"They called me Mellow Yellow." I was an inquisitive child, born when my mother was 45 and my father, 52. Both my siblings were already on their way to college when I started preschool. Whenever they visited, my siblings called me "Mellow Yellow" because of my calm demeanor and intense love for all things yellow. Growing up, I had a vast love for insects and science. In preschool, I wouldn't dream of leaving my house without my favorite oversized yellow boots because I used them in an attempt to catch the meandering crickets and dragonflies near my house. Then, when I started high school, I traded the yellow boots for yellow walls that made it easier to wake up in the morning and the dragonflies for glass beakers that I used for experiments.

My love for yellow not only affected my interests and early memories but also impacted my culture. In Indian mythology, legends from the Maurya Empire claimed that anything yellow carried parts of the sun. My extended family would tell me these stories and they made me confident that I was strong enough to behold and cherish a part of the sun. When I visited my family in Kolkata last summer to complete a research project, I was initially anxious and my sense of adventure fought with my over-active imagination. On the first day of the interviews for the project, my laptop crashed and an unexpected monsoon caused the house to flood. The saffron hues in India started to seem less inspiring and more disheartening. When my aunts noticed my discomfort, they decided to tell me the "yellow legend" again this time explaining that carrying part of the sun didn't always mean complete bliss, but rather finding positivity in the darkness. Comfort and resolve to complete my service and research then replaced my initial apprehension of being in an unfamiliar environment. The next day, I brought an umbrella to survive the rain and gave all of the girls I interviewed yellow thank-you cards.

It makes sense that yellow is the most luminous color on the spectrum because it shines in different aspects of my background, culture, and passions. The color will continue to emanate as I strive toward my future goals in business administration and research; it is incandescent.