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I remember when I was in elementary school, my mother would challenge my sister and I to read books over the summer break. Our local library would host this event for kids where we would pick up a sheet of paper with all these diagrams scattered around the page. The goal was to read enough minutes over the break to color in all the pictures and receive a prize. By incentivizing us with a reward, my mom successfully established the foundation for my adventure with books.

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Throughout grade school, I came across many series of novels that sparked my interest. Two that come to mind are Captain Underpants and Diary of a Whimpy Kid. I can recall reading these books late at night in my bed, with my nightstand lamp illuminating the words on the pages. I absolutely loved these books and I would re-read them religiously.

As I got older and my vocabulary began to grow, it was always a competition among my friends to see who was reading the longest book. That's when I was introduced to Harry Potter. I was always intimidated by books with 400-700 pages, but these books took all the fear out of me. I was completely immersed into the fictional story, and I couldn't set them down. Eventually, I finished all seven novels and was quick to watch all the movies afterward.

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Entering middle school is arguably one of the toughest and most awkward times in someone's life. Coming from an environment where all my friends were in my class, starting 6th grade with unfamiliar faces surrounding me made me very uncomfortable, but also eager to make new friends. As time went on, I began to get more rowdy and rebellious, basically your typical middle school brat. My parents, along with a few other families, thought it would be best to send my friends and I to a Christian camp called Camp Kivu.

At Camp Kivu, our days were cluttered with various activities and events that were assigned to us. One of the activities was Independent Bible Study, where I began to read about the lord. After two weeks of reading the Bible everyday, I took away many life lessons and things to think about to apply in my life in the future. In addition, I am still curious to read the rest of the Bible and learn about the story of God.

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Outside of school, I never wrote for fun. My interests included my friends, athletics, and getting all my homework completed as fast as possible. My academic strengths weighed more toward the math and science side rather than the reading and writing side, so I never found much interest in creative writing. However, I did find interest in writing for a purpose.

When I was a sophomore in High School, I applied to be an outside staff member at a Golf Club. I would've never guessed I would have to write an essay during the job. But every year, my work offers scholarships to employees that are seeking money to pay for college. The application was simple: write an essay about why you deserve a scholarship. In the end, I ended up winning a small scholarship I used to help pay to go to school at CU.