“Stay Focused on Your Focus”. As a student-athlete, I’ve experienced different situations dealing with being unfocused. These experiences have taught me that once I take the time to do something, I must learn it and put it into some level of practice daily. I’ve heard several mottos but when I hear “focus “ or “focus up “ I think about how important focus is. My definition of focus means to concentrate on one thing or a group of things with the same outcome, blocking out anything that prevents growth. I’ve heard this quote from my mom everyday day before class or games, before I can remember. Growing up in my family, I was exposed to sports at a young age. With my father being a football coach, and my sister playing basketball - transitioning to the collegiate level, it was a blessing to the family when I picked up a volleyball. I am at heart a dancer, and I had to learn and grow in my practice to stress to my family that dance was a sport. While playing volleyball, I discovered that I was pretty good and could actually play at the next level; however, I knew my main focus was dance. Throughout high school, I was able to dance, play volleyball, work a part time job, and still graduate with a 4.0. I am now currently in my 2nd semester of college and I have made the deans list with a 4.0. Still studying in dance, playing volleyball, and working. I believe my focus is keeping myself busy. I have the ability to place myself into things that all align with what I love. However, I am currently on the UK Women’s Club Volleyball Team while majoring in dance and arts administration. With the expectation of my sisters life, I have now faced the disappointment of my father having to pay for college. While my sister went to school for free, I am getting blamed for not playing a sport officially. Stressing that dance is a sport, I hope to bring Hip-Hop based dance to my hometown Detroit, MI, exposing dance for what it is. A sport! The adrenaline, the sequence of movement, the flexibility, all requires physical aspects of your life. Dance comes natural but also takes training and practice. With my focus being in front of so many parts of life, I hope to continue my journey. The journey where I decide who I am and what a student-athlete looks like to me. Moving forward, my part in anything that I do will be seen and recognized for what it is. With the support, I will able to take action on defining a student -athlete.

I believe that mental health care starts from within. Within who? Within yourself and God. So I believe that mental health care is always affordable and even free, you just have to be willing to access it. However, this action is not as easy as it sounds. It takes discipline, strength, will, and space. But first, acceptance. You have to be willing to accept your bad for the growth of good. To the world, I want to be able to spread the fact that we can help ourselves and others. I am a dance major. My end goal is to bring dance into my city of Detroit for the youth. Allowing them to take a break from the world and the violence. My studio will be a home of peace, a home of fun. This will be a place where your mental health journey will be formed. I will be starting with the youth; however, anyone and everyone is welcome. This will be a place of no judgment, but movement that allows our body to speak. Here we can learn from each other and grow. I believe the best contribution I can give is an escape outlet. An outlet that allows you to connect within. Health is important and so are we. So at the end of the day, we should start with I and end with we.

Nobody could've seen this coming. As a child, I would look up to my sister who practiced and trained hard in her sport, basketball. I was a dancer. I would dance at all her games and all her practices, and as I danced, I grew. Eventually passed her in height, and she went on to be a Penn State Basketball Player...no tuition keep in mind. This made my mom stress-free. Seeing my sister accomplish so many great things in basketball, I believed I could make a statement in a sport too. Although dance was my sport, I chose volleyball because it is a sport that makes me feel like I am dancing but also gaining confidence and self-awareness. It wasn't until after high school I realized that I could actually play volleyball at the next level. At tournaments, JUCOS would speak to me and several coaches would contact me. I, however always doubted myself because I felt like I wasn't seen. At the time, wasn't being seen by the right people. I knew I didn't want to go to a 2-year so I chose a 4-year in the end, thinking I was dropping my chances of playing at the next level. After leaving my team, people were devasted. It didn't hit me until a few weeks in that I really was giving up volleyball, so I thought. Over the summer, I got back in the gym, working on my body, skills, and game knowledge. I missed it. The excitement I got from playing, stepping onto the court, and the rush going through my body as run net to net blocking and hitting. People loved me and they would tell me I'm a beast all the time. I would get great blocks, passes, and hits but would never cheer myself on. I worked hard all the time and I thought that I would get a Division 1 scholarship just like my sister, however, God had other plans. I will be attending The University of Kentucky on a partial academic scholarship. This gives me a chance to get stronger physically and mentally. I will train to become a player for the volleyball team because I can't let go of volleyball because of he says, she says, it has to be what I say and what I believe. I am a great player and I am very athletic and I am excited to work. I owe myself this and my family.

