I have had dreams of pursuing a higher education ever since middle school. I have worked hard to keep my grades up and do good in school since the beginning. My parents supported my decision in wanting to pursue a higher education, they even pushed for it. Neither one of my parents went to college and the highest education they both have is a high school diploma. They knew how smart I was, and they wanted me to do something great with my knowledge. I wanted to make my parents proud and follow through with my word that I would attend college after I graduated high school. I applied to Clemson University and a variety of other colleges and universities. I decided to attend Clemson University, and I began the financial process. Unfortunately, even after so many years of my parent's encouragement to attend college, they were not going to support me financially for college. This confused me as I thought they would help me financially due to the major expense of attending college. It caused major conflict, and I thought that attending college was going to turn into a dream rather than a reality. With being the first generation to attend college in my family, my parents were unprepared and did not understand the process of actually going to college. I realized that in order to go to college, I needed a lot of help to make this goal into a reality. I tried to prepare myself by getting in touch with one of my aunts who had two kids in college. She helped me understand the process of applying and going to college. The weight on my shoulders finally felt lifted off. I looked into different programs at Clemson University that would help me transition easily and I decided to take part in a community for STEM majors that provides additional support for transitioning. After reaching out to additional resources and doing research, I felt better prepared in attending college as a first-generation student. My parents decided to try and understand the process and they tried their best to support me in any way possible. The support system that I had grew stronger which built my confidence back up that I would be able to make my dream a reality. The process of attending college was challenging and nerve-racking, but I do not regret any of it. I am now in my first semester of college, and I am so happy to be here. To say that trying to go to college as a first-generation student is hard, is an understatement, but I am grateful that I was able to get past these obstacles and make a name for myself and my family.

Growing up in a household surrounded by different mental health diagnoses truly affected my brain. At the age of nine, my twin sister was diagnosed with ADHD and ADD. At the time, my parents did not know how to handle my sister’s developmental struggles and properly help her with these diagnoses. Watching in the background how my sister was treated affected my perspective of my sister and it truly made me hate her. This hate came from the way it tore my parent's relationship apart and my dislike for that change. Additionally, I was forced to grow up quickly to be there for my mother because my sister’s episodes made my mother so stressed and depressed. I would watch my mother cry all the time to me and I would always try to empathize with her. I was ignorant of these impacts on my sister’s mental health and well-being until I experienced the same reaction–debilitating mental health. COVID-19 had a major impact on teenagers' mental health, especially mine. Quarantine began during my 8th-grade year of middle school and continued into my freshman year of high school. The separation from my peers and the activities I participated in brought on a major depression for me. I lost total motivation for everything I once had great interest in; I found myself lying in bed all day, not getting up. At the time, at the age of thirteen, I was also in a sexually abusive relationship that took a toll on my mental health. These two major factors created a horrible depression that I could not get myself out of. I was put on medication for the first time as I transitioned to in-person learning during my second semester of freshman year. After taking the medication for almost a year, I felt better than ever. Throughout high school, my mental health was stable–or at least I thought it was. I decided to get off my medication in the middle of my sophomore year, since I felt so much better mentally. I came to find that this ended up being a bad decision on my part. After I completed my sophomore year, I began to get into a depressive slump again. This affected my education tremendously, as I would skip school a lot. Before and during my depressive episodes, I was an all-A student, making me fourth in my graduating class; sadly, even that did not fuel enough motivation for me to attend school. During my second semester of junior year, my mental health continued to deteriorate. I was becoming extremely irritable, which created problems with my family and friends, ruining my relationships and friendships. During this change, my parents reacted similarly as they did to when my sister first got her diagnoses. I started to finally understand how my sister felt during that time and how unheard and alone she felt. My parents still did not know what to do and my mother began crying more, again. I did not like hurting the people I loved; I just wanted to feel happy again, without my mood changing instantly between emotions. I started to research my behaviors to figure out what could be causing me to feel this way. I discovered bipolar disorder, and I mentally checked off all the symptoms. This made sense in my brain because my grandmother and my aunt also have bipolar disorder. I concluded that I had bipolar disorder, and I wanted to find a psychiatrist to officially diagnose me–so it could stop taking over my life. Unfortunately, I struggled to find a psychiatrist who would diagnose me with bipolar disorder because I was only 17 years old at the time. It was not until my second semester of senior year that I found a psychiatrist who properly diagnosed me and put me on medication that helped with my disorder. Ever since then, I have stayed on that medication; it has helped me keep my motivation to not give up on school or college, while making my relationships with others closer than ever. The entirety of my experience with mental health has helped me realize how mental health can really affect someone and their life. It has helped shape my relationships because it made me see how important it is to have a support system of people who will be there for you no matter what. I do not know where I would be right now if I did not have the support system I did. My mental health pushed these people away, yet they still decided to stay, and I am forever grateful for