Ever since the second grade, when I step onto the tennis court time always seems to fly. But tennis brought many challenges when I began to play competitively in high school. I solely based my outlook on results, which quickly evolved into a vicious cycle of regret. Every time I lost, my confidence in the sport dropped. Everything changed when I was practicing alone, and a group was playing on another court nearby. One of them, Al, invited me to play doubles, and soon after we exchanged contact information. Al introduced me to a doubles group and I found out he was retired and totally focused on tennis. I realized his passion for tennis went beyond the sport when he told us how grateful he was to be able to play with us. His favorite catchphrase is “never say no to tennis,” and he always laughs and smiles while he plays. Through Al’s influence, my focus shifted from winning to having fun. Every game I played was a victory in itself, just because I was able to play the sport I love. I began to play more consistently, eventually reaching days where I felt balanced in my game. As I continued playing I kept meeting new players, creating and fostering friendships, and forming new memories. I’ve been able to utilize the lessons tennis has taught me to enjoy many aspects of my life, from something as physical as going to the gym to something as introspective as journaling. Al has shown me to enjoy and be grateful for my education. Before meeting Al, I was just showing up to school to show up and to try to get a good grade. Because of Al, I am able to see the deeper purpose of education, using the knowledge I learn to help and inspire others to better understand themselves. With this new perspective, I found psychology interesting and started reading books about social behavior such as "How to win friends and influence people" by Dale Carnegie. I also started thinking about the other person's interests in conversations, as I conversed with new people to make new connections and friendships off and on the court. I also started enjoying working with kids with special needs more, as I found it to be a lot of fun learning more about them and having a genuine interest in them. I am grateful for tennis and the people I have met along the way such as Al.

The people around me inspire me to get involved with my community and to be more in touch with my community. Especially connecting with my friends and family inspire me to be more heavily invested in helping to create change within my community. I have mostly created change through volunteering with special needs and spending quality time with them. Volunteering has changed my mindset on my role in my community and who my community was. My original sense of community was the city at large, and how I had to try to help everyone I can with my resources. But my community was right in front of me: my mom, my dad, my friends, and the new people I meet every day are the community that I need to look after. I also initially didn't really have a purpose to why I was volunteering, and only thought about how it would benefit me through volunteer hours and free food. After volunteering with homeless people, I realized that volunteering is a lot bigger than myself and that I wanted to volunteer to help provide things that I already have. While volunteering at a homeless shelter, I would bake cookies and make food to give out, and seeing their smile receiving the food was everything. When volunteering with kids with special needs, being able to have a quality conversation with them, and asking about them made it great to see them see that their voice matters. I didn't take time to appreciate things in our life such as food, quality conversations, and spending time with friends and family, and I think realizing that I had that amazing privilege made me feel so grateful and thankful that I was able to share these things with others through volunteering. My mom works by herself to support me and would help alleviate the financial burden of paying for tuition. The $500 dollars would go a long way towards paying for textbooks, housing at the college, and just supporting my family. I am really grateful that this scholarship is available and I have been more mindful of how vital covering the cost of going to college is. Finally, this scholarship would help me be able to continue doing community service towards helping people with special needs and the homeless which is especially a big issue in the Bay Area. I work part-time to support my mom, but that has taken up time that I could use to volunteer to tutor kids with autism and play soccer. While volunteering for kids with autism, I would ask about their life and interests to start conversations. I actively listened to their stories and found our conversations to be more engaging and genuine. I felt incredibly grateful that some kids asked about my life when not many did. This made me see the impact of caring for someone else and how far such a small act could go. I want to use this money to allow myself to spend time with the people that matter most and to enjoy every moment with them.

