Hello! My name is Chloe and my educational goal is to receive my MA in School Psychology from George Mason University. When I was eleven, my family relocated from Perth, Australia, to Winchester, Virginia. Middle school is a hard time for many children, but in conjunction with my overseas venture, it also happened to be my first experience with public schools, and I found it immediately overwhelming. You see, when I was five years old, I started exhibiting symptoms of emetophobia. Emetophobia is the irrational fear of throwing up, whether it be by me, by others, by animals, or even on TV. In a private school setting the anxiety wasn't too bad because there were far less people and I knew everyone, but once my family moved and I was placed into a public school, my peer group went from 20 people to over 250. I was constantly terrified that somebody or myself would throw up out of the blue (which seems to happen with children) and the anxiety was quickly debilitating. There were days when the anticipation of the possibility that someone might throw up kept me home from school. On top of the emetophobia, I was also a young teenager and obsessed with what people thought of me, which compounded the anxiety. What most people who don't have an irrational phobia don't understand is that what we know about the phobic trigger and how we feel about it are two very separate things; as a kid, it's hard to articulate that thought, and therefore it presents as embarrassment, shame, and more anxiety. My grades started to suffer, although I managed to scrape through middle school with the help of the guidance counselor, and I went on to high school. Like most troubled teenagers entering high school, I fell into the wrong crowd. While they accepted me for who I was, they didn't help me grow, and I became comfortable living in my mental illness, accepting that this was who I was and that was that. Between my junior and senior years of high school, my family visited Australia for the first time since we had moved, and something inside me changed. I realized that even though I had this fear that I couldn't control, there were things that I could do to essentially "rewire" my brain and lessen the anxiety enough to allow me to be happy. When I started my senior year of high school, I began utilizing coping skills and was no longer embarrassed about the things I couldn't control. I worked with various people within the school to learn how to live again. While my school district didn't have a School Psychologist growing up, there were many people within the school, mental health professionals or not, who played different roles in what School Psychology encompasses, and together they helped me succeed. I stopped hanging out with the crowd who honestly didn't care about me, I went from Ds and Fs to straight As, and I was no longer truant. It was around that time that I realized I wanted to make a career out of helping other children who might be in the same position as I was, with no hope and no outlook for the future. Now in college, I use my phobia as a testimony, and I am finishing up my BS in Psychology with a 4.0 while working full-time. My former school district now offers School Psychologist positions, and that is my goal - to end up helping the children of the community who helped me become the best version of myself.

When I was eleven, my family of seven relocated to the United States from Perth, Australia. Now middle school is a tough time for any child, but it was also my first experience with public school, and I had a hard time adjusting after beginning in March of my 6th grade year. From the time I was young, I have suffered from emetophobia - the irrational fear of throwing up - and it not only affected my social life, but I would start to panic in new situations or at school whenever I thought there was a possibility that I, or someone else, would spontaneously throw up. Don't get me wrong, I understood even then that it was an irrational fear, but oftentimes what you know to be true about something can be very different than how you feel. The stress surrounding my overseas move and the emetophobia sparked a very overwhelming bout of anxiety that lasted several years. It was difficult for me to go to school and even leave the house on some days. As I entered high school, I became comfortable living in my negative mental state, and I stopped working on my mental health, believing that my life was about as good as it was going to get. In 2018 - the summer between my junior and senior years of high school - my family traveled back to Australia for a couple of months, and it was like a switch was flipped inside of my mind. I realized that life didn't have to be the way I was comfortable living it, but I knew that was going to take some work to overcome. People often say that mental illness is just a state of mind, and while that statement is very false, I believe that having a positive state of mind is vital to be successful in overcoming mental health challenges. With the help of staff in the school system, mental health professionals or not, I was able to learn different coping mechanisms for both my anxiety and emetophobia which helped me achieve straight As throughout my last year of high school. At the moment I am in my senior year at Old Dominion University, and I have applied to begin my MA in School Psychology in the fall of 2024 to help kids who were in similar positions I was while growing up. I have mostly overcome the emetophobia, and I also work full-time to support myself without student loans. I believe my mental health is important because I never would have realized what I was capable of until I really worked hard and pushed through some of the most difficult times in my life. It took some time, but I am now successful and able to help others who struggle with their mental health because I not only understand how it feels to be in it, but how tough it can be to work through it. These days I maintain my mental wellness by making sure I get enough sleep, meditating on my breathing most mornings, and making sure I eat food that will sustain me throughout the day. I take duloxetine to cut the edge off of the overall anxiety of my day-to-day life, but I also make sure to take vitamins and drink plenty of water. If I have time, I go for walks, and I surround myself with people who uplift me rather than tear me down. Because I took care of my mental health, I am not only surviving, but thriving in a world that has never made it easy.

