Being a female is seen as a weakness. Women are constantly told they can't do certain things. As women, we are stereotyped as emotional, weak, powerless, and with ineffective voices. We are seen as less than men. According to a study done by the United Nations Foundation, 34% of countries in the world restrict women from working in certain industries, 28 countries do not have laws against domestic violence, and 25% of women earn less than a man working the same job. Gender discrimination is found in the workplace, the home, and churches. But this discrimination started at a young age for me. When I was a little girl, I had big dreams about my future job. I remember when my sister and I would talk about how fun it would be to be a police officer or firefighter. My dream job since I was a little girl was to be a police officer. But I'll never forget when other kids told me that I couldn't be a police officer because that was a "boy job". As I got older I started telling people I wanted to be a teacher, fashion designer, and a mom, all things that were "girl jobs". I was letting people decide what I wanted to be because as a girl I didn't have the power to decide for myself. Men, and even women, constantly stereotype genders. As a six-year-old girl, I was made fun of for liking the color blue, watching Ninjago, and playing with Hot Wheels because those were "reserved for boys only". Now I have decided to pursue theology and go into ministry - but even in a church I still face gender discrimination where people tell me I cannot be a pastor specifically because I am a girl. Discrimination is very difficult to overcome and it is very discouraging. But I am passionate and determined to make sure that future generations don't have to face that discrimination. Thankfully with each year, gender discrimination is less and less common. When people tell them they are not enough because they are a girl - I want to encourage them that they are good enough to do what a man can do. I hope to set an example to other young girls to show them that they are worth more than that. Women can have important voices, we can be good leaders, and women can be supervisors and managers. We should be allowed to have the same privileges as men and not be discriminated against because of our gender. Girls are allowed to be entrepreneurs, the head boss, and businesswomen. Girls should not be intimidated by their gender and we should be bold and confident because being a girl isn't a weakness like society says it to be. Girls have important voices in the workplace, we can be smart, ambitious, admirable, and strong leaders. As I grow up and enter into my career I will encourage other girls by setting the example that we can pursue any career that we want and there is no such thing as a "boy job" or "girl job".

Have you ever been lying in bed at night crying, wishing you were somebody else? Have you ever woken up every morning already tired five minutes into the day? Have you ever canceled plans because you were already drained before leaving the house? So have I. Every day of my life seemed pointless. We all live just to die right? Every day is the same repetitive boring cycle. Wake up, go to school, go to work, go to sleep, and then do it all over again. How am I supposed to live that cycle every day until I die? That mindset made my life seem so pointless. I believed there was no point in living if that is what my life will always be. What a depressing cycle. Depression is like a lens. You see the world through black-and-white glasses. Relationships are worthless, goals aren't ever set (because you can't imagine a future), and the world keeps moving whether you're here or not. I had been letting my mental illness control me. I was terrified of being out of control but I gave up my control to anxiety, being anxious about control - a never-ending cycle. Mental illness had me trapped. But when I realized I could take that control back, my whole perspective changed. Beginning the process of taking control back is not easy but that doesn't make it impossible. When you get control over your mind you can set your own goals for yourself. My anxiety set goals like "stay home tonight or else something bad will happen when you are out". Now that I can make my own goals, I tell myself things like "become a successful businesswoman". When I was depressed my depression told me that "no one truly likes you". Now that I have control over my mind I tell myself "I have something important to bring to every relationship and person I meet". Now that my "depression lens" and "anxiety lens" are gone, the world isn't black and white anymore, instead, it's so colorful. Now my goals are different. I want to help anyone who has those "depression lenses'" and remove them. I want to restore any relationship I lost when I let my anxiety control me. And now I can see the world and my life in it, the way God created it: beautiful, colorful, and with purpose.

