My understanding of the world based on my experience with mental health has been changed. I come from a family filled with mental diseases. My uncle suffered from depression and PTSD from the army, and my grandma (his mother) suffered from depression and lots of diseases that took over her body. They both took their lives to escape the pain and suffering. I know firsthand what depression looks like and what it does to you when you let it take over your thoughts and actions. Ultimately I have suffered losses that no one should have to suffer. Hearing that both my uncle and grandma gave up on life has just made me even more of a fighter. When someone you care for is gone forever it affects everyone, not just the one who passed. Life is beautiful when you keep fighting to the end, and that's what keeps me going every day. The thought that my life means so much to multiple people helps me see life as something precious. My experience with mental health has shaped my life so much! My relationships with people mean more to me than anything, I don't want to see them lose themselves and I don't want to lose them either. When someone I know is having a bad or off day I always try and make sure they aren't hurting and if they are I try to help them with breathing exercises and picturing something that makes them happy. these things seem silly but they could save a life, and that's what I want to do. also, my relationships seem to be more focused on helping each other out when we need it the most. when someone needs someone to rant to or just get a hug I am always there. I can't watch another person I love to suffer from depression therefore I try my best to help them. Also, my understanding of the world changed when I saw so many people struggle to go on. I understand no one is perfect and I also understand that people hurt a lot. I don't want to give up on the world when it tries to take me down because it's just a place and I am just a person. Life is amazing when you take a step back and enjoy the little things. the feeling of being loved, felt, and understood, make us stronger. Seeing a human-being being brought into life is another amazing feeling. I also understand that not everyone can enjoy the little things but if they keep fighting they can enjoy life. my understanding of the world is more optimistic than ever after losing my loved ones and that makes me a stronger person.

I come from a family filled with depressed balls of anxiety. my uncle suffered from depression and PTSD from the army, and my grandma (his mother) suffered from depression and lots of diseases that took over her body. they both took their lives to escape the pain and suffering. I know firsthand what depression looks like and what it does to you when you let it take over your thoughts and actions. Ultimately I have suffered losses that no one should have to suffer. hearing that both my uncle and grandma gave up on life has just made me even more of a fighter. when someone you care for is gone forever it affects everyone, not just the one who passed. life is beautiful when you keep fighting to the end, and that's what keeps me going every day. The thought that my life means so much to multiple people helps me see life as something precious. My experience with mental health has shaped my life so much! my relationships with people mean more to me than anything, I don't want to see them lose themselves and I don't want to lose them either. When someone I know is having a bad or off day I always try and make sure they aren't hurting and if they are I try to help them with breathing exercises and picturing something that makes them happy. these things seem silly but they could save a life, and that's what I want to do. also, my relationships seem to be more focused on helping each other out when we need it the most. when someone needs someone to rant to or just get a hug I am always there. I can't watch another person I love to suffer from depression therefore I try my best to help them. My beliefs have changed significantly after losing so many people to depression. I used to believe no one could be that "messed up" that they would take their own life, but I now realize that sometimes life is too much for those people and they truly need help and shouldn't be looked at as just another disease. they really need help in order for them to get better. Also, I used to think that anyone so lost in life that they couldn't keep going on would never end up in heaven. But I also realized that if I believe in God and that he loves everyone why would taking your own life mean God loves you any less. I know a lot of people disagree with me but I believe God loves everyone even if they can't live a long strong life. My career hasn't changed but I am thinking about expressing myself more with art and helping others that are in pain through art. I know art helps me a lot with getting through tough times and it keeps me busy enough to distract myself from the hurt. I would love to help people suffering from depression through art or just talking.