“It has been 4 years and your death is still trapped in my mind. I cannot escape my mind. Everything is on me. As I look at this water, I think about how I should just go. I would turn to lean on you, but you are gone. Takin by my hands on the wheel. I am trapped by the yells, the fear, and the lights that struck you and now strike my skull every day since. I am cornered by blame, distrust, pain, and sickness.” This is a scenario that keeps replaying inside my head. I fear failure. Failing others and lastly myself. I can admit that I am not mentally stable. Mental health results in many ways. It can lead to a healthy life, or a death. It is true that your mental carries you through life. I never understood what mental health meant until I could not think with my mind but with my actions. To me, mental health means my external noise, touch, awareness, and love, houses expectations/experience all lingers through her. What happens on the outside, affects the inside. I experienced the outcome of a weak mental state at the age of 10, when my friends would call me bi-polar, and I used to slap people randomly. My mood would change drastically throughout the day. This may seem funny now, but at only 10 years old, that should be concerning. It was not until those mood swings would continue to the age of 15 when I “successfully” drove my best friend and I home. I still don’t remember it that way. I remember us arguing over who was driving. I flipped out on her, and I can only remember the bad, but the good was taking her home and getting home myself. Ever since then my mental health has been damaged. Fortunately, we are alive, but the fear of that happening has made me never want to drive, never speak to her, and close myself off from the world. Its unhealthy honestly. Mental health should be an issue that is dealt with daily and talked about normally. Discussing mental health can save a lifelong trauma effect. “Mental illness... occurs when our mental health is compromised or neglected for so long that it affects our ability to function in our everyday life” (Kati Morton). Just like any other part of your body, it can be healthy if effected it becomes Ill. We confuse mental health with the ability of being strong. However, all that we go through can strip that strength away, breaking you down mentally every day. To erase the stigma associated with mental illness, I would normalize mental health and illness. There should be classes in school that recognize each student's mind. I hope to provide words of awareness around my city and my platform that screams “LETS NORMALIZE MENTAL HEALTH “because it is important. There should not be a stigma of mental illness because we all are human and go through different levels of trauma. We may not all deal with problems the same, but someone does deal with thing’s harder. Share your health to help the ill. We all need healthy minds to have a healthy life.

“It has been 4 years and your death is still trapped in my mind. I cannot escape my mind. Everything is on me. As I look at this water, I think about how I should just go. I would turn to lean on you, but you are gone. Takin by my hands on the wheel. I am trapped by the yells, the fear, and the lights that struck you and now strike my skull every day since. I am cornered by blame, distrust, pain, and sickness.” This is a scenario that keeps replaying inside my head. I fear failure. Failing others and lastly myself. I can admit that I am not mentally stable. Mental health results in many ways. It can lead to a healthy life, or a death. It is true that your mental carries you through life. I never understood what mental health meant until I could not think with my mind but with my actions. To me, mental health means my external noise, touch, awareness, and love, houses expectations/experience all lingers through her. What happens on the outside, affects the inside. I experienced the outcome of a weak mental state at the age of 10, when my friends would call me bi-polar, and I used to slap people randomly. My mood would change drastically throughout the day. This may seem funny now, but at only 10 years old, that should be concerning. It was not until those mood swings would continue to the age of 15 when I “successfully” drove my best friend and I home. I still don’t remember it that way. I remember us arguing over who was driving. I flipped out on her, and I can only remember the bad, but the good was taking her home and getting home myself. Ever since then my mental health has been damaged. Fortunately, we are alive, but the fear of that happening has made me never want to drive, never speak to her, and close myself off from the world. Its unhealthy honestly. Mental health should be an issue that is dealt with daily and talked about normally. Discussing mental health can save a lifelong trauma effect. “Mental illness... occurs when our mental health is compromised or neglected for so long that it affects our ability to function in our everyday life” (Kati Morton). Just like any other part of your body, it can be healthy if effected it becomes Ill. We confuse mental health with the ability of being strong. However, all that we go through can strip that strength away, breaking you down mentally every day. To erase the stigma associated with mental illness, I would normalize mental health and illness. There should be classes in school that recognize each student's mind. I hope to provide words of awareness around my city and my platform that screams “LETS NORMALIZE MENTAL HEALTH “because it is important. There should not be a stigma of mental illness because we all are human and go through different levels of trauma. We may not all deal with problems the same, but someone does deal with thing’s harder. Share your health to help the ill. We all need healthy minds to have a healthy life.

