Growing up I was surrounded by people with mental health issues. My father suffered from bipolar disorder and severe depression. My mother suffered from depression and anxiety. This affected me greatly. Seeing all of these things throughout my entire life, made me think that it was completely normal. I always knew I wanted to help my parents, but it was so hard for a child to do anything, so I had to sit back and just watch them deteriorate. In high school I was homeschooled because that's when I started to realize I have these mental illnesses that my parents suffer with. I became severely depression and full of anxiety. I was able to thrive in homeschool and met people that were able to help me with my schooling. I was able to take college courses when I was 15/16 and that's when I took my first psychology course. After the first class I knew that this is what I wanted to do, learn about how mental health works and help those that are in need. This course made me realize how important it is to help those that suffer from mental illness. I was able to better myself and learn some valuable lessons to better myself. I was able to help myself, but I wasn't able to help my parents. They just didn't care so I had to make the discission to move out so I could better myself because they were the reason for my mental illnesses. Once I had moved out, I struggled a lot. A huge rush of emotions and feelings I had never felt came over me and I fell back into the black hole of mental illness. Luckily, I had made some friends in the town that I moved to and was able to get back onto my feet and continue my schooling. After all of this I knew that my main goal in life was to help people. It made me realize that anyone can accomplish anything if they put their minds to it. I of course still have some issues with mental health that I will likely suffer with for the rest of my life but now I at a place in my life that I know how to help myself when these issues arise. Now I am a full-time college student about to obtain my associates of arts transfer degree and transfer to the University of Oregon. I am attending therapy and continue to better myself every day.

My goals for the future are to get my degree in psychology and go into the clinical psychology field. I have always loved psychology ever since I took my first psychology course when I was 16. I instantly knew that I wanted to go into this career field and help others. I am transferring to the University of Oregon in the fall of 2022 and will finish up my education there. I aspire to be someone that can help people that have mental illnesses and teach them that they are not messed up they just need a little more love. In my personal life some goals that I am going to achieve is get my own home rather than living with family and further my relationship with my significant other. Another personal life goal that I am trying to accomplish is volunteering more at local shelters. I walk dogs occasionally, but I want to help a bit more in my free time.

The meaning of life is a tricky thing to try and understand and for everyone its different. For me, the meaning of life is to love and spread kindness to all. I believe in order to live a happy life you need to love yourself and spread kindness to others. I want to help others learn how to love themselves so they can live happy lives. There is no right answer to this question but in order for anyone to find their meaning in life they must learn to love themselves. I try to achieve this self-love in many ways such as surrounding myself with people that share that love and kindness. I make sure to put my needs as a top priority and I do things that make me happy like spending time with my dogs and working. Another way that I spread love and kindness is to always make sure that I show love and kindness towards everyone, not just the people that show me love and kindness. I like to think that you never know what someone else is going through, so smiling or complimenting someone's outfit can really make a person's day and you won't even realize it.