I loved watching the show Amazing Race as a kid, and this exploration would be a great way to spend a weekend with friends. Even though the latest I’ve ever been up was 4 AM working on a final project, I want to see what pulling an all-nighter would feel like. I would like to spend my all-nighter playing tennis with someone at 2 AM and then binge-watch the newest season of You, on Netflix, for the rest of the night. Most nights before I sleep, I do exercises in the living room with a kettlebell and I stretch using a foam roller. Right before I sleep I like to read, journal, and meditate to reflect on how my day went and what I’m grateful for. I plan to give back to my community by continuing to volunteer by helping special needs kids. Volunteering has changed my mindset on my role in my community and who my community was. My original sense of community was the city at large, and how I had to try to help everyone I can with my resources. But my community was right in front of me: my mom, my dad, my friends, and the new people I meet every day are the community that I need to look after. I also initially didn't really have a purpose to why I was volunteering, and only thought about how it would benefit me through volunteer hours and free food. After volunteering with homeless people, I realized that volunteering is a lot bigger than myself and that I wanted to volunteer to help provide things that I already have. While volunteering at a homeless shelter, I would bake cookies and make food to give out, and seeing their smile receiving the food was everything. When volunteering with kids with special needs, being able to have a quality conversation with them, and asking about them made it great to see them see that their voice matters. I didn't take time to appreciate things in our life such as food, quality conversations, and spending time with friends and family, and I think realizing that I had that amazing privilege made me feel so grateful and thankful that I was able to share these things with others through volunteering. My mom works by herself to support me and would help alleviate the financial burden of paying for tuition. The $500 dollars would go a long way towards paying for textbooks, housing at the college, and just supporting my family. I am really grateful that this scholarship is available and I have been more mindful of how vital covering the cost of going to college is. Finally, this scholarship would help me be able to continue doing community service towards helping people with special needs and the homeless which is especially a big issue in the Bay Area. I work part-time to support my mom, but that has taken up time that I could use to volunteer to tutor kids with autism and play soccer. While volunteering for kids with autism, I would ask about their life and interests to start conversations. I actively listened to their stories and found our conversations to be more engaging and genuine. I felt incredibly grateful that some kids asked about my life when not many did. This made me see the impact of caring for someone else and how far such a small act could go. I want to use this money to allow myself to spend time with the people that matter most and to enjoy every moment with them.

The biggest lesson I have learned is respect. I respect my instructors for teaching me kicking combinations, self-defense, weapons forms, and how to spar. I learned how to respect myself and love unconditionally while sharing that love with others. I began to appreciate having a job and appreciating what I learned in taekwondo, and being able to share the things I have learned with new students is excellent. I began to understand my instructors' reasons for instilling the values of discipline and respect in me, and I thank them for being very patient with other students and me throughout our martial arts journey. Even though for the past year I have been teaching, I feel like I have been the one learning about how grateful I am to work with these students and I've learned the joy of teaching and spreading my knowledge to others. Taekwondo also taught me the importance of looking back, and it showed me how far I have come. I have overcome asthma and I haven't had an asthma attack in over 5 years. I was able to overcome my fear of judgment, and now the only thing I fear is not giving everything I do my best effort. Because of taekwondo, I want to leave everything out on the field, and not take any moment and memory in life for granted.

Volunteering has changed my mindset on my role in my community and who my community was. My original sense of community was the city at large, and how I had to try to help everyone I can with my resources. But my community was right in front of me: my mom, my dad, my friends, and the new people I meet every day are the community that I need to look after. I also initially didn't really have a purpose to why I was volunteering, and only thought about how it would benefit me through volunteer hours and free food. After volunteering with homeless people, I realized that volunteering is a lot bigger than myself and that I wanted to volunteer to help provide things that I already have. While volunteering at a homeless shelter, I would bake cookies and make food to give out, and seeing their smile receiving the food was everything. When volunteering with kids with special needs, being able to have a quality conversation with them, and asking about them made it great to see them see that their voice matters. I didn't take time to appreciate things in our life such as food, quality conversations, and spending time with friends and family, and I think realizing that I had that amazing privilege made me feel so grateful and thankful that I was able to share these things with others through volunteering. My mom works by herself to support me and would help alleviate the financial burden of paying for tuition. The $500 dollars would go a long way towards paying for textbooks, housing at the college, and just supporting my family. I am really grateful that this scholarship is available and I have been more mindful of how vital covering the cost of going to college is. Finally, this scholarship would help me be able to continue doing community service towards helping people with special needs and the homeless which is especially a big issue in the Bay Area. I work part-time to support my mom, but that has taken up time that I could use to volunteer to tutor kids with autism and play soccer. While volunteering for kids with autism, I would ask about their life and interests to start conversations. I actively listened to their stories and found our conversations to be more engaging and genuine. I felt incredibly grateful that some kids asked about my life when not many did. This made me see the impact of caring for someone else and how far such a small act could go. I want to use this money to allow myself to spend time with the people that matter most and to enjoy every moment with them.

