I have been undecided about what career I want to pursue in the future, but I know without a doubt that I want to be involved with animals everyday. I have raised rabbits for nine years for the county youth show and 4H, cared for several different pets, and I have a summer job working at a boarding and grooming business for pets. My dream is to be able to be around animals everyday of my life because they absolutely make my day! I plan on making a difference in the career of my choice in the future by treating everybody(including animals) with kindness and respect. I hope that my kindness and respect will brighten everybody's day and help them to love their job. When somebody treats others with kindness, they make others feel good and even make themselves feel good too. I want to make others happy be treating them kindly and giving them my undivided attention. One of the kindest things that you can do is to just listen to others problems. Thankfully, I am really good at listening to others and sympathizing their pain. I love to help people and I try to advise them the best I can. Even fulfilling small acts of kindness can change the world, so there isn't a single reason why we shouldn't treat others with kindness. Clearly, we don't enjoy everybody's company, but we should still treat others with kindness even if they aren't kind to you. Treating others with respect can make a huge impact because it makes the other person feel important and even contributes to the person's job satisfaction. I want everybody to pursue jobs they love so that they can have the best life possible. Many people that feel disrespected and unappreciated, absolutely hate their jobs. Respect should automatically be in every professional and personal relationship because it creates healthy relationships. Everybody has certain people in their lives that make it difficult to respect them, but everybody deserves to feel respected in both professional and personal relationships. Respect is a necessity because it boosts people's moods, creates a fair environment, often a stress reliever, and gives a feeling of importance and purpose in life. I truly believe that treating others with kindness and respect can change any job field and can definitely change the world. I want to treat others with kindness and respect in my career so that they can have a great job experience and so that I can also enjoy my career. Usually, treating others with kindness and respect means that you get it in return. With more kindness and respect in a chosen career, the happier the employees and employers will be.

Joy to me means to have a feeling of pleasure and happiness. The way that I find joy in my life is by hanging out with my family and being around animals. My family and I love to go on camping trips with each other, hang around the fire, and play games together. My family goes on camping trips at least three times a year. We even spend more than eight hours together in a cramped vehicle and still manage to have a good time. Spending time with my family makes me feel loved and makes me happy. Being around animals has always made me happy. I took horse lessons when I was little, raised rabbits for 9 years, and I have had several pets during my life. Being around animals makes me happy because they make me forget about my stressful and busy life. I love being around animals so much that I even have a job working with animals this summer. I used to have a very stressful job, but now I have a job that actually makes me happy.

What motivates me on a daily basis is my family. Either I get through the long week thinking about the fun that I will have on the weekend with my family or I think about how I can make my parents proud. I absolutely love spending time with my family whether it's dirt biking at my grandmas, playing cards, grilling, camping, or swimming. My family is really close because we spend a lot of time together and we go on week long vacations at least twice a year. I have been completing as many scholarships as I possibly can for months now. I am trying really hard to pay for college with cash and not rely on my parents to pay for my college tuition for me. I want to do everything I can to make it easier on them financially. My family motivates me to be the best that I can be on a daily basis. They push me to step out of my comfort zone and to do things I couldn't do on my own. Without my family, I wouldn't be who I am today. I am so grateful to have such a wonderful, loving family.

One of my fondest memories is visiting a local nursing home with my church's youth group. I really enjoyed the experience because I had the opportunity to hear an elderly lady's life story and play cards with other elderly men and women for an entire afternoon. I have also helped an old lady move all of the plants from her greenhouse to her yard for her enjoyment. I have really enjoyed hanging out and helping the elderly men and women in my community. Many of them are really nice and interesting. I believe that the elderly people in our community have a lot to say and teach us. We can improve the lives of elderly people living in the nursing homes by just visiting and hanging out with them. Many elderly people get very lonely and depressed while in the nursing home because nobody visits them. If youth groups from churches or volunteer groups from school visited local nursing homes, then I believe that the quality of these men and women's lives would improve tremendously.