that. This mental obstacle has led to me having closer relationships with my family and friends and I now appreciate them and the little things more. I have had goals of becoming an engineer and being the first to graduate out of the people in my family. When my mental health changed in middle school, I thought those goals would be unreachable. I felt as though my mental health was going to take over my life to the point that graduating high school and going to college was impossible. I decided that I did not want my mental health to define me, and I wanted to push through my mental health and achieve those goals. I wanted to show other people experiencing mental health challenges that things will get better and that they can accomplish what they set their mind to even if their mind tells them otherwise. The world is filled with billions of people and the majority of these people experience mental health obstacles that they allow to define them. After experiencing my own mental health obstacles, I now understand how hard it is to not let it define you. Mental health is the most challenging thing a human can experience in their lifetime, and I have learned that in order to overcome it, you must allow yourself to be vulnerable and allow others to help you.

Growing up in a household surrounded by different mental health diagnoses truly affected my brain. At the age of nine, my twin sister was diagnosed with ADHD and ADD. At the time, my parents did not know how to handle my sister’s developmental struggles and properly help her with these diagnoses. Watching in the background how my sister was treated affected my perspective of my sister and it truly made me hate her. This hate came from the way it tore my parent's relationship apart and my dislike for that change. Additionally, I was forced to grow up quickly to be there for my mother because my sister’s episodes made her cry all the time. I was ignorant of these impacts on my sister’s mental health and well-being until I experienced the same reaction–debilitating mental health. COVID-19 had a major impact on teenagers' mental health, especially mine. Quarantine began during my 8th-grade year of middle school and continued into my freshman year of high school. The separation from my peers and the activities I participated in brought on a major depression for me. I lost total motivation for everything I once had great interest in; I found myself lying in bed all day, not getting up. At the time, at the age of thirteen, I was also in a sexually abusive relationship that took a toll on my mental health. These two major factors created a horrible depression that I could not get myself out of. I was put on medication for the first time as I transitioned to in-person learning during my second semester of freshman year. After taking the medication for almost a year, I felt better than ever. Throughout high school, my mental health was stable–or at least I thought it was. I decided to get off my medication in the middle of my sophomore year, since I felt so much better mentally. I came to find that this ended up being a bad decision on my part. After I completed my sophomore year, I began to get into a depressive slump again. This affected my education tremendously, as I would skip school a lot. Before and during my depressive episodes, I was an all-A student, making me fourth in my graduating class; sadly, even that did not fuel enough motivation for me to attend school. During my second semester of junior year, my mental health continued to deteriorate. I was becoming extremely irritable, which created problems with my family and friends, ruining my relationships and friendships. During this change, my parents reacted similarly as they did to when my sister first got her diagnoses. I started to finally understand how my sister felt during that time and how unheard and alone she felt. My parents still did not know what to do and my mother began crying more, again. I did not like hurting the people I loved; I just wanted to feel happy again, without my mood changing instantly between emotions. I started to research my behaviors to figure out what could be causing me to feel this way. I discovered bipolar disorder, and I mentally checked off all the symptoms. This made sense in my brain because my grandmother and my aunt also have bipolar disorder. I concluded that I had bipolar disorder, and I wanted to find a psychiatrist to officially diagnose me–so it could stop taking over my life. Unfortunately, I struggled to find a psychiatrist who would diagnose me with bipolar disorder because I was only 17 years old at the time. It was not until my second semester of senior year that I found a psychiatrist who properly diagnosed me and put me on medication that helped with my disorder. Ever since then, I have stayed on that medication; it has helped me keep my motivation to not give up on school or college, while making my relationships with others closer than ever. The entirety of my experience with mental health has truly opened my eyes to the power mental health has to affect someone, those around them, and their life. It has influenced my relationships by making me realize how important it is to have a support system of people who will be there for you–no matter what. Frankly, I do not know where I would be right now if I did not have the support system that I did. My mental health pushed people away, yet they still decided to stay; I am forever grateful for that. I have had goals of becoming an engineer ever since middle school and being the first of my family members to graduate college. When my mental health took a turn for the worse in middle school, I thought these goals would be unreachable. I felt that my worsening mental health was going to take over my life, to the point that graduating high school and going to college was impossible. In high school, I realized that I did not want to give my mental health the power to control my life. I wanted to push through my mental struggles and achieve these goals to prove to myself that I can accomplish what I set my mind to, even if my mind tells me otherwise. My experience with mental health has changed my beliefs about myself. I no longer believe that my mental health can take over my life; instead, I believe that if I reach out to the people around me for support, I will be okay. I know that I have the power to accomplish my goals. Now, I am in college and pursuing my dreams, all because I did not let my mental health take control. My overall experience with my mental health has been nothing short of challenging, but I have overcome these struggles in ways that I never would have imagined. I am so grateful to write this and say that I am finally pursuing those unreachable goals that my 8th-grade self did not see as possible.

