That said, if I could offer any advice to my freshman self, I would advise myself to stop being so shy and passive, be outspoken and aggressive, practice this now when it is not vital and no one will remember your failed attempts of transitioning into a more assertive person. This will heighten not only your educational but also social experience, while also building a great habit for college when these two characteristics are vital to succeeding in the real world.  Also stop stressing so much, you’re only a freshman, enjoy the early years of high school while you can before college responsibilities hit you, hard. Overall, just spend more time with family and friends, spend more time outdoors, read more books, be outgoing, pick up a few hobbies, and just make more time for yourself. Also, do yourself a favor and exercise more, please.

Although my high school experience was satisfactory. Overall, there are many things that I wish I had done. I wish I had joined more clubs that I personally found engaging rather than just what I thought colleges would like to see me do. I also wish I had set more goals for myself each year, such as fulfilling 100 hours of community service each year. I wish I would have tried harder to truly comprehend the lessons taught in some classes rather than just memorizing the material. I do not regret not being an IB diploma candidate.

Yet there are also many things I have done right during my last four years that I am about to brag about. I am proud of the fact that I maintained personally satisfactory grades after four years of abundant honors, AP, and IB classes, a feat that I am still unsure of as to how I managed to accomplish.  I committed over 300 hours to community service. I forced myself to join clubs and sports that made me a more well-rounded individual. I jumped at every possibility made available to me by teachers such as interning at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and leading a workshop at the University of the Pacific about DNA to interest more girls in the field of STEM research. Most importantly, I discovered a passion that I wished to pursue for the rest of my life: biology.

With these skills and experiences that I encompassed over my years in high school, I was admitted into the three year accelerated dental program at the University of the Pacific(UOP). In the upcoming fall, I plan to attend UOP and major in biology under the dental program and graduate in 2019. I then hope to attend UOP’s extended dental school in San Francisco, Robert Dugoni School of Dentistry, and obtain my doctorate of dental surgery in three years. I then plan on spending an additional two years, that I saved by doing my undergrad as well as doctorate in three years, on specializing in oral surgery in order to become an oral surgeon. Meanwhile, taking my advice to my freshman self and applying it to my life every day.