If I could share one sentence with the world, I would share an inspiring, life fulfilling quote. "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breaths away." The author of this quote is unknown, but it inspires people to life their life to the fullest. When I hear this quote, I am always moved at how powerful it is. One of the moments in my life where my breath was taken away was when I hiked to the very top of a mountain in Big Bend, Texas. As I was at the top, I looked down and I could see little houses and cars. Everything looked tiny and the world around me looked huge! My breath was taken away by the absolutely gorgeous view. It quite literally felt like I was on top of the world. This quote tries to tell people that life is not about how much money you have or how long you live, but rather how many blessed days you have. This quote is meant to reach out to somebody and make them want to focus more on quality instead of quantity. Life is meant to be lived, not just taken day by day. Many of us struggle just to get through the week, but we should look at each day as a blessing and make something of it. I want to share this quote with the world so that people can have the right mindset about how to live their life to the fullest, today!

Alison Hart has written a two book series, Shadow Horse and Whirlwind, that I absolutely love! I have read these two books at least a total of three times. I love these two books because they include intriguing mystery, romance, rescuing neglected animals, and because I love horses. This book is about a thirteen year old girl, Jas, that is found guilty for assaulting her grandfather's rich boss, Hugh Robicheaux. She attacked Hugh Robicheaux because she suspected that he killed her beloved horse, Whirlwind. Jas is sent to a foster home for forty-five days and under probation at a place called Second Chance Farm. Once in her new foster home, Jas tries to find proof of Hugh Robicheaux's scandal. In the process, Jas rescues an old horse from a horse auction that ends up leading her to the truth. These books not only entertained me, but they also helped me realize what I wanted my career to be. In these two books, Jas is sent to a farm that rescues many kinds of animals and nurses them back to health. Many of the animals in the book have been abused and neglected, but Jas helps the farm owner nurse them back to health. My dream is to own a farm that helps and rescues animals that don't have homes or have been neglected.

I have been listening to advice from Dave Ramsey and taking his online financial classes. Dave Ramsey advises young adults to pay with cash for college and for vehicles. With students paying cash for big purchases or expenses such as college or cars, they can avoid having to pay back interest on student loans or car payments. When young adults pay for their college with cash instead of student loans, they are avoiding going into debt. My goal is to graduate from college debt free and to have a car of my own. During my college years, I will have at least one part time job and I will apply to as many scholarships as I possibly can in order to reach my goals. I will also have to put money aside each month to save up for a car of my own. If students take the time to work hard for their four years of college and don't take out student loans, they will have the financial freedom to start their adult life fresh. Once graduated from college, they can apply to their dream job and start a family. By avoiding student loan debt or car payments, they can live the life they want because they worked hard to pay for big purchases with cash.

Nature is absolutely amazing! Anybody who loves being outdoors would agree. I have gone on hiking expeditions since I was in diapers with my parents and I have gone on rock crawling adventures in jeeps through national parks with my family. I love being around the natural world with animals, beautiful plants, trees, and fresh air. Being in nature is my stress reliever and my escape from my crazy busy world. My dream job is to help animals in their natural habitat. I have considered several jobs such as a veterinarian, park ranger, and wildlife conservationist. I would love to help nurse animals back to health and release them back into their homes. I believe that forests, lakes, rivers, prairies, and other ecosystems should be protected and conserved for the animals that them in them. With these ecosystems protected, both animals and people can enjoy nature. People can enjoy nature by hiking, fishing, floating down a river, doing yoga, kayaking down rivers, and even just siting and relaxing. My absolute favorite thing to do is to listen to the sounds of nature such as a waterfall or birds singing.