Reading has always been a relaxing outlet for me. When I'm tired of the real world and life problems, it is easy to open a book and pretend I am the main character of a mystery novel or romance novel and forget about everything else. Reading is more than just a hobby or homework assignment for school, books have helped me grow in knowledge, wisdom, and experience. Books have taught me important life lessons and taught me new words. One thing that reading has taught me is that we all go through problems and make mistakes. Authors put their own life experiences into even fictional novels so I can learn from their experiences. Fortunately, most of the problems that you will go through, someone else has already gone through them and written a book about it. And if you learn from those who have already been through your situation, you can avoid it or make it better. This way you can look at this problem from an outside perspective and learn how to get through it for yourself or even avoid it. When I read a novel with plot twists and novels about characters who have gone through hard life situations I can learn from their experience. When I finish a book and see every detail, every action that leads to another action, and each plot twist, I see the big picture and it shows me that my life is just like that - we are practically living in a book and each year is a new chapter, each day is a new page. While fiction books can still teach you many things, there are more than just fiction books that can help you grow. For example, self-help books, religious books, educational books, autobiographies, and historical books. Reading these can help you grow socially, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and even physically. When I read books about someone I can relate to, it makes my problems look smaller and it makes my goals look good enough. Because I have grown and learned from reading, this has shaped my goals, and even given me new goals. Reading has shaped the goals I have for my personal life and career. Reading has shaped my goal for my career by giving me ideas of what I want to be, who I want to be, who I am, and the career paths I could take. Reading has encouraged my idea to be a writer or use it somehow in my career and at school. Reading makes my dreams look capable of reaching them because if the main character in my book can do it, so can I. Reading has shaped my goals for my personal life by helping me see all of the different lives I can live and the people that I can be. Our lives really are just like books. We flip pages like days and start new chapters.

My mental health directly impacts my academic performance and personal life while I attend school. Low mental health and mental health disorders cause my grades to drop, my attention span to decrease, my learning capability to decrease, and my engagement in class to decrease. One of the most impacted aspects of school that are affected by my mental health is the social aspect of school. When my mental health is low, so is my social health. But when I'm doing good with my mental health, I notice a huge difference in my social life at school. I engage in class regularly, I raise my hand to answer questions, I can easily hold conversations, and I enjoy being around my friends. When my mental health is low, I have a difficult time having conversations, answering questions, engaging in classes and even talking with my friends at school. Depression, anxiety, and social anxiety make school very difficult to interact with other teachers and students. With anxiety and social anxiety, it feels uncomfortable to talk to people and I feel an overwhelming fear of making a mistake and being embarrassed in front of people. This led to me hating school and begging my parents every day to get out of it. When you don't like school, don't want to be there, and you're tired and your mental health is low, you don't want to even try at school. I didn't try to learn, I didn't try to get involved, I didn't try to engage myself in classes. Of course, this then led to my grades dropping. Another one of the aspects of school, most impacted by my mental health, is my grades. My grades have gone from A plus to C minus in just a few weeks because my mental health declined. When my mental health is low, so is my energy. I don't want to put in all of my efforts to school and homework, instead, I just do my work as fast as I can with the least amount of work I can put in because I'm too tired and mentally drained to try. The homework that I halfway try ends up with a bad grade. The bad grade then makes me anxious because my grades are bad. Then I'm so anxious that I struggle to put in effort at school to learn and do my homework. So the cycle just keeps repeating. But then when my mental health is doing well, I notice a positive impact on my grades. Because I am taking care of my mental health, I don't get drained as easily and so I am energized enough to put all of my effort into work and school, even homework after school. When I am mentally healthy, I'm focused in school, I'm able to learn better, and so I get good grades. Because of the impact that mental health can drastically have on my academics and personal life, I realize how important it is for me to take care of my mental health. To prevent myself from the negative impact mental health can have on my life at school, I prioritize the importance of staying mentally healthy. I take breaks, and days to relax and give myself a break from school. I make sure to do things I enjoy outside of school to prevent myself from getting drained and taking mental health days to rest. I regularly assess where I am mentally and make sure I am doing all I can to stay mentally healthy because that is so important to me in my academic and personal success.

