I leaned over the bathroom sink, my forehead almost pressed against the mirror, staring at my eyelashes. I ran my fingers across them, the subconscious intention to find and get rid of one. I secured my grasp on one, single eyelash, and then it was gone. I held the tiny eyelash in my hand, my heart sinking. A wave of guilt washed over me. Despite how much I hated doing it and how embarrassed I felt on a daily basis, I couldn’t stop. I didn’t see the long, dark, and full lashes that used to line my eyes —  there was almost nothing now. The only visible lashes were in random patches. Soon there would be nothing left to take. Whenever my fingers weren’t otherwise occupied, they found their way to my eyes. I lay awake at night, fingers fidgeting and fighting the urge to pick and pull. Maybe finding one eyelash would help me sleep. My fingertips made their way to my eyelashes because if they didn’t, my focus would never deter from picking. If I did it, the urge would go away and maybe I could finally feel relief. The urge was gone, but the overwhelming guilt wasn’t. Now, as a high school senior reflecting on my childhood, I know I was experiencing a compulsive habit rooted in anxiety, but as a nine-year-old kid, I felt broken and confused. Over time, I realized I had to take each day one step at a time. The weight of the shame I felt was too much, and my eyes were completely barren. I couldn’t let my habit control me any longer. It was extremely difficult, and even though I relapsed, over time, my efforts started to pay off. I went from picking constantly throughout the day to once a week. To my greatest relief, my lashes started to grow back. The power of my urge weakened. From an outside perspective, my progress was barely visible, but I cherished the tiny buds of growth that I saw before me. It was difficult, but I was able to stick to my goal and train myself out of the habit more each day. By the time I turned ten, I had stopped picking all together. I successfully broke out of my compulsion and had developed a sense of control. My lashes continued to grow, and I was able to ignore the urges. I felt an overwhelming sense of relief. My eyelashes grew long, dark, and full again. To this day I still encounter a lot of challenges rooted in anxiety. Some days my anxiety feels like it will never go away or get better. Sometimes I still feel that my thoughts are uncontrollable and that compulsions might rule over me for the rest of my life. But I know it isn’t true. Just by looking in the mirror, I have physical proof that I am capable of overcoming the obstacles that I still deal with. The people in my life and the years of hard work I have put into anxiety treatment have helped me learn more about the way my mind operates, allowing me to move on and grow. I have learned how to get help and how to redirect my thought processes. To the world, they are just eyelashes. To me, they symbolize overcoming a significant obstacle and a first step in battling severe anxiety that I still deal with today. Although I still experience daily symptoms, I know I can persevere even if something feels impossible to control or achieve. I have shown myself that I can do whatever I set my mind to, now equipped with an array of different tools and experiences. Not only have I gained a better understanding of myself, I now have a passion for helping others like me who are struggling. I want to become a nurse practitioner so I can learn more about the way people work and find solutions to all of the things they are struggling with. I am capable of growth and I am empowered to take on whatever life throws at me. These tiny eyelashes taught me the strength I didn’t know I had.

My favorite piece of artwork is Claude Monet's "Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son," also known as "The Stroll." I love art more than words can describe, so it's hard to pick only one piece of art. So even though I greatly appreciate and love countless other pieces, this one has to be my favorite for a few reasons. Claude Monet is my favorite artist of al time, and his art inspires me whenever I see it. The impressionist style and everything he put forth into the world genuinely touch my heart and help me to find even more beauty in the world. This painting in specific appeals to me more than I thought it would. I've always loved seeing it in pictures, and the big print my grandmother has in her hallway, but I grew to love it a thousand times more when I got the chance to see it in person. When I found it in the National Gallery of art, me and my dad started crying when we got into the full presence of its beauty. You could see every tiny pop of color, every curve of the paint, and the true colors that photos and prints could never completely capture. It was genuinely immaculate. Even though I might be a little biased about this painting since I had the opportunity to see it in person, it is for sure still my favorite. I love it for its beauty and for how peaceful and serene it is. Every color and imperfection. This painting (and Monet in general) inspire me to create art looking through a different lens that takes in the world's magnificence and true beauty. This piece of art is my favorite, easily, but it's hard to pick a second favorite.

