Choices are everywhere. We all have to make choices in life, such as what you are going to have for breakfast that day or what clothes you wear. Some choices are bigger than others, like what profession you are going to do or where you are going to live. These bigger choices may take you longer to decide what the right choice for you is. Not everyone gets the option to decide what they want to do with their future. The right to choose is a gift but it's also our right as American citizens. We fought for the right to choose what we will do with our time here. We get a choice. But we can also make the wrong choice. The idea of choice is an important aspect of life. As humans we are flawed, we make mistakes, we fail, but we also get back up. Making mistakes is a natural part of life, everyone does it, but it’s what you do after that mistake that matters more than the mistake itself. How do you fix your mistakes? You get to choose. I have made a lot of choices while in high school. One of the first choices I made was whether or not to cheer my freshman year. I started high school during covid which was not ideal. Not only was I starting at a new and much bigger school, but I was also trying to get used to our “new normal”. Wearing a mask every day, not being allowed to hang out with my friends, being forced to quarantine anytime you got the slightest cold. Towards the spring we were told that we were going to be allowed to do outside sports with minimal spectators. Football, soccer, and baseball were starting up. I had cheered competitively and on the sidelines for 7 years, so I knew that I wanted to cheer in high school. But I had a job that I loved, and they weren't even sure if they were going to allow cheerleading to start up. If I had decided to cheer, I would have had to quit my job in order to allow time for practice, games and homework. In the end I decided that I would rather work than quit my job for a team that might not even happen. The consequence of this choice was that I missed a year of cheerleading during my high school career, but I wouldn’t change my decision even if I could go back in time. Right now, like most high school seniors, I’m trying to decide where I’m going to go to college this fall. Do I stay close to home and risk not gaining new experiences or do I leave and risk not seeing my family? But it's the fact that I get to make that choice, that’s important. Where I choose to attend college will ultimately decide my future. Not only does it decide where I’ll be living for at least four years, but it also decides who I’ll be friends with, where I get a job, and who I’ll be when I finish college. The word choice can bring up a lot of scary feelings and this by far is the scariest choice I’ve had to make. While I still have a couple months before I decide where I will be attending college, the anticipation of hearing back from my third and final school is maddening. But they all have a choice to make, do they accept me, or do they accept another candidate? Their choice will decide my future but it’s the fact that we all get a choice, that’s important. During my time at Fortuna High, I have struggled with severe social anxiety. It was to the point where I was struggling to leave my house every day. In April of 2023, I sought out help. I tried counseling and therapy, but nothing was working. In the end, my therapist, family and I all agreed that it was time I went on an anxiety relief medication. Once I started the prescription I noticed a difference almost instantly. I’m more outgoing and open about feelings. Even though I still struggle with anxiety today, I feel confident that I will be able to thrive in college.

Choices are everywhere. We all have to make choices in life, such as what you are going to have for breakfast that day or what clothes you wear. Some choices are bigger than others, like what profession you are going to do or where you are going to live. These bigger choices may take you longer to decide what the right choice for you is. Not everyone gets the option to decide what they want to do with their future. The right to choose is a gift but it's also our right as American citizens. We fought for the right to choose what we will do with our time here. We get a choice. But we can also make the wrong choice. The idea of choice is an important aspect of life. As humans we are flawed, we make mistakes, we fail, but we also get back up. Making mistakes is a natural part of life, everyone does it, but it’s what you do after that mistake that matters more than the mistake itself. How do you fix your mistakes? You get to choose. I have made a lot of choices while in high school. One of the first choices I made was whether or not to cheer my freshman year. I started high school during covid which was not ideal. Not only was I starting at a new and much bigger school, but I was also trying to get used to our “new normal”. Wearing a mask every day, not being allowed to hang out with my friends, being forced to quarantine anytime you got the slightest cold. Towards the spring we were told that we were going to be allowed to do outside sports with minimal spectators. Football, soccer, and baseball were starting up. I had cheered competitively and on the sidelines for 7 years, so I knew that I wanted to cheer in high school. But I had a job that I loved, and they weren't even sure if they were going to allow cheerleading to start up. If I had decided to cheer, I would have had to quit my job in order to allow time for practice, games and homework. In the end I decided that I would rather work than quit my job for a team that might not even happen. The consequence of this choice was that I missed a year of cheerleading during my high school career, but I wouldn’t change my decision even if I could go back in time. Right now, like most high school seniors, I’m trying to decide where I’m going to go to college this fall. Do I stay close to home and risk not gaining new experiences or do I leave and risk not seeing my family? But it's the fact that I get to make that choice, that’s important. Where I choose to attend college will ultimately decide my future. Not only does it decide where I’ll be living for at least four years, but it also decides who I’ll be friends with, where I get a job, and who I’ll be when I finish college. The word choice can bring up a lot of scary feelings and this by far is the scariest choice I’ve had to make. While I still have a couple months before I decide where I will be attending college, the anticipation of hearing back from my third and final school is maddening. But they all have a choice to make, do they accept me, or do they accept another candidate? Their choice will decide my future but it’s the fact that we all get a choice, that’s important. During my time at Fortuna High, I have struggled with severe social anxiety. It was to the point where I was struggling to leave my house every day. In April of 2023, I sought out help. I tried counseling and therapy, but nothing was working. In the end, my therapist, family and I all agreed that it was time I went on an anxiety relief medication. Once I started the prescription I noticed a difference almost instantly. I’m more outgoing and open about feelings. Even though I still struggle with anxiety today, I feel confident that I will be able to thrive in college.

