It has been drilled into my brain to believe in God and follow His word ever since I was born. This was done by my parents. I have grown up reading the bible, listening to my mother’s stories about faith, and indulging in prayer. I was fully into this when I was younger, as it was all I had ever known. I was taught that no other religion was correct except for my own and that whatever my mother was telling me about the Bible was correct. As I got older, I began to question my faith. I was gaining more knowledge. I became more curious and questioned a lot of what I was taught. I have always believed in God and still do, but my relationship with Him has been strained.  Last year, when my mother was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer, was when my faith was put on hold the most. I could do nothing but wonder why this was happening to her and to my family. My questions were “How could God let this happen?”, “How could He do this to someone who does nothing but serve him?” My mother is the most religious person I know and always has been. For this to happen to her it seemed like a spit in the face at all of her efforts. That was how I saw it, but her faith never once wavered. She continued to preach about how everything happens for a reason and how God had a plan for her. This resulted in more questioning from myself, such as “How can you still be faithful when this is happening to you?” or “How do you still have the same beliefs?” She would tell me, “Faith isn’t only when good things are happening to you, it’s when the challenges happen too. That’s how you get through.” Her words stuck with me, and it made me realize that if she can still have such strong faith as she’s struggling, then what is stopping me? Seeing my mother be strong throughout her cancer, solidified what I already knew. God is real and he’s here with us. Why else would her faith be so strong? How else would she have beat cancer as fast as she did?  Humans do have a creator who has created heaven and earth who exists and is watching over them. God is the reason we have life and the reason we have STEM.

My career plan is to become a psychiatrist. I wish to use the knowledge that I will acquire through my years of school in order to help people who struggle with mental health. As someone who has struggled with mental health myself, I want to be there for someone who may be going through the same challenges that I went through. The psychiatry field needs plenty of compassionate professionals, and I strive to be one of them. I am an 18-year-old girl from Georgia who struggles with anxiety. Anxiety has caused me to be overwhelmed by everyday tasks, have a seemingly permanent feeling of panic, and have nervous tendencies. Anxiety has affected my life in many negative ways. Seeing a psychiatrist has significantly helped me with my anxiety. I have been prescribed medicines and given suggestions to change my lifestyle. Both of these methods have helped me greatly. I can see a remarkable difference in my everyday life after seeing my psychiatrist. I want to be able to make this change for someone else, as it was for me.  I wish to be even more committed to advocating for mental health awareness. Mental health is something that is so often misunderstood, which causes many people to suffer in silence. I don’t wish for anyone to feel like they need to hide their issues because of the fear of not being heard. Everyone deserves to have their problems considered and listened to. As a psychiatrist, I wish to change this narrative of misunderstood mental health issues. I want to have intelligent conversations about mental health and the issues it causes. My ultimate goal is to make sure that individuals feel supported and safe when they seek the help that they very well need.  My personal journey with mental health has caused me to realize the importance of empathy and understanding for people who are struggling. I plan to use my own experiences to connect with people on a deeper level and give them the same support I received. Being compassionate will create the positive and supportive environment that I believe everyone should have. I am very dedicated to pursuing this career path with commitment, sensitivity, and understanding that many people may not possess when it comes to mental health issues. I ultimately wish to become a symbol of hope and support for others, just as my psychiatrist has been for me.

Mental health is a fundamental part of life. I have always believed that one’s well-being can affect almost everything around them: their work ethic, their families, their relationships, and much more. As a student, my mental health affects my ability to perform academically, whether that may be good or bad.  Because of the effects of mental health as a student, it is sincerely important to me. I know that in a good mental state, I can focus better, manage stress, have a positive attitude, and have a healthy relationship with school. On the other hand, I know that a bad mental state can ruin my focus, cause a negative attitude, and the inability to form good relationships with classmates and teachers.  When COVID hit, I was entering my freshman year of high school. By sophomore year, I was still online and my mental health had depleted greatly. I felt alone, drained, and incapable. My anxiety got the best of me and I believed I wasn’t good enough. This showed up in my studies. I was struggling in classes that I had never struggled in before, I was stressed and my mental state made everything harder for me. My studies felt like the last thing on my mind because of how deep in my head I was. Therefore, It was important for me to work on myself so that I could work on school. I did this by setting goals taking breaks, establishing a routine, and connecting with friends and family. Through engaging in these activities I was able to realize that I was being too hard on myself, resulting in my mental health getting worse than it already was. Once I was back to myself, I was back on track with my studies. I saw significant improvement and was able to feel better. While I still struggle with anxiety today, I now know how to better deal with it.  Mental health can easily take a toll on you and everything around you. I mostly stress the importance of mental health with my friends and family. This is easily done by being a good listener and promoting self-care. Knowing that someone cares about you makes a big difference, I always let my friends and family know that I’m here for them and willing to listen to their problems if they would like me to. I give adequate advice that always seems to help them. It’s important to let people that you care about know that they have someone to lean on. I encourage my friends and family to take care of themselves as well. This could be to treat themself or find new hobbies. I often share what helps me feel better in dark times, such as music or exercising. By giving people advice in my community, I am helping to create a supportive environment for the people around me. A community that is there for each other creates strong mental states within everyone. I plan to continue this in my career path as well, the main reason I want to become a psychiatrist is to help people in this way, but even more. Mental health is a serious issue with many people. Students, adults, elders. It is everywhere. The easiest task that the average person can do is seek help within their community and be that help as well.