As an active member on the board for a non-profit organization called, Victoria’s Sparks of Joy (VSOJ), I’ve had the privilege to deliver our mission of spreading moments of joy and comfort for families fighting childhood cancer at a deeper and more personal level. For the last four years, I’ve volunteered at the LA Ronald McDonald Houses (RMDH), constructing crafts and playing games with the kids, giving manicures for the mothers, and purses filled with everyday items such as soaps and tissues, in hopes to provide a sense of normalcy. We meet twice a month to prepare for events and collaborate upon ideas for fundraising. Each meeting roughly lasts two hours, however, this number fluctuates depending on how close we are to an event. Reflecting upon my time volunteering, many memories race to mind. However, the moment that has left the greatest impact was while I gave a mother a manicure. She shared with me her family’s excitement when they found out VSOJ was coming to visit the houses in LA – sharing that they made a countdown on their calendars. Her eyes lit up as she smiled, sharing how her daughter feels like a regular seven-year-old when we come to visit--not a pin cushion being consistently poked and prodded. Her body language slowly began to shift and her smile faded away. Attempting to mask a stream of tears, she softly whispered how much our visits meant to her as a mother, expressing how our VSOJ members get her daughter to laugh and smile. Though her daughter’s pain was not gone, it seemed to dissolve in our positive and uplifting spirits. It was at this moment, VSOJ’s mission became so much clearer to me. I now understand that VSOJ members leave a genuine impact upon these families and instill hope for a better tomorrow. This renewed realization inspired me to pursue a deeper involvement. I took up the position of team coordinator in 2020, upholding the responsibilities of structuring and leading team meetings to prepare for upcoming events, promoting to donors, and overseeing club expenses. In the beginning of my senior year, I independently started a branch to this organization, called Raising for Gold (R4G). As more families began to reach out in need of our support, VSOJ slowly began to struggle finding the funds to assist them. As a solution, R4G’s mission is to fundraise money to donate towards VSOJ’s programs. This experience reshaped my personal definition of self-capability, teaching me the value of dedication and commitment. Creating a club from the ground up that has thus grown from a five to forty-five member participation has amplified my aspiration of leaving a strong impact upon more families fighting childhood cancer. During September, R4G partnered with a leadership organization, to dedicate a week in light of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. With this, I enriched my teamwork and leadership skills as I organized groups of people to set up lunchtime activities, make cards and posters for the houses in LA, and hand out gold ribbons to pin on students’ backpacks. Seeing great success from this, I felt a surreal moment of pride and left with the confidence in my ability to expand upon VSOJ’s mission at the campus I attend this fall. Though I will be leaving the organization behind once attending college, its influence upon my life will NOT.

I came across this quote at the start of the new year in 2019. Looking for motivation, I made a quick google search to find some inspiring quotes. After searching, I printed out my favorites and pinned them above my desk. Not knowing this at the time, but one of those quotes led me to create a new definition of what constitutes a strong work ethic. The quote reads, “In life, there are no elevators to success, you have to take the stairs”. Every day, when I woke up, I would look at my small cluster of quotes upon my wall. Though, this specific quote always seemed to stand out from the rest. I believe it was because it was a constant reminder that success will not be achieved by all. Not because they aren’t capable of it but because they waste so much time searching for life’s elevator; trying to find the shortcuts instead of putting in the work and getting sweaty upon the stairs of success. This quote stood out above the rest because, at the time, I struggled to find the motivation within myself to put in the work on the days I didn’t feel like it. Sure it was easy on the days when I was full of determination, but on the days when my legs were weak from climbing the stairs; I tended to look for shortcuts. Though after hearing this quote; on those tiresome days, I would tell myself how important it was for me to keep climbing. No matter how hard I wished to stop and find a shortcut, these words taught me the only way to accomplish my goals is through the honesty of hard work. These words pushed me through my days of struggle and gave me the extra push to perceiver through my struggles found alongside the stairs of success.

