I have struggled with my mental health since I was a young child. I remember being in kindergarten and worrying about things that other children my age did not even give a second thought to. I was such an anxious child that it prevented me from living the life of a carefree kid. This came out in ways like, crying everyday before school because I did not want to leave my Grandmother and not playing on the jungle gym because I was too scared by the thought of getting hurt. This fear of life was my “normal”, constantly being afraid of the unknown, it wasn’t until I reached middle school that I realized what I was suffering from was anxiety. The progression of my fears manifested into other things; worrying about if I was going to be successful in the future, trying to figure out what other people think of me, constantly second guessing everything I say in a conversation, my mind is never empty and I never get a moment to just be. Now that I am older and have finally started therapy, as of fall 2021, I am able to understand myself and gain validation in ways I never knew possible. My anxiety has always pushed me to succeed in college because the only way I felt as though I was worthy of living was by getting good grades. My mental health has shaped my goals into an unhealthy objective of always needing to be the best at everything that I do. However, now that I have healthier coping mechanisms, such as meditation and daily affirmations, I have realized that I am worthy of living whether or not I am perfect. Currently my goals are shaped from a place of love and understanding, one major thing that I set my mind to is making sure that others are aware of the amazing benefits of therapy and meditation. I try to educate my peers about it in conversation every time that I see it possible and I make sure that I speak about it realistically. As someone who has always suffered from my mental health I want people to feel safe and comfortable enough to come and speak to me about anything they feel is troubling them, I do not want anyone to face the fear and loneliness that I went through of being trapped by my own thoughts. I feel as though my relationships with others and my understanding of the world coincide with one another. I always try to not only be there for those around me but also understand why they are the way that they are, but not through the lenses of myself but through the eyes of the people I am speaking with. I believe everyone has their own unique life experiences that lead them to be the people that they are today and it isn’t right or fair to judge humans beings based off of the decisions they make just because we would have done it differently, because the truth of the matter is that we cannot put our own experiences of the world on someone else. I think by listening to peoples’ stories and trying our best to be empathetic we will realize how remarkable we all are. By bringing this ideology into my relationships with peers, friends, strangers, professors, family, and everyone else I interact with, my connections with others are much deeper than they were previously. Thus, expanding my understanding of the world in the way that even though we are not all the same, that does not make our emotions or experiences any less valid.