What if you had a time capsule, and you could only pick four things to put inside of it? The four objects would only be able to represent your childhood, heritage, accomplishments, and legacy. And then what type of container would you put your items inside?

If it were me, I would put a sand dollar to reflect my childhood. Every summer on the sand, collecting sea shells, and watching the waves. A photograph of my great grandmother, who changed my mother's life, to represent my heritage. I would put my mission to mars medal in, an accomplishment. Lastly I would put a picture of my family, to represent the people I leave behind. Those I love and will carry on the legacy of my generation. 

I would put all of my items in a glass bottle and fling it into the ocean, because the sea represents me. Rolling and changing, I wouldn't want to know where my time capsule ends up. 

Has there ever been a symbol that occurs repeatedly throughout your life, reflecting something important to you?

In the book, The Glory Field, many motifs transpire throughout the tale, which have meanings relating back to the characters. But sometime those motifs mirror in your own life story. A symbol relating back to my own would be the idea of: new earth, dirt, and harvesting. To me, this also means starting over and building up a new life. Similar to what the generations throughout the years had to do in the Glory Field. 

After we moved, we began building a new house. A new life. I think that relates to lives the characters had to grow from the soil in the harvest. The motif of new earth, and building again is really an important symbol, that appears in the lives of many who have ever hoped for a better future

If you think about it, about it, a little over a hundred years ago, the Western United States was pretty wild. 

Except for the Natives who lived there, the land was relatively untouched. When the United States bought the remainder of what is now the US, and everyone kind of wanted to know what we had purchased. Slowly over time, pioneers and settlers started moving West, beginning new homesteads and towns in this unexplored region. 

This brings about that idea of Children of the West. 

I have lived in California my whole life, and I feel this identifies with me. But I have family spread all across the country, so where do I actually belong?

Honestly, I don't think it actually matters. You can be a Child of the West if that's what's important to you. Our ancestors may or may not have been pioneers of the West. But this is where I (you) am now. 

So being a child of the West isn't based on facts, or where you were born, or even who your ancestors were. It's a personal identity, and you deciding where HOME is.

Has there been any moment in my life where you have felt grown up? That one day you become a woman, or a man.

That moment for me was one night, a few years ago. My brother was staying at a friend's house, and my parents were going to dinner. That evening, my mom told me to make sure to lock the house, feed the dogs, make dinner, and watch over my little sister. Because I were pretty young, that was the first night my parents had trusted us to stay home alone. Everything was going fine, until about an hour later when the power went out. My little sister was extremely frightened, but I remember lighting candles, bringing our dogs inside, and turning the television on, to help her feel more comfortable and safe. The power was still out for a while, but the as the TV blared, I remember feeling a sense of accomplished. My parents had trusted me, and I had kept their trust that night. That was one of the moments I grew up.

How would you want future generations to remember you?

I'd want to be remembered as someone who did something more than the average human. Do something great that extends farther out then myself. Be remembered for making a change. 

I don't what that goal involves yet, but I want to achieve something for future generations, and make a difference in the world.

What is IDENTITY? And how do I define myself?

SISTER: I have a younger sister and because I go through life with her, it has influenced me to look out at the world differently.

PERSISTENT: I never like giving up on anything. Never ever stop working, striving, pushing towards 100%.

VOLLEYBALL: I love athletics especially volleyball. It's just fun.

What if you have the power to make one revolutionary change to this world?

It would be difficult to choose a revolution, a global change, that would occur in my lifetime. I think that if I had the power to make a change, it would center around food. What I mean by this would be to have humanity connected to the process in which our food is produced. One hundred years ago, the food you find on your table would be the same food you cultivated and grew, or hunted and gathered. But now we select plastic packaged foods from supermarkets that all look "perfect." Every apple, strawberry, and banana all look the same. We talk about animal rights, when in reality we stuff antibiotics and corn down the throats of cattle, and slaughter them by the thousands. We cage livestock, we spray our tomatoes with chemicals, and a diversity in natural produce is looked upon in horror and thrown away. What if we could once again restate that connection from farm to table. Using natural cycles to grow our food, that doesn't pollute our Earth and put future generations at risk. If I had the chance to make one evolution on Earth, then it would be to save humanity from the ignorance in which our food appears in our supermarkets.