Serving in the Marine Corps taught me that when you are given a task, you have to figure out how to get it done no matter what. When I decided to go back to school to study Information Technology, I brought that same mindset with me. But working with technology is not something you can just learn by sitting in a chair and listening to someone talk. You have to actually get your hands dirty, build things, and fix what breaks. Online tools and digital platforms are what make that possible for me every day. Because I have to juggle going to school with working a job, online learning gives me the flexibility I need to stay on track. Through my school's online portals and virtual labs, there is no need to to be in a physical computer lab to practice the skills that I am learning. I can use simulation software with specialized virtual sandbox platforms such as Cisco Packet Tracer, virtual machine environments via Hyper-V, and guided online labs, right on my own computer at home: set up fake networks, connect virtual routers, and test out how computers talk to each other. If I mess up a setting or cause an error, I can troubleshoot the issue right there and figure out what went wrong without breaking any real equipment. Whenever I come across on a difficult concept, I don't just stop. I use YouTube to watch technical video walkthroughs, look up official guides, and read forums where real IT workers share how they solve problems. This has taught me how to research answers for myself instead of just memorizing what the classroom setting is. It shows me how real-world tech professionals work through daily issues, which gives me confidence that I am learning useful skills for my future. Be able to utilize these online resources has completely changed how I look at everyday technology. I use what I learn online to set up smart devices in my home, troubleshoot computer issues, and understand how to keep systems secure. My goal is to finish my associate degree, transfer to a university, and earn my bachelor’s degree in tech. Online tools give me the freedom to learn at my own pace and practice the skills I need to succeed. They give veterans such as myself the chance to rebuild my life, take control of my future, and prove that I have what it takes to build a solid career in IT.

My name is Jonathan Rodriguez but I prefer to go by Johnny. My mental health has shaped my journey from an early age, though it took years to fully understand the depth of its grip. Growing up, I did not realize that my mother was fighting her own severe, silent battles with mental illness; as a child, I assumed her behavior were simply normal parts of who she was. It was only when my own mental health began to severely deteriorate as an adult that I found myself navigating identical feelings of isolation, exhaustion, and despair. I was finally able to step into her shoes and see through her eyes to understand the immense weight she had been carrying and my childhood made sense. For years my depression was rooted in an invisible, exhausting burden: accepting that I was gay. The prospect of living that reality terrified me to the point where I mapped out an entire alternative life in my head just to hide from who I really was. When I accidentally came out, I anticipated a sense of emotional relief. Instead, the reality became heavier, colder, and far more complicated. While serving in the Marine Corps, that disclosure triggered an immediate unraveling of my career. I was met with retaliatory, false accusations that left me without recourse or support, leading to a discharge under Other Than Honorable conditions. Losing the military structure, my sense of purpose, and the brotherhood I had sacrificed everything to build broke my spirit completely. Convinced that my life was irreparable, the day I was discharged, I fell into major Depression and I felt so abandoned that I stopped caring about my future and fell into severe substance use. That downward spiral cost me my physical stability, my vehicle, my community, and my sense of self. Hitting rock bottom forced me to strip away all illusions and construct an entirely new foundation. Recovery doesn't happen overnight; it requires daily commitment. I'm no saint and I have my lapses but I do my best to maintain rigorous accountability through structured daily schedules, recovery meetings, and a disciplined work ethic. Rather than allowing those past losses to define my ceiling, I channeled that hard-won focus back into higher education. I am currently pursuing my degree in Information Technology at the community college level, maintaining strong academic standing with plans to transfer to a four-year university to complete my Bachelor of Science. While the grief of how my military service ended still surfaces, I no longer run from my past. I have accepted my story, rebuilt my drive, and dedicated myself to proving that resilience, self-honesty, and education can transform an absolute loss into an enduring foundation for long-term achievement.

