Hello, My name is Michael Roda, I’m 17 years old, and I’m currently in my senior year here at Lake Shore High School. My top 2 favorite hobbies are the following, #1, making music on my 2 acoustic guitars, and my ukulele. The guitars include a Stagg SA20ACE NAT and an Ibanez V50MJP-NT-2Y-O2. The Ibanez V50MJP-NT-2Y-O2 is just a standard acoustic guitar, while the Stagg SA20ACE NAT is an electro-acoustic, meaning that it’s equipped with a pickup system. It’s equipped with a Piezo GO3 under-saddle pickup, meaning that if necessary, I can plug my Stagg SA20ACE NAT into a PA system or an acoustic amplifier, and play live. An amount of time passed after purchasing my Stagg SA20ACE NAT. After that time elapsed, on Saturday, December 17th, 2022, my 17th birthday, I was gifted with an A15V 15-watt Acoustic Instrument Amplifier. The 3rd and final instrument in my collection is a Strong Wind SWUK23-001 Concert Ukulele. The specifications of the instruments are the following. The Stagg SA20ACE NAT is a Grand Auditorium body shape, with a cutaway. This body shape is the 4th largest guitar size, behind the Grand Symphony, the Dreadnought, and the Jumbo. It features a natural high-gloss basswood body, a neck composed of Nato wood, and a black stained Maple fretboard. It also features a 26-inch (660.4mm) scale length and a 2-inch (50.8mm) nut width. The scale length is the length from the nut, which is the piece at the top of the neck, that holds the guitar strings in place, to the bridge, which is the piece that allows the transfer of vibrations of the strings to the body of the guitar. The specifications of the Ibanez V50MJP-NT-2Y-O2 are the following. The Ibanez V50MJP-NT-2Y-O2 is a Dreadnought body shape, which is the 2nd largest body shape, behind a Jumbo-size acoustic guitar. It features a spruce top, meranti back and sides, a neck composed of Nato wood, and a nandu fretboard. It also features a 26-inch (660.4mm) scale length and a 1.65-inch (42mm) nut width. The Strong Wind SWUK23-001 is a concert body shape, which is the second smallest of the 4 sizes of ukulele, as there are four different sizes of ukulele. From the smallest to the largest, it goes Soprano, Concert, Tenor, and Baritone. This concert ukulele features a mahogany body, a neck composed of maple wood, and a scientific wood fretboard. It also features a 15-inch (660.4mm) scale length and a 2-inch (50.8mm) nut width. My hobby of playing musical instruments sparked, back in 2013 when I was gifted with a First Act Discovery FG6002 acoustic guitar. After about 6 years of playing on that acoustic, I decided to take it a little bit more seriously. So, I upgraded to a ZENY acoustic. However, that acoustic gave me so many issues, that I decided to sell it, and that led me to purchase my Stag SA20ACE NAT. The story behind my Ibanez V50MJP-NT-2Y-O2 isn’t as elaborate, as after my 8th grade year, I was gifted with it, by my cousin. The 2nd hobby is writing stories. In fact, in the 83 days that elapsed from Friday, June 16th, 2023, to the 1st day of school, Tuesday, September 5th, 2023, I wrote 8 different novels. These novels include The Bowling Bonanza, The Secluded Species, Velocity: Unleashing The Jet-Powered Revolution, Mental Madness, Bowling For The Ages, The Scarring Story, The Sneaky Swordsmith, and The Gruesome Game. All of these novels differ in length. The Bowling Bonanza was 19 pages long, The Secluded Species was 12 pages long, Velocity: Unleashing The Jet-Powered Revolution was 15 pages long, Mental Madness was 16 pages long, Bowling For The Ages was 17 pages long, The Scarring Scar was 12 pages long, The Stealthy Swordsmith was 13 pages long, and The Gruesome Game was 14 pages long. This is my second Summer break in a row, where I’ve been writing novels. In fact, during the 83 days that elapsed during Summer break 2022, which spanned from Friday, June 17th, 2022, to the 1st day of school of the 2022-2023 school year, Tuesday, September 6th, 2022, I wrote 10 different novels, Ice Age #2, The Deep Freeze, Late, Natural Disasters, The Dream Decimator, Police Pandemonium, The 30th Anniversary, The Dramatic Drift (which I worked on with fellow senior Nathan Smith), The Great Fire, The Mythical Music Festival, The Supercar Showdown, YouTuber Edition, and The Zombie Apocalypse, Mankind's Final Frontier. Like the novels I mentioned earlier, all 10 of these novels varied in length. Ice Age #2, The Deep Freeze was 12 pages long, Late was 15 pages long, Natural Disasters, The Dream Decimator was 17 pages long, Police Pandemonium was 14 pages long, The 30th Anniversary was 9 pages long, The Dramatic Drift was 70 pages long, The Great Fire was 36 pages long, The Mythical Music Festival was 16 pages long, The Supercar Showdown, YouTuber Edition was 14 pages long, and The Zombie Apocalypse, Mankind's Final Frontier was 13 pages long. All of this novel writing, sparked when I was in the Writers’ Club in my 7th and 8th grade years, the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 LSPS school years, where I wrote 6 different novels. These novels include An Alarming Automotive Accident, Discovery (which was a 2-parter), The Supercar Showdown, and Speed, (which like Discovery was a 2-parter). All 6 of these novels, like the 17 novels mentioned earlier, differed in