Robotics is a growing advancement in society that has continued to develop from the 1950s, until the present time. Amidst these transformations, questions have risen about whether or not robotics will take over the world. Movies like iRobot have influenced people to consider these questions and investigate whether or not the advancement of robotics is beneficial to the growth of society. While many believe robots might take over the world, it is unlikely that this will occur. Furthermore, other prevalent issues are most likely to occur, which are beginning in the present time, today. Robotics has started to bring challenges to society, including an increase in unemployment for humans and a decrease in control of robots. The presence of robotics in the workforce has increased the rate of productivity by 0.8%, according to the International Trade Administration under the article "Robots and the Economy: The Role of Automation in Productivity Growth". While there has been an increase in productivity, unemployment rates have increased throughout industries. This has raised concern throughout the United States about how people are supposed to work and provide for themselves and their families if they are losing their jobs due to robotics. On the MIT Sloan website, an article called "A New Study Measures the Actual Impact of Robots on Jobs. It’s Significant" mentions that a researcher from MIT, Daron Acemoglu, and a researcher from Boston University, Pascual Restrepo, found that for every robot added per 1,000 workers in the U.S., wages declined by 0.42% and the unemployment-to-population ratio dropped down by 0.2%, creating a loss of about 40,000 jobs. This negative impact of robots challenges the advancement of robotics for years to come. In order for robotics to continue to affect society positively, there must be something done to create a compromise between robots and humans in the workforce, to effectively combat current unemployment rates in the United States. As a result of unemployment rates increasing throughout the United States, there has been wide speculation/apprehension about the use of robots that, without a doubt, affects the lives of humans. On the Springer website, an article called "How Ethical Issues Raised by Human-Robot Interaction can Impact the Intention to Use the Robot" states, “Robots are coded by human engineers and often consist of millions of lines of code, errors can occur”. Whether it is in robotics or any other engineering discipline, mistakes are likely to happen, which can cause problems to occur; this poses a valid concern about robotics affecting society negatively. In addition to this, the article "How Ethical Issues Raised by Human-Robot Interaction Can Impact the Intention to Use the Robot" also references an example of a robotic error occurring in 2010, when the U.S. Military lost control of a drone for more than 30 minutes. This error created panic throughout the U.S. because they had zero control over the drone; it was acting on its own accord, therefore causing a threat to society. Another concern that robotics poses is the idea of individuals hacking a robot for irresponsible purposes. These challenges must be further researched, to create a positive implementation of robotics in society. As a continuous advancement in the United States, robotics is prone to cause challenges that must be overcome, in order to bring positive impacts to society. The enforcement of robotics in the workplace brings challenges to those who lose their jobs and causes an increase in poverty. A compromise between humans and robots in the workplace must be made to have a balance between the two, without increasing unemployment rates. The usage of robotics throughout the United States must also be carefully implemented with effective safety regulations, to create less of a threat to society. Robotics will continue to bring benefits and challenges to the world that must be further researched to provide the best outcome for society.