Take a step back and breathe. The simple rule I have always had for myself. My name is Callie Sumsion and I have always been told I need to be on top. I need to do all after school activities. I need to have good grades. Social life doesn’t matter. Ect. Throughout everything though I have found that if I slow myself down and look at my problems from an outside perspective everything goes a lot smoother. I was at my lowest back in eighth grade. My mental health had declined. I was stressed. I didn’t want to eat. All of the above. On top of that I had no social outlet as my phone was taken away the entire school year for having a 79% in one of my classes. I hated everything. I hated my life. I wanted to fail school. I just wanted to disappear. I had a few good friends but most people had left me due to a bad friend decision. A friend who would leave me anyways. I was lost. I had no one to reach out to. I was the one everyone talked to how could I be the one who’s drowning? I was the girl with a smile on her face. The one with great advice. The one people could count on. Everyone had no idea. That was until I decided I wanted to do better. I wanted to prove myself. I took that motivation and flipped it into drive. I wanted to get better for everyone. People needed me. I was their person. I stepped out of my own life and I looked at my problems from an outside perspective. I put myself back together from scratch. I built up who I am from the bottom. I finally was able to take that deep breath in. I had my head above the surface. I cared about school I cared about others. I kept myself up by staying out of my mind and addressing the problems from the outside working in. I made better friends. I worked on myself throughout highschool and I worked my way into college while still in my junior year of highschool. I am unstoppable. You just need to look at the bigger picture. Realize you don’t have to do things alone. You are in a world full of people who want to help you and ones who don’t. You find your group of people. You find yourself. And you step out of your body to take the problems head on. One at a time. Just remember to breathe.