length. An Alarming Automotive Accident was 4 pages long, Discovery (which was a 2-parter), was in total, 8 pages long, with part 1 being 3 pages long, and part 2 being 5 pages long, The Supercar Showdown was 7 pages long, and Speed, (which like Discovery was a 2-parter), was in total, 8 pages long, with part 1 being 3 pages long, and part 2 being 6 pages long. All of these activities, however, were during my free time. In the intervening time between writing novels, and making music, during the 3 years of middle school, I didn’t have anything going on, until I got into my high school years, where I had 2 other activities occurring. The 1st came 1 week after school got out, on Thursday, June 22nd, and spanned to Sunday, June 25th, 2023. It was a leadership conference at Michigan State University in East Lansing, known as MYLead, which is an acronym for Michigan Youth Leadership. It was at this conference that I was working behind the scenes, as a Logistics Intern (LI). This was my 2nd year at Michigan State University, as I also attended last year from Friday, June 24th, 2022, to Sunday, June 26th, 2022, as a Young Leader (YL). Then, 15 days after the 2023 MYLead conference, on Monday, July 10th, 2023, I began working as a store worker at Great Lakes ACE Hardware, which spanned over 24 days, 4 days a week, for 6 weeks. This spanned from Monday, July 10th, 2023, to Thursday, August 17th, 2023, where I was working from 9:30 A.M. to 2:30 P.M. This is my 2nd year working, as I worked at Big Lots last year, from Monday, July 11th, 2022, to Thursday, August 18th, 2022. After the 2023 program concluded, I earned $1,045.35. This is $68.11 more than I earned last year, as when I worked at Big Lots, I was working during the same timeframe, from 9:30 A.M. to 2:30 P.M, and I managed to earn $977.24. However, this work wasn’t the traditional job, where you go in for an interview. This was through Michigan Rehabilitation Services (MRS) (Gesher Human Services), which is a non-profit organization, which is headquartered in Southfield, Michigan. These totals were because while I was in this program over the last two Summers, I was getting paid minimum wage, which was $9.87/hour in 2022, and this increased to $10.10/hour in 2023. My goals after high school are to build up enough money, buy a 1.1-acre piece of land, and build my 3-story, 38,808ft2 dream house. First, this mansion would consist of the main house, which was 55ft long, and 45ft long, meaning that the main house was 2,925ft2. Second, there was an elevator, located in the back right corner of the main house, which is 25ft long, and 15ft wide, meaning that the elevator is 375ft2. Third, on the left side of the main house, there was a transition hall leading to the garage. This hall is 26ft long and 3ft wide, meaning that the transition hall is 78ft2. Fourth, there was the garage, which is 105ft long and 45ft wide, meaning that the garage is 4,725ft2. Fifth, there would be a second transition hall on the right side of the house that led to the pool, which was the same specifications as the one on the other side, at 78ft2. Sixth, there was the pool, which is 108ft long and 45ft wide, meaning that the pool is 4,860ft2. Seventh, there was another transition hall on the right side of the pool that led to the hot tub, which is 44ft long, and 3ft wide, meaning that the transition hall is 132ft2. Eighth, there was the hot tub, which is 54ft long, and 32ft wide, meaning that the hot tub is 1,728ft2. Ninth, there was another transition hall on the back side of the pool that led to the bowling alley, which is 21ft long and 3ft wide, meaning that this transition hall is 63ft2. Tenth, there was the bowling alley, which was 105ft long, and 67ft wide, meaning that this bowling alley is 7,035ft2. Eleventh, there was another transition hall on the back left corner of the main house that led from the main house to the bathroom, which was 50ft long, and 3ft wide, meaning that this transition hall is 150ft2. Twelfth, there was the bathroom, which was 115ft long and 46ft wide, meaning that the bathroom is 5,290ft2. Thirteenth, there was a track that led from the gate to the pathway leading to the front door(s) of the main house to the gate to the stairwell up to the door, which led into the garbage disposal/generator. This track would be 90ft long, and 6ft wide, meaning that this track is 540ft2. Fourteenth, there was the garbage disposal/generator, which was 860ft2. Fifteenth, there was the transition hall, which led to the activation booth, which would be used to activate the garbage disposal/generator. This transition hall was 25ft long and 3ft wide, meaning that this transition hall is 75ft2. Sixteenth, there would be the activation booth, which was 53ft long, and 53ft wide, meaning that this activation booth is 2,809ft2. Seventeenth, next to the transition hall that led to the pool, there would be the transition hall that led to the music studio. This transition hall was 25ft long and 3ft wide, meaning that this transition hall is 75ft2. Eighteenth and finally, there was the music studio, which was 105ft long and 67ft wide, meaning that this music studio is 7,035ft2. After I pay off that house, I would then travel to my local Lexus dealer, and then purchase my dream car, a 2022 Lexus LS.
