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Showed scientific curiousity
I first showed my scientific curiousity when I was about 2 years old, with a book called Feely Bugs. It was a book with bugs made of various materials in it, and I loved it. And wondered how it worked, so, being 2 years old, I tore it apart. The incentives, to me, were only positive; I got to figure out how it worked. However, at the cost of my book, I dicovered that there was indeed a negative incentive: I no longer had my Feely Bugs book. -
Started reading
In 1999, at the age of 3, I learned to read. I've never really stopped since. (In fact, I can see 4 free reading books from where I sit in my living room that I have read in the past week.) All in all, books have been a major cost to both me and my family (I shudder to think how much my bookshelves contain in cash), both explicitly and implicitly, but I believe that the benefit of all the stories I have experienced is far greater. -
Started wanting to be a vet
Also at the age of 3, I started wanting to be a veterinarian. This stemmed from the love of animals that I already had. There seemed to only be positive incentives: I would constantly get to be around the animals that I loved, and I would get to help them. Though I have since changed career paths, I retain my love of animals, so acknowledged by this goal's long-running nature. -
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Health issues
PictureFor a good half of each year of middle school, I was sick. Though I'm mostly over all of it, it left a lasting impression, and has made me better at working through hardship. The cost of this hard-won skill was a lot of pain and generally feeling horrid, as well as my gallbladder. In hindsight and benefit-cost analysis, I think it was worth it. (go to that link for the picture accompaniment!) -
Started drawing
In the midst of my health problems, I started drawing. This expression of creativity was far from my last, and I think it actually is why I keep both drawing and writing. I evidently felt that there was a scarcity of my own flavor of creativity in the world, and this had to be fixed. Unfortunately, to this day, the art I produce is both a positive and a negative incentive. To be an artist you kind of have to hate your art enough to want to improve, but like your art enough to not give up. -
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The summer of the math book
PictureBecause of my absences in 8th grade, I almost had to retake Algebra 2. To prevent this, I bought the book and did the whole thing over the course of the summer. The explicit cost of this, the book and the paper, as well as the implicit cost of all that time, were well worth their benefit:not having to retake the class, and a more responsible me. -
Started writing
At the beginning of my sophomore year, my Honors English teacher, Mrs. Snowden, gave us a weekly assignment: we had to write something creative every week. We could either answer a prompt, or we could free write. Not liking the prompts, I started free writing, and have been ever since. The explicit cost of this has been, of course, paper, while the implicit costs are having my mind fairly constantly occupied by characters, my time, and my sleep. -
Joined NAHS
Also in my sophomore year, I joined National Art Honors Society. Though I already knew most people in the club, I feel that I'm much closer to everyone because of it. I had both positive and negative incentives: Closer friendships and a feeling of accomplishment; less sleep, and less time to myself. In the end, I did a benefit-cost analysis, and found that, for me at least, the benefits outweighed the costs. -
New career goal
Realized that being a veteranarian was not so much my interest any more, and decided to change career goals to being a curator of Mammalogy. I lost my second choice, being a vet, to opportunity cost. However, I think, after a cost-benefit analysis, that this career will be a better choice in the long run. -
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Internship at Denver Museum of Nature and Science
PictureGot an internship with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science's Mammalogy department. This job showed me how museums operate, and what to really expect from this career. I chose this over another idle summer, an implicit cost,and factored in the cost of bussing to the museum. My incentives in this were getting paid, getting experience, and having a really nice thing to put on college applications. (Go to the link for the image that accompanies this!)
