Struggling with mental health often isolates you or makes you feel like you are all alone. It is a dark, ominous cloud swallowing all the brightness and joy out of your life and you feel stuck. Due to the feeling of no one really understanding or caring aspect of struggling with mental health, having someone there to be with you and encourage you out of the struggle or to help you throughout the struggle is a practical solution that works wonders. Us humans are made to be social, close-knit and surrounded by those that are like us or at least understand who we are and care about who we are. With this nature in mind, when our mental health has taken a toll, and we feel isolated or even unworthy to join those around us, our brain goes even more into distress because we are beginning to lack the very thing that we were made to do: socialize. Even introverts can need people around them, as complete isolation leads to numerous mental and physical complications. To elaborate, complete isolation can create issues like anxiety, fright, and even depression, which would be destructive when paired with the various forms of struggling with mental health. Therefore the effects of complete isolation connected to mental health causing one to isolate themselves can produce worsening cases of mental health decline. Knowing that the detrimental combination of mental health causing one to feel alone and the harmful effects of being alone, having someone there, like a genuine friend, for those struggling with mental health can help them fight what they are going through with the assurance that someone will always be right beside them along the way.

Life is like a game; there are different characters, plot twists, and even cheat codes that alter the outcome of the very end. While it may be intimating to consider all the possibilities of where you could end up in this game of Life, the quicker you grasp that the game is exactly what you make it and perceive it as, the quicker your life will seem less daunting. Specifically, in life I had to learn that my life would be a lot more positive if I made it that way. Beforehand, I saw life as dark and hopeless when I did not qualify for certain positions in different clubs and did not perform as well in precalculus. As a matter of fact, I felt like a dark cloud was following me around, clouding my sight from the traits and skills that I should still be proud of. I created that dark cloud in my head, which caused my life to appear dark and hopeless for me. Finally, I realized a cheat code to the game of Life: If I got rid of that dark cloud and replaced it with sunshine, all the rain and negative feelings would evaporate and I would be able to see life as sunny and bright as I could make it. By seeing life with sunshine, I could see that I will have plenty of other clubs to apply for and my participation is enough and I passed precalculus with a B+ by viewing the class as opportunity to grow and not being restricted to just struggling or not understanding. I learned that perceiving life by how you want it to be and how you want to see it becomes what you see and receive, which transformed my outlook on the game of Life forever.