Geology: A Possible Career Inspired by my Travels
Since the age of nine, I had always loved natural beauty. I could not resist smiling the moment my eyes met a mountain range or a large waterfall. When I was nine, I went to Switzerland with my family and I just couldn’t stop looking at the beautiful Alpine Range everywhere I went. I used to say “The beauty of mother nature” even though I had absolutely no clue how these enormous mountains were formed.
However, it wasn’t until sixth grade where my love of nature started evolving into my passion for geology. I had my first full year earth science class, in which we spent the first three quarters studying the basics of geology. We covered several topics including plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, rocks, and erosion. Studying these were really interesting, even though it required a lot of effort and hard work. The thought of studying geology further did not come to me until I saw what I learned come to reality.
This was exactly what occurred during April vacation week later that year. We went on another trip to Turkey, in which the first stop was a region called Cappadocia. We saw several interesting rock formations, including mushroom-shaped rocks which were my favorite. Our guide explained that there was a volcano eruption many years ago and the rock eroded over time to create these formations. I was amazed at how I could use my recently acquired knowledge to piece together this information and understand which forces contribute to the magnificent masterpiece before my eyes!
We continued going to different geologically active places including the Grand Canyon, Cancun, and Peru. Therefore I have had a chance to see a variety of geological features. One of my favorites is the Atunci cave which we toured in Cancun. Each of these trips made me recollect, apply, and enrich the basic geology skills I learned in sixth grade, making me more fascinated in this field. I also started reading various articles on how geology influenced places that I have not visited and recent research/advancements in the field. Even though these activities are academically related, they serve as a break from my regular schoolwork and aid me in learning complex geologic processes, which I hope to study further in the future.
A landscape formed by volcanic erosion. The soft rock, also known as tuff create the iconic fairy chimneys. Also, has many underground cities connected by tunnels. 
Many churches in the soft Capadocian rocks. Into the World Full of Animation
Like many young children, I loved watching animation movies from companies like Disney and Pixar. To this age, I find watching animation movies to be more entertaining than a non-animated one. My favored scenes from an animation movie are the ones which show a mystical world. I always gape in awe while watching these wondering how so many different textures and lights can be added to one scene, without the image turning into one bright glob of colors. Being able to create more scenes like them had always been a dream.
When I was in ninth grade, I took an online one semester class on 3D modeling and animation. Upon reading the course description, I felt a rush of excitement throughout my body. With the aid of a computer, I could finally learn how to create nearly perfect models and drawings, which I longed to do in my regular art classes. It was also my first chance to learn the basic animation techniques used for making my favorite animated films.
The course focused on teaching the basics of Blender, a 3D modeling and animation software. Through this course, I developed introductory 3D visualization skills as well as created basic 3D models. Although I had encountered a few bumps along the way, I had perceived this to be my fun and easy class of the semester as I mostly worked on it at the end of a long and exhausting day. One aspect which surprised me while working on this class was how engrossed I was in it. Normally, I need to put on some music at night to help me focus on my work, but I soon realized that I did not need any when I was creating these models.
During that semester, I had gone to the theater to watch the movie Coco and I clearly remember associating with the short video clip from Pixar before the movie. The clip showed a preview of the scene when Miguel goes over the bridge and sees the majestic Land of the Dead for the first time. It mentioned that it took over 1,000 lights to make that scene. Not only do I like the view of the Land of the Dead, but I also was captivated by seeing the leaves glow every time something makes contact with them. I loved experimenting with the different lamp types and intensities in my course and hoped that I could use the knowledge to create something as intricate as that scene.
Disney – the driving force for my interest in animation!