Cultivated Garden Essay

1. Future Life of Taro
FIGURE 2 BIRTHDAY PARTY WITH A FEW FRIENDS
FIGURE 1 OLD FAMILY PICTURE
FIGURE 3 WRESTLING TEAM
FIGURE 4 MY DOG, GRETCHEN

4. Table of Contents
Chapter 1- Career..........................................................................................................................................5
Chapter 2- Travel...........................................................................................................................................6
Chapter 3- Family..........................................................................................................................................8
Chapter 4- What will make me happy ..........................................................................................................9
Chapter 5- Maintaining health into old age................................................................................................10

5. When I first was assigned this
assignment for planning out my future life, I
got so excited! I heard tons of people sigh in
disappointment, but I thought it was going to
be really fun. “I’m going to learn so much
through the research I do in this essay! My
whole life will be planned out!” I thought.
Well, actually, I have finally realized what
the saying “The more you learn the dumber
you realize you are” means! I have learned
tons about my future life that I had
absolutely no idea about. Although I did
have quite a lot of trouble researching and
thinking about this essay, it was really
helpful to know what I have to do to reach
the goals I set, and to find out what I can do
to reach them.
Chapter 1- Career
Ever since I was young, I never
really knew what I wanted to be when I
grew up. At one point, I wanted to be a
firefighter, an engineer, a farmer, a pro-
swimmer, and a pilot. But throughout the
years, being a doctor has always sort of
shined out to me. My mom was a doctor and
always told me how it would be a perfect
job for me. I wanted to be so many different
things when I grew up, but if I wanted to be
a doctor, I would need some persuading.
One time, my mom had a really deep
splinter. I sat by her side and picked at it
with a needle and after an hour, it finally
came out. “Tara you should be a doctor!”
my mom cried out in joy. I really felt like I
could. I already had my mind set on being a
doctor after that moment, but I was not sure
what kind of doctor I wanted to be. There
were so many options! I could specialize, I
could become an internist, or a pediatrician.
It was so hard to choose! After I thought
about it, I decided that I wanted to be a
pediatrician.
A few important skills needed to
become a doctor are oral comprehension and
expression, problem sensitivity, good
reasoning, and written comprehension and
expression.
From my previous experiences, I feel like I
have the talent and skills needed to become
a pediatrician. I have looked into different
groups that offer summer programs like
AAMC and
DVC. They provide summer camps that
encourages girls to become interested in the
fields of medicine and science. I went to one
last year at DVC College, and I plan to go
again this year. Majority of the websites I
looked into told me that you should just be
well rounded and you don’t have to “check
out each box” to become a doctor. I believe
that is true and that I need to join as many
clubs and do as many extracurricular
activities as I can to get into a good college
and have as many skills necessary. I could
shadow my mom while she is at work, and I
could also shadow my old pediatrician, Dr.
Nguyen, this summer or upcoming years
from now. Courses that I could take this
year are biology (which I am already
taking), chemistry (next year), psychology,
and as many math courses possible. The Red
Cross Club at BHS is also a good option to
take at the school if you’re interested in
going into the field of medicine. Whenever I
go to my mom’s office, I make it a point to
read the health magazines in the waiting
rooms. Magazines I can read are New
England Journals of Medicine and Annals of
Internal Medicine.
FIGURE 5 DREAM COLLEGE