My mental health impacted more than just my mind. When I was depressed and anxious I experienced more than just suicidal and anxious thoughts, but I also had physical symptoms. When I was depressed and anxious I was so tired but I couldn't sleep. I was weak, I was easily irritated, my stomach always hurt, my head hurt, my hair fell out, and I constantly felt the tight knot in my throat and chest like I wanted to cry. When I had an eating disorder, I was always dizzy, always nauseous, always angry, my head hurt, my bones were weak, I was always freezing, and I was on the road to becoming infertile. My mental health is important because I chose to get better and I never want to experience the way I felt when I struggled with my mental disorders ever again. I also believe mental health awareness is so important because no one should feel the way I had to feel. I believe mental health is one of the most important aspects of my life to take care of. The status of my mental health impacts my physical health, social health and spiritual health. If you are not mentally healthy it completely changes the way you view the world and the way you live in it. Your mental health impacts your thinking, relationships, personal well-being, self-esteem, learning skills, communication skills, and many more ways. I have experienced many mental, physical, and social problems that were caused by my mental disorders and so now, I prioritize taking care of my mental health. Ways that I take care of my mental health are doing things like journaling, exercising, eating healthy, exploring hobbies, and going to therapy. Journaling helps because it is important to get the thoughts out of your head and explain how you feel, no one else has to read the words, it is just important to make sure you don't keep the thoughts in your head and get them out. It is relaxing and I always feel better when I get my thoughts out. Journaling helps remove the thoughts from my mind and stop overthinking. exercising helps because when I finish running or lifting, I always feel so much happier and immediately am in a better mood than before. Along with exercising, eating healthy is proven to benefit your mental health. When I eat healthy I feel better physically, which positively impacts me mentally. When I explore hobbies like reading, painting, singing, and hiking, my mood is positive and I feel happy and relaxed. Even when I am not currently struggling with a mental disorder going to therapy helps me express my thoughts and learn more about myself and my mental health. I believe mental health is one of the most important aspects of my life to take care of and so I do as much as I can to care for myself and prevent any mental health disorders.

Music is more than just a song. Music is an escape from reality, art in the form of sound, and an expression of emotion. Music creates an escape from reality because when I put my headphones on, it is like I enter a different world and my reality changes. When my thoughts are too much and overwhelm me, I play my music. And instead of my anxious thoughts, I hear the lyrics and the sound of the music. Playing an instrument can bring your mind to a different place as well. There are hundreds of genres of music for people with very different tastes. Music is an expression of emotion because there are so many different types of music that you can listen to or create according to your emotions. When I'm sad I can listen to my happy playlist to lift my mood, when I'm anxious I can listen to my relaxing instrumental to calm me. Music can make you want to dance, cry, sleep, or scream the lyrics. Every mood and emotion, every setting and event has music that matches perfectly. For example, when you go to sit at Starbucks on a cold autumn day near the window with a hot cup of coffee while watching the rain pour and looking at the red leaves on the trees, of course, you're going to want a jazz and fall-feeling playlist. Because there are millions of people on this earth who have been through the same situations, feeling the same emotions, and creating music based on them, you can find music that relates to every emotion you have. Writing and creating music expresses emotion. The instrumental and lyrics of a song reveal what emotions the artist feels. When an artist is sad, they write sad songs with sad lyrics, when an artist is happy, they write happy lyrics. Music is art in the form of sound because music is an expression of a human's intelligence, emotion, experience, and imagination. Music has beauty and emotional power. And music can cause you to feel emotion. When you think of music often it comes with nostalgia or a memory. Certain songs trigger specific emotions because I have emotional memories attached to them. When your favorite song plays on the radio it makes you happy, when a song you listened to with your ex plays on the radio it makes you sad or angry, when a childhood favorite song plays it can make you feel a sense of longing, happiness, or sorrow. Music is more than just songs it is an escape from reality, art in the form of sound, and an expression of emotion. I don't think I could live without music, it is one of my biggest passions.

