I had heard of many instances of gender disparities on the internet, but the first personal encounter I had with it was when my mom, a data analyst for an IT company, mentioned that a male colleague of hers earned higher than she did. Even though they held the same position and performed the same tasks, my mom had a more developed skillset and generally outperformed her male colleague. Yet for every dollar he earned, she saw 84 cents. In the eyes of the company, they didn’t work the same job: my mom was a female data analyst, and her colleague, a male data analyst. Although my mom moved to another company, I couldn’t move on. The gender inequalities my mom faced motivated me to work towards reducing and eventually eliminating discrimination in my career. As I volunteered at nursing homes and shadowed doctors, I realized that I was passionate about a career in medicine. I felt at home around patients. They sought relief from their medical issues, and although I was just a student volunteer, I was able to perform small tasks which eased their minds and comforted them, allowing recovery and healing. Healthcare in itself tends to be female-dominated, but evidence suggests that female patients are often restricted in their access to health information and decision-making autonomy. As an aspiring healthcare provider, I must confront prejudice when I see it, holding those around me accountable for their actions so that patients, regardless of gender, can make the most informed decision for themselves and their families. Currently, I am a Biology major at Baylor, where I study the anatomy and physiology of the human body in intricate detail, everything from how our cells interact with each other to the biochemical pathways that make up our nervous and endocrine systems. I continue to pursue this degree not only because I enjoy studying Biology as a science, but I see its importance in the way we approach gender disparities such as modern sexism. Biology is engrained in decades of research and yields evidence of logic and reason. Although men and women are biologically wired differently, there is little to no evidence that these biological differences cause men to be more likely to opt for jobs with more leadership, for instance. The fault lies within the biased systems of society that have enabled men to think they are more deserving of leadership positions simply because they are men. The same system that supports men also convinces women that they cannot take on responsibility and higher roles, leading to the gender disparities that we see in the government and corporate companies. With my degree, I hope to raise awareness against gender disparities using information backed by research and science, and hope to inspire others to be more open-minded and willing to mend the faults in our systems. Battles like gender inequalities cannot be fought alone, but we must remember that one small step today can move mountains tomorrow. As my mom and I learn from our experiences, we continue to educate and empower others so that no woman ever makes less than the dollar she deserves.

Our studio apartment consisted of a small kitchen across a single bathroom, a wooden cupboard, and a bed. This was no ordinary bed-- it was an old mattress cut in half, stacked, sewn together, wrapped in a floral green bedsheet, and topped with a matcha-colored blanket. My parents spent days working on the bed, and it’s creation became our little secret. While I slept with the comfort of the bed, my parents spent sleepless nights on a bristly floor; a thick blanket covered them, one that was often kicked off due to the heat. During the day, the bed became a couch to watch television on or the surface on which my parents played Scrabble everyday after work. I still recall this one night when things just became too stressful. None of us could eat or sleep. With our heads hanging in the palms of our hands, we sat at the dinner table looking at houses in other countries. I attempted to crack some jokes, but only got a smile out of my dad. At that moment, I was reminded of the bed from our studio apartment. My dad had the same smile when they finally found a bed sheet big enough to wrap the bed. So, I did as we did. I walked over to the couches in the living room and moved them around so that they were realigned symmetrically. Next, I swapped the coffee table in the hall with the bed side table in my room. I didn’t say anything, but we all understood. A couple hours later, late in the night, we had revamped our house, returning the joie de vivre that was abandoned on the doorstep. No matter what situation I am trapped in, reworking both my physical and mental environment has allowed me to press reset and continue on living life to the fullest. This same energy of resilience and optimism I hope to give back to my community, the very people that have supported us through our hardships, whether it was financially, physically, or emotionally. I study hard every day so that one day when I'm performing life-saving surgery, I can re gift the hope that my parents gave me the day they made me a bed. It may not seem like a lot, but a lot was never needed. What we need is love, empathy and togetherness. Our hand-made bed symbolized our love and togetherness for each other, and all it takes is discovering these little symbols, around us to know that it will be okay.

Every Saturday for four years, I remember going to my Abacus class that was beside a daycare center. Playing with brown beads in an oblong frame, I learned how to mentally subtract and divide, simply by moving the beads up and down. Even though I graduated from Abacus school in 2015, I still use it to this day, whether it be adding 25+8 or multiplying 40*92. This technique revolutionized the way I perceive mathematics: it allowed me to look at numbers in a more significant light. Math challenges the way I critically think by throwing unpredictable outcomes at me. Although most math problems have a singular solution, there are numerous methods to come to that solution. Solving a Rubik's cube, for instance, can be accomplished by over a quintillion different combinations, some methods involving algorithms and others trial-and-error. To me, math is a process. It requires attention to detail and can be mastered by practice. And so, every day after school, I would work on problems from my Abacus homework set that some days seemed to be endless. At times, it became frustrating, and on bad days, it made me hate doing math. Why couldn't I just use a calculator? Even to this day, two-digit numbers in my report card revive those feelings of despair and resentment. But, I kept going. I would erase all my work, and start over. Math is practical and numbers can be substituted by any object. I would use scenarios to visualize what the problem was asking, and tackle it one step at a time, breaking down the question and solving accordingly. The best part about math is that most people agree on most solutions most of the time, unlike sciences and other subjects that often have open-ended solutions and conclude in theories and possibilities. Recently I found myself using a similar method on a Statistics test. I couldn't quite figure out what the probability question was asking. So, I worked it out like I would've a difficult Abacus problem. Once I broke it down, it wasn't overwhelming and I was able to enjoy it, love it, truly understand the art and discovery that math is. Math is all around us, and for me, math is a big portion of my childhood. As I hope to pursue a career in the medical field, I am sure that being able to accurately dose medication and quickly calculating blood pressure will be vital, life-saving even. As I've come to befriend math over the years, I find him everywhere. And knowing he's everywhere is a comforting thought.