MacKenzie Flowers 12 July 2023 Finding Myself “Forgive yourself for believing that you’re anything less than beautiful” ~ Iyanla Vanzant. For 8 years straight I hated myself. I was too manly, too tall, too dark, too quiet, and would accept all the negativity spoken upon me. I am a dark skinned black young woman, who stands at 5’10 in height. Having to live with myself was my worst fear. I became insecure about myself and stunted my confidence. I did not love myself until the age of 16. After a draining 8 years, I realized who I am and what I can be, figured out how to love myself and live in my beautiful skin proudly. As I got older my hatred for myself grew, affecting my life entirely. I compared myself to other girls and how boys treated them. Growing up accepting my skin was my biggest setback from realizing that I am beautiful. People would call me names and say things that still stick with me today. For example, “The ugliest girl ever” , “Hershey”, “Blackie”, “Burnt Biscuit”, and “ManKenzie”. These names and sayings were all true to me; however, these names have changed me. My skin and height made me feel like I was a boy and all the hateful things said to me made me feel like one inside too. I wished to be a boy for acceptance by people. I never thought people would see me as a beautiful girl ever. I only had girl friends and boys rarely talked to me. I even believed that I was a homosexual at a point of time in my life. However, during a blank moment in my life, I finally had the time to understand and accept myself. I realized that I am a tall beautiful black young woman who can do anything I apply myself to. I dream to be a model and own my own dance studio, When I turned 16, I realized I loved shopping, traveling, taking pictures, and admiring myself. I get my nails done once in a while but I don't need to look like every other girl. My favorite things to do are to get dressed, take pictures, and go out. I struggled with whether I needed makeup or not for a while, but realized that makeup isn't for me. Self realization helped me understand the fact that I wasn't light skinned or another girl and didn't need to have everything or do everything that fits the “Pretty Girl” standard. Moreover, my skin has become my most favorable feature from myself and others. I am different and Ive had to accept that. I still don't have many male friends but that is okay. I don't need anyone but myself to love me. I love showcasing my beauty in pictures and my height playing a sport that I love. Understanding that I am black and beautiful has helped me build better confidence and self love. I am now 18 and I have forgiven myself for self-hate. I express myself more and I don't let words hurt me. For my community I want to spread awareness to the fact that you will be loved or hate but you must love yourself first. Most importantly, we have to love each other as one.

