Let me start off by saying that I am a princess in the most literal sense of the word that you can be without actually being a member of a royal family. Every weekend I go to work at a local character company and attend parties for kids as princesses, mermaids, fairies, and superheroes. I’ve been everything from Princess Belle at Culver’s, to a mermaid at Chick-fil-A, to Cinderella at Kennedy’s third birthday party.

The most unexpected and interesting part of working as a princess is how the lessons I’ve learned from princessing have translated into my everyday life. Not only have I seemingly lost the ability to curse, I’ve learned life is unpredictable and it takes ruthless determination to stay focused and achieve a goal. You’ve never experienced life’s incredible penchant for distraction until you’ve been the sole focus of fifty five-year olds on a sugar high who believe you’re a princess.

Distractions are inevitable when you are a princess, such was the time I was Elsa at Whole Foods market and was in the middle of a song when a little boy stood up and proudly yelled across the room that he had “purple legos at his house!”; this random fact made me smile and it was as I continued singing I realized that this was how I needed to address distractions throughout my life. Whenever life tries to distract me from my goals, whether they be getting through “Let It Go” at Whole Foods or working in cancer research as a computational biologist, the best response is to smile in the face of adversity and continue along.

When I have a test the next day, but instead of studying I want to satisfy my burning desire to watch Project Runway; I have learned from princessing that the best response is to allow myself a few shining moments of fantasy in which I think about all the delicious drama I will have access to tomorrow and then return to studying. This will remain true in college where I will make the decisions to stay focused on my school work because I recognize that the only way to continue on when surrounded by life’s silliness is to forge ahead and “just keep swimming”- I mean singing.    

The second and most impactful lesson I have learned from princessing occurred at a beautiful little girl’s fourth birthday party. I went through the whole party perfectly; coronating the little girl and singing her favorite princesses songs, while simultaneously fielding questions from an overzealous four year old. It was while I was leaving the party that something amazing occurred- the Grandma stopped me at the front door and told me how wonderful I had done and explained that the little girl had been looking forward to meeting me for over a month. That struck me. This little girl- whose name I didn’t know until five minutes before the party- had been waiting for me to come for over a month.

That got me thinking about who else is waiting for me- and I realized that millions of people with cancer are waiting for people like me to grow up, complete their schooling, get a degree, and begin to research and treat cancer. Think of the millions of people who didn’t know they were waiting for penicillin until Fleming discovered it. I believe that with the proper education I can be one of the people who helps break ground on the cancer research front in the same way Fleming did against infection and help end the wait for people whose cancer journey may not have even begun yet.

As a millennial living in the 21st century, social media has a huge impact on my day. I feel pressured to take pictures in cool locations, doing cool things, with cool clothes and cool people. The success of my day boils down to how many people ‘like’ what I’m doing on my Instagram page.

Just recently I’ve noticed that during time with my friends we inevitably end up thinking and planning where we can get cute pictures for Instagram. While eating together we face windows in order to get better lighting, when we go on a hike we end up posing so as to get that perfectly ‘natural’ pose, all for a couple likes on Instagram.

A big part of the problem is that the amount of likes you get is public information on Instagram. This creates pressure to get more likes because everyone can see how many people like your post, meaning that popularity has become measurable. When our parents grew up, popularity was a vague concept measured only by how many people knew who you were, but because of social media, popularity can now be expressly measured based how how many followers and likes you get. As a result people are beginning to associate popularity on social media with their worthiness as people.  

I miss the days from before my Instagram account. I want to be able to go places with people and experience it for myself instead of having to plan how to share my experience with other people. In my opinion, I should have the option of whether or not the number of ‘likes’ I get should be public information.

I don’t have a problem with people liking my post to show that they appreciate or agree with me- what I have a problem with is making popularity a public numbers game.

I’ve always been a goal oriented person. From the time I was a little girl I’ve always set goals for myself that other people would consider impossible; whether it be never getting a “B” in any of my classes, or taking eight classes in a year. However, the biggest goal I’ve ever aspired to is to be the valedictorian of my class. I decided when I was in elementary school that I wanted to be the valedictorian of my school the second I found out what a valedictorian was and have dedicated the last twelve years of schooling to this effort. The reason why I’ve gotten all A’s and taken eight classes in a year was for the sole reason of achieving my goal to be valedictorian, so imagine my surprise when I found out that, through no fault of my own, I would never be valedictorian. As it turns out, in 2003 our school district stopped honoring the valedictorian entirely. For an academic institution it makes no sense not to honor the top performing student in the school. We have entire banquets and ceremonies dedicated to honoring athletes and yet the student with the highest grades in the entire school is left out in the cold. The reasoning given for abandoning the title of valedictorian was that the district wanted to honor more students, and while there’s nothing wrong with this premise I see no reason why we can’t to both. Why can’t the school district honor both athletes, artists, and academics?   