6. Looking at my life from college
onward, the top Pre-Med schools are
Harvard, Stanford, University of
Pennsylvania, Columbia University, and
Cornell University. My dream college since
I was 10 years old has always been UCLA.
I’ve always wanted to go to school in
Southern California, and even though UCLA
is not one of the top listed schools, it is
number 13, and the highest of the UCs
listed. I really don’t want to go to the East
Coast for college so I think that I’ll
end up going to school at UCLA. I am going
to enroll in a summer camp at UCLA for
high school students, called a “Nanoscience
Lab Summer Institute” where you learn
about
nanoscience and advanced technology.
Another summer camp I plan to enroll in at
UCLA is a “Nanoscale Microscopy Lab
Institute” where you learn about microscopy
use and study under a
microscope. After college, I was not really
sure what I was going to do with my
medical career. I could go into private
practice and open up my own building, or I
could go into public practice and work
somewhere like Kaiser or a VA Medical
Center (serves the Veterans) but since I was
going to be a pediatrician, I thought I should
open up my own practice with a few other
doctors. Income for the upcoming years
would be $135,000 a year, but would
gradually increase up to $175,000 a year.
If my plan to become a pediatrician
does not work, I plan to go into becoming an
internist. Since my mom works at the VA in
Concord, I am basically guaranteed a spot of
work there, as long as I have the education
needed. (Which I will)
Chapter 2- Travel
All my life I have never really left
California. I've never really wanted to travel
around the world, but so far I have been to
Nevada and Oregon. People have told me
about places they have gone to for vacation,
but they were just words to me. I didn’t
think too much on what they said because I
know in my later life I will probably travel
more, so they were things I could think
about later, when I actually planned out a
trip. Luckily, last year I was fortunate
enough to go to Maui, Hawaii for a
wrestling tournament. It was by far one of
the best experiences of my life so far.
Having the experience of my Maui trip, I
now crave the experience of traveling
around the world. Paris has always sounded
like fun to me, and I also want to go on a
road trip around the US with a few of my
friends right after we graduate high school.
I’ve seen hundreds of pictures of around the
world before, but they were just pictures.
Now that I have experienced the clear blue
water and the lush forests of Hawaii,
pictures I see are no longer just pictures.
They are now places I want to visit before I
die, and trips I want to plan out for my
future.
At least once every few years, I
would like to visit Hawaii. I'm not really
sure which island I would visit. Kauai is the
garden isle, Maui is the valley isle, Big
Island is the orchid isle, and Oahu is the
gathering place. Depending on the time of
the year & what I want to see in particular
will help me decide what island to visit.
Personally, I think winter is the best time to
go to Hawaii because it’s warm for
California, but cooler for Hawaii. Maui
would be my first choice to vacation at. I
FIGURE 6 MAUI, HAWAII

7. love the waterfalls and mountainous areas of
Maui, so if I go in the winter, there
are more and better waterfalls, and the
weather is nicer to hike in. Maui is the best
place to go whale watching. Humpback
whales start arriving in November, and are
in full force by February, and are gone by
early May. In South Shore Maui, there is an
aquarium, fine beaches, snorkeling, and
good places to stay. I want to go on the
Road To Hana. It is a 55 mile journey
around Maui that takes you through the
waterfalls, the overgrown hillside and
around the coast. West Maui is more for
tourists and places you go to get souvenirs.
In North Shore Maui, there are tons of water
sports going on. The winds and winter
swells draw boaters to the ocean for racing.
If I were to fly to Maui, I’d just use Alaska
Airlines (what I used last time) that takes us
from Oakland to Maui. I then would rent a
car and stay in a hotel by the shore. The car
rental place is a few blocks from the airport,
and hotels are about 15 minutes away from
the car rentals. I love Maui because
everything is close, so if you stay in a hotel,
it’s less than half an hour away from an
attraction.
When I am older, and married, I
would love to go to Paris. There are
different “districts” in Paris, France. I want
to go to the Eiffel Tower in particular, so I
would visit the 7th arrondissement. I would
love to go during the Fall, because the trees
would be turning orange and the chilly but
sunny weather and crisp air would be
perfect. The overall cost to go to Paris is
really high, and I would have to exchange
Euros in Paris, so I would go after I have
made quite a bit of money and saved up to
go. There are a bunch of cool art museums,
and the Notre Dame Cathedral that I really
want to see. It is very hard to find parking in
Paris, so instead of using a car, I would take
the Metro or a taxi. For lodging, I would
rent an apartment.
Since many gourmet restaurants are
quite a bit of money to eat at, I won’t be
going to a cafe every morning of my trip.
Instead, I would buy store food or street
food and picnic. I would
splurge on one or two nice meals in a fancy
gourmet restaurant, but mostly I’d stick to
street food. Paris is one of the world’s
reigning capitals of fashion, and along with
that the clothes are fairly expensive. Instead
of spending thousands of dollars in a store,
I’d try the flea market, but of course window
shop! The Notre Dame Cathedral is best to
visit during the fall, which coincidentally is
the time I want to visit, because of the
shorter lines and smaller crowds. I would
spend the afternoon there, so that I could
watch the sunset from inside the Cathedral,
and experience the sunset from behind the
stained glass. I would also like to see The
Louvre Museum, go on a boat tour of the
Seine River, and Musee d’Orsay in Paris.
As soon as I graduate from high
school, I plan to go on a summer road trip
with my best friends. First, we would get a
really fuel efficient car and a really good
FIGURE 8 ROAD TO HANA
FIGURE 7 PARIS IN THE FALL