Finding Myself "Forgive yourself for believing that you're anything less than beautiful" ~ lyanla Vanzant. For 8 years straight I hated myself. I was too manly, too tall, too dark, too quiet, and would accept all the negativity spoken upon me. I am a dark skinned black young woman, who stands at 5'10 in height. Having to live with myself was my worst fear. I became insecure about myself and stunted my confidence. I did not love myself until the age of 16. After a draining 8 years, I realized who I am and what I can be, figured out how to love myself and live in my beautiful skin proudly. These feelings affected my life mentally. As I got older my hatred for myself grew, affecting my life entirely. I compared myself to other girls and how boys treated them. Growing up accepting my skin was my biggest setback from realizing that I am beautiful. People would call me names and say things that still stick with me today. For example, "The ugliest girl ever" , "Hershey", "Blackie", "Burnt Biscuit", and "ManKenzie". I lost all confidence in myself and my ability to perform well in anything. These names and sayings were all true to me; however, these names have changed me. My skin and height made me feel like I was a boy and all the hateful things said to me made me feel like one inside too. I wished to be a boy for acceptance by people. I never thought people would see me as the most beautiful girl. I only had girl friends and boys rarely talked to me. I even believed that I was a homosexual at a point of time in my life. However, during a blank moment In my life, I finally had the time to understand and accept myself. I realized that I am a tall beautiful black young woman who can do anything I apply myself to. I dream to be a model and own mv own dance studio When I turned 16, I realized I loved shopping, traveling, taking pictures, and admiring myself. I get my nails done once and a while but I don't need to look like every other girl. My favorite things to do are get dressed, take pictures, and go out. I struggled with whether I needed makeup or not for a while, but realized that makeup isn't for me. Self realization helped me understand the fact that I wasn't light skinned or another girl and didn't need to have everything or do everything that fits the "Pretty Girl" standard. Moreover, my skin has become my most favorable features of myself and others. I am different and Ive had to accept that. I still don't have many male friends but that is okay. I don't need anyone but myself to love me. I love showcasing my beauty in pictures and my height playing a sport that I love. Understanding that I am black and beautiful has helped me build better confidence and self love. I am now 17 and I have forgiven myself for self-hate. I express myself more and I don't let words hurt me. I am more confident, understanding of myself, strong, and intelligent.

“Dance is art, paint your dream and follow it” -Steven Thompson. Well, my dream has always been to teach dance. Seeing my creativity come out in others makes me feel the best. I have had a chance to teach a range of dance to a range of dancers. My goals for the future as I step further in my dance career is to choreograph for children (ages 5-18) in my community, give children in Detroit, MI a home at my studio, and teach dance for the rest of my life. Choreographing takes me to a headspace where I feel in control within myself. I hear music and instantly move to it. When I want to choreograph it starts with a free style, this freestyle allows me to take moves and put them together. The outcome is always great. In my community, I want to see Detroit dance. Classes will be taken on weekends and after school on the weekdays and eventually I will make a school for students with a love of dance. I will be as creative as I can be and allow my students to have input so we can all be great. My community deserves me, and I deserve my community. I want to give back to my city and dance is the way I will do that. Being able to teach dance and create dance every day is my future with dance and I will make it happen. Detroit, MI has areas that are not kind to the younger generation. There are many kids on the street, and I want to be the one of many to place them in a safe environment surrounding dance and comfort. I will accept all students because I want children to be comfortable with themselves and their peers. This generation is heavenly influenced, and I want to be an influence for the good. If needed, there would be spaces for students to stay in my studio. We will have a café where they could cook and/or be feed and classrooms for their studies' want my studio to be a haven, a home. I started making up dances with my little cousins when we were younger, and we would show our family when we were done. I loved doing this. Producing formations, choosing the songs, and creating movements. It all filled my spirit. Dance makes me who I am. I am confident in dance. If I live, I will dance. I will never stop teaching what I love. My ending goal of becoming a choreographer for my city will come true because I believe in the power of dance. Dance will take me places that I would never have imagined. Teaching dance will only place my students in the cover of a great future. So, if I can teach, it will be forever and then some. I want to open my mind to others and be open minded to others as well. Together, it will have an impact on us, the city of Detroit, and overall, the dance community. Dance has always been my favorite thing to do. I never get tired of learning, and I never get tired of teaching it. The art that comes with dance is beautiful and in my own way I hope to display it.

