10

Cultivate

Garden Essay

3/10/2015

Maddie Beyer

2

Tone-Setting Quote

\

“Be yourself. Everyone else is

taken.”

-Oscar Wilde

2

Dedications I would like to thank everyone who helped me

write this book. However, since there are none,

I’m just going to list some of my favorite people

instead.

1. Madeline Beyer

2. Asa Goldsmith

3. Kimberly Williams

4. Kiersten Rabehl

5. Kailee Henry

6. KT Schneider

7. Robert E. Kahn

8. Vint Cerf

9. Coach Mac

10. Serena Williams

11. Melanie Voss

12. Jonathan Bergeron

13. Cheuk Ling

14. Victoria Travo

15. Kathryn Osmer

16. Susan B. Anthony

17. Nathan Tabtab

18. Sam Irwin

19. A Pickle Named Steve

20. Coco Chanel

21. Jennifer Lawrence

22. Ryan Potter

23. Jimmy Falon

24. Jim Parsons

25. Dominque Cibulkova

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Table of Contents Cultivate Garden Essay............................................................................................................0

Tone-Setting Quote ....................................................................................................................1

Dedications ..................................................................................................................................2

Cultivate Garden Essay............................................................................................................4

Chapter One: ..................................................................................................................................4

Biochemistry for Dummies ..........................................................................................................4

Chapter Two:..................................................................................................................................3

Children Make Terrible Pets.........................................................................................................3

Chapter Three: ................................................................................................................................3

Is Sleeping Considered a Hobby? .................................................................................................3

Chapter Four: .................................................................................................................................3

Little House on the Puget Sound...................................................................................................3

Chapter Five: ..................................................................................................................................3

Parlez-Vous Français? .................................................................................................................3

Bibliography .......................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

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Cultivate Garden Essay

This is a book assigned to me by Mr. Gibbs for my

high school Literature class. It’s all about me, Madeline Beyer, and my future. Thinking about the future is hard,

but thinking about the future AND writing about it is even

harder. I chose five different aspects of my future to write about: career, family, hobbies, house, and travel plans. As

you read, keep in mind, the future is not set in stone, so

most of this is probably not going to happen. Enjoy (or not. I really don’t care).

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Chapter One:

Biochemistry for Dummies

The career I want to pursue is in

biochemistry, more specifically as a biomedical scientist. AGCAS describes the

tasks biomedical scientists do as, “work in healthcare and carry(ing) out a range of laboratory tests and techniques on tissue

samples and fluids to help clinicians diagnose diseases. They also evaluate the

effectiveness of treatments”. I want a job that I would look forward to going to every day, and being a biomedical scientist sounds

like that job. Biology, chemistry, math, and computer science are all things I adore to do

and I think this profession would be the perfect one for me.

The website Cypress.com is a

resume-creating tool that lists skills suggested for different professions. Some of

the skills listed that are necessary for becoming a biomedical scientist that I don’t currently possess are “expert understanding

of how to develop models or computer simulations of human bio behavioral

systems to obtain data for measuring or controlling life processes” and “the communication skills to effectively teach

biomedical engineering or disseminate knowledge about the field through writing or

consulting”. To acquire these skills, first I’ll have to take courses in college in computer technology, biology, chemistry, advanced

maths, and even english. Additionally, I should join an internship program to get a

hands-on education in the job. On the other hand, some existing

traits that will help me excel in being a

biochemist include the fact that I excel in maths and sciences and that I can easily

solve intricate problems. I’m very meticulous, which allows me to be able to carry out complex procedures and visualize

three-dimensional images. In addition, I am

a fairly skilled tennis player, so I’m optimistic that this will help me get a

scholarship to college. Since I am a girl, an Asian girl on top of that, that will assist me in getting a job since most businesses are

always looking to hire women and ethnic employees to augment diversity.

To increase my hands-on experience in the medical field, over the summer I am going to try to apply to intern at a hospital. I

have to wait until my junior or senior year to apply, though, because Kaiser’s volunteer

website says all interns must be between the ages of 16 and 20 (“Summer Employment Opportunities”). Over summer, I’ll also train

for tennis so that I can try for a college scholarship.