8. playlist for the ride. Then, we’d all become
experts at changing tires and filling up a gas
tank. Finally, we would pack enough clothes
for a month and a half, enough food (snacks
or instant food) and water, and a few things
to do in the car. We’d start in California,
then go to Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico,
Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee,
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina,
North Carolina, Virginia,West Virginia,
Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa,
Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah,
and back to California. I know that if you
are on a road trip, especially for a few
months, you won’t be able to sleep in a
motel every night, so I’m going to have to
get used to sleeping in a car, I guess. Within
our trip, we would make sure to visit
Hollywood, Vegas, a
Southern Catholic Church in Louisiana, the
warm beaches of Florida, and Mount
Rushmore. When you’re on the road, you
are probably going to be eating a ton of fast
food, so we are all going to work out really
hard before our trip so that we can gain back
all the weight we lost before. We have to
make sure to stop along the way and take
pictures, or even just lay a blanket down in a
meadow we drive by, just to enjoy our
experience to the fullest. I’m not scared to
make a wrong turn in the road because any
small mistake on a road trip can lead you to
having the best experience.
Chapter 3- Family
When I’m older, I hope to get
married and have two kids. I really want to
have kids because it would be pretty
amazing to literally give life to another….
And of course it would be so much fun! I
have always loved kids… I babysit and
coach them so I have seen them at their best
and worst. They can be SUCH a pain
sometimes, but I feel like that is part of the
fun of having kids. It would be so amazing
when I’m 30, and a toddler is crawling
around the carpet of my house, as I drink
coffee on the couch with my husband. I
know I can’t control whether I have a boy or
a girl, but if I have a boy, he’ll be named
Ares, Blaze, Zen, or Adonis (but Donny for
short). If I have a girl, she’ll be named Jade,
Aozora (but Zoey for short), Faith, or Hope.
I really like names from Greek mythology,
seasonal names, and names that have a
strong meaning to them, and I ended up
narrowing it down to those eight names.
I don’t plan to have kids until my
early 30s, but I plan to enroll each of my
kids in tons of sports and extracurricular
activities. I want my kids to be really well
rounded and be able to do things that will
help them in their later life. They should be
in leadership clubs so that they learn the
important skill of leadership. They should be
in sports because sports teach you self
discipline, hard work, time management,
and so much more! Sports give you daily
physical activity, social skills, good self
esteem, and lifelong health that they can
pass on to their kids. I will push my kids in
everything they do, but of course give
them leeway once in awhile. My family
will go on vacation often, and have family
activities together, even if we are all just
sitting in the same room, reading. We will
go to church every Sunday, because I feel
like religion is a very important aspect of
life. My kids should have some kind of
belief, but preferably Catholic or Christian
FIGURE 9 ROAD TRIP