Hello! My name is Chloe and my educational goal is to receive my MA in School Psychology from George Mason University. When I was eleven, my family relocated from Perth, Australia, to Winchester, Virginia. Middle school is a hard time for many children, but in conjunction with my overseas venture, it also happened to be my first experience with public schools, and I found it immediately overwhelming. You see, when I was five years old, I started exhibiting symptoms of emetophobia. Emetophobia is the irrational fear of throwing up, whether it be by me, by others, by animals, or even on TV. In a private school setting the anxiety wasn't too bad because there were far less people and I knew everyone, but once my family moved and I was placed into a public school, my peer group went from 20 people to over 250. I was constantly terrified that somebody or myself would throw up out of the blue (which seems to happen with children) and the anxiety was quickly debilitating. There were days when the anticipation of the possibility that someone might throw up kept me home from school. On top of the emetophobia, I was also a young teenager and obsessed with what people thought of me, which compounded the anxiety. What most people who don't have an irrational phobia don't understand is that what we know about the phobic trigger and how we feel about it are two very separate things; as a kid, it's hard to articulate that thought, and therefore it presents as embarrassment, shame, and more anxiety. My grades started to suffer, although I managed to scrape through middle school with the help of the guidance counselor, and I went on to high school. Like most troubled teenagers entering high school, I fell into the wrong crowd. While they accepted me for who I was, they didn't help me grow, and I became comfortable living in my mental illness, accepting that this was who I was and that was that. Between my junior and senior years of high school, my family visited Australia for the first time since we had moved, and something inside me changed. I realized that even though I had this fear that I couldn't control, there were things that I could do to essentially "rewire" my brain and lessen the anxiety enough to allow me to be happy. When I started my senior year of high school, I began utilizing coping skills and was no longer embarrassed about the things I couldn't control. I worked with various people within the school to learn how to live again. While my school district didn't have a School Psychologist growing up, there were many people within the school, mental health professionals or not, who played different roles in what School Psychology encompasses, and together they helped me succeed. I stopped hanging out with the crowd who honestly didn't care about me, I went from Ds and Fs to straight As, and I was no longer truant. It was around that time that I realized I wanted to make a career out of helping other children who might be in the same position as I was, with no hope and no outlook for the future. Now in college, I use my phobia as a testimony, and I am finishing up my BS in Psychology with a 4.0 while working full time. My former school district now offers School Psychologist positions, and that is my goal - to end up helping the children of those who helped me become the best version of myself.

My educational goal is to obtain my MA in School Psychology from George Mason University, but to understand my motivations, I need to tell you my story. When I was eleven, my family of seven relocated from Perth, Australia to Winchester, Virginia. Middle school is tough for most children, but in conjunction with my overseas move, it was also my first experience in a public school, and I found it instantly overwhelming. It wasn't long before I developed anxiety so severe that I was unable to go to school most days, and instead, I stayed home and read books. I grew up in a religious household, and it didn't take long for my family to find a church to call home here in the United States. Despite my anxiety, I found that service was something that I could do well, and not only was I capable, but it seemed to alleviate my anxiety. I started helping out in the children's ministry, and it wasn't long before I started volunteering with the various community projects my church was involved in, such as Meals on Wheels, Winchester Area Temporary Thermal Shelter (WATTS), free yard sales, and more. On the days I was unable to bring myself to go to school, I would go with my great-aunt to her volunteer role at the Congregational Community Actions Project (CCAP) and spend my time sorting through and organizing donated supplies. With my continued absence from school, I barely scraped through middle school, but I did make it to high school. It was during my first couple high school years that I started associating with a bad crowd and stopped growing as a person; I had become comfortable living in my state of mental illness, and thought that was as good as my life was going to get. That was until my family took a trip back to Australia for the first time since we moved. It was the summer between my junior and senior years of high school that something inside me changed. I realized that I could do better and be someone who I was proud of, but that I would need to work on my mental health in the same way I was always encouraging others to do so. Growing up, my school district did not have a School Psychologist, but there were plenty of people who played different roles in my journey, and who represented each aspect of what School Psychology is. These are some of the people I respect the most in my life because they saw me, and they listened, and they pushed me to grow. They taught me various coping skills and how to use logic and reason to overcome the irrational thoughts that anxiety likes to bring to the table. I went from Ds and Fs to straight As throughout my senior year of high school, and I was no longer truant. Now as a college student, I am finishing up my Bachelor's degree in Psychology with a 4.0 GPA while working full-time with no anxiety to show for it. While my church was eventually absorbed into a larger, less community-oriented church, I continue to use my free time to volunteer in the NICU at Winchester Medical Center. I have applied to GMU and I am excited to say that they now offer School Psychologist positions in the school district I grew up in. My ultimate goal is to end up working there, to give back to the children of the community that helped raise me because I wouldn't be who I am today without them.