Living in a small town like Fortuna means that almost everyone knows everyone. Community means everything to us and me. From big events like Autorama and the annual rodeo to simply coming together at school events. During the past 3 years of high school, I have been involved in many different clubs and organizations on and off campus. I started in Husky Leadership during my freshman year. Being in Husky Leadership is all about bringing our Fortuna High community together and making sure that everyone has an amazing experience during their time at our school. Another organization that I'm involved in is Future Farmers of America (FFA). Organizing and putting on monthly meetings with my team is one of my many tasks as an FFA officer. These meetings bring all of our FFA members into one room to discuss current events that are happening in our chapter. After every meeting, we have a fun event for students to participate in and create new friendships, like dodgeball tournaments, carnivals, and barbecues. During the spring of 2023, I participated in our local Chamber of Commerce Youth Ambassadors program. Through this program, I learned interview and public speaking skills as well as the opportunity to gain knowledge from people in our community. This opportunity allowed me to make new friends from different backgrounds and schools along with getting my name out into the community for future opportunities. School athletics is also a passion of mine. I have been a Fortuna Union High School cheerleader for the past three years. I got to travel to different cities for games and host camps for younger children who want to cheer in the future. Not only was I involved in school athletics, but I was also involved in sports outside of school. From 2014 to 2024 I was a competitive cheerleader for Triple Crown Dynasty. I started as a competitive cheer coach in March of 2020 and decided to pursue other things in June of 2023. During that time, I coached a lot of different teams. My proudest accomplishment as a coach was when my youth team won Nationals in Las Vegas in January 2023. I came on as a coach for this team in the middle of the season when their coach bailed on them. My boss asked if I would be willing to take over the team with her and I jumped at the opportunity. I got the opportunity to watch those girls grow in the two months that I was coaching them. As we waited for their turn to perform, I told them that no matter what happened on the mat, I was so proud of the progress they had made. When they went on the mat and hit a perfect routine, I couldn't have been happier. After everyone was done and awards were starting, we all sat in a group waiting anxiously. When we heard our names called for first, the smiles on those girls' faces, that was the best feeling a coach could ever have. Watching those little girls achieve their dreams and seeing all of their hard work pay, has to be my proudest accomplishment. Being a community comes in many different forms, like coaching, volunteering, or just showing up to events to support each other. Growing up in a small town like Fortuna means that almost everyone knows everyone. And that everyone helps everyone. While living in a small town has its downsides, I wouldn’t have wanted to grow up anywhere else.

