Mental health is a massive priority for any student from Kindergarten all the way to higher education. The stigmatization of mental health, although it has improved in recent years, hinders so many students as they try to combat something they do not understand. As a recent graduate who earned my Bachelors and who is moving on to obtain my Masters, I know my mental health is the most important thing to my academic success. I struggled greatly throughout much of grade school and during my undergraduate degree due to not understanding the debilitating impact poor mental health was having on my ability to thrive in all areas of my life. I received disability accommodations later into my undergraduate degree and began to seek out resources such as therapy and psychiatry, which changed my outlook on life as a whole. Understanding and caring for my mental health rose my GPA from a 2.2 to a 3.3 and caused me to fall in love with learning. The field of psychology is truly my calling. My current job is based in Psychoeducation and facilitating Mental Health Skill-Building. I find this job incredibly rewarding and I am thankful I get to help people learn basic skills, how to live with their diagnosis, and much more valuable knowledge that allows them to obtain a higher quality of life. There have been times in my life where I have advised friends or family to see therapists and even help them find one in hopes that they can achieve better mental health. As a student in the field of Psychology, my life is centered around this field. Kids and adults are being punished for unidentified mental disorders from falling under the radar of what many think "mental illnesses" should look like. Mental health isn't exclusive to those with mental disorders, and even if a mental disorder is present it is never shameful to ask for help. I hope to provide Psychoeducation for the rest of my life because despite the growth of awareness we have seen as a society, the importance of mental health and mental wellbeing is not emphasized nearly enough. Regulating my mental health through the use of coping skills, mental health professionals, and family and friends is what has allowed me to thrive as a student and strive to make a true change in the way people view mental health across all age groups.

In December 2021, I lost my Grandfather who had paved the way for much of how the rest of my family and I view work. He was a hard-working man who dropped out of school in the 7th grade to start working to care for his poverty-stricken family. My grandparents got married very young and were together for 60 years before his death. Throughout my grandfather's life, he bought and ran many grocery and convenience stores in the small, rural town where we are from. They all remain up today. He took care of his wife, his children, and finally all of his grandchildren. He financially supported all seven of his grandchildren, including me, through college and has got to see all of them graduate. With me being the youngest, and with my mother having the most financial hardships out of our family, I'm the only one who hasn't graduated yet. I fight every day to do well in my academics to make my Grandfather proud because he wanted the best for everyone in his family starting from when he was in the 7th grade. His perseverance and ambition are some of his many admirable traits, and I want to follow in his legacy and do what he did for me for my kids and grandkids one day. I want to walk across the stage in his name and I know he will be there in spirit to watch. I know he will be proud that he was able to provide for his family what he did not have growing up.