I grew up in a Harry Potter household. My dad made me read all the books before I could watch the corresponding movies, and I am currently reading through them now (I am on the Prisoner of Azkaban). My favorite book is The Goblet of Fire, but my favorite movie is The Half Blood Prince. If I was going to be sorted into a house, I would most likely be sorted into Hufflepuff. While growing up in the Harry Potter world, my greatest influence in the series was Luna Lovegood, because she was admittedly weird. Her peculiarity resonated with me, as I am also quite strange in many ways, and I'm not afraid to do my own thing which is often against the grain, however, Luna is a Ravenclaw. I have thought about this often over my lifetime, and I used to think that I would also be a Ravenclaw as you could often find me alone, reading or studying, and I am quite a creative person, but a Ravenclaw has some personality traits that I just don't see myself presenting. According to Slytherin, Ravenclaws can be so competitive when it comes to receiving good grades that they will often stab each other in the back in order to be successful, and that is not something I would ever consider. When I first thought about the possibility that maybe I was more in line with Hufflepuff traits, I was a little disappointed - I mean who wants to be in Hufflepuff? It turns out though, that while Hufflepuff has the least amount of representation in the books, they are some of the most humble and trustworthy students at Hogwarts. Their loyalty is only matched by their work ethic, and they have produced the least amount of dark watches and wizards compared to any other house. While I enjoy reading, the occasional studying, and the idea of being in Ravenclaw, I think that I am more like a Hufflepuff in that I prioritize being kind and loyal to people, and I have a very strong sense of justice. I am not one to pick a fight, but if one is chosen for me, I will fight tooth and nail for those that I love and care deeply about. Hufflepuffs are sometimes thought of as weak and unimportant but remember what the Sorting Hat says about them: "You might belong in Hufflepuff where they are just and loyal. Those patient Hufflepuffs are true, and unafraid of toil." So despite wanting to be in Ravenclaw for most of my life, I've come to the conclusion that Hufflepuff is most certainly the house for me.

When I was eleven, my family relocated to the United States from Perth, Australia. It was a difficult time for me, as middle school is for all children, but it was my first experience with public schools and I also suffered from emetophobia. Emetophobia is the irrational fear of throwing up; this could include by me, other people, from animals, or even on TV. Some symptoms of emetophobia include intense panic in triggering or unfamiliar situations, food aversions, vivid recall of incidents, and so much more, all surrounding the fear of throwing up. Eventually, the obsessive worrying about me or someone around me getting sick affected my ability to go to school and leave the house. My parents made the choice to take me to get psychologically evaluated and I was admitted to an adolescent psychiatric hospital for a week. Unfortunately for me, the stomach flu was going around amongst the other patients, and I spent most of my time in my room reading The Chronicles of Narnia or in group therapy. One of the difficulties with emetophobia - or any irrational fear - is that people don't often understand that it isn't a strong dislike or aversion, but it produces a real fear response that can be difficult or impossible to control. More often than not we understand that the fear is irrational, but that doesn't mean that our brain and body won't react as though there is a real threat. This comes not only from other children, as I had two adult orderlies working in the hospital tell me that my phobia was funny, that throwing up was funny, then proceed to tell me their "funny" stories of incidents involving themselves or someone else throwing up around them. After spending a week at that facility, I was released and went back home with nothing to show for it except a massive bill. Once I entered high school, I started working with various staff members on my anxiety, and while my school district didn't have a School Psychologist, each person I encountered performed a different aspect of what School Psychology is, and I was able to overcome the bulk of the phobia using logic, reason, cognitive behavioral therapy, and various anxiety coping mechanisms; all things I still utilize today. While I may have had some bad experiences dealing with the mental health industry, I eventually found the right group of people who helped me overcome the phobia, and thrive in a post-Covid world that doesn't always make that easy (even though I still have occasional bad days - but honestly, who doesn't?) Having to deal with my emetophobia as a kid and as an adult, I believe that it has made me more empathetic towards people who have mental health struggles because I understand that a lot of the time what you know can contradict how you feel, and that's a concept not a lot of people can articulate or understand about themselves. I have used my testimony to mentor other young people who struggle with their mental health, and my goal is to turn that into a career. After much contemplation about what I want to do with my life, I decided to further my education and have applied for the Master's program of School Psychology at George Mason to begin in the Fall of 2024 so that I can eventually help children who might be in the same mindset that I was when I was a kid. Thank you for considering me!

