Her early life was nowhere close to peaceful. Always having to fight for her spot at the table and being taken down by society's expectations, she marched with her head high. As her family migrated to the U.S. after facing terror in their homeland, Cambodia, she faced a terrible language barrier with others as well. Starting work at 14 learning the ways of life, she had no other option but to adjust. She had her first child at age 21 and raised him by herself for a few years eventually finding love again and having two more beautiful children. Battling the Kamar Rouge, racism, becoming a single mother, running into financial problems, and raising three children trying to be the best mother she could be. Well, I can confirm she is in fact the best mother in the world. My mother, Fon Rose.

Hobbies are quite important for people. It allows them to think and express themselves in many different ways. Hobbies also give us time to away from the work-life and relax even while doing some other type of activity. Things such as playing a sport and/or building are different types of hobbies people tend to involve themselves in. Personally speaking, I find that playing a sport and working out, reading and writing, drawing and listening to music, or just going on a long drive to any destination are some of my favorite hobbies. I consider them to be such important hobbies because it takes my mind off of work, school, and whatever may be cause distress in my life at the time. When working out and training my body, I am working out any stress or anger built up through physical activity. To me, it releases that stress and relaxes me. Playing volleyball and going to the gym, or just as simple as going on a run are some of the few physical hobbies I involve myself in. Reading, writing, and drawing all, in some sort of way, go hand in hand. They all affect me in the same way as a hobby. Reading, writing, and drawing are all used in the innovative side of my brain rather than the critical thinking and comprehensive part. Using my brain to think but not in a way I have been using it to work to me is relaxing and still useful. Finally, I save the most important for last. The definition of a hobby; an activity that is done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure. Driving while listening to music is one of my most prized pastime activities to do. This above all other activities is what calms me and really brings my heart rate down. Driving is one thing, but the music aspect is what's important to me. When I listen to music is takes me out of this world and places me in a whole other one. One where there is nothing to worry about and I am free to think and imagine anything.

When my mind gets worked up more then usual there are a few ways I calm it down. I mix up my routine from listening to music or reading a book, but my favorite activity lately has been to go on long drives by myself to let myself think. Listening to music and reading one of my favorite books allows me to use my imagination and think. I can come up with my most valued ideas when reading and listening to music. Sometimes even when I partake in leisurely writing. I allow myself to think freely and attack thoughts I have been needing to take care of but had no time too. Going on drives is a little different but roughly the same concept. Being by myself, sometimes talking aloud to myself, really lets my ideas flow. When I'm alone I can finally do things I've been itching to do but haven't had time to because of school, work, and family. It's important to take care of your mental health and separate your brain from the labor part. A healthy balance between the two only create a bigger healthier mind.

Every so often when I find myself stuck, or in a position of boredom it seems as though hobbies of mine tend to be created. I'm always finding new hobbies and activities to keep me busy. Some regular hobbies I tend to consist of drawing, writing, reading, listening to music, working out and/or going on drives. I've always considered myself a very artist and creative person tying into drawing, reading, writing and music hobbies. It's important for others to tap into their imaginative state of mind and use those skills rather than always using their practical and logical side. I use these hobbies as a way for my brain to relax after a long day of working from school and work. However, when I train my body or go on car rides by myself I use that time as a mental reset for myself. Time to think about nothing and everything. It's 'me time' and time I allow myself to just think and let myself breathe with no one around me. It's important to have hobbies. People discover news things about themselves all the time through hobbies and through trying new things. They discover what they do and don't like about all kinds of things. The important thing is it gives your brain the even balance of work and relaxation.

Its important to see where others are coming from and not judge so quickly. What gives us the right to assume when wouldn't want to be assumed on ourselves? Things such as asking questions, making sure they're all right, or jus letting them know your there for them are simple ways of showing empathy. To get a better idea of their side I do ask them questions. Questions they're comfortable with me asking of course. When asking questions it allows them to open up to you and now you have a better understanding of why they're acting they way they're acting. The same thing goes with bullies. Having and actual conversation with someone you don't like or are fighting with can let down built walls between the two of you. Before you know it you both have something in common and now you both are friends. All it really takes is one open minded person to start a conversation to get the other person to become open minded with them. An open minded person is someone who is always willing to give a second chance, looks at things from their side AND the opposing side, who understands that things happen and lets the person know its okay.

