for medical imaging since the first time I got an X-ray at the age of four. I have gotten countless X-rays in my life due to five broken arms and one arm surgery. I am passionate about motivating children to not be scared of X-rays, but to be interested in them. By winning the Kalia D Davis Memorial Scholarship, I will be able to continue my education, pursue my passion, and carry on the work ethic and ambition Kalia had for her interests.

My seventh-grade year was when COVID was hitting the world hard. Not only did my seventh-grade year get cut short, but that was also the year that my parents got divorced. The weekend after my twelfth birthday, and my golden birthday, my dad told my siblings and I that he was leaving, and he would not be coming back. At that moment everything changed for me. The previous few weeks I noticed that he wasn't around much. My mom would lock the back door before he got home from work to go to bed, he wasn't there when I went to bed, he wasn't there when I woke up, and his travel toiletry bag wasn't there either. I knew something was going on but when he said it out loud my heart immediately broke. Throughout the next few months, I pulled back from everyone. I lost all of my friends because they didn't understand why I was secluding myself. My mom was at the lowest I'd ever seen her. My brother's personality completely changed. My sister barely even spoke to me. I felt lonely and like I had no one there to support me. My dad would show up every once in a while, for dinner, but that would just turn into my parents fighting. Everything got to the point where my mom had to go to a mental hospital and CPS had to come visit. My mental health was at the lowest it has ever been. I didn't have the energy or any motivation to take care of myself. My dad came to live with us those few weeks my mom was gone but I couldn't speak to him. I didn't want to speak to him. Not wanting to speak to my father broke me. When my mom finally got out of the mental hospital, she seemed completely different, but not in a good way. She seemed numb. I started going to therapy once she got out and I had a very hard time with that. I would sit with my therapist in silence and not talk about anything. I didn't want to talk about it because it made everything seem so much more real. I didn't want to come to terms with the fact that my dad told me he was never coming back. Any time my dad would come over I would have to write him letters because if I started talking to him, I would cry. After I started writing those letters, I was able to talk to my therapist more and figure out my emotions. I went to therapy for a few more months before moving cities with my mom and siblings. Through months of therapy and moving away from my home that broke me, I was able to come to terms with my emotions and experience who I was as a person after everything I experienced. I was able to make new friends, start fresh, and learn how to express my feelings. I plan on continuing to work through my emotions and be able to notice and focus on how I am feeling.

My most memorable outdoor experience is my senior year cross-country trip to the dunes. We spent three days there bonding with the team. We sat around the fire, climbed the dunes, ran around the campground, and swam in the lake. I learned lessons about mental attitude, toughness, and being a team leader. Being away from technology and the outside world allowed me to better bond with my team and create lifelong relationships. This experience allowed me to realize how important living in the moment is. There's no need to worry about the past or overthink the future, but just to live in the moment and focus on what is happening right in front of me. After my cross-country season ended, I was thinking back on my season, and I realized the thing I would miss most was the dunes trip. I talked to my teammates, and we reminisced on our dune trip and how close it brought everyone. Spending time with each other with nothing from the outside world to interfere or distract us brought us so much closer to one another. We were able to talk to each other one-on-one and be able to go and do things out in nature together. We found it peaceful and there was so much to talk about with our surroundings. During our workouts, we seemed to cheer each other on more because of the difficult conditions and the heat change. It was easier to bond with each other and not have cliques because there was nothing else around to get distracted by besides each other. After we all thought back on the trip, we decided that we wanted to make it a yearly thing, even after we all graduated. Our experience there was so exciting and fun and had such a positive effect on all of us that we are determined to make time every year to go up there together. We have all become such good friends from our experience and hopefully by going up there more often and every year, we can continue to stay good friends and make more positive memories. My experience with nature has brought me lifelong friends and lifelong memories. Not only has it already brought me positive memories but hopefully it will continue to bring me more positive memories with the people I love. And hopefully, it will bring new people into my life as well to create relationships with.

My mental health is the most important thing to me in my life. Whether it's about academic performance or my personal life. I always put my mental health first. This can be difficult at times because I do take my academic performance so seriously. I spend hours a day on homework making sure that I put my best work into every assignment. But there are times when things are difficult in life when things are going on in my personal life that I don't want to interfere with my academic life. But that's not always the case. There are times when things are going on in my personal life that hurt my academic performance. It can be seen throughout my work when I am going through a rough patch in my personal life because my academic performance can take a dramatic downfall. But then I realized that I can't completely separate my academic from my personal life. Attending school can be very stressful and can lead to many late nights due to homework and many nights with few hours of sleep. Less sleep can cause a decline in mental health. Understanding this made me realize that I can't allow myself to always put my all into school all of the time, or that I need to at least ask for extensions for things if I need it. I used to find asking for extensions as embarrassing. I would think that students and teachers would think less of me or think that I wasn't as smart because I asked for an extension. But sometimes an extension is needed to save and keep your mental health a positive place. I have learned over time that spending hours at night on homework and losing sleep over homework is not a healthy thing. I have learned that sometimes I just need time to myself and having clear thoughts, thoughts that have nothing to do with school, can improve my mental health. Stressing about school, or thinking an assignment defines my academic ability, puts a major toll on my mental health. I have learned that stressing over assignments is detrimental to my mental health, which then just further worsens my academic performance on that certain assignment. I have learned to ask for help, ask for extensions, and just take a few hours every day to myself and away from school-related things to improve my mental health. Doing that ultimately improves my academic performance in the long run.