When I think of influencial people in my life, the first person that comes to mind is my grandmother; or as I like to call her, my Nahni. My Nahni opened up my mind to spirituality and the importance of not letting anything restrict me as an individual. She taught me how powerful the very language that we use is in effecting our own outlook for our lives. For example, if I were to say, "My Boss makes me feel bad about myself." she would remind me that it's actually me that is choosing to react to my boss's actions in a negative way and pin my insecurities to him, instead of myself. She has taught me how to be accountable and most importantly aware of myself interacting with the world around me. My grandmother is also one of the most crafty and resourceful people I know. She can repurpose almost any material you can think of, and she has taught me the difference between necessity and desire. I am so thankful to have her as a guide in my life. Being a writer of poetry, for me, is a form of my identity and I don't believe I would have pursued my talent in writing so early in my life if it weren't for my third grade teacher, Ms. Seely. I have always struggled in areas of math and science in school, and this was especially damaging to my self esteem as a kid. I knew I was struggling the most out of any of the kids and I felt I was alone and unique in the worst way. Until one day when Ms. Seely read us a book of poems by Shel Silverstein, nothing had inspired me like his poetry did. These words weren't just going in one direction to follow one path of a story; these words were alive in some way and each one was tied to the next, sort of like a dance. It was like music without words. Feeling inspired, I wrote my first poem about a boy in the fourth grade that I was swooning over and then showed my teacher. Baffled at the length and (sort-of) rhyming words, she looked me in the eye and told me that I have the gift of creativity. I remember exactly the way she said it and feeling for the rest of the day, and the rest of my life, like I had something to wear with pride. Like very many other fifteen-year-old girls and boys, I felt terrified entering my four years of high school. I wanted to join my school's showchoir, but I was rather shy and seeing the girls on stage jumping around and dancing with the boys looked like something I would never be good at. My best friend throughout High School, Anna Friss, did not allow me to chicken out however. She pulled me into the audition, starting out with a choreographed dance to "The Nicest Kids in Town" from the musical "Hairspray" and I was terrified, but I actually made the audition and was in the group for all four years of High School. Without my friend, I know that I would have let my insecurities get the best of me and perhaps I wouldn't have developed my talent for singing if it weren't for her. I have always loved music, and singing with other people in this group truly ignited a passion I have for performance and expression. Getting lost in creating something is one of the most beautiful feelings in the entire world and I think that it's vital for us as humans to find our own way of expressing