When I was 11, my family moved across the world from Perth, Australia, to Winchester, Virginia. Middle school is hard on all children, but I found it especially difficult to adjust as it was also my first experience with public schools, and I started 6th grade towards the end of the school year. I grew up in the Christian Reformed churches in Australia, and we quickly found a modern Baptist church to attend in the United States. I volunteered in the children's ministry often, and I helped out with several community projects, quickly realizing that I had an affinity for helping other people. I noticed that while I was helping people, I was never anxious or stressed like I felt while I was at school or in social situations. Some days, my anxiety would be too much for me to go to school, and on those days I would often accompany my great aunt to the Congregational Community Action Project (CCAP) where she volunteered and I would help out with smaller tasks like organizing donated school supplies. As I got older, I started working with people who helped me overcome my anxiety, and I was able to focus on school while I continued helping out in the community. The church I attended was ultimately absorbed by another, larger church, and they stopped being involved in community projects like they had been. Eventually, my family relocated to another church whose motto was, "Love God, love people," and they truly lived in service of God and the community. They focused on bringing people who wouldn't typically be accepted in the church community into the church family, as they taught that God calls us to love our neighbor and that we don't get to choose who are neighbors are. During my senior year of high school, I realized that I wanted to go to college and study Psychology. For the longest time, I was unsure of what I wanted to do with that degree, but now that I'm in my final year of undergrad, I have applied to George Mason's Master's program of School Psychology. I've realized that my calling is to help children in the school system overcome their obstacles, just like I was afforded the opportunity to overcome mine. I wouldn't be in that mindset if I hadn't been involved in volunteering and the different atmospheres created by helping out my church and my community. At the moment, I volunteer in the Winchester Medical Center as a cuddler in the NICU, but my ultimate goal is to be able to help children in the same community that helped raise me.

I come from a long line of mental health struggles from both my paternal and maternal sides of the family. When my aunt was a teenager, she struggled with anorexia so severe that she was admitted into a hospital for several years hooked up to a feeding tube because she could not bear the thought of eating. My grandfather had several breakdowns when my mother was young, and he would sit with a blank stare on his face unable or unwilling to communicate for days at a time. In turn, my mother was diagnosed with depression and social anxiety, and takes medication to be able to function. Both of my grandmothers have struggled with alcoholism throughout my lifetime, each one thinking she is better than the other for displaying it differently – when the truth is that it is alcoholism however you look at it. My father’s aunt committed suicide when he was young by setting her house on fire and burning with it, and my father has struggled his whole life with depression, often being in bad or angry moods around me and my family of seven. It wasn’t until a couple years ago that he was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and properly medicated and started therapy that he was able to think through the chaos of his mind, which has improved our relationship exponentially; my dad and I have always been alike, we just never got along because our mental health got in the way. One of my four younger sisters has also been diagnosed with ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). As for me, from the time I was very young I have dealt with emetophobia. Emetophobia is the irrational fear of throwing up, whether it be from me, from someone else, animals, or even on TV. Symptoms can include intense panic and anxiety around new people and situations, food aversions, vivid recall of triggering incidents, and so much more, all surrounding the fear of me or someone else potentially getting sick. I remember the first time I experienced a phobic reaction to an incident, I was in kindergarten and one of the children in my class was sick after eating rainbow popcorn. I remember panicking and crying, and not understanding why I was having these feelings when other people only reacted with disgust. It slowly turned into anxiety whenever my stomach hurt or when someone else talked about not feeling well, and sitting in classrooms became quite difficult as nor me or my parents really understood what was going on. When my family relocated from Perth, Australia, to Winchester, Virginia, I was in the middle of 6th grade, and I started middle school towards the end of the school year. This did nothing for the anxiety I already felt for new situations, but it was also my first experience with public schools and I found it quite overwhelming. My inability to stay in the classrooms – as I