As a student, mental health is the foundation that makes everything else; focus, discipline, and academic endurance, possible for me. Earlier in my life, untreated depression, anxiety, and severe mental health conditions completely derailed my stability and cost me years of progress. Fighting my way back taught me that you cannot build a meaningful academic future on an unstable mental foundation. Coursework, exams, and career prep require cognitive clarity and emotional resilience. When mental health is compromised, many simple daily tasks feel insurmountable. Protecting my mental well-being is not a luxury; it is the prerequisite for showing up to class prepared, being able to focus to retain information, and being able to commit to any challenge should it arise. My personal journey directly shapes how I advocate for mental health, both at home and within my school community. At home and in my personal relationships, advocacy started with confronting silence and denial. For years, I witnessed how stigma prevents people from admitting they are hurting. I have supported loved ones who were convinced that seeking help is weakness and by masking their pain caused destructive friction. By learning to set healthy emotional boundaries and speaking openly about my own recovery, I try to model to them that struggling is human and that asking for support is ok. Breaking that generational silence at home proved to me that empathy and honest dialogue can dismantle years of defensive denial. Within the school community, I translate those lessons into everyday peer support. As a returning student, balancing college coursework with work, I frequently encounter classmates who are quietly burning out under heavy academic loads, financial stress, and family expectations. My advocacy is practical and personal: I try to normalize vulnerability and in study groups and classroom discussions, I actively work to defuse the pressure to appear effortlessly put-together. When peers mention feeling overwhelmed, I validate their stress and share my own experiences with managing mental health, letting them know they are not isolated or broken and it will pass. I try to connect peers to Campus Resources. Many students hesitate to use campus counseling services, disability accommodations, or wellness centers because they feel intimidated or assume their problems "aren't bad enough." I explain those services better to them and if they dont already have it, share contact information, and actively encourage them to take advantage of the mental health resources paid for by our student fees. I do my best to promote sustainable habits. I advocate for balance over burnout, reminding classmates that pulling all-nighters or skipping meals to finish assignments is a short-term gamble that can damage a long-term performance.

For the past ten years, I have dealt with depression, anxiety, and episodes of psychosis that made everyday life feel like an uphill battle. When I was younger, I believed myself on top of the world and that nothing could stop me. But when major life events hit and caused me to lose everything I worked so hard to accomplish, I completely lost myself. At my lowest point, I felt overwhelmed and struggled with suicidal thoughts. Surviving that dark period made me realize I still had purpose and was the Universes way of telling me not to clock-out, that there is still time left. Instead of letting that mental illness define where my story ends, it became the exact reason I refuse to quit. Navigating my mental health also completely changed how I approach relationships. During this time, I was also trying to support my significant other who had his own deep struggles but refused and has continued to refuse to acknowledge them. For a long time and even now occasionally, we clash because I did not understand what was happening, and I thought I could somehow fix things for him. Over time, I learned a hard lesson: you cannot help someone else who is not ready to help themselves. That dynamic forced me to build strong emotional boundaries and stop waiting for outside reassurance. Even when our dynamic was complicated, I learned how to generate my own internal drive and keep moving forward. These experiences reshaped how I see the world. Before, my outlook was narrow, and I took stability for granted. Hitting rock bottom stripped away that ego. It showed me that people are often fighting quiet, heavy battles that are not visible on the surface. Because of what I have endured, I try to approach others with much more patience, humility, and genuine empathy. I am grateful for the perspective I gained because it gave me a realistic view of life and taught me to value every single day. Today, that hard-earned resilience directly fuels my academic and personal goals. As a college student, I treat my education as a second chance that I do not take for granted. Balancing school, my dogs, homework time and blessed to have found employment at Kaiser Permanente. Although it is an on-call role, this to me is proof that progress happens one steady step at a time. My mental health journey took a lot from me, but it also gave me the mental toughness, self-awareness, and drive I need to build a meaningful, independent future.