Volleyball is fun and exciting but it is more than just a game. Volleyball has given me skills that I can use in my future career and everyday life. Some of the skills volleyball has taught me are mental toughness, goal setting, commitment, patience, and more. Volleyball taught me communication skills. Communication is one of the biggest keys to playing volleyball. You must think and move quickly in a matter of seconds while also communicating with your teammates. Playing a team sport teaches you how important it is to communicate to succeed as a team. When you work with a group you cannot do everything on your own. Having multiple ideas and opinions can help decide what the best plan could be. Communicating what you are going to do and how you are going to do it, in both volleyball and in your career, will help others decide what they should do as well. As someone whose plans for the future include a career of constantly working with a group of people, I can use the lessons that I have learned about teamwork and communication from volleyball. In any career, when working with a group of people to achieve something, you succeed and fail as a group. Like in volleyball, you lose as a team and win as a team. Volleyball taught me self-discipline. Self-discipline means that I have to put work in even when no one is watching and when no one is pushing me. I have to push myself because I want to succeed for myself. Volleyball showed me that the amount of work you put in determines the amount of growth and success you achieve. When I am lazy and do not put effort into getting better, I can see that in my growth as an athlete. Self-discipline also means sacrifice. If I know that I need extra sleep the night before a tournament, I have to sacrifice my time and use it to get the rest I need. I have to have the discipline to eat healthy foods for my best performance. I have to have the discipline to show up every day for practice and train hard. The self-discipline that volleyball has taught me can be used in my college career and future job. It is important to have self-discipline in college to study, go to every class, and live a healthy lifestyle that will benefit me in the future. Self-discipline will always show up when in the end. Because of volleyball, I have had to overcome laziness, impatience, and mental weakness. Because volleyball has taught me so much I can use all of those important skills and bring them to my everyday life, college, and future career.

Mental Illness is not normal. It is common among many people but that does not make it okay. I've felt the heaviest weight of depression, and been sad even when I didn't know why. I've felt the empty, hopelessness of an eating disorder. And overwelming anxiety. I've had many panic attacks while lying in my bed at night, but the worst part of all of it is the hoplessness that you feel and the the belief that you will never get better. For a long time I belived I was never going to get better. And if anyone belives that lie, it can ruin so much. It will destroy your career, your dreams and goals, and all of your relationships. When I belived that I was never going to get better, my grades in school dropped, I stopped valuing my family and friends and our relationships. I gave up on all of my aspirations, and I didn't plan on going to college or even making it past highschool. My whole view of life had changed and I didn't value any aspect of my life anymore. Depression made me angry. It made me yell at my parents when they did nothing wrong. It made me yell at my brother and tell him to get out of my room when he just missed me. It made me scream at my sister when she just wanted to help me because she saw how unhealthy I was. Depression made me fall alseep in math class because I stayed up all night crying. Depression made me miss out on thousands of plans with friends because it was too much to leave my bed. When my mental health was at its lowest, that's all that I could think about. When I was depressed all I could think about were the reasosn why I was sad. When I had an eating disorder all I could think about was my body. When I was anxious I could only imagine the worst scenarios of every situation possible. Mental illness distracts you from how beautiful life can be. When I am at a resturant with my family, I think of how good all the food tasetes rather than how much weight this will make me gain. When I hang out with my friends, I think about how fun it is to be with them, instead of how much I wish I could be alone in my room. When I was struggling with my mental health, I belived that nothing could save me. But I was wrong. It doesn't matter how deeply depressed you are, there is something that can save you, I know this because it saved me from the illnesses I have struggled with. Hope. Hope for the future, hope for who I could become. You are in control of your mind. You can choose to bring yourself out of the deepest depression you have been in. No matter how hard it feels you, no matter how bad your life gets, you can choose hope even when it feels hopeless. When I was depressed, when I hated my body, when I didn't care about any of my relationships, I had to remind myself who I could become. I was currently the opposite of who I wanted to be, so I decided to start living the way I think the best version of myself could. If you envision the perfect life you could live and a perfect version of yourself, start living the way they would. The way you live now will change the way your future will be. Hope for the future can heal you. You can choose to put your hope in anything. Your future life, your family, your friends, your future significant other, your future children, your religion, your pets, your dream career, anything. I chose to hope in Jesus and He saved me from all of my mental illness disorders. You can choose hope for anything. You never know what the future has for you and all the pain and things you are facing, will be worth it in the end when you receive what you put your hope in.