I’ve heard other students complain that choosing to honor students for their academics is designed to make other students feel bad. To me this is completely ridiculous- students who work exceptionally hard should be rewarded. I have several friends who are ranked in the top ten of their class and who are frustrated that the only acknowledgement they receive from administration is 10 seconds at a pep assembly that nobody even goes to. Furthermore, this lack of recognition hurts top performing students because when applying for college they are unable to list “valedictorian” or another award on their list of honors. When competing with students from around the country it hurts students from the Francis Howell District that they are unable to list as many awards as students in other parts of the country. If the district truly wants to do its best to prepare students for college they should honor one of the hardest working student in the school- the valedictorian.      

One of my favorite parts of the entire school day is the twenty minutes I spend after school in my car. Every day without fail I leave my seventh hour physics class, walk to my car, sit in the driver’s seat, crack the windows, open my jar of honey roasted peanuts, and watch the world go by. From my perch, I watch the boy in the blue Honda race out of the parking lot while listening to Imagine Dragons; I see the girl in the silver Audi sit in her car, turn on her phone, and wait for the parking lot to empty; I see the security guard yell at students trying to sneak their car into the parent pick up line, and the van full of boys scramble out of the parking lot while honking their horn and generally acting obnoxious. It is from these observations that I have come to the conclusion that there are two types of people in this world: those who rush out of the parking lot and those who wait.

When that final bell rings, students rush out of their rooms at a pace that can only be described as frantic; they will jump out of windows and slide down banisters in an attempt to get to their car first. Which is where the world, or in this case the school, splits itself into two types of people; the people who get out of the parking lot before the buses and the people who don’t. You see, at my school the parking lot empties in a very specific way, one line is emptied for about 10 minutes until the buses are let out, then a second line is emptied until the parking lot is completely vacant. However here’s the catch, if you are in the first line and don’t make it out in the first 10 minutes you will be trapped in the parking lot for at least 40 minutes until the second line has emptied completely.

The school population divides itself amongst the two lines with about 30% choosing the first and the rest choosing the second. The people who pick the first line tend to be risk takers- after all, they choose to try the line that has less of a chance of getting them out in favor of possibly leaving faster. However, it would be a mistake to assume that these people are in a rush to leave because they hate school. The people electing to try the first line aren’t just slackers; there are all types of people from athletes, to academics, to kids from the anime club, to a notable boy who isn’t afraid to rock out to Beyonce in his car. These people may not be united by hobbies or friend groups or classes; they are instead motivated by a common frame of mind that tends to be more assertive when it comes to things they want: as evidenced by the plethora of horn-honking and one finger salutes students in the first line give each other while trying to battle for a place in the line. The people of the first line can only be described as daring with a “get it done” mentality.

The group in the second line is similar to the first only in that it is filled with people of different backgrounds and interests and united only by personality. This line’s members are foils of the other and are composed of people who have enough patience to realize that the odds are in their favor if they wait. These people can be defined by terms such as patient, long-term planners, and possibly even apprehensive because they rightly fear the frantic insanity of the first line.

As for me, I am a member of the second line on most days. After being a strict first-liner for most of junior year, I was finally scared so badly by the fearless driving of my peers that I decided for the sake of my car, my insurance premiums, and my personal sense of safety to wait the extra fifteen minutes in the second line. However, it is important to note that when it’s necessary, I can hold my own in the battle of the first line.

Long story short, the world can be split into two kinds of people: those of the first line and those of the second. While I realize that getting out of a high school parking lot in a timely manner isn’t a pressing issue for most of the population, the mentality is the same. Even though a middle-aged paper salesman from Scranton has nothing to do with the physical lines of a parking lot they do have to make choices about how aggressive they’re going to be when going for a promotion. Basically, everyone in the world can be split into being a first-liner and a second liner based on whether or not they believe in playing it safe or risking it all. There are people who will fight for themselves and what they want because they want results immediately, and there are people who are willing to wait a little longer for a more probable result. The key to becoming a successful adult is deciding when to take a risk and when to play it safe in both your personal and professional life.

My junior year I was sitting with one of my best friends at lunch, playing on my phone and reading a Cosmopolitan article about yet another wild Kardashian antic, when it suddenly struck me how much America has changed from the time it was founded to today. Today all we hear about in the news are corrupt politicians, drug addicted celebrities, or horrific crimes; whereas in the 1700’s the news that rocked the world wasn’t that Justin Bieber cancelled his world tour but that a nation of immigrants found the courage to stand up to their oppressors, that a ragtag group of idealists stood up to the largest empire on earth and won, and that a brand new country founded on the principles of freedom and equality rose to power.  

My hope for the future of my country is that we can once again return to our former glory by becoming a country once again focused on standing up for freedom even in the face of seemingly insurmountable adversity. I believe that America has this capability. We are a country of dreamers- who can dream of a better world; with thinkers- who can think of solutions to even the toughest problems; with soldiers- who can fight for the oppressed- and with children who can learn from the mistakes of the past in order to ensure a brighter future.

America has already started this process; we are a nation of students striving to master biology, chemistry, ecology, calculus, technology and languages- you name it! We learn in an effort to benefit humanity- and I learn with the hopes of one day curing cancer. My hope is that America will once again return to the mindset in which our most important task is the defense of freedom. However, unlike in the 1700’s we aren’t just fighting a rival government. Today we fight to free ourselves from the oppressive nature of disease, poverty, and ignorance. It is our duty to use the knowledge given to us by the people of the past in order to free our future. As Nelson Mandela said, “To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others,”. The America I hope for not only accepts this quote as truth but lives by it and uses their intelligence and determination to free the people around them.  

