I learned as I was entering high school what I wanted to do in college. I want to pursue a degree in psychology. My main goal was to understand how and why people operated the way that they did. I wanted to understand the way the mind works and how it can cause people to act or be a certain way. So when I entered college and started learning new material in my classes, I would apply it to my parents, especially my dad. Everything I learned regarding how boundaries can affect relationships by causing disengagement and how parents whose family has certain unhealthy habits can pass them down for generations. Even how a parent raises a child with the resources they were provided with and is trying their best to create success for their child. I became fascinated by trying to find a reason for why my dad treated me the way he did growing up. I wanted to find an excuse for what he did, instead of accepting that he might just be a bad person. As I started learning more about patterns and how they can be passed down, I could see why my dad did some of the things he did. This is because my dad saw it when he was growing up from his very own father, so maybe he believed that was the correct way of living. Even though that was a small answer, I kept searching for more reasoning. I did not want to deem my dad a bad person, I wanted to find the goodness in him. I wanted to give him some excuse for what he did and how he treated me. So I started reading self-help books and going to therapy. Going to therapy was very hard at first because I was in this space of being affected by my dad and his actions, but I did not want that to hold control over me. I did not want to blame solely my dad for my insecurities, people pleasing, being scared of conflict, caring for others rather than myself, and much more. I walked in just thinking I was the problem, something I was led to believe even at a young age. But I eventually overcame most of that with therapy and applied what I learned from it to my everyday life. Even reading self-help books allowed me to realize that I had a parent who was emotionally immature, and that was okay. It was okay that my dad was emotionally immature; how he treated me was not my fault; instead, it was his true self. I had no control over him and could not change him because he needed to do that for himself. I could only remove him from my life so I would no longer be affected by his insensitivity to emotions and regard for human decency. Overtime, I used what I learned in therapy to daily scenarios and even other relationships I had with people. I learned how to set healthy boundaries with my friends and my significant other. I learned that when conflict arises that it can be solved and would not turn into a disaster of the other person leaving. I came to terms with my relationship attachment that I had and an understanding of why certain things affected me the way they did. I was able to overcome barriers that used to cage me in. Now I feel as if I have this new sense of freedom. Freedom from the chains that held on to me because of how my dad treated me.

To live life with gratitude is to try to live life through the eyes of a young child. Children view life so greatly because they are learning new things every day. Since there are new things, they are learning about every day, they find gratitude for everything they learn. When I go through my everyday life, I try to view the world through the eyes of a young child. Everything that I receive in my life, I find time to give thanks for. If I see a beautiful sunset, I sit down to remind myself how grateful I am to see something so beautiful. I try to remind myself of the things that I have, not allowing myself to take things for granted. Viewing the world from a different point of view has helped me find gratitude for the things in my life. Whenever I wake up, I say thanks to God for allowing me to live another day. I never know when my last day on earth will be, so I have to make sure I take everything in as if it is my last.

Taking care of my mental health is a main priority for me. I made it my goal as I entered college that I would focus more on my mental health. I created boundaries to make sure that I was not draining myself mentally by doing things that negatively impacted it. To take care of my mental health, I started doing different things to help myself reach a relaxing state in my day-to-day life. One of the things I do is journal throughout the day. Journaling is something that I realized helps release the stress I feel. I can write out all of my emotions and vent to myself without worrying about anyone else seeing it. Being able to express my true emotions helps calm my mind. It is as if every time I am writing, the ink used is my emotions pouring out of my body. The next way I relax is by going to work out or doing some physical activity. I find doing anything outside of my room brightens my mood. So, going to the gym or just going for a walk outside helps relax my mind. I am distracting my mind because I override the negative thoughts by focusing on a set task that I am doing. Even though everyone has a different strategy for how they take care of their mental health, I have found what has worked for me. Participating in journaling and physical activity has improved my mental health and has allowed me to be in a better spot than I have been before. This is why I am grateful that I made my mental health my priority.

A hobby is an activity done during one's free time that they gain pleasure from. Everyone’s hobbies are different; they are always done for a different purpose, even if they are the same. That is the purpose of having the hobby, for beneficial gain. I can recall all of the hobbies I do during my free time that I gain pleasure from but also benefit from. My favorite hobby is writing. I love to write whenever I wake up in the morning or whenever I have the time to. I enjoy writing because I can put all the thoughts and emotions that I have gone through during the day and just vent. But I have no repercussions because I am only venting to myself. During my writing, I even use it to analyze myself to figure out what things I need to fix to help me grow into a better person. Writing to me is my form of therapy. It has been there for me when I felt alone and had no one to talk to. It is my outlet, my safe space, my comfort. It is like going into your mother's warmth whenever you get scared of the thunder. The lessons I have learned have come from my writing. It is like being able to get a glimpse back into the past to see where you could have fixed your past mistakes. It also gives me hope. Hope that I am becoming a better person and stepping into the version of myself that will only be surrounded by light.

Inspiration can be created from anything or nothing. In my case, inspiration was generated by having nothing. As I went on my journey through life, I discovered new things about myself and how I function. Along that journey was figuring out how I could gain inspiration to do well in my life. I realized that I wanted to achieve accomplishments that my family could never reach. In my family, there were not a lot of accomplishments that were achieved. Almost everyone barely graduated high school. So, as I was growing up, I saw how my family struggled to obtain high-paying jobs because they did not have a simple degree. I knew this issue was not how I wanted to live my life. I did not want to live paycheck to paycheck, but I wanted to have a life where I could be comfortable. This fact is what inspired me to want to do well in school and make sure I achieve high goals for myself. So, I can build a future for myself in which I know I can provide for both my family and I without worrying about whether I did enough. Living in a household where no one had a degree is what I used to create inspiration to do well in high school. I knew that if I graduated with a good ranking in my class, then I could get into a good college. Which is what I did end up obtaining for myself. This one goal of mine was checked off, and I knew that the next goal I wanted to achieve was to do well whenever I got into college. So, in my first two years of college, I worked my tail off to strive for good grades. My schedule would look like this: practice, classes, work, then study. Even though I wanted to focus all of my attention on my grades, I still had to find a way to pay for my school. This little bump in the road still has not stopped my inner fire to do well in college. Even though I still have two years left of school to pay for, I know that I will not let that try to stop me from achieving my goals that I have for myself. I will find any way to be able to still achieve the achievements that my family could not. Even as I keep trying to achieve my goals, I will always want to strive higher for myself. I know I will be the first person in my family to obtain their Master’s and then Doctorate degrees. Obtaining these goals I have for myself will allow me to create a foundation so that my siblings know that they can achieve their goals just like I did. I know I will be the person in my family who breaks the generational curses that hold us back by inspiring my brothers to strive for better in their lives and not allowing them to fall back into the comfort of the things they have only grown up around. Growing up, I was always told that you reap what you sow. So, by breaking the chains that my family was bound by, it allows me to plant a seed of inspiration so that it can grow into my brothers being inspired by me and having something to look forward to. I want nothing more in life than to reach heights that my family has never reached, but I also want my siblings to reach them as well.