As a Mexican American teenager, I know the hardships of growing up Hispanic. My father dropped out of seventh grade, my mother only finished high school, and my maternal grandparents dropped out of high school and became farm workers. Since my family has no education and has been working at an early age in their life, education has always been important to me. I want to be the first generation of my family to receive an education. As I grow into a young adult and I start looking at college opportunities and resources, I’ve noticed that there aren’t that many, especially for Hispanics. I’ve looked for leaders and organizations to inspire and help me as I start this path. I couldn’t find any organizations that gave me resources to college. I decided to research about Hispanics and education. After doing research, I learned that that Hispanics and Latinos are the ethnicity that is most likely to drop out of high school and college to start working. I was astonished that my people are most likely to not get an education. Therefore, back in October of 2020, I started a community organization called United Brown Voices. United Brown Voices spreads facts and statistics about Hispanics/Latinos in Education and was created to encourage young Hispanics and Latinos to get a college education. Not only is United Brown Voices for education, I also research and create content about social issues Hispanics and Latinos face across the nation. On the social media app Instagram, my content was recognized and reposted by the Cesar Chavez federation. I love making content and hope my community can keep on growing. In college, as of right now I am really interested into the major of Chicano/Chicana studies. After my college education, I aspire to be a leader in education. I would like to be an advocate and go into politics advocating for Hispanic students and encourage other students of minorities to get an education. I hope one day I can encourage and inspire other Hispanics and Latinos scholars to get an education to better their future and lives.

I lived through a pandemic. One of the greatest challenges I have ever faced is living through a pandemic. Everyone who has made it to the year 2020 knows this year has been faced with great challenges. The most challenging thing this year was having to adapt to a pandemic. Cities have been closing down, people getting infected and dying by the coronavirus, everyone having to wear masks and sanitize everywhere, and the list can continue. The cases were starting to rise and shutdowns were occurring everywhere in the country. Many workers working on the frontlines, during the pandemic. Many doing their part by wearing masks and staying home. Many not believing in the virus and disobeying the rules. Stores and restaurants having to shut down or permanently closing their businesses. I stayed home with my family. We were bored and didn't know what was going to happen next. We then made it through quarantine and cases were starting to go down, but many states decide to re-open too early and cases got worse. Having us to stay home longer. Many families were still facing financial struggles, not knowing if their families were going to have food on the table that day. As my city closes down for the second time, intrusive thoughts overcame my mind “Will I get the virus?” and “Is the rest of my family okay?” As a teenager, I didn’t have to worry about finances, food, or my house, but my parents did and I know my experience is like many others. As August came around, school came too. Many students, including myself having to adapt to learning virtually. As 2020 is a leap year, the presidential election is coming up. Just like the pandemic changed many things, it also changed the way people vote. People wearing masks and socially distancing to go and vote. We are now in October, and I overcame many challenges by being patient and having hope that things will get better. The year is still not over and we all have faced and overcame many challenges and there are still many to be faced. What I can say is that I have learned many things due to the pandemic. I learned that I am not the only one adapting to a pandemic and there are many people who have it worse than me. I learned that life put us all on this path, so we can become stronger people. Living and adapting to a pandemic is one of the greatest challenges I have ever faced.

My mom had anxiety, my grandma had depression, my uncles with schizophrenia and PTSD; my family is no stranger to mental health disorders. Fortunately, I have had no experience with any mental health disorders. Due to this I never paid attention to my family who did and never knew what mental health disorders really were. I always thought when I heard "mental health disorder" that someone was just depressed, and then thinking to myself “How could someone be sad?". Oh, how foolish I was. In July, I received news my uncle had committed suicide. My family and I were devastated and thought “why would he do such a thing?" We felt many emotions, tried to cope with his passing, and we still miss him dearly. When talking about why he did what he did, we realized he had mental health problems, but he never sought treatment, and eventually lead to him committing suicide. A month later when I started virtual school, my health teacher was teaching us about mental health, it was then when it hit me. Mental health is not just being "sad". It is about not being yourself, feeling emotions and things your body and mind can't control, you are not yourself, and worse there are many different types of mental health disorders. I was star-struck, this is what my family and so many other people are going through. I didn't know how to feel knowing other people are going through these symptoms of a disorder that are beyond their control. Although I have never had a mental health problem and I pray I never will, I now understand what a mental health disorder is, and how people feel - fighting something you can't control and not feeling like yourself, and staying hopeful that things will get better and most of the time people do it all alone.