Ever since I was little, there has been a special place in my heart for helping others. Growing up, a family friend, Victoria Smitherman was diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer. Our community came together every summer and hosted a huge bake and lemonade sale. At six, I wanted to help the best I could. Not allowed to use the oven, baking deserts was out of the question. So I turned to the only thing I knew how to make — yup, you guessed it, rainbow looms. For several months I spent my free time making rubber band bracelets, and keychains. I had so much fun doing something so selfless, that is when my love for helping others began. Since then, I've helped make blankets for the homeless, set up Relay For Life Events, make Sunshine Boxes for young cancer patients, etc. However, if I were to pick my most impactful act of community service, it would be my five-year participation at a small non-profit organization called Victoria’s Sparks of Joy (VSOJ). After my friend Victoria passed away, VSOJ was created in her legacy. Our mission is to deliver moments of joy, help, comfort, and support to kids with cancer and their families staying at the Los Angeles Ronald McDonald Houses. I along with a small group of high school students visit the houses in LA every few months. We play games and make various crafts with the kids. For their mothers, we hand out free new/lightly used purses and are filled with everyday items such as soap and tissues. In addition, we provide a free meal of love for the families. I am the current team coordinator meaning I work one-on-one with the families we are helping. I cannot put into words how much this organization has helped mold me to become the person I am today. Working with these families and hearing their stories has changed my perspective on life. As cliche as it is, it is nothing further from the truth. One experience that will stay with me forever is from a little 7-year-old girl from Nigeria. She had rare cancer called Mesothelioma, causing her severe muscle weakness, affecting her ability to walk and play. Though what struck my team and me the most was her attitude. She remained so bubbly and optimistic despite her having an illness that was slowly killing her. Her mother spoke broken English and told me how excited she and her daughter were when they found out VSOJ was coming to visit. She laughed and shared how her daughter feels like she is just a regular 7-year-old girl. Then all of a sudden she began to cry. As I comforted her, she whispered how much our visits mean to her as a mother. After spending months at the hospital and hearing bad news after bad news, she shared how our VSOJ members get her daughter to laugh and smile. Her mother seeing her little girl as a regular kid just for a moment meant the world. From that moment forward, I knew VSOJ's mission was bigger than myself, bigger than my team, and much bigger than a simple act of community service. Our visits meant the world to these kids and their families. It allows them to take a small moment to forget about their chronic illness and breathe. As the team coordinator, I am putting a heavy emphasis on the importance of our work. In addition, I will attempt to expand the number of members to further strengthen the legacy of Victoria as I move away to college.

This year in my leadership class we put a heavy emphasis on the importance of kindness. So much so we read a book about it, called Deep Kindness: A Revolutionary Guide for the Way We Think, Talk, and Act in Kindness written by Houston Kraft and created numerous campaigns to promote acts of kindness on our campus. One of the greatest takeaways from this experience is the idea that acts of kindness don’t have to be this grand gesture that requires a lot of effort and sacrifice. So many times I have found us overvaluing the word and creating a false definition. Yes, of course, big gestures such as financially supporting a student’s continuation of schooling is outstandingly kind; though even a simple phone call from a friend just checking in, is arguably the spitting image of the word. I along, with billions of others throughout the world found COIVD-19 to be one of the most difficult instances in my life. However, what I have come to realize is through all the social division and isolation mandates, acts of kindness had the perfect breeding ground. Now more than ever, acts of simplistic kindness were deemed more valuable and left a greater overall impact. A once insignificant phone call from a friend or a friendly smile from a neighbor suddenly became a moment that held great meaning. During the midst of the pandemic, it was difficult to see this truth. I took up a false reality that made me believe I was alone and held very little meaning in others’ lives. I disconnected myself from many of my friends and even some family members. I felt hopeless and so dull it was hard to motivate myself to accomplish anything, let alone get myself out of bed. I felt trapped in a hole of isolation that I unknowingly dug myself. That is, until one day an old friend of mine gave me a call. We caught each other up in our lives, talking for hours! Then my friend began to share about her newly found fitness plan and asked me to join her. Reluctant at first, after a little bit of persuasion, she got me to agree to start working out again. From that moment forward, she called me every day at 11:am sharp to do an at-home virtual workout. Because of her, I began to get up every day, brush my hair, and put on clothes other than my PJ’s. She didn’t know it then but including me in her daily workouts acted like a rope thrown into my seemingly endless pit of isolation, saving me from my own insecurity. It's because of this simple act of kindness displayed by an old friend that meant the absolute most. Kindness is easy and quite simple to understand. All that is required is a smile and a genuine attempt to help another by lending a hand, whether you believe they need it or not.