Addiction is something that I never thought I would face. I would often ask myself when I would see individuals on the street, "Why cant they just stop using?" Back then I thought it was just that easy but once I became an addict I realized the literal meaning of when someone says "It is easier said than done." To me being an addict is something I would never wish for anyone and I can honestly say that it has changed my life . I first began to use on the day that I was released from Active Duty and the only reason that I even picked up my drug of choice was because I was discharged from the Marine Corps for a false accusation of methamphetamine in my urine analysis but this is a story for another time. Having been falsely accused for the one thing in my life I enjoyed and was hoping to achieve 20 years, I said "Fu** it, I might as well!" and I did and ever since my life went down hill even more than it already had. After being released and using I lost everything, my car , paperwork and I had nowhere to live while being released. I wasn't alone either I was with my recently married spouse at the time and me being in my depression state and looking for the drug, not knowing I made him relapse and he never stopped again. We were on the streets for years and people would use me and him especially being in the depression state I was in and I had no idea what was going on I thought people were really being my friend but they were trying to get information out of me. We couched surfed and were arrested and seen things but we have always been there for each other although using made it difficult for our relationship to hold. I am now housed in an apartment and I am on-call employee and do my best to always stay busy so that I don't fall under the trap of using . My spouse still comes to my apartment but he still uses but he still helps me out and I am trying to help him get his place but he will come around when he is ready. I thought for a long time that I had control but after sobering up i realized the control that it had on me and how difficult it is to actually be free from the control of it . I want to complete my education so that I can show others that even being an addict , we can persevere in whatever we set our minds to. Even today to this day I have people still laughing at me because of what they THINK and they have no idea about the struggles that I have had to endure . But with my education completed I wont throw it in anyone's face but I can show them that we can all be better no matter how low life brings us down.

I think that we are just thinking of ways as to why our generation was better than the one prior or the one to come just because we are from those generations and that is the only reason why any of us would say our generation is the best or is better than yours or what not. When we argue about things such as these we never tend to make the other generation look better than our generation do so we always target what the other generation did/does/doing wrong. What were to happen if we were to speak about the other generation that is not our own and speak to them about all of the positive things that they have done or are doing, what kind of response would then we get? Would they look at the positive things are generation is doing or did or will they just continue being negative? I think that it shouldn't matter what we did or are going to do I think we should be focused on what is going on right now at this moment and whether it be a generation of people or not we need to focus on what is going on around us. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter who did what but what does matter is who we help when we can if we have the means to do so. Many people who are born today have shown the world that all they care about is money and money only. They will say that they care about others and lie through their teeth when all they are expecting in return is money and the outcome of the riches it will bring them. I mean even non-profit organizations are considered to be a business and many of them are expecting things in return for what they are doing. I mean what generation will that fall under? I think todays days are the Generations of people who were born out of lust rather than love. They say God made man and woman procreate but I'm pretty sure he meant that when a mommy and daddy love each other very much....... Thinking about these future Generations will only be setting them up for what they think they will have and if they don't get what they heard they were going to they might throw a hissy fit. Let's think about the Generation going on right now, the crossing of Generations from one to another and what is it we can both bring to the table being from two different times and learning from each other.

According to the Oxford Languages Dictionary on Google.com, "Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and a sense of attachment to one's country. This attachment can be a combination of different feelings for things such as the language of one's homeland, and its ethnic, cultural, political, or historical aspects." After reading the definition of Patriotism I think that it is boring and is just a more sophisticated way of saying "AMERICA!" After being in the Marine Corps and learning the knowledge that I was able to acquire there followed by the time that I spent on the streets after, I think the word Patriotism means America! I say that because there is no other country in the world that does what America does for its people. What other Government does anyone know in the world that gives their people a boost to help better themselves when they are at the lowest in their lives such as EBT, Food Stamps, General Relief, etc. In other countries, if you have no food then that is it you have no food and the government there could care less if you eat or not. In this country, it is for sure that you will have your three meals a day whatever it may be whether you are a law-abiding citizen or a delinquent behind bars. Patriotism to me is the idea of being able to help our own, no matter how little we get and we just make do with what we have at the moment. Patriotism is the idea of being able to love the country that I fought for and understand why it is that many of us fight for. Patriotism is the idea that I get to have of America and what it stands for, the idea of doing the right thing even when nobody is looking. Patriotism is me, it is you, and it is all Americans who know and understand what being American is. To me, Patriotism is the idea of being free and idea's are forever.

