When I was eleven years old I witnessed my older brother being shot. I had been sitting next to him at the dinner table when his girlfriend's ex shot him with a hunting rifle from across the street. I would love to say that the events of the night are just a blur now, but I can see them as vividly as I had that night. That one night changed the entire course of my life. Since a very young age, I had dreamed of becoming an aerospace engineer and working on the rockets that took us into outer space. After the shooting, I still held onto those dreams. At the age of thirteen, I was sent to a mental facility to get treatment for hearing voices. This was only the beginning of a rough bout with mental health. Throughout my high school days, I struggled with depression, anxiety, PTSD, and was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder as well. High school classes were easy and I made it out with mostly all A's. Now it was time for college so I applied to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. I got in but had not been accepted into the engineering program. I attended one year there before deciding that I could not make it. The classes were too large and I would have anxiety attacks before going to class. The one class I did manage to take and pass was Russian. It was small but I enjoyed it. After a year of just working, I decided to go back to the Tennessee Technology Center, a small trade school I had attended during high school to learn computer-aided drafting. I somehow managed to get through the program in one year while being absent a lot due to depression and medication that made me sleep way too much. While attending the class I was even asked to review other students' work when the teacher was out sick. I received my Digital Illustrator Diploma and went out into the workforce to secure a drafting career. I continued to struggle with mental illness and could only find retail or fast-food jobs. I worked hard at them, but they were never fulfilling. I still wanted to be an aerospace engineer, but my mental illnesses saw to it that I thought I was not smart enough to make it there. So I settled for jobs that I could get and dealt with the disappointment in myself which only fed the depression. Throughout the journey, I made many friends who had similar issues. I always offered advice to them and would help them as much as I could. I never hid my mental health issues though. I was open with everyone about them and always advocated for proper treatment for others who suffered them as well. The length I had been dealing with them made me an excellent friend to ask questions about mental health. After eleven years of searching for a drafting position, I found myself training under a man who had been at the job for forty years. I was not training to be his assistant or subordinate, rather I was training to be his replacement when he retired. I was in a new environment, felt way out of my league, and was being funneled forty years of knowledge to absorb in one year. This brought me a lot of anxiety, but I was able to retain a plethora of the knowledge he imparted me with and I have now been in this position for almost four years. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic that we found ourselves thrown into my mental health continued to be an issue. Not only were they still there, but they were also increasing due to the isolation. With all the time I had now on my hands I decided to take an introduction to aerospace engineering class offered by EdX. I was wanting to learn something and I might as well give it a shot. I still did not think that I could make it in college to pursue a master's, but to my surprise, I passed the class. It was at that moment that I decided that I was going to pursue my dream of becoming an aerospace engineer. Through this very long struggle with mental health, I built up the fortitude that I needed to be able to succeed in this endeavor. Since I work full time, I can only manage to do part-time classes which will only increase the length it takes me to go from having only a technical diploma to having my master's degree. My struggle with mental health has also shaped how I understand the world. It has taught me that if I keep trying I can do anything that I set my mind to. It has also helped me encourage others who suffer from mental illnesses to not give up. By doing so, I have gained many friends and a support system that I can depend on.