In 10th grade, I met a teacher that changed the course of my entire life and helped form me into the student I am today. His name is Mr. Sullivan and he taught my 10th grade Latin class and 11th grade socratic seminar course, called Humane Letters. I was incredibly quiet and shy, and Mr. Sullivan is the opposite. He has the passion and energy of several people packed into the body of an unassuming 70 year old man. He founded my high school with a rigorous liberal arts education that provides an opportunity for all students to immerse themselves in great ideas and great books. Everyone in the halls treated him with great reverence, aware that he was the creator of the school and curriculum we loved and respected so much. On my first day of Latin in 10th grade, I began to tear up in fear that I would disappoint this teacher that I both feared and respected. I was a quiet, nervous 15 year old, and he was a wise, boisterous teacher who had traveled the world as an army translator and a human rights lawyer, who seemed to really understand what is meaningful in life. I desperately wanted to live as interesting and meaningful a life as he had. My teachers had always told me that they knew that I was a good student, but they always wanted me to speak up and share my thoughts more. Mr. Sullivan was the first teacher that actually got through to me and taught me that my ideas were worth sharing. A few weeks into the class, he said that no one else could talk until I finally spoke up because he could see that I was passionate and I had thoughts to share. I was embarrassed, but secretly overjoyed that the teacher I idolized seemed to actually see me, rather than dismiss me because of my fear of speaking. In Mr. Sullivan’s class, I transformed from an insecure and timid student, absolutely terrified of being wrong, to a leader in discussion, still slightly scared of being wrong, but willing to accept that even my incorrect thoughts could be helpful. He taught me to think deeply about things truly meaningful in life, guiding me through difficult texts and discussions, and even now, in college, I still think of him as my guide. 

My most recent project was my senior thesis, The Death of Tragedy and the Beginning of Morals. I wrote and defended 25 page paper on Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy, four Euripides tragedies, and Hamlet in front of a panel of my teachers.  An ongoing project I am working on is a translation of Paolo Zacchia's Consilia. In the future, I would like to explore more creative writing, perhaps in the form of scripts or short stories.