In this photo, I am standing with several performers and audience members, after a benefit variety show for the Morgan Harper for Congress campaign. Of all my experiences in college and all the activities in which I have been involved, this was perhaps one of the most significant to me personally; in collaboration with the staff of a campaign that was getting significant national attention, I helped to organize and stage a show for someone who gave me a great amount of hope for the future of my community. In fact, the show may be most significant in that it made me hopeful for the future and made me feel as though I was personally helping to effect some change within the community. As a younger person who will graduate with heaps of student debt into a world that will almost certainly be racked with crises, I realized through this show that, for the benefit of people in a similar position to me and in less privileged positions than my own, I have some duty to participate in change. I cannot wait for more people like Morgan Harper to appear and forward solutions; instead, I should participate in forwarding those solutions myself.

This is a photo from about four years ago, in which I am sitting with my mother, sister, and grandfather. Unfortunately, before the beginning of my Sophomore year, my grandfather passed away due to a recurrent illness. Though my grandfather and I sometimes disagreed on certain things, he was very supportive of me nonetheless, and was a very generous, kind person — though he would not necessarily admit that himself. Also, he was a very intellectually curious person, always seeking out new information about people, objects, and concepts; for example, he would always ask me questions about music and musical instruments and concepts, not because he was a musician himself but because he was simply curious about how music functioned. What I appreciate about my grandfather is, he always gave me something new to learn about or to research, when he found something we were both unsure of. He made me a more curious person, and that is something I intend to keep with me.

This is a recent heat-map of Earth, as it currently stands. Climate change and global warming are, in my opinion as a young person and student, the most important issues that needs to be addressed by my generation. After hearing dismal report after dismal report of the decline of climate stability and the indifference of some leaders in addressing the issues, I feel as though working toward stability is something I can begin now and continue after college.

This is my family from when we were on a trip in North Carolina a couple of years ago. Though I am no longer living with them, I have grown more appreciative of them as I have gotten older and one of the reasons I am in college is to ensure a good future for myself, my family, and whomever I may consider family in the future. Also, this photo doesn’t do justice to seeing that waterfall in real life; it’s a beautiful patch of woods.