I have grown up in a Christian household my whole life but for a while, I truly never knew what it was like to have a close relationship with God. I vividly remember going to a summer camp my 8th-grade year and seeing my camp counselors worship and I remember thinking, "I want that kind of relationship with Him." All throughout high school, I focused on my relationship with the the Lord. I worked at a local summer camp every summer and hit what I like to call "the camp high." I would say I lived a pretty normal high school life, though deep down I knew I was missing that genuine relationship with God. Once I started college I began to take my faith seriously. I saw how quickly you can be dragged down the wrong path. 2020 was a chaotic year, to say the least. Though, through this past year, I realized how much God had me in His hands. Every January I pray and choose a word to hold steadfast throughout that coming year. January of 2020, I picked the word contentment. At the time I had no idea how much of an impact that word would have. In the summer of 2020, I reached out to my pastor and ask him if I could start volunteering in our youth group. Flash forward a month and I became a youth leader for middle and high school girls. Throughout last semester, God blessed me beyond measure. I found peace and contentment in knowing our world is ever-changing, but He is not. I am a junior in a local college. I was fortunate enough to receive scholarships for this college. For awhile I was in a simple little bubble. Then I became quite miserable at my college and I craved more growth and community, that my little college simply, did not offer. I visited a close friend at Liberty University. I instantly fell in love with the community at that University. I began to go visit her every other weekend. I had never felt so connected to God. I saw a better version of myself at that University. I knew that a University like this would never be in my budget, so I did the only thing I knew how to do, pray. I prayed for clarity on why I was so drawn to this school. Over winter break I could not get my mind away from transferring, so I applied and decided to trust God with my all. I knew that my parents would support me but I also knew that we could not afford this, so when I prayed I asked God to have my parents 100% back me in this decision. I got an email from Liberty saying I was accepted for Fall 2021. Tears streamed down my face in the car when I read that email. I came home and told my parents and they told me that it was fantastic but gave me a reality check that we most likely could not afford this school. I went to work that same night and when I came home from work my parents told me that they think this was the best decision for me. They told me they will 100% support me and try and pay for what they could. I began to sob, I trusted God with this decision and prayed something that I never believed would happen. This school is going to be very expensive but I am trusting God's sovereign hand, that He will find a way to provide for me. This is my story of how trusting God in every decision is the best decision I ever made.

Quite honestly, in the past mental health never meant a lot to me. I never had a personal experience to go by or had anyone I knew going through a major struggle. Then I started high school. It seemed like everyone I knew began to go through major depression and anxiety. It hurt me to watch. I am an extremely empathetic person, so when my best friend told me she was battling suicidal thoughts, I took that to the heart. This experience quite literally sent me into the reality of mental health struggles. My heart hurt for her and I began to educate myself on the reality. She struggled with self-harm for years, but I stood by her side and helped her to the best of my ability, by talking to her and allowing her to feel like she was heard. Flash forward into my college career. My best friend won her battle against depression. I am now a Psychology major with a Sociology minor, with dreams to open up my own therapist office for teenagers struggling with mental health such as major depression, anxiety, social anxiety disorders, panic disorder, PTSD, etc. I am currently working with one of my professors for undergrad research. I am studying the lasting effects of trauma on teenagers. I came up with an interview to ask individuals over the age of eighteen, who are willing to open up about their trauma through mental illness. My best friend told me she could be the first individual I interview. We want to bring awareness to teenagers who are struggling with any mental illness and show them that it is okay to speak up and let your story be heard because you never know who you will be able to help. Mental illness is a sad truth that we have to recognize. Though, if I would have never seen the signs and not stood by my best friend during her battle, I would not be in the position I am in today. I am and forever will be an advocate for mental health.