During high school, I’ll have a variety of elective options to choose from that can help me get into a good college. In

10th grade, I’ll take Pre-Calculus Honors and Chemistry Honors as my electives. In

11th grade, I’m going to take Calculus BC, AP Biology, and Physics. And finally, in 12th grade I’ll take AP Chemistry and AP

Statistics. All of those electives should help me do well in science and math, and all the

AP and Honors classes will boost my GPA and help me get into the college of my choice.

For more information, on Amazon, there are over 40,000 books on

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biochemistry, with most of them being college textbooks. But there are also several

books that I are more suited for a person my age to read, like Biochemistry for Dummies by John T. Moore and Richard H. Langley

and Biology: Life as We Know It! by Dan Green and Simon Basher. They might be

interesting to read in my spare time. There are several great colleges for

biochemistry all around the country, but I

have several requirements for a university. First, I want a college on the west coast so

I’m not too far away from my family, and because I enjoy the climate in the west, Washington specifically. Also, I want to

attend a college that isn’t too large. The type of teaching I prefer is best suited to a

small class, so a small or medium college of 4,000 people or less is the ideal number of students. The best universities for

biochemistry that fit my requirements are Claremont McKenna College, Scripps

College, Occidental College, University of Puget Sound, and Seattle Pacific University. The acceptance rates for these

colleges are relatively high, so I don’t have to concern myself too much about not being

accepted. My dream school, however, is UC Berkeley. Acceptance rates are only 18%, but I still plan to apply anyway (“Compare

Biochemistry Degrees”). UC Berkeley is close enough to home so that I can see my

parents often, but far enough away that I have some privacy. Also, their tennis program is one of the best in the state and I

can pursue my tennis career as well as my academic career at UC Berkeley.

Job prospects for biochemistry majors are expected to grow 19% from 2012 to 2022, creating approximately 5,400 new

jobs according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (“Biochemists and Biophysicists”).

However, since most of the funding for these jobs will come from the government, there will still be a paucity of jobs. The best

way to guarantee a job is for me to have a doctorate and publish multiple papers in the

field of the job I’m looking for. Wages for biochemists range from $42,660 to $147,780, with higher paying jobs in

pharmaceutical manufacturing and scientific research. The average salary for a chemist

who works for a hospital is approximately $43,000, but salaries can range from under $30,000 to over $110,000.

My plan is to go to college, get my

bachelor’s degree and then my master’s degree, and if I want to go work for a university, go back to college and get my

doctorate. Then I’ll search for a job as a biomedical scientist in the field of infection

sciences. However, if I cannot get my master’s degree, I can qualify “for positions such as research assistant, inspector or

technical sales representative” (“Guide to Biochemistry Careers”). Another problem I

might encounter is that I might never be able to get over my fear of blood. A backup profession if I encounter this impasse is an

analytical chemist. AGCAS says they “use a diverse range of methods to investigate the

chemical nature of substances”. It isn’t the most ideal job, but it still sounds interesting

enough.

Do well in high school.

Go to an esteemed college.

Make money

7

Chapter Two:

Children Make Terrible Pets

I’ve always wanted a large, loving

family with a taciturn, adoring husband and plenty of children and pets. That’s always

been what I’ve pictured my future family to be like. Ideally, I’d like to meet my husband when I’m in college and have a small

wedding with just family and close friends. I’m hoping that the budget for my wedding

will be somewhere around $25,000, which is the average cost of a wedding in the United States, as stated by CostofWedding.com

(Average Wedding Cost). My dream wedding would take place in a garden like

the one from Alice in Wonderland, with an elegant gazebo, red roses everywhere, and a maze made out of hedges. But any wedding

would be fine as long as my husband and family are there.

After I get a stable job and/or before

I turn 33, I would like to have at least my first child. Since giving birth to boys runs

dominant in my family and since I really want a little girl, I plan on having kids until I give birth to a girl, or until I already have

three children. More than three children is

too much, especially if they are all boys. The

cost of raising three kids on the west coast until they’re eighteen is approximately

$1,050,426 according to BabyCenter.com, including the cost of a public college (“Cost of Raising a Child Calculator”).

