I would like to see differences first in my community by being open to others' ideas. The community that I live in is very set in its ways. If they could be available to others' ideas, our society would be much better. The way I could help is by giving out my ideas as much as possible even though they might be stubborn and stuck in their ways there might be a few of those people who are willing to listen. Now the difference secondly that I would like to see in my country is seeing the importance of others. Our nation is so selfish and stuck on itself and does not care about the people that are in our nation. Our nation is also missing the values that we were built upon. The values that our nation was built on were biblical values. Now we are getting away from the Lord and now we are stuck on ourselves. The way that I could help make a difference in my nation is by showing the biblical principles that we were built on. I would try to tell others that we are away from the Lord and need to get closer to Him. I would send to the people that are running our nation to get back to our biblical principles. Now the difference thirdly that I would like to see in the world is by seeing that the reason that we are all fighting against each other is because of our sinful nature. Now our sinful nature will never be taken away until the Lord comes back but bringing the Lord back into all the nations of the world will help with this. The way that I would try to help is by promoting that the nations need to get back to the Lord and let missionaries come into there nations and help them.

The way that I will maintain mental health while being in school is to not be on screens very often. When I am on screens of any type for more than 1 hour, my mind seems as if it is drained, and I can't think. In my life, I have caught myself sometimes on electronics too often, and later that day my mind does not feel as sharp. Another way I will maintain my mental health in school is by eating the right food. The number one thing that affects how I think for the rest of the day is how much sugar I am eating. When I eat much sugar, it causes me to have a daze in my brain, and I can't think very well. I am trying to do this right now. Even though it is difficult, I believe not consuming so much sugar can help me think clearly. The way that I will maintain physical health is by staying in the gym. As an athlete, I must stay in pristine condition and do my best to stay physically strong. Even though I do go to the gym, I can get injuries there if I do not do workouts correctly. Staying strong means no injuries and being smart on how to get stronger. Another way I will maintain physical health is by running. Running I believe is a great muscle builder if you do it correctly. Running is even something I struggle with and can be hard to be dedicated to running. Having great stamina is an athlete's greatest strength in any sport. As a baseball pitcher, I must have great stamina to make it far in a game. Great strength for me to maintain physical health is by running. The way that I will maintain nutritional health is by eating non-sugar food. Most of the time as I sugar it makes my mind tired and my body sluggish. This is probably the hardest thing for me not to do, but when I do not eat sugar I feel great. When I do eat sugar I do not feel the greatest. Now eating some sugar every once and a while if fine but eating it a lot is not the best thing for me. Another way that I will maintain nutritional health is by putting every part of a good diet in my daily food. Sometimes someone can get too much of something in their diet which is unhealthy. As I am currently changing the way I eat, I believe that I can stay healthier and stronger if I eat better and correctly.

The team that I play for is called Southern Smoke. The age group that I play for them is 17u. This year I believe that we will have a great offense and a solid defense but pitching may be our weakest part of the team. We only have 3 starters that I know of including myself. For this upcoming season, we will have 6 tournaments that we will play. The days are from Thursday to Sunday. This is always my favorite time of year. The reason that I love baseball is that it takes great work and skill to play. As Ted Williams said, " I've always said that hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports." And he is correct. Hitting a baseball takes a lot of practicing and putting in the work. If you don't try hard enough then you will never be a successful hitter. Now there are some prodigies out there that can probably do this but to most people, it takes a lot of time, practice, and work. But what is also hard is throwing the rock hard. There are so many mechanics and explosiveness in pitching that if you are off by one thing you can lose your speed and your control. As a pitcher, it can be very difficult to have repetition on the mound. My favorite player of all time was Bob Gibson. He was a bulldog on the mound. He intimidated everyone who came up to the plate. He never let the hitter get into his mind but instead, he always got into the hitter's mind. My goal is to be like him where he can intimidate the hitters and make them feel uncomfortable in the batter's box. My favorite team of all time is the St. Louis Cardinals. The reason why they have been my favorite team is because of the history and the respect of the fans. Every time I see the Cardinals play I see the clase in them. Whether it be game 60 out of 162 or game 7 of the World Series they always act the same. My favorite position is the pitcher. Growing up I pitched some but played a lot of shortstop. But as I grew older many coaches saw that I had a live arm and could throw hard. Because of this, it caused me to pitch a lot. With this, it has become my primary position and I love it. There is so much strategy that a pitcher has to go through. They have to know what to do in every situation. They have to locate their pitch and throw it with speed. They have to throw off the batter's timing and keep him guessing always. Because of this, I love pitching and it will always be my favorite position.

The financial advice that I have been given that has changed my life is two things-save and no debt. Saving was the first thing that changed my life. I was taught to save at a young age and I can see why they would want me to. Growing up when I saw something I would want it but I was always told no and to save the money for something better. Now growing up I can see what that better is. Many times when I was younger I could only see the here and now which is what most children do. Now at the age of 17, I can see why I need to save up. There are many things that I need to save up on. One is a car, the second is college, and the third is a house. I am taught that while I'm in college I am to do my best in the classroom but also do my best in a hard-paying job. I have already started the working path and am almost on to going to college soon. The second thing that changed my life was having no debt. When I was younger I could see the stress it had on a person when they had debt. My parents when they first got a house and car they got into debt. Now they are still paying it off to be debt free. Because they feel the pain of debt they have taught me that I must live my life debt free. They have said that debt is like a chain that once it is on you it will always stay with you. I have taken that advice. I have never been in debt and never will be. Temptations may come but I know that I need to stay away from the chains that will hold onto me forever. There are many examples that I can use to make me not want to have debt but there is one that has helped me make sure I will stay out of debt. There was a man who went to school to be an orthodontist. He made it out with a bachelor's degree debt free. Once he went for his master's degree he got his first loan and then keep building upon that loan until he was 1 million dollars in debt. Now he is chained and seems to be stuck with this debt for the rest of his life. Hearing and seeing this story it makes me not want to get into debt and stay debt free for the rest of my life. This is the financial advice I have been given that has changed and will change my life.