My time in the Marine Corps was one of the best experiences I have ever gone through. It taught me not only how to be a killing fighting machine but also showed me that I needed to be humble no matter what situation and how to only use the training I received when I needed to. The branch of service that I joined was the Marine Corps and my MOS or Military Occupational Specialty was 0621-Field Radio Operator as well as a 0916- Marine Corps Martial Arts Instructor. However I also carried the billet of a 0629 which is a Radio Chief. I did the work and the duties of the Radio Chief but not officially on paper due to the little time in grade and service. Although I was not on paper the Radio Chief I was known as Radio Chief Actual. In order to be the Chief one has to be a Staff Non-Commissioned Officer with the grade of E6 or above. I was given the title as an E4 which is only a Corporal but as a Corporal Chief, I earned the rank of Sergeant which is an E5 in a little under three years. I was nominated to be on Meritorious Promotional Board not only for Sergeant but for Corporal as well and although I did not win on either board I was still proud to be on both and being on those boards helped with my promotions to the next rank. I was able to experience two Unit Deployment Programs (UDP) to Japan where I completed Martial Arts Instructor Training as a an E3, normally one must be an E4 and I also completed the Jungle Warfare Training they held both times that I got to visit the country. It was on my second visit however that I was the Radio Chief in Charge of the Radio Section and was promoted to Sergeant of Marines under Mt. Fuji. Two Awards I received while in the Marine Corps were two Navy Marine Corps Achievement Medals which I received one on the Departure of the second UDP as we left to Japan and the Second one i received once I returned back to the states following the second UDP. I also received three letters of appreciation for my Volunteer work in japan and for my Volunteer work in the Marine Corps Ball 2016. I can honestly the most difficult obstacle I had was getting out. I had no idea why I was getting out the way that I did. It confused me and put a very deep hole in the trust I had for my fellow brothers and to be discarded like nothing to nothing for something I did not do, well I lost myself for a very long time. Then to be added that world with no knowledge of what I was getting myself into made my life that much more difficult but still here I am now still pushing myself and still trying to make things right and to show those who wrongfully accused me that although I ended up still doing what I shouldn't have after the fact that I am still here pushing myself to be better then who I would've been and who I will be and that I'm not a complete failure because now I know through experiences and trial that for sure, I am not just anyone but I can be the inspiration to everyone.

Graduating is important because it will not only show me that anyone can do what they set their minds to but I hope that it will open up a door that many who are like me can follow. I wouldn't call myself much of a role model but I do want to be seen as an inspiration for others to emulate. Just because society see's somebody a certain way doesn't mean that everyone is the same. I know for myself that I'm not just anyone and that I will make a difference someday and that all begins with me, now, today. As an Addiction Counselor I feel I will be able to Counsel those people who are seeking the way that is right and not continue with their addiction. I think I will make a bigger impact to these people given that I too am an addict and being an addict (soon to be a former addict) will be able to relate more closely to the people that seek help. Because of having some similarities I will be able to understand the hardships they are going through and get a better understanding of the accomplishments that we addicts eventually want to see. Being able to graduate will show everyone that I did it. It will show and prove that the words that come out of my mouth are not lies and I will be able to show and hopefully explain how i overcame so many obstacles and so many personal life changing moments in my life that when I thought I was done and I wanted to quit I didn't let myself and pushed myself to better then what I am and am still continuing to better myself, whatever it takes.

