Being a seven year old girl without having big responsibilities was an amazing experience. That smart girl who used to get A’s in most of her tests and her assignments. Someone who was successfully outgoing with a happy life. The students were teachers who would always call mom saying that I was a smart and kind student.My house was the safest place; a two bedroom apartment with one bedroom being my brother and I room. Those times would always be the amazing memories I’ll have before all the darkness came along. We had the happiest family. It was just my mom, my brother and I. We had a wonderful relationship. It was until someone came along better known as my step dad. After a few years he moved in with us. I used to feel so safe when he was with us. It felt like the dad role I couldn’t have while growing up. He was just an amazing person, that’s how I used to see him. I trusted him way too fast that everything just changed in the light of a switch. Most of the entire day he wanted me to sit by him and be so close. I thought it was normal and never thought it was going to lead to a bigger situation. As the weeks went by he wanted me more and more. Until there was a morning where he asked me to hug him and he “accidentally” kissed me on my lips. I thought by just hearing a simple “sorry it won’t happen again” was going to fix it. I was wrong that kisses lead to a bigger conflict. Weeks later he started to go into my room and go in my bed where I was sleeping just like a normal 8 year old. I was terrified at that moment I didn’t know what to do. My brother was sleeping and mom was working. I wish it would have been the first and last time he did it. He would keep me from going outside just to stay with him alone at home and for him to abuse me knowing I wasn’t gonna tell my mom anything because he knew he had gotten inside my head when he told me “you tell your mom something and something bad is going to happen”. I felt like I had no other option and I had to suck it up. It escalated to the point where he put an 8 year old girl to watch adult content with him. I had to suck all of this up for almost 2 years. Those 3 years since he had come into our life’s were the worst for me. I thought I had found that dad role model but I was wrong. I was living in darkness. Darkness where I didn’t even know what I was feeling I felt numb. I felt like I was just being used as a toy. I wasn’t able to trust any guy or boys at school anymore. I felt like I was going to go through it again if I did let a guy or boy come into my life. I kept living in that darkness for a few more months. Until I realized that if I don’t tell my mom about it there’s nothing that is going to change. I decided to tell my mom. He had gone to walk the dogs with my brother. I was feeling nervous and I was scared of the way my mom was going to react. In my head I was thinking she’s not going to believe me or she’s gonna be like “ stop lying your crazy you don’t even know what you're saying”. But I had to do it before they were back. At that point I wasn’t feeling good at all, I was feeling sick. I didn't even know where to start. My mom was doing the dishes. I didn't know if it was the right time but finally I stopped thinking about it so much and I told her. She was in denial at first but she realized I was not joking. Here I am a student in Spring Woods high school trying to get into college and get a higher education to be the first person to go to college in my family. I want to make my mom proud but I also want to make a change in someone's life. I want to be the person who impacts someone's life because of my story. I want to share with people who are or will go through a major depressive disorder the way I did or even a person who is going through trauma like I did. My dream career is to be a psychiatrist or even a therapist. I come from a single parent household the only parent I live with is my mom. She is my biggest inspiration after nine years of being single she has manage to keep going even with the hard things we have been through. I will want to make a change in someone's life like the way my therapist had helped me for seven years ever since I was in middle school. I want to use my personal experience to bring awareness of what girls go through when it comes to sexual abuse. They are not alone and they never will. I want to have the job I have been dreaming about to start the advocacy that I want to do. I want to make a difference in someone's life. I want to hear people's stories and be able to work with them on it. Hard work pays off and I want people to know that no matter what they are going through everything is possible if you are committed to do it. I have been through it and I want to change the world.

I plan to make a positive impact on the world through my mental health career by being able to advocate for mental illness and be able to inform people about what mental health really is. My name is Cindy I am a mental health survivor. I went through major depressive disorder ever since I was seven until the age of 17. Growing up I went through a trauma experience in where depression came into my life and made my life the worse. I was suicidal almost every day. I did not want to be here anymore. Family thought I was doing it because I wanted attention and they wouldn't pay attention to it they would always tell me stop doing it your doing it for attention. In reality they did not know what I was going through I did not speak about it with my mom because I did not have a great bond with my mom. My mom did not know what had happen that caused my trauma the only thing she really thought she knew was that it was a normal phase that I was going through. In reality it was a whole book I was going through. I did not feel alive I felt alone I had no way out. The way that I want to impact the world is by advocating and sharing my story of what really happened and how things came how they became for many years. Many people think that many of the time mental health people do it for attention or that its a regular phase that they go through. The only thing that I do not like is that people are so uninformed about how mental health really works. Peoples emotions should be let out and be heard. Not being heard does not benefit those who are going through a rough time because they see that no one is paying attention to their emotions. So I would impact the world with my mental health career by be able to make people feel comfortable to be able to be free and say what they are going through without them being scared that they are going to get judged. It never okay to let someone suffer by themselves keep in touch with someone and let someone know. Lets make this world a better world and advocate for a topic that many people avoid and a topic that we know why people are leaving us.