More than twenty-two percent of the population in the U.S. experience mental health illnesses. That is more than fifty-five million people who are affected by a mental illness. The suicide rate has increased by 37% since 2000. Mental health disorders are glamorized, romanticized, and normalized by many but the reality of any mental health disorder is not pretty. Depression is not just being emotional and tired. Depression is laying in your bed at night wondering why everything in your life is going wrong. It is crying every time you are alone and not distracted by something. Depression is being sad all the time, even when you don't know why you're sad, and pretending like you're happy, even when you're trying not to cry. Depression is not sleeping all day just because you're tired but also because it is easier to be asleep than be awake when you don't have to think and be aware of life. It is overthinking all of your relationships because you don't think you matter. Depression feels like a never-ending loop every day that you will never escape. Depression feels like a thousand pounds on your chest when you lay down at night. Depression feels empty and hopeless because even if you tried to get better sadness is comfortable and familiar and you will always go back. For people who think their life is so insignificant and worthless the best way out is to end it. Suicide does seem scary and many people who struggle wish there was a different way, but this one just seems best. If I could speak to everyone in the world who is struggling with depression or suicide I would tell them that suicide is not the answer. It is not "normal" to have mental illness and wish to die. Many people believe the lie that their mental illness is normal because everyone struggles with something, but the truth is no one should ever struggle with any form of mental health illness. The best thing to remember is that you are in control of your mind. You can choose to bring yourself out of the deepest depression you have been in. No matter how hard it feels you, no matter how bad your life gets, you can choose hope even when it feels hopeless. Hope for the future can heal you. You can choose to put your hope in anything. Your family, your friends, your future significant other, your future children, your religion, your pets, your dream career, anything. I chose to hope in Jesus and He saved me from all of my mental illness disorders. You can choose hope for anything. You never know what the future has for you and all the pain and things you are facing, will be worth it in the end when you receive what you put your hope in.

Located in a secluded part of the beautiful Divers Cove beach, in San Diego California, is my Barbie dream house. It is white with rose-gold trim and rose-gold front doors. The view from the house is gorgeous as it overlooks the ocean. You walk through the oversized, rose-gold front doors and walk past the wide hallway into a large living room. The whole house has dark hardwood floors and light shiny rose-gold walls. The house smells like vanilla and flowers. When you walk in the first thing you see is the wall of the living room that is covered in windows from the top to the bottom overlooking a secluded backyard that holds a giant rose-gold swimming pool with a rocky waterfall. There is a basketball court, volleyball net, and spike ball net to play. The living room has a white leather reclining couch that faces a giant 150-inch tv. A big coffee bar is placed on the side of the room for endless amounts of a variety of kinds of coffee drinks. The kitchen is across from the living room. There is a big rose-gold dinner table with matching chairs and a matching gigantic rose-gold refrigerator. All of the cabinets, drawers, and doors are white. But hidden through one of the doors is a doorway into the chef's kitchen where they make all of the food. Up the hardwood floor staircase, with rose-gold railing, are the giant master bedroom and extra rooms. Some of the extra rooms include a weightlifting room, an indoor pool, a theater, an art studio, a giant library with thousands of books, and a music room. My favorite room is the ice cream room. The second you walk through the doors you are greeted by a sweet sugary smell. There are rows of lots of different flavors of ice cream and there are thousands of toppings and types of cones. My dream house would be perfect and I can only dream of living here with my family or my future family and kids.