My experiences with mental health shaped my goals, relationships, and understanding of the world in numerous of life changing ways. Mental Health has shaped my goals by allowing me to recognize what is important in life and transition my mentality. It has made me realize that materialistic possessions are meaningless if we are not happy from the inside out. In my opinion the riches in life are family, time, health, and mindset. In my younger years my goals were surrounded around worldly things that did nothing for my soul. However, now I'm focused on heavenly things such as God, education, health, and the overall quality of my family's foundation. My awareness of mental health shaped my relationships by helping me look through eyes of non-judgement. It has helped me to understand that as individuals we all come from different backgrounds, experiences, and DNA. I am able to distinguish with the result we all process and express ourselves dissimilarly. I understand that capriciously life happenings can take us to places we never thought we'd be. Being that we live in a world of so much pain it has made me be spread love beyond. You never know how someone is feeling and I never want a person to encounter me without feeling uplifted in that moment. My understanding of the world is the primary reason why I feel God is leading me down the path of continuing my education and becoming an Addiction Studies/Art Therapist. I cannot wait to treat dual diagnosis clients and help them along their journeys of renewal. Mental health should be priority.

My greatest achievement to date is learning to enjoy my own company. A person who is okay with being alone is a powerful person and I had to learn that over time. In my alone time I learned to make hard decisions, be free from distraction, accomplish goals, and learn who I truly was. Throughout the years I had to accept that it's better to enjoy solitude than to tolerate people who don't have the best intentions toward you, toxic people who don't respect your boundaries, or people who aren't present to help you grow. Being able to be alone and not feel alone is the best thing I've mastered. It will seriously help you to level up your own life. As time goes on, I realized that being alone is my version of self-care. It is peaceful and at certain points in my life I need isolation to stay on track. It was what I needed to thrive because there was a point in my life where I wasn't socially mature enough to have others in my space while focusing on my goals. Being alone made me realize that I needed to love myself and I needed me. I had to accept that being an empath I am easily distracted, and interaction can sometimes be overwhelming when it is not thoroughly positive. Experiences taught me that I enjoy solitude to self-reflect. Being alone taught me I enjoy having adventures in solitude because it makes me feel less concerned about impressing others. All in all, I'm not saying that I don't love social interaction because I do. Honestly, I am a people person. I'm just speaking that when you are on certain journeys within life sometimes boundaries need to be enforced for growth. Learning to love my own company helped me release stagnancy. And for me it's one of my greatest achievements to date because I'm no longer in the same place because I took control of my life and changed what was not good for me. I could of spoke on so many other achievements, but for me there is no better achievement than enforcing and implementing boundaries in your life. In the future I hope to achieve owing my own Addictions Treatment Center where my team and I treat clients through who suffer from addiction/dual diagnosis. I want to treat my clients through holistic approaches such as art therapy, sound therapy, etc. I look forward to serving diverse people worldwide.

A healthy lifestyle is majorly important because it is what's needed to thrive in life. A healthy lifestyle can assist you in accomplishing your goals while having the energy to do so. In today's world with so many toxic forces going against us it is vital that we all live and be the healthiest that we can be. A healthy lifestyle is important for the mind, body, and soul to flourish. A healthy lifestyle can combat mental health issues which is essential in proper overall bodily function. A healthy lifestyle is important to me because I have major goals to accomplish and the only way, I can actively mark them off is by treating my temple good. For me a lifestyle is a positive mindset. Without health the body is useless. Nevertheless, a healthy lifestyle is important to me because I have a family who is depending on me to be there for them. If I continue my routine of healthy, I know that I have a lot of days ahead of me. Health is Key!

My son motivates me to lead by example because he is watching. I am not just motivated to ensure that I am leading my son by example, but I want to also ensure that I'm an example to all children within communities. Although I have one son, through volunteering in the schools over 10 years I'm aware that it takes a village to raise a child. Our youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow and that along drives me to be the best that I can be. I value our youth and I value assisting them in gaining knowledge on endless educational topics. As a single mother my experiences has shaped me to understand love, affection, patience, and sacrifices. I've sacrificed my goals and my education to ensure that my son is receiving everything he needs. Children today are growing up in a world where they need reassurance and supervision. In a world where the media exposes our children to harm it motivates me to be an encouragement and a therapeutic ear to my son as well as others. I encourage him to be a leader and to keep his mind on heavenly things regardless of visuals or peer pressures that might come before him. My mother and her longtime friends have helped me the most while pursuing my education. They have inspired me because these women represent strength and endurance regardless of what they are facing in life. They have all supported me in different moments in my life where I may have felt defeated. I've watched some of these ladies face terminal illnesses, but still get up and ensure that their families were thriving. My mother's friends are a big reason why I've made it this far in my education. They consistently speak life into me. I am beyond blessed to have all these women as a support system. Being a child of a single mother taught me to be independent and get things done. My mother inspires me because she is the definition of strength. I love that she is not judgmental or quick to jump to assumptions. She speaks life and positivity into to everyone. Regardless of what is put before my mother she is going to do her best decent and in order. She believes in rest but does not believe in idle time. I love that she wakes up productive and utilizes every hour in a positive perspective. My mother played her role to the maximum, and I never lacked during childhood. She is everything a child would want in a mother. She is the reason I take my role as a mother so serious. Her ultimate goal is to make sure those around her are good from the inside out. I love her for that.