The score is 16-15 in the final set. My team is a point away from earning a bid into the Premier Volleyball League of Southern California. You can imagine the sweat beading down my face. My heart racing. My body aching. I go back to serve and zone everything out. The crowd. My team. My coaches. In this moment, it’s just me and the ball. I take a deep breath. “Here we go” I whisper to myself, “You got this”. Boom! I watch as if in slow motion the ball floating over the net. The other team shanks. Before I could even process what just happened I see my team around me running onto the court, cheering. We just won the bid to compete with the top 36 teams in Southern California! Some may think this game is my favorite moment on the court. Don’t get me wrong, the feeling of competing under high stress gives an unmatchable high, however, my response to this question is a little different. My favorite moment on the court was at a private lesson during my off-season a few years ago. I was training to make my high school volleyball team. Fairly new to the sport my dad and I Google volleyball coaches that offered private lessons in the area. We found a coach only an hour away and decided to give her a try. Thirty minutes into my first lesson she tells me, if this is how I play, there is no way I am going to make my high school team. She told me that I “wasn’t good enough and sure as hell not tall enough either”. I didn’t know what to say or what to even think. On the drive back home I cried and cried. “Maybe I’m not good enough,” I thought. I let her words rot inside of me like forgotten fruit. Instead, of her words motivating me to prove her wrong, they got under my skin, leaving me empty and defeated. To make matters even worse, the following month at tryouts, I didn’t make my high school team— just like how she said I would. Then at club tryouts, I didn’t make the team I was striving for, again! I was fed up with being seen as not good enough. I was fed up with feeling like I wasn’t good enough. You might be wondering, Gracie, why in the heck would this be your favorite moment on the court. To that I say, I’m grateful for that horrible private lesson because it taught me something extremely valuable. It taught me that no matter what I do or where I go, negativity will always arise. However, I now understand this truth cannot devour my mentality. I learned how to find strength within myself, not through the validation of others. This coach was who ironically pushed me farther than had anyone before. I didn’t know it then, but she pushing me to become my biggest motivator. Because of this coach, I found a greater passion within the game of volleyball. Volleyball became more than just a sport to me. It became my way of proving myself. I found a deeper passion to lay my heart out on the court. Practices were no longer tedious chores but a symbol of my resilience. It’s more than fair to say volleyball is not just physically challenging but mentally as well. The thoughts we feed ourselves are what fuel our game performance. A bad mentality leads to bad gameplay. It’s that simple. So you can imagine the results I began to see the moment I switched my mindset. I gained tremendous confidence on and off the court. I began to look at failure as something to be proud of instead of being shameful for. Achieving this mindset was no easy task. It was earned with a lot of blood sweat and tears. It called for a lot of late nights and self-acceptance. However my passion to prove myself outweighed any given struggle. I dream to coach other athletes on the importance of a productive mindset. I aspire to coach future volleyball players and teach them how to become their own biggest motivator. I argue physical ability can only take you so far; the athlete's mentality is what carries them beyond the rest. The beauty to the game of volleyball comes from pure grit and resilience. To further the game of volleyball, I aspire to ignite this mentality within future athletes.