Just one year ago I never would have thought my life would be on the path that I am on currently. Though, I feel like most people would agree with me. One year ago I was in class with no mask and zero fears of a virus. Now, the thought of going back to college is completely different. There is so much unknown in the world right now. The intense traumatic memories of when this Pandemic hit, floods my mind when I think about being back on campus. I remember the exact moment COVID-19 hit my state, I was driving home from the beach because it was spring break. To everyone's knowledge, it did not seem that bad. Most Universities were saying we would just have a two-week spring break then resume as normal. Oh how we all wish that we would have just had two weeks off. Two days after I returned home from the beach, my campus got hit with the virus, and the next week everyone was simply gone, my friends, my professors, my lab partners, everyone. There was a sense of fear when I was saying goodbye to some of my friends because none of us truly knew how bad this was going to get and if we would all see each other in the fall. In my History classes growing up, we read about viruses and plagues but we never think that we would ever be the ones facing the deadly uncertainty. We all watched as the world went into total lockdown. People were forced to adapt to a new life, such as working from home, trying to understand online school, and learning to experience social interactions from technology instead of face-to-face. After the lockdown, the world started to reopen in certain states, mine being one of them. The new normal we were faced with was adapting to social distancing, no groups larger than 10, face masks, and lastly temperature checks everywhere you go. Flash forward a few months from the start of our new normal, and now it genuinely feels like the normal thing to do. Being in quarantine as a person, who defines themself as a social butterfly, was extremely difficult. I had to learn to be content with facetime calls instead of being in a massive group of people. Though, there were some upsides. I was able to have quality family time, my brother became my best friend and my relationship with my parents was able to grow much more. COVID-19 is undoubtedly one of the worst things I have ever had to experience and go through, but the way I have survived it is by taking it one day at a time. Finding joy in the little things, taking a jog outside, or just watching the sunset. If we only focus on the bad then our mindset will crumble. My takeaway from this ongoing pandemic would be, live in the moment and cherish the people that are still with you in this life.

I am currently a junior in college and I am majoring in Psychology and minoring in Sociology. Over winter break my Sociology advisor reached out to me about doing an independent study, with an end goal of a research proposal. She asked me what I wanted to specialize in for Psychology, I instantly told her Trauma. I want to study what Trauma does to people, and how they handle it. Helping with Mental Health is the end goal in my career. Therefore, this semester we are doing an independent study of "The Sociology of Trauma." Our goal for this course of research is to provide an understanding of the impact of Trauma at an individual and societal level. My Professor has given me several intense Trauma books to read that will essentially be my home literature for my research. I will be learning how to define trauma, and collect responses. Trauma is everywhere in this world, especially during the pandemic when people were forced to adapt to a "new" way of life. Trauma interests me and I am beyond excited to be starting research while I am still in undergrad, and once I am in grad school I will have my area of research that I can begin to expand on. Though, as of right now, I am just beginning to start research and figure out how to do it and hopefully, in April I will be able to present my research. If I was awarded this grant, I would put it towards my research when I enter Grad School.

Have you ever been in a situation where you had absolutely no control? All you could do was sit there and wait for the pain of that moment to leave you? There are specific moments in life that will change our entire outlook on the world that we live in. These moments are special. Sometimes, these moments are extremely heavy on our hearts and others are over in the blink of an eye, and we will simply laugh them off. Regardless, these moments can change our lives forever. A friend of mine once told me, "We are one choice away from a completely different life." I feel like we often lose sight of that concept and become lost in the moment. Though, our life choices and little moments will set us up for the rest of our life. Life is full of joyful moments, but also some moments make your body feel like all the air just got kicked out. When I think about mental health issues I often see the air being kicked out of people. Mental Health is also not just one thing that someone has to deal with, it is an on-going battle. When I was in High School, some of my closest friends battled depression and suicidal thoughts. I watched too many friends put on a show, a poker face. Simply, so people would not constantly ask, "What is wrong?" In High School, I became the person people would come to talk to. My friends and others knew that I would love them through whatever struggle they were facing, along with giving advice to the best of my ability. I became very passionate about mental health during this time, but it was not until my long-distance best friend called me from the highway. at that moment, I had to talk her out of doing something she did not need to do. Thankfully she slowed down and turned around and drove home. These are the moments where life feels completely impossible. If I had not have been able to talk her down, what would have truly happened? From that day there on out, I became so passionate about mental health and bringing awareness to it, as well as being intentional in my friendships. I have never personally struggled with depression or suicidal thoughts, but I take the emotions of the people in my life to heart. If they are crying, I am crying with them. When I started college another friend of mine thanked me for helping her throughout High School and told me, she never thought she would make it to see her 18th birthday. Our eyes both watered with tears and I just held her while she cried and told her how important she is in my life. In these moments, what would you do? In a world where there is so much hurt and people are crying out for help. I wanted to explain my back story in mental health because the true moment that changed my perspective on life was when I realized, that I could help people. Listening, talking, or simply holding someone while they cry. I do not take mental health lightly, there have been too many people in my life that I have almost lost to it. Our job in this generation should be to look at life like, there is so much more to achieve and so many people to listen to. Mental health is a hard battle to fight, so let's help people fight it together.