I will contribute to the America I hope for by becoming a computational biologist and freeing us all from the tyranny that is cancer. I saw firsthand the ravages of this disease when my grandma was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia my sophomore year. First chemotherapy stripped her of her hair and immune system, then a bone marrow transplant kept her locked up in a tiny hospital room for months, and finally her immune system was so compromised that she passed away last November due to so called “vanilla pneumonia” which is supposedly the easiest type of pneumonia to treat. Cancer robbed her of the chance to see me go to prom and is the reason why she will never attend my wedding day. The America I hope for will cease focusing on the meaningless and will instead direct all of their willpower and attention to freeing people of their afflictions, whatever they may be. My hope is that Alzheimer’s will never again rob people of their memories, that strokes will never again steal people’s words and that cancer will never again claim a life.

My hope is that America once again dedicates itself to the pursuit of Freedom and that one day we will all be able to live completely free.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of the most influential Presidents in the history of the United States despite dealing with a devastating illness. He is credited with piecing together a country terrified by the horrors of World War II by implementing a series of radio broadcasts he called “fireside chats” in which he discussed the events of the war with the nation. It was on December 29th, 1940, that Roosevelt delivered the notable “Arsenal of Democracy” fireside chat wherein he referenced, “the great Arsenal of Democracy. For us this is an emergency as serious as war itself. We must apply ourselves to our task with the same resolution, the same sense of urgency, the same spirit of patriotism and sacrifice as we would show were we at war.”

Today America’s homeland is facing a crisis as serious as war itself: cancer. In 2016 alone cancer killed an estimated 595,600 people in America alone- for reference, the population of Wyoming is only 582,658. If a combatant dropped a bomb and killed everyone in Wyoming the country would be in an uproar the likes of which haven’t been seen since the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, killing 2,403 Americans. The only difference between cancer and a bomb is that a bomb’s casualties are highly visual and highly concentrated whereas cancer is a silent killer; it takes the life of a teacher from elementary school, the checker at the grocery store, or a woman from church. It isn’t until cancer strikes you or your family that you begin to realize the dangers of this silent killer.

But what “arsenal of democracy” can defeat cancer? Sending in the troops won’t lower the number of women diagnosed with breast cancer this year. However, what most people forget is that the definition of an arsenal is;

1. a collection of weapons and military equipment stored by a country, person, or group
2. a place where weapons and military equipment are stored or made
3. an array of resources available for a certain purpose.

In this case, the arsenal of democracy that Roosevelt referred to would fall under the third definition, in which our arsenal is the vast quantities of resources that we can use for the specific purpose of ending cancer.

America’s primary resource is the minds of its citizens, and this collective intelligence is what’s going to help our country defeat cancer. Currently, our methods of dealing with the disease are, in my opinion, primitive. It wasn’t until my Grandmother was diagnosed with leukemia that I realized how horrific cancer is. In my opinion the worst part about having cancer is that it robs your life of joy. In an effort to fight the cancer my grandma started aggressive chemotherapy which not only humiliated her by making her bald but also robbed her of her first joy: cooking. She was diagnosed on September 23, 2016 which meant that by the time Thanksgiving rolled around she was too weak to cook and the smell of food caused her to be sick. Instead of having our customary grand Thanksgiving at Grandma’s, we spent the day mostly at home with her so she wouldn’t have to be around the food. Then on January 5th my Grandma received a bone transplant which forced her to stay in a hospital room for months on end because bone marrow recipients have such a weak immune system leaving the transplant wing of the hospital could prove fatal. The transplant then damaged her immune system so badly she was told she couldn’t go out in public because catching so much as the common cold could prove fatal. All of a sudden she could no longer go out to eat, enjoy book club, go to church, or do any of the other things that brought her joy. For a woman who loved to live her life surrounded by people suddenly being cut off from society was devastating. Eventually, after months of struggling my grandmother passed away due to so called “vanilla pneumonia”, named because it is supposedly the most easily treated.

After my grandma died I started looking into cancer research and the science behind it. There are many promising new treatments that can act as an alternative to traditional chemotherapy; the most promising of which is T-cell therapy which involves removing a patient’s T-cells and genetically modifying them to attack cancer cells. Oncologist Dr. Tim Cripe calls T-cell therapy “The most exciting thing I’ve seen in my lifetime”. This study inspired me to go to college and become a computational biologist with a focus on cancer research.

America’s modern day arsenal of democracy is the cumulative brainpower of Americans and that arsenal should be used to the full extent against the common enemy of cancer. America has a duty as a world leader to protect people- both at home and abroad- from cancer. Franklin Delano Roosevelt died at the age of 63 years old in the middle of his presidency due to polio, who knows how the world would change if he had lived to complete this term. In 2014 1,960 children died of cancer. Cancer causes the loss of potential: potential lives, potential discoveries, potential generations. It is our duty as Americans to protect the potential in the world by preventing cancer from ever claiming another life.