I can say that I am trying my very best to stop my personal addiction. With that being said I understand that this scholarship is for those whom have surpassed their addictions and that have changed their lives. Well in the midst of being an addict, I can not say that my life has gotten back to where it needs to be but although I'm going through this, I can say that I have been doing my best to continue with my education and wanting to transfer to a Four-Year University. When my addiction first began I ended up on the streets and had lost all that I had ever worked extremely hard to obtain. I let my guard down drastically and I paid the price of homelessness. It took some time for me to realize that I needed to change what I was doing and I decided to continue going to school and I applied to continue my studies at Long Beach City College. People think that I go to school only for the Financial Aid and every single day up today I am looked down upon because of how I look and what they think that I do with my life on my spare time but little do they know that I am doing my almost best to do what I need to do with my life and become an Addiction Counselor so that I may be able to help those in need whom are looking to quit their addictions. I know that I am still considered an addict and my goal is to stop completely but it is not that simple for me as I have tried to stop in the past but I have failed. I need to find myself a motivation so that I don't want to do it anymore but the thing is that I think I have become dependent on my addiction because it does allow me to focus. Having said all this , I can say my life is better then it was at first. I managed to get an apartment but moved out before finding another one which brings me to my current homeless situation. I have also managed to bring myself up from what I called hitting rock bottom on several occasions. I couldn't let any of that stop me from doing better and I still wont. However I do wish to one day stop and see how much my life can change for the better.

It is important for people to be involved with their communities because I personally feel that being involved with your community is the way that you can stay on top of many things going on in the community. It can very from different things like fixing up the streets or the way that a school work or if they want to make any changed. Being involved means that you can actually have a say in what goes on and you can state your opinions as well and people will know and vice versa. I haven't really had much the chance to be able to help my community just yet but I am planning on helping out or assisting them in what ever I can assist with when the time comes and although I haven't been able to help, the community has however helped me out. I have been homeless for a while now and if it wasn't for the community like my College , Long Beach City College, I don't think I will be where I am today. Yes I am homeless but it is now at my own accord . The people of the community have assisted me with all the resources they possibly can such as food, shelter or even assistance with my utilities and or if I need funds. I have even been blessed by these people allowing me to stay in a motel so that I don't live completely on the streets. Any kind of help I ever get i see as a blessing. I plan to help my community in the future. If I had the means and funds to be able to do so now I most certainly would. Majoring in the Drug Counseling field I think I can make an impact in the community by going out and seeking those who are seeking counseling and want to change who they are and change their way of lifestyle from the drug use. I think I can be some kind of inspiration to many who are Addicted to a substance because I will be able to relate to them given the fact that I am a former addict and I understand what it is like to try and get help but not sure how to come about it. I will be able to understand where they are coming from and be able to relate with what is going on in their lives and be able to show them as the inspiration that they can change and if that I what they really want then they can achieve it because anything is possible because if I can do it so can anyone else.

My favorite way to help others is by giving them what I feel that they need help with. For example, if someone really needs food and I can manage to get some extra funds to be able to help them with food then to me seeing the expressions on their faces will actually bring a smile to my face . Knowing that I helped someone always brightens up my day. Whether it be just helping someone in the middle of the street because their vehicle stopped or helping out someone with a ride to their work site or picking up someone's kid from school because they will be at work later then usual. Any way that i can help is my favorite and when someone does need help and can ask me for it I never expect anything back in return. I have learned a lot of people now in days if you ask help they expect something back. I refuse to be that way. If I am helping it is because i am helping and because I can. If they want to do something back for me that is on them. I wouldn't expect anything. Nor will i ever bring it up to them and say "well remember that one time I helped you?" That is not like me.

I seek to just complete my studies so that I may further my education and prove to all those who doubt me and to all those who think that I am nothing and show them that I can still be something. I know fort a fact now that i'm just not anyone but I am somebody who will be important and who already is. The way I seek out joy is by helping others in any way that I possibly can if it falls in my means to do so. If I can manage to complete my education , become rich (not at the top of the list), then I would have found joy because then I can become a Philanthropist and help out those who need help just the same way that I do now. We all need help in our lives, some of us more then others but it is only presented to you when we ask. If we dont ask, others will think that we dont want to be helped but in all reallity we really do.