In addition to three kids and a husband, my future family wouldn’t be

complete without some sort of pet. In my family, pets were strictly forbidden, and I was always disappointed and heartbroken. I

was extremely envious of other children who had pets, and I don’t want my kids to

experience that. Plus, a pet teaches responsibility, which is an important thing to have, and would make my children go out

and exercise because they would have to go walk it. I would love to get a bichon frise

dog, mainly because they don’t shed or drool and they’re extremely friendly. However, they require grooming every four

weeks, which can be costly, and if they don’t receive enough attention, they will

start to chew on furniture and destroy your belongings. Because owning a bichon frise is expensive and takes large amounts of

attention, I don’t want to adopt one until my children are older, with the youngest being

about seven or eight years old, since I would be preoccupied with my career and kids.

Alice in Wonderland

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Chapter Three:

Is Sleeping Considered a Hobby?

If not, I have a couple other hobbies,

like tennis. I started tennis in 6th grade and

I’ve loved it ever since. I don’t know exactly what I love about it -- maybe it’s the

competition, or maybe it’s the way you can be a part of a team while still being a single player-- but I just know I want to keep

playing tennis for the rest of my life. I plan to play tennis on the Benicia High School team until I graduate, and play tennis

tournaments in the off season. Once I graduate high school, I would love to play

for my college’s tennis team, but I might not be able to since those spots are for extremely skilled players. I’m sure there will be a

recreational team that I could join though. Once I graduate college, it will take a while

for me to settle in my new life, so I might take a break from playing tennis, but I’ll eventually start playing again. According to

the United States Tennis Association (USTA), there are several leagues for adults

to join in just a few easy steps. All I have to do to join a team is get a USTA membership, get a National Tennis Rating

Program (NTRP) rating, and register on a team to start playing. My mother and her

friends play in a league, and it seems like an entertaining time and a great place to make friends.

My other favorite pastime is knitting. I started knitting so I could spend time with

my grandma, but then I discovered how much I enjoyed it. I’ve made a couple dozen

hats, a few pairs mittens, and a hoard of scarves. I know that when I go to college, I might not be able to do any knitting,

considering it takes an excessive amount of time to finish any projects, but I hope I’ll rediscover my love of crafting a pick it back

up. When I get my own house, I would like to have a spare room or closet just to house

all my yarn and knitting supplies. I’ve seen several on the internet, like the one of Twinkiechan.com, and I immensely want

one in my house. I also want to join a

knitting circle in my town, and if there isn’t one, then I would like to start one. It’s

always more fun to do crafts with friends, and a knitting circle is a great way to make new friends in my community.

Rafael Nadal

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Chapter Four:

Little House on the Puget Sound

Although I love the sunny weather in California, I love the rain even more. For

that reason, I would like to buy a house in the Puget Sound area of Washington. Both

Bellevue and Seattle sound like pleasant cities. The Seattle/Bellevue area is ranked #4 on Forbes’s “America’s Safest Cities”

List, tied for 4th place with Boston, Massachusetts. The average rainfall in the area is about 35-38 inches annually, with a

little over 150 rainy days a year, but in the summer, the average temperature is about 75

degrees Fahrenheit. In the winter, it lightly snows, which is fantastic because I love the snow but not in large amounts (Sawyer).

This area is also home to rock and roll, some of the best music ever. In addition, the

congressmen in this area support causes that I am interested in, like creating marriage equality and legalizing marijuana.

Furthermore, in the Puget Sound, there is always a chance to see wild whales. I would

prefer to live in Bellevue though, but the amount of homes is a fraction of the amount in Seattle, and the houses cost over

$220,000 more in Bellevue than in Seattle, with an average house costing $550,000.