As time consuming as studying is, it is completely worth it in the end. In my experience, when I’ve studied, I’ve done far better than I have versus times when I haven’t. I’ve been trying to learn how to study better during high school, but I’ve found some really helpful resources and tips that have become my go-to’s. The first few things that I try to keep in the back of my mind don’t even seem like studying, but they end up becoming crucial later on. That would be sleeping, taking breaks, taking care of myself, and trying to prevent burnout. In the moment when you are trying to remember anything and everything, your brain either wants to keep going and going, or just completely stop. When I remember and prioritize doing these things it helps keep me able to keep going in a healthy way as well as being motivated. To go with these, I think that there are other ways that really improve studying that are more straight forward. What I normally do is I will re-read notes and resources to refresh myself on things I might’ve forgotten, I will do practice tests/quizzes, and make flash cards. These are the things I use religiously every time I need to study, as well as other things that vary according to the situation. The last thing that I think is important for studying is reaching out to teachers and others. Teachers might give you more tips you might haven’t thought of, and they will almost always help you with whatever you need. The same goes for friends and anyone else you might think of. Reaching out is truly vital to us humans. Studying can be annoying, hard, and it might not seem worth it, but studying does genuinely pay off.

I have loved nature for as long as I can remember. My family’s love for nature has been passed on to me, and they have helped provide an abundance of experiences and opportunities where I can be immersed in nature to its fullest. I’ve moved a lot throughout my childhood, and I’ve gotten to experience so many different places because of it. From North Carolina to Oregon and Washington, I’ve gotten to relish all the different aspects of nature. With North Carolina’s homey sunshine and humidity to the pacific Northwest’s crisp cold air, and year-round clouds. The summers in North Carolina were spent in the mountains and at the beach, and in the Northwest they were spent swimming in nearby creeks and rivers. I’ve been lucky enough to create memories in nature all over the country. My family has a deep love for nature. My mom points out the tiniest things, and it helps me to love the world even more. My dad is -unintentionally at times- a very poetic person, and will just sit and silently appreciate the beauty of the world. The world is the most incredible creation to ever exist, and its sheer beauty can physically take your breath away. My parents are rejuvenated by nature, and it truly does bring them peace. They appreciate every aspect of nature without even meaning to. Everything from my experiences to my family has fed my pre-existing love for nature and the world. It brings me peace. Even just laying in the grass at night watching the stars can be fulfilling. We feel a connection to god when we are surrounded by his creation, even if that sounds cheesy. This is why I love it. Being in nature anywhere can be healing. How can you not appreciate it?

My ultimate goal in life is to help people and make an impact. I want to be in the psychology field. My goal is to start helping people locally in my community and eventually reach out to people from places that maybe aren't local. I have always known that my main goal in life would be to help people, but I didn't exactly know how I would do so specifically. It wasn't until I was 10 that the answer was obvious; I wanted to get into psychology. My dad was going through a super hard time and got help from a mental health professional. Now, I too am currently in therapy, and my therapist has legitimately changed my life. Me, my dad, and pretty much everyone in my family have mental health challenges that I now understand more than ever before, but I want to know as much as I can. I want to help people in the same way that my dad's therapist and mine have helped us. So, my goal is to be a psychologist, but how would I reach non-local people, and why would they want help from me? I want to be able to create resources and be a resource that can be reached digitally, therefore people from other places would be able to get help. I would focus on my local area, but I want to be able to provide resources that can help people get help from me wherever they are. The reason I would be more accessible is that I would have options for people who usually wouldn't be able to afford help. I want everyone to have equal access to help. I hope to help in any way I can, especially through my future profession and current passion.

I try to make my community as positive as I can. I try to be nice to people around me, serve others, volunteer, and get involved. I have met people who have done things for me that impacted my life in a very positive way, and their actions have inspired me to do the same. My youth group tries to have a day every month where we pick up trash around town. I've been doing that since middle school, and I am currently planning to do it soon. Something else I have done with my youth group is I have helped to lead the making of a mural in our church. It is almost done after 2 years of planning and work. Some small everyday sort of things I try to do for my community is being friendly to strangers, polite and respectful to teachers, and kind to my friends and family. I try to check in with the people I know as often as I can, and I try to help whenever it is needed. I try to be kind to the people around me so they can do the same for others as well. The last thing I would like to mention is that I help to run the GSA at my school. My high school is in an area where there are quite a few people who are super hateful towards people in the LGBTQ+ community, and so I joined the club to help try to curve that. Our club's goal is to create a positive environment for members of the community so they can feel safe, as well as to create a more accepting environment in the school.