Currently speaking, my friends and my family are really what keep me going these days. There's not much else I really need in my life at the moment. Being young and a teenager I don't need a lot of money, although I do have a job which I'm grateful for. All I ask for is to be loved and cared for and my friends and family provide a mass amount of that. However, there are small things that make up the person I am and made up part of my life. Things such as volleyball, becoming and In-N-Out associate, dancing and listening to lots of different music. All activities that make up who I am and how I'm influenced, and even how I can influence others. My goals have never changed. I wish to become successful in more ways then one and I want to give back to my community and back to my family. Thats always been then end goal. How I get there? Well I'm not quite sure yet. The only thing that matters is the goal never changes. Maybe the road to get there does, but never the actual goal. More over, the main thing that fuels my life is the strong mental state of mind I hold. With it I influence others into having the same state of mind and practice using grit and determination to get through anything.

So far in my life I've noticed one thing. And its the simple fact that I learn more from the downs then the ups. I learn more from all my mistakes I have ever made then any accomplishment I have ever achieved. Because how can you learn if your constantly doing everything right? When I was younger my parents always told me don't touch the stove. Why? Well, because its hot. So one day, being the young stubborn person I am, I touched the stove. Burned my hand and started crying, I never touched that stove again. Since then I'll never lay a finger on that stove until I know for sure its not on. Same thing goes with anything in life. Unless your willing to get your feet a little wet and test the waters your never going to grow as a person and your never going to learn. Its important to learn what you did wrong so you know how to become better next time. Think about it, have you ever learned from winning? No, but you learned how to win from losing.

With mental illness on the rise and depression being its leading cause, adults are finding it difficult to treat and care for children these days. As the suicide rates increase and the age those suicides happen at decrease the world slowly loses hope. I too have come close. Along with my friends and family. But thats just it, they are the reason I stay back and fight. People need to find what it is that will make them stay. They obviously aren't happy with themselves, but taking their own life can hurt a lot more for the people that love them. Talking about my feelings has never been easy, but finding that one person to talk to about these thoughts you have can really benefit your mental health. Opening up to someone and expressing your emotions of all sorts, good and bad, its overall a great opportunity to become grounded. When I do become worked up and I don't have access to the person I always talk to about this there are several things I do to calm down. Things such as listening to classical pieces or reading a book. Going on a long walk or drive. Working out or drawing. All things I have access too and so should the average teenager. And sometimes maybe one doesn't need to talk to anyone. Maybe they simply need time to themselves with no one to lecture them. In the future I wish to discover genuine happiness within myself and become so successful to the point I can retire my parents early. I want my mental health to continue to grow and my faith with God to grow even stronger. Hopefully I can influence people into having a strong mental state of mind such as myself. Thats been a goal of mine. To teach people how to become mentally strong and capable of doing all things. To conclude, people are dealing with their own on a daily basis so we should never push people to be something they aren't. But we can guild them. All we can do is be there for them and let them know were there for them. Never forcing on happiness but showing them its there. Letting yourself and others feel all the emotions is very important. A person can not function when all they ever feel is happiness or sadness and even anger. People need to understand its okay to feel upset sometimes, but lets learn to pick up and continue walking with our heads high.

When I was younger the sprinkler system had always been an obstacle I watched my dad struggle with. Sometimes there would be too much water on one side and too dry on the other. Some how the water would make it into the neighbors yard and in some way get on the cars. Bottom line was water the grass sooner or later was just given up upon. As time went on with no water flourishing our grass, the yard began to turn brown and was a complete eye sore to the house. Our yard stuck out like a sore thumb apart from the rest of the vibrant healthy-growing green yards. Then I came up with an astounding idea. What if we made our own sprinkler? One that fits the situation we were living through to fix all problems at once. We would use about 3 feet of PVC piping and two sprinkler heads. Before you know it we had ourselves a home made sprinkler. One that didn't run into the neighboring yards or hitting cars when watering. It had hit every spot on the law without getting up and moving it manually. Of course putting together this project I had much assistance from my dad, but the idea I came up with was there and it helped my dad greatly. See most of the time when I fix problems I rarely build or work hands on to fix it. That experience was very new and unfamiliar to me. I am someone who seeks mental answers. Thinking out side the box is a go too but also becoming neutral when a problem occurs and see things from the opposing side. When seeing things from the other side you disagree with can make the solution much more peaceful and things are willing to become better. To be completely honest you don't need a lot of money nor resources to solve the important problems, but a way of making peace and understanding. People should look at it like this; life without problems is just like school with no lessons. Meaning when life brings you a problem we must learn how to deal with it without money or the resources because not everyone has the access to those things. To help people solve problems I would like to help people control their problems and teach them how to tackle there problems without using money or resources but by using simple hustle. Because sometimes money and resources IS the problem, how are people going to achieve that when that stuff isn't just given. There is an old proverb that goes something like; give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. I want to teach people how to fish. Inspire them to solve their own problems with the knowledge they need to do so.