experienced intense panic attacks – started affecting my grades and my parents eventually brought me to a therapist where I was diagnosed with acute emetophobia. Even with the diagnosis I still struggled with the phobia because I didn’t know how to handle how I was feeling, but I was also embarrassed by being afraid of something so irrational, which only compounded the existing anxiety. The common response I got from people – peers and adults – when I mentioned that I had a “fear of throwing up” was, “nobody likes to throw up,” and nobody really understood that it was so much more than that. Eventually towards the end of middle school I saw a crisis counsellor because my anxiety around performing everyday tasks had become so debilitating that I could barely leave the house. Out of all the outside counsellors I had met with during that time in my life, she’s the only one that I remember by name – Leigh-Anne. She came into the room in a typical medical lab coat, but underneath that she had heavy tattoos and dyed silver hair with a couple facial piercings. I remember thinking, “Are you sure this is the right woman?” but she had a clipboard and I was 13, so I assumed the adults knew what they were doing. We had talked for a while, and eventually she interrupted me and I remember very clearly her saying, “So what?” It caught me off guard a little bit, because at that age I was used to the common response of, “You’re weird,” or “That’s not normal,” but I had never heard “So what?” She then explained, “Everybody has something that they live with that they don’t often tell people for fear of other people noticing. Just because you wear your anxiety on your sleeve doesn’t make what you’re going through a bad thing. I think it’s awesome that you have this fear, because it means that you can empathize with people who don’t show their fears, and you should tell people what I told you, ‘so what?’ Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if you have a fear of throwing up or a fear of spiders, it’s something you’re going to deal with either way, so why should you let it bother you.” I’m not sure if it’s because she didn’t look like a doctor or if she spoke to me so authentically as if I was a human being and not just a kid with a mental illness, but what she said really stuck with me. Now, as an adult, I still deal with emetophobia, but on a very minor level. I easily remove myself from triggering situations and can control the obsessive thoughts through logic and reason while living a fully functional life, but it wasn’t easy to get here. After speaking with Leigh-Anne, I started to tell myself that it really doesn’t matter if I have this road-block, it only matters that I keep moving forward from it, and to this day whenever I face a challenge, I tell myself, “So what?” It is what it is. With that, I went on to high school and realized that I had an affinity for helping people. I volunteered with my local church and noticed that helping people was one way I burned off steam when I was otherwise stressed or anxious. I started working with the staff in my school, mental health professionals or not, to get to a point with my mental health where I could not only function, but I was thriving. They implemented a 504 plan to make basic accommodations if I needed them, which included being able to study in the library instead of the classroom, and choosing my seat in the classroom regardless of a seating chart, which helped me throughout the first three years of high school. By my senior year of high school however, I was able to stop taking my medication, I barely utilized the 504 plan, and I was getting straight As. Now in college, I haven’t brought up my 504 plan, I have a 4.0, and I live an amazing, happy life in a world that doesn’t always make that easy. I have also been able to work full time to stay debt-free throughout my undergrad degree, but my Master’s degree will be more hands on and I will have to rearrange my finances and possibly take out student loans. The point of this essay was to talk about my inspiration for pursuing a career in mental health, and as I was thinking about my answer, I realized that it’s because of my family, the girl I was versus the woman I am today, and the impact I can make on other children who are struggling with their mental health that I want to do this for the rest of my life. I believe that if my extended family was afforded the same opportunities to seek mental health treatment that I was while they were growing up, they would have lead different lives, but the mental health field is gaining more traction now than ever. Growing up, my school district did not have a School Psychologist, but every single person I worked with represented different aspects of what School Psychology is, and that is what I am going to do with my life. I currently volunteer in the NICU at Winchester Medical Center, but ultimately I would like to work in the same school district that helped raise me, as they now offer School Psychologist positions and internships. Children are fragile, but they are also very resilient; they just need someone to listen and to be there, and to not give up on them when adversity comes knocking, just like the people in my life had been with me. Thank you for considering me!