MacKenzie Flowers May 5th, 2023 Renaissance High School 2023 Caleb Smiles Scholarship The “What” in Mental Health “It has been 4 years and your death is still trapped in my mind. I cannot escape my mind. Everything is on me. As I look at this water, I think about how I should just go. I would turn to lean on you, but you are gone. Takin by my hands on the wheel. I am trapped by the yells, the fear, and the lights that struck you and now strike my skull every day since. I am cornered by blame, distrust, pain, and sickness.” This is a scenario that keeps replaying inside my head. I fear failure. Failing others and lastly myself. I can admit that I am not mentally stable. Mental health results in many ways. It can lead to a healthy life, or a death. It is true that your mental carries you through life. I never understood what mental health meant until I could not think with my mind but with my actions. To me, mental health means my external noise, touch, awareness, and love, houses expectations/experience all lingers through her. What happens on the outside, affects the inside. I experienced the outcome of a weak mental state at the age of 10, when my friends would call me bi-polar, and I used to slap people randomly. My mood would change drastically throughout the day. This may seem funny now, but at only 10 years old, that should be concerning. It was not until those mood swings would continue to the age of 15 when I “successfully” drove my best friend and I home. I still don’t remember it that way. I remember us arguing over who was driving. I flipped out on her, and I can only remember the bad, but the good was taking her home and getting home myself. Ever since then my mental health has been damaged. Fortunately, we are alive, but the fear of that happening has made me never want to drive, never speak to her, and close myself off from the world. Its unhealthy honestly. Mental health should be an issue that is dealt with daily and talked about normally. Discussing mental health can save a lifelong trauma effect. “Mental illness... occurs when our mental health is compromised or neglected for so long that it affects our ability to function in our everyday life” (Kati Morton). Just like any other part of your body, it can be healthy if effected it becomes Ill. We confuse mental health with the ability of being strong. However, all that we go through can strip that strength away, breaking you down mentally every day. To erase the stigma associated with mental illness, I would normalize mental health and illness. There should be classes in school that recognize each student's mind. I hope to provide words of awareness around my city and my platform that screams “LETS NORMALIZE MENTAL HEALTH “because it is important. There should not be a stigma of mental illness because we all are human and go through different levels of trauma. We may not all deal with problems the same, but someone does deal with thing’s harder. Share your health to help the ill. We all need healthy minds to have a healthy life.

MacKenzie Flowers May 5th, 2023 Renaissance High School 2023 Caleb Smiles Scholarship The “What” in Mental Health “It has been 4 years and your death is still trapped in my mind. I cannot escape my mind. Everything is on me. As I look at this water, I think about how I should just go. I would turn to lean on you, but you are gone. Takin by my hands on the wheel. I am trapped by the yells, the fear, and the lights that struck you and now strike my skull every day since. I am cornered by blame, distrust, pain, and sickness.” This is a scenario that keeps replaying inside my head. I fear failure. Failing others and lastly myself. I can admit that I am not mentally stable. Mental health results in many ways. It can lead to a healthy life, or a death. It is true that your mental carries you through life. I never understood what mental health meant until I could not think with my mind but with my actions. To me, mental health means my external noise, touch, awareness, and love, houses expectations/experience all lingers through her. What happens on the outside, effects the inside. I experienced the outcome of a weak mental state at the age of 10, when my friends would call me bi-polar, and I used to slap people randomly. My mood would change drastically throughout the day. This may seem funny now, but at only 10 years old, that should be concerning. It was not until those mood swings would continue to the age of 15 when I “successfully” drove my best friend and I home. I still don’t remember it that way. I remember us arguing over who was driving. I flipped out on her, and I can only remember the bad, but the good was taking her home and getting home myself. Ever since then my mental health has been damaged. Fortunately, we are alive, but the fear of that happening has made me never want to drive, never speak to her, and close myself off from the world. Its unhealthy honestly. Mental health should be an issue that is dealt with daily and talked about normally. Discussing mental health can save a lifelong trauma effect. “Mental illness... occurs when our mental health is compromised or neglected for so long that it affects our ability to function in our everyday life” (Kati Morton). Just like any other part of your body, it can be healthy if effected it becomes Ill. We confuse mental health with the ability of being strong. However, all that we go through can strip that strength away, breaking you down mentally every day. To erase the stigma associated with mental illness, I would normalize mental health and illness. There should be classes in school that recognize each student's mind. I hope to provide words of awareness around my city and my platform that screams “LETS NORMALIZE MENTAL HEALTH “because it is important. There should not be a stigma of mental illness because we all are human and go through different levels of trauma. We may not all deal with problems the same, but someone does deal with thing’s harder. Share your health to help the ill. We all need healthy minds to have a healthy life.