In Bellevue, there are no professional sports teams, which is a major plus for me. I don’t like viewing professional sports, and I

believe sports like football promote

violence. In addition, the restaurant scene in Bellevue has a plethora of Asian cuisine,

which is my favorite kind of food. The closest ski area is only 50 miles away from

Bellevue, which is great because I love skiing (Nickum). The population of Bellevue is only about 122,000, and there

are plenty of jobs in the area. In fact, the average income of a citizen of Bellevue is around $91,000 according to Nickum. Most

of the jobs are due to all the technological start-ups in the area, like Microsoft and

Amazon. Additionally, Bellevue had four high schools in the top 250 of Newsweek’s “2013 America’s Best High Schools”, which

will be helpful for when I have kids. On the other hand, Seattle is

extremely environmentally friendly. There are plenty of public transportation methods to take, like

the ferry or the subway, and many people ride bicycles. Moreover, Seattle was voted

second on Kiplinger’s list of “10 Best Cities for the Next Decade”, meaning that it is a very progressive city. And only a short drive

away, there are plenty of hiking trails and waterfalls to visit. Additionally, Seattle is

extremely pet friendly. It has several dog parks, and many pet-friendly stores. This is fantastic because I plan to have at least one

dog, as previously mentioned in this book.

Space Needle in Seattle

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Chapter Five:

Parlez-Vous Français?

There’s one place I’ve always really

wanted to travel to at least once in my lifetime: France. I would prefer to take the

trip after college, before I have a husband or kids, perhaps with a group of friends. A typical trip to Paris would cost over $2,000

for just one person for a week, and a trip to the Loire Valley costs about the same. If I

plan to go to both, the trips would have to be at separate times, so I could save up the money.

One of the destinations in France I desire to travel to is Paris. One reason is that

it is one of the fashion capitals of the world. So many new fashion trends begin in Paris, especially during Fashion Week in the

spring. Another reason to visit Paris is for the cuisine. Escargot, macaroons, crepes,

and wine are all some of the foods Paris is famous for that I want to try. Furthermore, I’ve always wanted to visit one of the

roadside cafes that you might see in the movies to try the coffee and pastries. In

addition, I want to visit Paris is to see all the major landmarks, like the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and Arc de Triomphe. They are

classic French icons, and what visit to France would be complete without seeing all

of them? The last major thing I would want

to do in Paris would be to go to the Parc

Asterix. It is an amusement park based on the famous French cartoon character

Asterix. Another place in France that would

be amazing to visit is the Loire Valley

region. This region is located in the west of France by the Loire river and is famous for

its numerous chateaux and rich historical background. The one chateau I really would like to explore is the Chateau d’Usse, also

known as Sleeping Beauty’s castle, because it was used as inspiration by Charles

Perrault, author of Sleeping Beauty. In addition to visiting Chateau d’Usse, I would also like to go on a bike tour, as the Loire

Valley is well known for its flat ground that’s great for cycling. Furthermore, most

of the chateaux of the region have expansive, manicured gardens which originate from the monarchs and royalty

during the Renaissance. Also, during the first week of May, the town of Orleans

celebrates Joan of Arc for liberating their town during the Hundred Years’ War by having a festival in her honor. There is a

medieval market, battle re-enactments, sword fighting displays, and plenty of other

exciting activities (Craig).

Eiffel Tower

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2013. Web. 2 Mar. 2015. AGCAS. "What Can I Do with My Degree?: Biochemistry." What Can I Do with My Degree in

Biochemistry? | Prospects.ac.uk . Graduates Prospects Ltd., 1 Sept. 2014. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.

"Average Wedding Cost in the United States Is $25,200." Average Wedding Cost in the United

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Sawyer, Cassandra. "30 Reasons You Need To Move To Seattle." 30 Reasons You Need To

Move To Seattle. Movoto Blog, 31 July 2013. Web. 7 Mar. 2015. "Summer Employment Opportunities." Kaiser Permanente. Kaiser Permanente. Web. 12 Feb.

2015. <http://share.kaiserpermanente.org/article/ncal- launch/>. USTA. "Adult Leagues | Leagues | USTA Northern California." Adult Leagues | Leagues | USTA Northern California. Web. 2 Mar. 2015.