Agriculture plays a major role in my family, my community and our country. My father, grandfather, and great-grandfather have been in the commercial fishing industry for generations. My great grandfather started fishing and running boats with his father when he was just a little kid. He later started Hunter’s Offshore Enterprises out of Eureka, California in 1964. He was also a partner in Eureka Fisheries, which closed in 2001 and later burned down in 2018. After his passing, the family business was passed down to his son, my grandpa. He now owns the family company and our two commercial fishing boats. The business will one day be passed down to my dad who currently manages the family company out of Eureka, California and Brookings, Oregon. From the start of my life to the beginning of my high school career, agriculture has played a major role in my life. When I started high school I wasn’t sure where I was going to fit in or if I was going to fit in. I signed up for agriculture classes thinking that it would be a fun experience and ended up finding a family within my FFA chapter. I started a small garden in my backyard and signed up to be a committee chair for chapter. My junior year I was elected as our chapter FFA school board representative. It was my job to keep our school board members informed on the activities and accomplishments of our chapter; I was the bridge between the school board and our chapter members. This year I was elected as our chapter historian. It is my duty to keep an accurate record of chapter achievements so that our members are motivated to get involved in our monthly activities. I also take pictures at every event to put in our chapter scrapbook so that future members can look back on the memories we have made throughout the years. Growing up in northern California agriculture is everywhere. From dairy to our local county fair, and from fishing to forestry; everywhere you look agriculture is present. I didn’t grow up in the traditional agricultural household; living on a farm or ranch, with livestock in my backyard, and on the outskirts of town; instead I grew up in the suburbs with my dog and cat but that didn’t prevent me from growing up loving the industry. I watched my dad manage our family company as well as working on different fishing committees. His love and passion for advocating for the fishing industry has driven me to want to advocate for the entire agriculture industry and help with the process of getting agriculture in the classroom in order to teach kids what agriculture is all about. Agriculture not only plays a big role in my life, but in the lives of many people around the nation. My family, my community, and my teachers are just some of the many reasons that I have decided to pursue a career in agriculture. Agriculture is often seen as a career that's only open to the people who grew up in small towns, with lots of land and animals. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Agriculture is for everyone. My life and my experiences in the field are just one way to prove that.

I have always seen myself attending a four-year university. What I intended to study while in college has changed many times throughout my life. When I was little into my freshman year of high school, I wanted to be a chef and own a restaurant. When I started my sophomore year, I thought that I was going to pursue a career as a criminal prosecutor because I was obsessed with the Criminal Minds TV show, which I still am obsessed with. During my freshman year of high school, I started taking agriculture classes and joined our FFA chapter. I soon fell in love with agriculture and all of the opportunities that are available in the field. As a senior in high school, my educational and career goals currently consist of getting my bachelor's degree in agriculture business and possibly pursuing a career as a small farm agriculture lawyer. Whether I ultimately decide to become a lawyer or not, I plan to open a ranch and breed livestock animals to sell to students to show at county fairs. Along with my extracurricular activities, I excelled in AP and honors courses such as AP Language and Composition, AP US History, AP Government, Honors Economics, Honors Statics, Honors Precalculus, and AP Literature and Composition.

Agriculture plays a major role in my family, my community and our country. My father, grandfather, and great-grandfather have been in the commercial fishing industry for generations. My great grandfather started fishing and running boats with his father when he was just a little kid. He later started Hunter’s Offshore Enterprises out of Eureka, California in 1964. He was also a partner in Eureka Fisheries, which closed in 2001 and later burned down in 2018. After his passing, the family business was passed down to his son, my grandpa. He now owns the family company and our two commercial fishing boats. The business will one day be passed down to my dad who currently manages the family company out of Eureka, California and Brookings, Oregon. From the start of my life to the beginning of my high school career, agriculture has played a major role in my life. When I started high school, I wasn’t sure where I was going to fit in or if I was going to fit in. I signed up for agriculture classes thinking that it would be a fun experience and ended up finding a family within my FFA chapter. I started a small garden in my backyard and signed up to be a committee chair for chapter. My junior year I was elected as our chapter FFA school board representative. It was my job to keep our school board members informed on the activities and accomplishments of our chapter; I was the bridge between the school board and our chapter members. This year I was elected as our chapter historian. It is my duty to keep an accurate record of chapter achievements so that our members are motivated to get involved in our monthly activities. I also take pictures at every event to put in our chapter scrapbook so that future members can look back on the memories we have made throughout the years. Growing up in northern California agriculture is everywhere. From dairy to our local county fair, and from fishing to forestry; everywhere you look agriculture is present. I didn’t grow up in the traditional agricultural household; living on a farm or ranch, livestock in my backyard, and on the outskirts of town; instead, I grew up in the suburbs with my dog and cat but that didn’t prevent me from growing up loving the industry. I watched my dad manage our family company as well as working on different fishing committees. His love and passion for advocating for the fishing industry has driven me to want to advocate for the entire agriculture industry and help with the process of getting agriculture in the classroom in order to teach kids what agriculture is all about. Agriculture not only plays a big role in my life, but in the lives of many people around the nation. My family, my community, and my teachers are just some of the many reasons that I have decided to pursue a career in agriculture. Agriculture is often seen as a career that's only open to the people who grew up in small towns, with lots of land and animals. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Agriculture is for everyone. My life and my experiences in the field are just one way to prove that.