The song with the most essential message is "Victory in Jesus". This is my favorite song because it shows what Jesus did for us: to die on Calvary for everyone. This song also shows what he did when he was on this earth. He healed the sick and made the blind see it says in the song. At the end of the song, it shows what he did for us so we can see him again and have salvation. It says, "He sought me, and He bought me with His redeeming blood; He loved me 'ere I knew Him and all my love is due Him; He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood. He has done this for us and had redeemed us with His blood now all we must do is accept him. Many times we think it's too hard or we think we are good enough when in reality we are not good enough. Our sin is too great for us to bear. Because of this Jesus came down to die for the guilty and redeemed us from our sins all we must do is accept Him.

Sports has impacted my life tremendously. One way is by determination. When I play sports, I am determined to be the best I can be. With this determination, I turned it over into my daily life. No matter how hard it is, I will do my best to do the best that I can. Many times I fail but many times I succeed, but no matter what I am determined to do better. If I would have not done sports, I believe that I would have very little if no determination. Another way that sports impact my life is strength. In sports, there is strength required not only physically but also mentally. My physical strength has helped me be able to do things that maybe a normal person could not do. I can also help people get stronger physically and help them get stronger for life. My mental strength has helped me stay mentally strong for the hard times in life and also the easy times in life. I believe this is the hardest thing to get as an athlete is mental strength. I think if one can get the mental strength first then the physical strength will be easier to get. If a person can put away all the distractions and the criticism of people then they can get stronger physically. Time management is another way sports has impacted my life. When I play sports I have to manage my time very well because anything can happen at any moment. With time management it helps me make a schedule. During a day I type out what I'm going to be doing that day. Finally, another way that sports impact my life is how to work under pressure. As a baseball pitcher I am always under pressure. Wether it be no one on base or bases loaded I am always pressured to do my best and do it correctly. This has helped me in my job and helped me be a good manager. I am always good under pressure and try to help others how to deal with pressure. What motivates me to pursue a sports-related degree is to help others. When I get this degree I want other people to do better than I could ever do. The dreams that I pursue with my degree is to make my own baseball facility. I want to make a travel baseball team and do instruction to help other people.

How I am going to become financially literate is by many steps. The first thing that I plan on doing is by working a job while I'm in high school. I plan on getting money for the first year of college already. While getting money for the first year of college I will be doing scholarships like this one. My goal is to get scholarships to help me with the cost of college. When I start I will not take out a loan at all and go all the way through college debt free. When I begin the first year of college I will be playing Baseball and during something with Business Management. During this time I will be doing small jobs so I can have some sort of income while I'm in college and playing baseball. Along with doing small jobs, I will be doing more scholarships to help with the next of college. In between the first and the second year of college, I will have a job. This will help to get more money for the next year of college. I will continue this cycle until I am done with my bachelor's degree. Once I am done with college I will possibly begin a business dealing with baseball. If I could do this it, I would be doing my dream job and would love to do it. I will be making a travel team and trying to help others in baseball and also in life. Once I get out of age and am financially stable then I will give it to another person and help them. How I am planning to help educate others by showing what I do as an example. Once I go through with how I am going to use my money I will be able to tell others how to be financially literate. It may be hard but it will be worth it in the long run. Many times we just see what is going to happen now instead of what will happen in the future. We must see the long road not what is going to happen now. I could help by showing them how to deal with a business and how to gain wealth. The number one thing not to do is to get into debt. Debt is like a chain that keeps you forever until you pay it off. My goal in life is to never get into debt.

Yes, I have owned a dog before. Her name was Roxy and she was in my life starting at the age of three. There were many great memories that we have had which is one of the roles that she had in my life. Starting at a young age when I would walk around she used to rip my diaper off for fun. Eventually, as I was growing up, I would run around and she would chase me and play around like she did when I was younger. Roxy no matter what. Even when she was dying she would still come up to me waging her tail. Whenever I would be happy or sad she would comfort me. Another role that she played in my life was always keeping me happy. Any time I would see her she would bring me joy whether I would be happy or sad. There is one memory that I specifically remember that made me very happy. One day I was crying in my room and the next thing I knew was that the door was open. Once I look I saw it was Roxy and she was coming to me to comfort me. Another role that she played in my life was loyalty. No matter if I were mad or sad she would come to me in any circumstance. Even though she is just a dog this is a character trait that I am trying to do better at as I go through life. One time when I was leaving school, I was upset about something and was pretty upset. When I came in she saw that I was upset and came to me. When she came to me it was as if she was speaking to me asking what was wrong. Once she came to me it made me a lot happier. When we had to put her down she was still waging her tail and looked like she was smiling the whole time. One more role she played in my life was enjoyment. Sometimes we get stuck on too many things though out our day that we forget to enjoy life. She always reminded me to do that. When I would get too busy or do many things she would always come up to me ready for me to pet her and to make me slow down. Dogs are a great way to help us enjoy life more and help us get away from what we are doing that day.