Growing up, I always saw myself in the passenger seat with my family driving my life story. The summer after my junior year, I realized that I was ultimately responsible for my own goals and development. That summer, I was talking to a friend who constantly talked about how he was working on improving himself and doing things he wanted to do. I realized that I must take action to improve myself by strengthening my core habits. In the morning, I play tennis or work out at the gym instead of staying in bed, scrolling through Instagram. Instead of using my phone before I sleep, I now set a book aside and read. My sleep has improved ever since, and I am more energized because of these new habits. To better my social skills, I started reading about improving my social interactions with others. As a result of reading books such as Atomic Habits, my connections with people are growing stronger and more genuine. One of my favorite skills is making habits easier to form. I’m going to the gym consistently and finding it more enjoyable because I want to improve my tennis game. For example, I would exercise the abdominal muscles to allow for greater hip rotation during tennis. Through self-improvement, I’ve grown into a stronger and more confident person who sees every situation as a learning opportunity. By improving one aspect of my life every day, I am constantly growing. In college, this skill will help me navigate challenges both interpersonally and academically. This scholarship would help me be able to continue healthy habits such as going to the gym and tennis while attending college. My mom works by herself to support me and would help alleviate the financial burden of paying for tuition. The $500 dollars would go a long way towards paying for textbooks, housing at the college, and just supporting my family. I am really grateful that this scholarship is available and I have been more mindful of how important covering the cost of going to college is. Finally, this scholarship would help me be able to continue doing community service towards helping people with special needs and the homeless which especially is a big issue in the Bay Area. I work part-time to support my mom, but that has taken up time that I could use to volunteer to tutor kids with autism and play soccer. While volunteering for kids with autism, to start conversations I would ask about their life and interests. I actively listened to their stories and found our conversations to be more engaging and genuine. I felt incredibly grateful that some kids asked about my life when not many did. This made me see the impact of caring for someone else and how far such a small act could go. I want to use this money to allow myself to spend time with the people that matter most and to enjoy every moment with them.

Ever since the second grade, when I step onto the tennis court time always seemed to fly. But tennis brought many challenges when I began to play competitively in high school. I solely based my outlook on results, which quickly evolved into a vicious cycle of regret. Every time I lost, my confidence in the sport dropped. Everything changed when I was serving alone, and 3 people were playing on another court nearby. One of them, Al, invited me to play doubles, and soon after we exchanged contact information. Al introduced me to a doubles group and I found out he was retired and totally focused on tennis. I realized his passion for tennis went beyond the sport when he told us how grateful he was to be able to play with us. His favorite catchphrase is “never say no to tennis,” and he always laughs and smiles while he plays. Through Al’s influence, my focus shifted from winning to having fun. Every game I played was a victory in itself, just because I could play the sport I love. I began to play more consistently, eventually reaching days where I felt balanced in my game. One of my early struggles was keeping my 1st serve percentage high, and maintaining my confidence throughout a match. But as I took each game one point at a time, and one groundstroke at a time. I realized that I had more control over how well I played in the game than I thought. Although, I realized I had to dedicate time to my strengths such as my forehand and backhand. I also had to put extra time into working on my weaknesses such as making an overhead during a high lob and keeping my serve as consistent as possible. After my hitting session, I would stay a bit longer after practice to work on these skills day by day, and this slow progression and consistency of working on finding my craft helped me transform my game drastically. Through this, I was able to see each practice as a victory in itself and turned this vicious cycle of regret and guilt into gratitude and excitement to be able to step on the court. As I continued playing I kept meeting new players, creating and fostering friendships, and forming new memories. I’ve been able to utilize the lessons tennis has taught me to enjoy many aspects of my life, from something as physical as going to the gym to something as introspective as journaling. Being in the moment and treating each moment as precious and valuable has gone a long way and goes beyond tennis for me.