Life is a precious gift that is taken for granted much too often. It is the gift that keeps on giving, presenting those fortunate enough to possess it with many more blessings. The ability to listen to the ocean waves crash on the shore, to feel the burn of a flame from holding your hand too close for too long, and the cool sensation of dousing that hand in iced water immediately after are all things that make life worth living. Every moment of life, good or bad, carries a value that cannot be stripped away. And every life has inherent dignity that calls for love and respect. It is time for the world to wake up to this. I grew up in a religious family of the Roman Catholic faith. My parents did a good job of ensuring that I, and my siblings, had a solid core of Catholic morals and values. My dad put me in the Catholic school system from K- to 12th grade, and that is where I picked up my pro-life ideals. I learned about the sanctity of life from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death. I learned that all life had value, no matter how big or small the person was. And I learned that we must protect the most vulnerable beings in our world. Having an educational background in STEM worked only to reinforce my beliefs regarding life. The science presented undeniable proof that life was in fact real beginning at the moment of conception. The argument that a baby in their first days is just a clump of cells became more and more nonsensical. If someone can admit that a baby is a clump of cells, then they should also know from basic biology that a cell is the basic unit of life. This among other things solidified my views and strengthened my passion to get justice for the unborn. It also helped that I surrounded myself with friends who value life just as much as I do. Together, we would go out to pray rosaries for the unborn and join marches protesting abortion laws. In high school, we began a pro-life club which brought even more students to some of those marches. We stepped up even more in the years following high school when our community was threatened by an abortion clinic that opened up just across the street from the school. We protested against them and prayed rosaries outside for the repose of the souls of the aborted children. Still, the clinic remains and we keep fighting. My pro-life advocacy continued in college, where I served as student body president and prevented Planned Parenthood from being invited to indoctrinate students at a campus event. I am thankful to have been brought up with such morals that my respect for life stems from. I try to share my ideas with as many people as possible in hopes that they change the minds of other pro-abortion people they know too. It takes an army to make a change, but it only takes one to start.

My favorite scientist of all time is Nikola Tesla because of the determination and persistence he embodied. He spent a great portion of his career and life trying to find a way to harvest free energy which scientists now say is physically impossible. Quite literally, Tesla believed that he could achieve his impossible dream. He never accomplished his goal, but he never gave up on it either, and that is why he is my favorite.