Misfit: a person whose behavior or attitude sets them apart from others in an uncomfortably conspicuous way. Being Human: being yourself (aka. being a misfit.) I grew up being taught to be yourself. But what we weren't told was there were limits. There are boundaries we can't escape. No LGBTQ+, no late nights with friends, no social media, and always have a parent with you. The last one changed (no parents) because being sixteen and wanting to go to the mall with your friends and having to bring your mom with you doesn't seem like a rewarding time. My parents had these strict rules because "we want you to be safe, and being gay is not a real thing". Eventually, I learned that being myself was being a misfit. I got into trouble a few times because I wanted to be the "average" teenager, but my parents didn't want me to build my character based on the norm. I wanted to do everything that a normal teenager does, even the stupid stuff that gets us in trouble, I wanted to go to parties, I wanted to get my nose pierced. I was now an outcast, in my own family. I am a bi seventeen-year-old girl with a million stories that make me stand out to my family. The main reason I am an outcast in my own home besides wanting to be a normal teenager, is I am BI. I told my friends freshman year (all of who are also gay) that I was happily crushing on a girl. They weren't shocked but they were curious about how my parents would react. I never told my parents (even to this day) because they are against LGBTQ, but they found out anyway. It was by accident and honestly, I don't think they realized that it wasn't a "joke". I don't mind them not knowing that I am BI becasue I don't think I could handle what they would say. Being part of the LGBTQ community makes me a misfit in my own home. Being a misfit in my own home has made me feel like I am not completely myself because they don't understand that I am who I am, but it also makes me realize that I am a COMPLETE misfit. I almost belong in the wrong "family" (I love my family but they can be a bit much). Being a misfit has shaped my personal dreams by being able to show my true colors and just being me. My dreams in life include being an architect which I find kind of spunky and it shows my true colors. Also, I am an artist so being able to incorporate my misfit into my art is honestly amazing! I feel like a truly crazy, beautiful, and corky artist when I use my unique perspective on changing the world. I want to change the world for the better, with more actions taken on women's rights and LGBTQ+ awareness. I can use my story as a misfit to help inspire others like me that struggle with people not understanding and I can express myself in my art.

Education in my life means I can develop a strong personality and be able to communicate with others through similar beliefs. Education helps make me do daily life activities with the best mindset that I can give myself. Education also helps me to develop new skills and knowledge that will help my development in life. the role of education in my life is huge, I need an education to inform me about everyday situations. I also need an education because it helps me grow into the person I am going to be. my education means the world to me. My parents were never given the opportunity to have an education beyond their high school diploma, and I want to be able to show them that hard work can get you so far in life. They went on to have a family and wanted the best for their family. I want to show them that they didn't "throw away" their life as everyone told them. I am proud to have had parents willing to have a family before an education. Education beyond high school means I can show everyone that it doesn't matter where you come from, you can still get an amazing education. Being able to be taught to be the best version of yourself is an amazing gift that we are given. Therefore, education means that I can help others around me, I can be the best possible version of myself, and I can show my parents how they helped me get to where I am today. Education is the biggest role in my life besides my family.

my greatest achievement that took an obscene amount of courage was going through my parent's divorce. I was very young at the time so I wanted to be able to forgive everyone involved. As the divorce created drama I became so angry with how my parents treated each other. they were acting cruelly to each other. my sister and I would have to change houses every few days then it turned into different cities, I was separated from my sister and I didn't know who she was with. My dad was working different jobs every few weeks and my mom was running off. Finally, when the disaster left me and my sister in our dad's hands and we no longer could see our mother I had to have courage. Without courage, I would have been even worst off than I was. Every day I thought to myself about different outcomes of what had happened. I concluded that what had happened was for the best. I had to overcome my biggest fear, losing someone so close to me for the greater good. That was the hardest thing I have had to do. I let myself say goodbye to my mom and that's when the little bit of courage I had kicked in. I wanted to be able to have everything that could never happen when the divorce unfolded, but it was time to let go and say goodbye. Being able to let go was my biggest achievement because I had to pick courage over anger. later in life, it showed me that being able to choose to be okay with the fact that I had just lost my mom showed me that I was stronger than I thought. it didn't feel good to have just made the decision to not be able to see my mom again but she had become a bad person that would have destroyed the lives of my sister and me. Not every 7-year-old has to go through that though of a discussion, but I did, and it showed my later self I am so much tougher than I could ever imagine. I had just let go of my mother and hoped she would get clean so I could see her again. it caused so much pain and I wanted to take it all back but it was for the best ultimately, and being able to see that as a very young child shows so much personality and strength. In the future, I hope to achieve a lot. I would like to help with recent social issues, use my voice to share the struggles I went through to help kids that have been through the same, also to start an architectural business that is very modern and affordable. I hope my future achievements have an impact on everyone around me struggling with life. I hope to encourage people to keep pushing because it will get easier. I really strive on helping people so that would ultimately be my biggest future achievement that I would love to pursue.