I have always loved to travel and go places with my family. I have been to several states in the United States including Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, Oklahoma, Alabama, New Mexico, Colorado, Arkansas, Utah, and Arizona. My bucket list includes visiting all the states in America, going on an African Safari, riding a horse through the mountains of Montana like a cowboy, eat Italian gelato in Italy, pet and ride an elephant, see grizzly bears in Alaska, become completely fluent in another language, build a secluded log cabin in the middle of nowhere, stargaze in the dessert, make a friend in a different country, stay up all night to see the sunrise, complete the 75 hard challenge, donate blood, pay for somebody else's meal, and visit Canada in the winter. The items on my bucket list that I have actually completed is stargazing in the dessert(Big Bend, Texas), staying up all night to see the sun rise, paying for somebody else's meal, and donating blood. I dream all the time about the great adventures I'll have in the future when I get to meet new people and visit amazing, new places. I absolutely can't wait to complete all of the other items on my list!

Something valuable that I have learned about myself is that I am stronger mentally and physically than I actually think I am. I love to compete in sports, athletics, and academically. I joined athletics my junior year because I wanted to be healthier and to get fit. However, at first I was afraid to join athletics that late into high school. I feared that I wouldn't be strong enough physically to keep up or compete with the other girls. I definitely underestimated myself. Now, I love working out and I am one of the hardest working girls in athletics. I also stepped up my game during my junior year when it came to taking harder classes. I started to take dual credit and AP classes to challenge myself. I went from being the smartest kid in average classes to being average in harder classes. I struggled for a couple months to balance all of the hard work with the things I loved to do, but of course I passed the classes despite the challenges thrown at me. Even though I may be average in my harder classes, I am still challenging myself mentally. The best thing that you can do for yourself is to constantly challenge yourself mentally and physically. Without pushing yourself to be the best that you could possibly be, you'll never know what you're missing. I try to push myself everyday to be even better than the day before.

I believe that the biggest problem in the world right now is prejudice. Prejudice means that people create or form opinions without experience or clear reasoning. Our society shows this problem a lot for religion and racial issues. Many assume that Christians think that they will have a better life because they do good deeds or believe in God. However, this is clearly not true. All Christians have a hard time and struggle in life, but choose to follow and believe in the Lord. I know that my life is better because I believe in God, but I am not given more fame and riches because I believe in him. People also believe Christians look down on those who don't believe in God, but most don't care what you believe in. Christians just want to help those in need or brighten somebody's day. Prejudice can also be seen in racial issues in our world. Many people decide how they feel about a person before they get to know them. People may assume that different races act a certain way due to stereotypes. However, stereotypes of different races are usually wrong. Sadly, some people may think of other races as inferior. It's sad to see our world making pre-formed opinions on people they don't even know. I believe that people are people no matter what the color of their skin is and that we should all treat each other with respect. In our world today, prejudice is a huge issue. Everyone makes a pre-formed opinion about strangers everyday. We should get to know people before assuming who they are, because everybody is unique.

In order to make your friends, family, or other people in your life feel loved, you can't just be there for them physically, you also have to be there for them mentally. You must be there when things are good and when things are bad. The way that I show love to the people around me is to cheer them up. I like to make cookies or give gifts to people who are going through hard times. I try to put a smile on their face or distract them from what is making them upset. My mom has been really stressed lately with her full time job as a Dental Hygienist and her side job as a realtor. The best thing that I can do for my mom when she is stressed is to complete simple tasks around the house such as mowing the lawn, doing the dishes, or making dinner for the family. People can see how much you care about them when you help them at their lowest. Helping people feel better when they aren't feeling good, when they're upset, or just completing simple tasks for them can show how much you love them.

My favorite way to help others is by giving. Giving may include giving my time, handing out cookies/sweets, gifts, or donating money. I absolutely love surprising people with gifts or helping out a friend. I try to help people out when they need a little bit of money or they just need a friend. The three most memorable times that I gave to others was when I baked chocolate chip cookies for my entire tennis team on each tournament day, helped underclassmen pay to get their phones back from the office since they didn't have money and couldn't reach their parents, and also when I gave some of my time to help an elderly woman move some of her plants around her yard. I absolutely love helping and giving to others because it makes me feel good and benefits the other person. When we help others, we can really make an impact on them and we can remember our acts of kindness for the rest of our lives!