When I was 10, my dad had a severe panic attack and had to go to the hospital for it. He didn't know what was wrong, but he felt like he was dying. None of us knew it was "just" anxiety, so we also thought something was seriously wrong. It was the hardest day of my life. I was woken up super early by my mom. We were taking my dad to the ER because he said he felt "out of body." When we went to the ER everyone said that he was totally fine and could go home. But later that day it got even worse, and we had to go again. This time he was put in a wheelchair because he couldn't control his legs anymore. He started to panic and started to say "I love you" because he genuinely thought he was dying. The doctors wheeled him away on a stretcher and I wasn't allowed to see him. I remember seeing him pass out on the stretcher and thinking he was actually dead. My mom didn't know what was happening either and was trying to reassure me and my sister. She broke down on a chair and started to hug me. I remember weeping. I didn't know what was happening, or what I would do if he actually did die. We left with our friends a little later, and we didn't see my dad until late at night. I remember watching him walk out of the car all by himself, then me running out the door to hug him. He was okay. It was so hard to go through the day. Everything was so out of my control, and I didn't know what was happening. But me and my family got through it. We persevered together.

I try to appreciate life as much as I can. It's so easy to forget how meaningful things are, even people. Some days it just hits me; am I appreciating my life as much as I can? Even though I'm young, I feel like my time is running out, and I'm taking advantage of my time. But sometimes you just have to stop everything and try to be thankful. I try to let people know they are important to me. I hope that everyone I love knows I love them and that they hear me say it to them. With that said, I also try to think about how much they mean to me and appreciate them. People are the most important part of life, and it is so easy to forget that. You don't realize how important things are until you lose them. I try to enjoy my time as much as I can because you can never get your time back. I've tried to do that for as long as I remember because I've realized how fast time flies. Even just sitting outside and watching everything can make time feel like it's stopped. It can be depressing to think about, but you need to realize how valuable life is and that it doesn't last very long. Overall, I think that I try to value my time and relationships over everything else. I try to enjoy moments while they last, and try to stay in the moment. I also try to keep strong, healthy relationships that mean a lot to me and treasure those people. Lastly, enjoying life as much as you can is one of the most important ways to be grateful and appreciative. It can be hard, but it is super important.

My entire family battles mental health issues, and unfortunately passed a lot of them down to me. I battle depression, anxiety, and OCD. I have just recently started to get help and have been able to understand them more, but they have made life extremely challenging. When I was 11, I watched as my dad went through the most intense period of anxiety he had ever gone through. Nobody knew it was anxiety until he got therapy. That was my first memorable experience with mental health. From that point, mine started to slowly go downhill, unfortunately. I developed more anxiety and some of the first noticeable signs of depression. I lived across the country from my family and had no friends. It was the loneliest time of my life. Even from that age, I didn’t want people to feel how I felt. I didn’t want people to be lonely. That was when I got into psychology and decided I wanted to do something that could help people. During COVID, I realized that I wanted to get into psychology even more. I started therapy as COVID started to die down more, and realized how hurt I was. The world seemed so routine and hopeless. It was hard to be around people and hold onto relationships, and everything around me seemed dull. When I started my healing process, it made me want other people to be able to heal like I was, and not have to hurt anymore. I’ve been through a lot, and I’m still in the process of healing, but what I’ve been through has made me even more passionate about helping people. It might be the only positive of what I’ve been through. My mental health as well as my family and friend has shaped my goal in life of wanting to help people. So even though mental health is a constant struggle, there is always some sort of hope. For me, that hope was that it gets better, and now I know what I want to do in life. My mental health experiences have made me want to help people.

I think that one practical solution for helping more people with their mental health is to listen to them. If someone is talking to you about their struggles and what they are going through, listening is probably the only helpful thing you can do. The reason listening is important is because a lot of people might try to problem solve for the people opening up to them, but that is usually not helpful. If someone asks for you to problem solve, then go for it, but if not, then just listen and make sure the person being vulnerable is being appreciated and noticed. Listening might not sound like a lot at all, but knowing someone is there for you is one of the best feelings. It's not going to cure mental illnesses per se, but if more people listen to the people who are hurting, and the people who need to know someone has their back, listening to them is extremely powerful. If more people learn how to listen properly, and without judgment, the world will be a much more welcoming and supportive environment. I struggle with mental health problems, and when I started going to therapy, it was so comforting to have someone listen to me, and be able to help me in that way. I had never even thought about how much listening would impact me until that moment. You don't have to be a mental health professional to listen. Everyone can listen. That is why it is so important. I hope that someday we will live in a world where listening is more understood, and more people can do so. It is so very important, even if you don't realize it. It might seem like it isn't enough, but it is.