The best places to shop online in my opinion are Amazon, Zumiez, and Kohles. I absolutely love Amazon because you can find ANYTHING you want and there are AMAZING prices. Zumiez is just overall great and I love their clothes! then there is Kholes which always has the best styles that are trendy and they have amazing prices as well!

I come from a wealthy school but I live in a less than middle-class family. I see the everyday hardship of females in my school, some take the time to completely erase their face with globs of makeup to show how "pretty" their face is. Others cover themselves in people to show no emotions because emotions are a weakness. The women that have to go through this every day are being put down by men and even other females that ignore the fact that girls need to be there for each other, because of everything that happens on a daily. The world is a cruel place that points out everything wrong with you, and females are targeted. It makes me so mad that we can't be ugly, sad, or even real. When I go to school and look around at all the girls, they are all in heavy makeup with whole posses on them to show they are bigger than what they are thought to be. At school you can't even cry without being asked "are you on your period", "did someone just die", no, we are just having a bad day. But no one cares about our emotions. Everything is always blamed on our "periods", because why else would we feel sad or angry. I can't stand how we are treated in school, it's even in stores with strangers. when I was actually at school and in person I was asked many times why I was in a bad mood and when I didn't want to say the guy would say oh she's on her period don't talk to her. At that moment I felt almost harassed. Even though women now have just as many rights as men do we are still being treated with disrespect, they look at our bodies to see if we are capable of the job, not our brains. I didn't fully comprehend that women arent fully equal until high school, then again hormones through the boys are just raging. But when I first arrived at high school I felt like no one really gets recognized for their heart or brain but more for their looks. I would love to make a difference on this issue by showing be aren't just pretty faces or perfect bodies but we are strong independent women. I just want to show everyone that we are courageous, brave, and most importantly human, were not dolls to be played with, and then put on a shelf. I hope that we can all advance in what we think is right or wrong. I want to see America's strongest leaders as women that are independent. There already have been so many amazing historical women that have changed the world for the better, but we are still treated awful and we need to do more. We shouldn't have to put up with what people say that is negative but we should take a stand and let our fellow historical women figures look down on us and say "we started that". At this moment in time, there isn't a lot I can personally do, but my girlfriend and I want to start an all-female gym to help with the controversy in the gym. We want to make an equal opportunity for all women who feel they are being violated in what is supposed to be a safe place.

The greatest challenge I have faced was my parents going through an awful divorce that ultimately resulted in me never seeing my mother again. I was only 7 when my mom got hooked on drugs that make the person you know slowly disintegrate. I have a little sister and at the time she was two and I had to take care of her because my dad was in a different city with a full-time job and my mom was getting high and taking in a different "boyfriend" every night. It was an awful experience for me to have to watch my parents morph into people I didn't recognize then to have to take care of a two-year-old all while doing second grade practically alone. I never truly overcame the situation because it made me look at life as almost a waste and then to have to tell your friends when they asked where's your mom, well she left me for drugs, they obviously thought I was different, which I was, but they didn't like different. Recently after nine years of trying to figure out why I am the way I am, I figured out it was because of the difficult childhood I went through. I have slowly come to realize that people do whatever it takes to get their hands on something once they are hooked. My mom left us when we were young just for pills that would make her leave her children. My dad now is re-married and happy with a stable job, and we are a happy family. I learned a lot of lessons when I saw my mom disappear and then to come back as a ghost of all the drugs that took over her. It was hard to realize that I had lost my mother but I know if I ever have to say goodbye to my friends and family because of drugs I won't be able to live with myself.

