The meaning of friendship evolved as I experienced the uplifting and challenging moments of life. To me friendship is an emotional, intellectual, and spiritual bond between individuals. My friendships have trust, loyalty, empathy, and kindness at their cornerstones. They have grown with mutual encouragement and genuineness. Others have crumbled in envy and distrust. The ones that remain are the support I need throughout the different moments of my life and I am grateful they are there. Through the years I have discovered that there are friends who stimulate different parts of who I am. I have compartmentalized things that bring me joy and formed groups of friends to share these with. There are my book club friends that stimulate my love for reading. We travel through time and space, discover new places, fall in love with juicy fictional characters, and learn about perspective and ideas. There are my gym friends that nurture my health. This group of people are my outlet for self-care. They help strengthen my soul, body and mind. There are my cousins, family by birth but best friends by choice. And there are my childhood best friends that have been with me through all my journey of life. I have learned to make circles of people I can count on for different things.These groups help hold me accountable for my different goals and provide support needed. In the end they all make me a better version of myself.

As a graduate student in a mental health counseling program and balancing teaching full-time, it has become increasingly evident the importance of self-care. Prior to entering graduate school, the term self-care meant taking “a personal day” to catch up on the things I felt I didn’t have time for in my day-to-day life. Now, I understand self-care as my ethical responsibility to maintain and promote my own emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual well-being to best meet my professional responsibilities. I am aware now that self-care is not taking a full day off but rather the little things I do in my day to nurture my well-being. There are three main components of my self-care: mind, body and spirit. To foster my spirit I find time to pray, reflect, remember the past through photography, and connect with friends and family. To strengthen my body I exercise, try to drink 64 oz of water daily, make healthy eating choices, sleep 8 hours and do all in moderation. To stimulate my mind I read for pleasure, learn something new, take breaks, go outdoors, exercise and always try to have fun. Being outdoors is one of my biggest outlets. I discovered that being outdoors gives me a sense of tranquility and peace for all three components of my self-care. My overall focus for self-care is to always remember that it’s about healing the mind, body and/or spirit to be able to better serve others. In understanding that self-care is a culmination of the little things I do for myself every day, I have taken away the “guilt” and time restraints I had put on myself regarding this and have opened the door to allowing myself to live a healthier, happier, and more grounded life.

A challenging school year has come to an end. As an educator, I should be proud- after all the months of juggling difficult transitions from virtual to in-person learning. But the changes brought unexpected demands academically, socially and emotionally on my students. My students had an increased sense of uncertainty. These young teens were troubled by loss, financial instability, social isolation, coupled with world impacting election and social justice movements. This passed opened my eyes to the importance of mental health in learning. Seeing the growing need for mental health in children and how it has become such an important topic in schools, it encouraged me to get a Masters in Mental Health Counseling. My dream is to one day start an organization that focuses on incorporating research in psychology and child development into functional ways to nurture, protect, enrich, educate, and heal children in a school environment. There are three main components to this vision. First, is the whole child approach. I have seen first hand how the lack of social and emotional well-being impacts youth and their development and I understand the importance of including it in school curriculum to compliment academic growth. Second, I would like to include a component of my work that provides support to underprivileged children. Due to a lack of resources, it is difficult to bridge the developmental gap between middle and lower income and I am determined to include this in my work. Third, I would provide an emphasis on community. Sustainable change occurs when everyone involved in the child's life can properly support their mental health. Collaborating with families, coaches, teachers, and other members of a child’s community leads to the best outcome for them. For as long as I can remember, my goal has been to serve people to the best of my ability.