No one inspires me more than my mother. She’s an incredibly strong woman and I appreciate her in more ways than words can express. She has been an educator for more than twenty years while also being a mother of three boys; I being the eldest. But the reason I think she is so strong is because of her determination not to let her mental illness get in her way. Though she is diagnosed with bipolar depression disorder, she pushes through every day and gives my brothers and me her all. She inspires me to do my best and pursue my dreams of helping others. I'm sorry to say I didn't always feel this way about my mom. She hid her diagnosis from my brothers and I for almost our entire lives. She told me in January 2022 and it made everything make sense. The extreme mood swings and bouts of depression were normal to me and my family. I thought that was just who she was, and I didn't understand why. What hurt me the most was the fact she kept it from me. On top of that, she was rapidly becoming more dependent on alcohol. She was in alcoholics anonymous before I was born and it was worrying to hear about her daily drinking from my brothers. It got to the point that she would drink and drive with my brothers in the car. The shouts of my brothers begging her to stop drinking still ring in my ears to this day. The anxiety was overwhelming as a college student away from home. I felt so powerless and worried for my family's safety. After talking about this over many sessions with my therapist, we decided to call child services to help. My mom was furious with me and yelled at me over the phone about how she was going to lose her job, her kids, everything. I kept saying it would be okay, but no words would help. Over the next few months, a social worker did family therapy back home with my mom, brothers, and my dad. My mom got sober with a series of medications and a substance abuse counselor. This was the hardest year of my life and I still don't know if my mom has forgiven me, or understood how I felt. She got better though and that's what matters. Seeing the power of therapy and the amount of work my mom put in to get better pushes me every day. I decided I wanted to pursue counseling during that year after taking a hard look at my life and realizing I wasn’t fulfilled with the work I was doing. I wanted to be a graphic designer because of my inclination to art, but my heart just wasn’t in it. I quit my job as a food runner at a local restaurant to work at an ARC home for individuals with developmental disabilities. I felt happier there and this began a snowball effect of introspection. I took a long look at my life and future; I saw that I had no passion. But helping others and listening to them brought me a feeling I never had before. I saw what my true passion was: devoting myself to helping others.