Staying fit and keeping active is incredibly healthy for our mind, body, and soul. Fitness ultimately allows us to push ourselves more and more every day. When I think about fitness and keeping active I think about the opportunity we have to challenge our body to be the best it can possibly be. I am a trained Ballet Dancer, as well as being on my college dance team so, for me keeping active is incredibly important. Ever since I was little, I had been trained to keep a consistent workout routine. Though, when I was younger it seemed taxing and a little annoying at times. I feel like it trained me to take charge of my body. Once I became a teenager I was thankful, because I had trained myself to be disciplined in knowing that if I wanted to keep my body healthy I needed to work on it. During my freshman year of college, I tore the labrum in my hip. I was devastated. For the first few months, It hurt to even walk around my college campus. I fell into a rut, I was not able to dance, I stopped working out, and ultimately I lost all my strength. I also lost an extreme amount of weight. I became the most unhappy I had ever been, simply, because my whole life I had trained my mind to use working out and dancing to be my outlet to feel free. Losing that wrecked me. After several months of unhappiness, I started Psychical Therapy. I knew I needed to at least try and obtain some strength. PT has been a hard road and it has pushed my mind and body in many difficult ways, but I told myself if I ever wanted to be as happy as I was, I needed to push through the pain. Six months later and I have been able to strengthen all the muscles around my hip to where the pain is bearable. I am now able to workout every day and dance several times a week. In conclusion, working out and keeping my body fit helps me be overall happy. I strongly believe that staying active does wonders for us and I do not think I fully understood that till I lost it. Now, to this day I am extremely passionate about keeping my body healthy because it helps set my overall mood and day.

I believe that the "College Experience" is so much more than just what the classroom offers. Though, every person is going to view their college experience differently, because people are all uniquely different. There will be a similarity and that is because college is so much more than simply going to class then going back to the dorm room. College is about learning to be yourself, learning from your Professors, and learning how to handle everything in the world. Growing up in a one-income household, along with being a first-generation college student, made me look at the application process to college quite differently. The whole process seemed terrifying. I had no idea what the college experience was supposed to be or look like. Flash forward two years and three heavy semesters later, I am now about to start my junior year. It took some time, but I now am starting to understand why the "College Experience" is so important and ultimately why we need to experience it. I believe that college is where you can find the best community and make life long memories. For example, one of my fondest memories so far during my time in undergrad would be when I and my three best friends woke up super early to go watch the sunrise, and grabbing coffee. Then, we proceeded to go to our favorite off-campus building to grind out and study for hours on end for our final exams. Normally, studying for finals is not the most fun, but when you have a community of individuals that you love, time seems to simply fly by. After we studied all day, we decided to end our day by hammocking and watching the sunset. These are the beautiful moments that I believe should count towards what people call the "College Experience." Although these are not the only things that make up the wonderful college experience. College is a learning process, this is the time in our lives where things are constantly changing, and our dreams are becoming more real to where we can almost touch them. I have changed drastically throughout my time in college. Learning to surround myself with the right friends and becoming involved in groups on campus that are ultimately shaping me into a better individual, who will be prepared for the real world. As well, as obtaining a new community, college has also shown me what career path I needed to be in. As a freshman, I originally declared Nursing as my major, because I love helping people, but then I was able to find a field I would constantly thrive in. I love talking to others and simply trying to help them through any problem that they are going through. I spoke to a professor about Psychology and what that job would look like. After speaking to that Professor, I was hooked. I realized that my passion for talking to others could become a career. Now, I could not see myself going into any other profession. I have my friends and incredible Professors to thank for helping with that decision. In conclusion, when someone asks me what is my take on the "College Experience" these are the stories I would share. Life is a journey and a learning process. We are going to go through hard seasons, but that will lead us to become content. Good things take time, and the best is yet to come.