9. (of course it’s up to them). When they want
to have parties at home, I will make sure to
keep an eye on who they hang out with, so
that I can help guide them into the right
crowds. In all honesty, I feel like their lives
will revolve around sports and
extracurriculars because if they play a sport
or are in a club, they will be surrounded with
people that have their same values or
interests. Also, from my personal
experience, when you are on a team with
someone, there is some sort of special bond
inside of you because you all work hard
together, you’re all rewarded if you succeed,
and you all take your consequences together.
Being on a team with people brings
everyone closer together, and I feel like just
that will help them find good friends that
will last them a lifetime.
Regarding my spouse, I want to get
married to a man who has a good head on
their shoulders. It might not sound that
good, but my spouse has to do certain things
in our relationship. For example; my
husband can’t smoke or do any drugs, he has
to have a good, well-paying job, and he has
to know how to cook and clean. Since your
spouse is the person you are going to spend
the rest of your life with, I don’t want to
make any mistake in who I choose to marry.
To be honest, if I can’t find a man who fits
my circumstances, I would rather just be
single for the rest of my life. I don’t want to
spend 70 years being miserable, I want to be
happy, and that’s part of the reason you
should get married, or for that matter, stay
single. People ask each other if you think
looks are more important than personality in
a relationship. In my opinion, I think
personality is majority of the answer. Looks
are important, but when I get married, the
personality of the person I marry will bring
up their looks. I’m not sure if that makes
sense, but basically the cooler of a person
you are, it makes you look better inside and
out. I of course would prefer to have a
husband who is good looking, but their
personality seems to be more important to
me.
Chapter 4- What will make me
happy
When I graduate high school and
move on to college, I will basically have a
new life. Not really anybody knows you in
college, and sometimes it’s difficult to make
friends. I plan to be very preoccupied with
school in college already, but I will have to
make time and find things to do that will
make me happy, because there is way more
to life than staying in a quiet room studying
all day. When I’m 30, I will have my kids to
keep me happy, but I’m not really sure what
I’ll do when I’m 80. Joining clubs and sports
will majorly help me in college, or just
hanging out with friends in general, but what
will I do when I’m older?
Whether or not I get into college on a
wrestling, swimming, or water polo
scholarship, I still plan to join sports teams
in college. My sister is on a crew team for
rowing at UC Davis, and she tells me all the
time that it is so much fun. From what she
says, it seems like something I would
definitely look into in college. Even if I
don’t join a team, I will try as best as I can
to exercise daily, especially because I’m not
FIGURE 10 FAMILY PICTURE

10. trying to get the Freshman 15 (when
freshmans gain roughly 15 pounds from the
exposure to college foods and eating habits,
stress, etc.).
Ever since I was young, I’ve also
always wanted to learn how to dance. I feel
like dancing is an important skill that
everyone needs to learn, so without a doubt,
I will take a dance class at the college I go
to. I’m just interested in learning the basics
of dance, not the deep roots of it.
I also have wanted to join some kind
of leadership club for a school ever since
middle school. I think that when I’m in
college, leadership will be a good door for
me to open because I’m really outgoing and
I love to talk and have people hear what I
think. If I end up doing any of these things
in college, I think I will be pretty dang
happy! Doing all these activities will not
only benefit my learning and make me
happy, but it will help me make new friends
because we will all be interested in the same
things.
In my middle-age years, I will have
kids that will take up majority of my time,
so I might as will do things with my family
that will make us all happy! There are tons
of things I can do with my family that will
be fun. We could bake cookies, visit a beach
and collect shells, make a fort out of
cardboard boxes, go on picnics, go biking on
a trail; there are so many things available!
When my kids are in elementary school, I
will volunteer in their classrooms to help out
with things the teacher needs, and help out
during class parties, just like what my mom
used to do. I could socialize with the other
parents that I will probably know for awhile,
since my kids and their kids will be in
school together for many years.
When I’m about about 80 years old, I
can’t imagine having many things to do. My
kids will be out of college, and they’ll
probably have their own families. I could go
to senior community events, like senior
prom, and hang out with fellow seniors I
barely know, OR I could get together with
my friends and watch movies from when we
were kids, like Frozen!!! It would be pretty
cool to watch a movie when we’re all 60
years older that we used to watch when we
were 15! I want to live next door to my best
friends when we’re older so that we can
easily commute to each other’s houses when
we want to hang out. We will all sit down in
rocking chairs and knit clothes for our
grandchildren, and bake tons of food for
when our they come over so that they all
leave our homes fat and happy. My best
friends and I will all drink tea together and
we’ll talk about life, and look back quite
often on how we used to talk about growing
old together when we were teenagers.
Chapter 5- Maintaining health
into old age
A pretty big goal I have is to be
really healthy for the rest of my life, so I
plan to be one those really muscular and fit
grandmas that goes on power walks every
morning, then sits outside with her husband
and drinks coffee afterwards. My mom
knows people that are 100 years old, and
their bodies are still completely healthy
physically and mentally. Those people are
just like who I want to be like when I’m
older. There are many components to being
a healthy person. Eating healthy, exercising
daily, and being with people that make you
happy are the 3 most important components
to me when it comes to being healthy.
Eating healthy is the first thing that
comes to my mind when it comes to your
health. I watched a documentary that talked
about how this man ate very little calories
per day, not to lose weight, but to live
longer. He was eating about 900 calories of