I sat shaking and crying in the corner of my room, 5 days since my puppy died, and 4 seconds away from wanting to end it all. It had been a rough year already, my dad lost his job, money was tight, COVID-19 was just starting to look more like the black plaque instead of the flu, my heart hurt, my head heart and my body ached in pain. I was tired of being locked in a cage, tired of watching my parents fight about money, and tired of getting up in the morning. I missed everyone and I especially missed my best friend (my puppy), she would help me with anxiety and now I was without her. When everything came crashing down nothing seemed to be enough to live, at this point I was faking smiles, too weak to stand, too weak to sit, everything was in pain. All I wanted was to never have to worry about problems or death ever again. I wanted to grab the sharpest thing around so I could cut the pain out of me. A couple of days later I was still in sorrow and didn't want to eat or talk but my friend called me and she asked if I was okay, I hadn't told her that I was sick, so to hear that she was worried about me made it even harder. I told her I wasn't okay, she wanted to hug me and tell me everything was going to be okay. It was really good to hear from her but it didn't change the fact that I still wanted to sleep forever. About a month later I was starting to get over the fact that my dog was never coming back but I was still faking smiles and laughs because it wasn't just my dog, it was the world trying to tear me piece by piece. my dad got another job which meant more income which was what we needed but COVID had taken the social part out of being a teenager. I don't do well with change or stress and that is exactly what Carona was doing to me. I was still in a cage watching the world crumble and not being able to escape. I lost it. I couldn't take anymore social distancing or zoom calls with your friends, nothing digital can make up the warm touch of someone. then it hit me, I wasn't the only one calling the shots on my own life, 10 billion others were wanting to just die because it is too much to handle. I didn't want to just give my life away before I could see how I turn out in the future. I started looking at everything as a wakeup call, I don't want to have this disease control my life, I still want to have fun, make mistakes, and see the world. COVID was my stress and still is but I can choose to let it take everything from me or I can live the best life I can, and yes I will still have bad days but who doesn't! I want to take back what's mine, my life. Since I had this turn around I have been playing with my other puppy, drawing, taking walks, and calling my friends. I may not be able to see their ridiculous faces but I get to hear their laughs, which helped me understand that there are people that care for me and right now they need me the most, and I needed them.

It all happened in 8th grade. I was honestly looking for popularity, friends, and good looks because I was a band-geek, not a ton of friends, smart but so fake. Then I had a way to turn that all around, I could be popular, and have people love me for someone I wasn't because guess what being fake and having fake friends was being real and down to earth with just a few great friends. so one day at a jazz concert this really popular jock, and I mean the REALLY popular guy was talking about drugs and how he wished they were cheaper and he was looking to buy some from his friend. Right then I had this idea that I access to weed and that's what he wanted and it's now legal so what's the big deal, WRONG! I was caught trying to sell it to him for cheap, because I had no clue what I was doing, and I was suspended on the spot. I was so ashamed of myself, I had never done drugs nor will I, but why did I think I was a good idea, all I wanted was to be liked, loved, worshiped. After a two-week suspension, my parents were so disappointed that they wouldn't look at me, I came back and was the most popular person at school. I did it, I achieved what I wanted, but there was a price there is always a price, my whole family was disgusted they were so angry with me, and I never told them why I did it either because I was ashamed of myself. The next year (high school) I finally realized how stupid I was and that I was a failure for being so STUPID! those people I thought were my friends were awful to me, they used me. But when I went to band camp over the summer going into high school I found amazing friends who understood me and wanted me. I finally felt not like a failure, I was valued by my peers, I didn't have to be fake for followers, they loved me for me. ultimately the whole situation made me a stronger person, it influenced me to not want fake followers but real good-hearted people. it also redirected me to stay away from drugs, alcohol, and "fame", because they can do a toll on someone and I didn't want to be the person asking minors for drugs, even if they were also a minor.