Stella Berzsenyi

Sometime in middle school, I discovered the creature known as the mantis shrimp, and since, I have been absolutely obsessed with them. They are extremely biologically unique, with their most fascinating feature being the most advanced eyesight known to man. They have 12-16 color receiving cones in their eyes, meaning they see as little as 4X as many colors as we humans can. I had no idea so many colors even existed, that there is so much more in the world to possibly see. This revelation I had in middle school caused my never ending interest in biology and has since defined my view on education and life in general: there is always more to learn and always more to experience, even if I am completely unaware that those experiences are out there. My love of mantis shrimp has derived the primary philosophy in which I abide by and has caused me to always remind myself to push myself to experience as much as I can and to learn as much as possible (even if I do not always like school very much). Due to this constant reminder, I am confident I have visited more countries, met more people, tried a greater amount of new things, and have stayed more focused on my education than if I did not remind myself how much is out there. I am grateful for the experiences I have had because of this, so I’ll continue to remind myself that there is always more to make me grow as a person, there are more opportunities to make me unique, there is more information to expand my mind, there are always more colors to see, I just have to look for them.