11. food per day, instead of the normal 2,000.
According to the video I watched, what he
was doing was tricking his body into
starvation mode, which made his body
become super efficient at making the most
of the calories it gets from food and drink.
Apparently, it could add about 10-15 years
to your life if you can manage starvation
mode properly. Grandparents do eat a lot
less when they’re older, especially because
they sleep a lot and can’t chew food as well
as they used to. I definitely don’t want to
trick my body into starvation mode because
it just sounds awful to me! But I will eat
quite a bit less, and very healthy. I’m not
really allergic to any foods, so the food I
will eat to maintain a healthy diet would be
pretty diverse. Each day, I should eat 1.5-2.5
cups of fruit, 2-3.5 cups of vegetables, 5-10
ounces of grains, 5-7 ounces of protein, and
3 cups of milk or 1-1.5 ounces of yogurt or
cheese. I should stay away from empty
calories, like candy, and stick to the
healthiest foods possible. One time, a trainer
came into one of my wrestling practices to
teach us about losing weight. He said that
we should have half a handful of protein,
half a handful of grains and dairy, and as
much fruits and vegetables as we want. I am
going to stick to those food portions as I
grow older. It is recommended to eat your
fruits and vegetables first, then your starch,
then your proteins, and of course I’ll eat
vitamins every day, too!
Another key to living a healthy life is
to exercise daily. I am already an athlete, but
when I’m older, it won’t be as easy for me
to wrestle or run. I’ll have to find different
alternatives to getting daily exercise, like
swimming. Swimming is honestly the best
way to stay fit for older people. It offers
aerobic exercise without impacting your
body. When you are submerged in water, the
body becomes lighter. You hold up 50
percent of your weight at the surface of the
water, when you are chest-deep, you hold
25-35 percent, and when the water is up to
your neck, you only hold 10 percent of your
body weight. The rest is all carried by the
pool. This means that the pool provides a
good place to work stiff muscles and sore
joints, especially if you’re overweight or
suffer from arthritis. Warm water helps
loosen stiff joints and helps expands your
lungs and strengthens your heart.
Swimming, along with any other form of
physical activity can lower stress, higher
spirits, and better your brain. Exercising
releases endorphins; feel good chemicals
that make you have a natural high. Apart
from swimming, I plan to take yoga and
aerobics classes. Yoga relaxes and
strengthens your body, and muscles, and
aerobics helps you get fit and lose weight. I
will swim, take yoga classes, and aerobics
classes every day of the week except for
Sunday, which will be my rest day.
The last component to being healthy
is to be with people that make you happy.
You can’t possibly lead a healthy life
without being with people that make you
happy, otherwise, there isn’t really any fun
in life. Of course, I will have my husband
with me, and I plan to live near a bunch of
my friends, so we can hang out often. We
could all take exercise classes together, or
go on walks at a local park. We could also
bake and do a bunch of elderly-woman
things, like go out for coffee after church. I
think being with good people sort of ties into
FIGURE 11 SMOOTHIE BOWL!!!

12. exercise because when you take a yoga
class, for example, you meet people that are
all very calm and happy, and they of course
would be the sort of people you would want
to associate with. If I don’t ever end up
living close to my friends, and I live in a
nursing home, HECK! I would ride around
the halls with a scooter thing with some
people in the same nursing home. We would
do super cool and fun things if I was in
there, because you might as will do
something fun wherever you are, especially
because I could be there for awhile.
FIGURE 13 WAFFLES FROM JAVA POINT CAFE
FIGURE 12 ANOTHER SMOOTHIE BOWL
FIGURE 15 YOGA INSPIRED
FIGURE 16 CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIES
FIGURE 17 OLYMPIC WOMENS WRESTLING
FIGURE 14 OLYMPIC SWIMMING

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