My mom had anxiety, my grandma had depression, my uncles with schizophrenia and PTSD; my family is no stranger to mental health disorders. Fortunately, I have had no experience with any mental health disorders. Due to this I never paid attention to my family who did and never knew what mental health disorders really were. I always thought when I heard "mental health disorder" that someone was just depressed, and then thinking to myself “How could someone be sad?". Oh, how foolish I was. In July, I received news my uncle had committed suicide. My family and I were devastated and thought “why would he do such a thing?" We felt many emotions, tried to cope with his passing, and we still miss him dearly. When talking about why he did what he did, we realized he had mental health problems, but he never sought treatment, and eventually lead to him committing suicide. A month later when I started virtual school, my health teacher was teaching us about mental health, it was then when it hit me. Mental health is not just being "sad". It is about not being yourself, feeling emotions and things your body and mind can't control, you are not yourself, and worse there are many different types of mental health disorders. I was star-struck, this is what my family and so many other people are going through. I didn't know how to feel knowing other people are going through these symptoms of a disorder that are beyond their control. Although I have never had a mental health problem and I pray I never will, I now understand what a mental health disorder is, and how people feel - fighting something you can't control and not feeling like yourself, and staying hopeful that things will get better and most of the time people do it all alone.

I lived through a pandemic. One of the greatest challenges I have ever faced is living through a pandemic. Everyone who has made it to the year 2020 knows this year has been faced with great challenges. The most challenging thing this year was having to adapt to a pandemic. Cities have been closing down, people getting infected and dying by the coronavirus, everyone having to wear masks and sanitize everywhere, and the list can continue. The cases were starting to rise and shutdowns were occurring everywhere in the country. Many workers working on the frontlines, during the pandemic. Many doing their part by wearing masks and staying home. Many not believing in the virus and disobeying the rules. Stores and restaurants having to shut down or permanently closing their businesses. I stayed home with my family. We were bored and didn't know what was going to happen next. We then made it through quarantine and cases were starting to go down, but many states decide to re-open too early and cases got worse. Having us to stay home longer. Many families were still facing financial struggles, not knowing if their families were going to have food on the table that day. As my city closes down for the second time, intrusive thoughts overcame my mind “Will I get the virus?” and “Is the rest of my family okay?” As a teenager, I didn’t have to worry about finances, food, or my house, but my parents did and I know my experience is like many others. As August came around, school came too. Many students, including myself having to adapt to learning virtually. As 2020 is a leap year, the presidential election is coming up. Just like the pandemic changed many things, it also changed the way people vote. People wearing masks and socially distancing to go and vote. We are now in October, and I overcame many challenges by being patient and having hope that things will get better. The year is still not over and we all have faced and overcame many challenges and there are still many to be faced. What I can say is that I have learned many things due to the pandemic. I learned that I am not the only one adapting to a pandemic and there are many people who have it worse than me. I learned that life put us all on this path, so we can become stronger people. Living and adapting to a pandemic is one of the greatest challenges I have ever faced.

"Mom, what happened?" I said on a summer night in July, and my mother received a phone call from my grandmother. My grandmother was frantic and had told us my great uncle had shot himself. My mother had begun to cry and stayed on the phone with my grandmother and aunt. Later that night when I went to bed, I cried and thought “ why did my great uncle decide to take his own life? ” After crying and praying I fell asleep. The next morning, my mother and grandmother were talking on the phone. My grandmother was explaining what my great uncle's wife had told her. After listening to the story, my great uncle got into an argument with his wife. They always had arguments but my great aunt said this one was different. She said during the argument she left the room which enraged my great uncle even more. She described that he walked to his bedroom, got his gun, went into the closet, and pulled the trigger. Listening to the story made me think that my uncle had mental health issues. I knew mental health issues were a problem in my family, but I didn’t think of it. I would just think when I heard mental health was “ how could someone be depressed, and not be happy. ” A month went by, and my family grieved and accepted his death. It was not until I started school virtually in September, and I decided to take a health class. We learned about the human body and many other things. What changed me was when we reached the topic of mental health. I was watching videos on people and their experience with mental health. There I learned and realized that mental health affects you when you least expect it and that there are many different types of mental health disorders and issues. At that moment it clicked to me people with mental health aren’t just depressed people get anxious, angry, begin to panic, feel scared, and feel so many more emotions. Mental health not only affects your mind, but mental health affects your emotional and physical well-being as well. I began to cry. This realization made me change my perspective on life and mental health. It changed my perspective of life from thinking everything is going to be trouble-free and every day in life is going to be a good one from now thinking life has its highs and lows and each one of these things that we have to overcome is put in our path to help us learn and become better people. This new perception of life will benefit me from staying humble in life highs and lows and being the best person I can be every day. For my great uncle, mental health was one of his life lows, and it could have made him an even stronger person if he had asked for help to overcome this challenge. Unfortunately, he did what he did, and now he is in a better place. This experience changed my perspective on life and mental health and reminds me to stay humble through life highs and lows.