We live in a world where so many people are out of touch. Such as people spreading more hate than love, people always looking for something in return and knocking each other down rather than building up. The world would be such a better place it, we all took the time to reflect and change. Working as a unit will make a difference, it's never too late to create a space where we spread more love than hate. People in my generation have an attitude all the time it seems, but as I get to know some of them it's because they lack love. This is due to the fact that a lot of them grew up sheltered or raising themselves, which causes them to have their guard up. We can give love for free and should give it more willingly. We all go through our own things and if we treat others now we want to be treated the world would be more peaceful. Which leads me to talk about now a lot of people feel like they need something in return. Many people help people, but it is normally at a cost. The cost may be happiness, Love, money or anything that is materialistic. This is a huge problem because some people just don't have it. For example, if someone had a friend or family member that was in desperate need or money they would help them, but after a while they look for something in return. These people also tend to hold things over people's head. This causes a lot of people to stray away from asking for help-not everyone is looking for help. Some people are trying and just can't make ends meet. We now live in a place where people record when they see someone not doing well. Younger kids' form of doing this is bullying someone who can’t afford the same thing as others. We see a lot of these things through social media in today's day and age. An example of this that we all see often is kids that are in lower class. Many kids tend to avoid them and this often leads to a lot of mental alsorders and adults that overwork because they don't want to be in that position again. All it takes is one person to snow love and that could be the one impact that helps a kid or person in life forever. Love is the best thing you can give and receive in life. Love comes with gratitude and compassion. With the formula of love, compassion and gratitude we can create a more peaceful world and impact many people's lives. With positive change comes great change.

Growing up, the majority of people have dreams, but sometimes we hold ourselves back from our own dreams. My dream job is to advocate for LGBTQ+ youth and black women's mental health. The main obstacle I suffer from is not properly retaining information, but with this obstacle I have a great solution. During my freshman year of college, I took an English class that helped me figure out my dream career path. We had to write a position paper on something we're passionate about. The first idea I had was minority LQBTQ+ students not having enough support and that taking a toll on their mental health. The other one that I was more intrigued by black women being traumatized by the words strong black women. This led me to do research on my dream major which is women gender and sexuality studies. While doing this research I've realized that black women don't have a lot of certified advocates. My goal is to become and advocate and create a platform that black women need to heal mentally and physically. I want to create a future where black women feel safe expressing themselves along with the queer youth. Were lacking representation in this area. Everyone who knows me knows that I have my future planned out, but I do know one major setback that I created which is my fear of failure. I was always known for having outstanding grades until college. Once I was in college, they were just good and the reasoning for this is my fear of failure. This is a problem, but it is solvable and will help me once I reach my dream career because sometimes you have to fail in order to succeed. Which leads me to my solution which is becoming a serious planner and learning how to properly study. This will help when it comes to doing research and looking at data about mental health in black women and the LGBTQ youth. Everyone who plans out their assignments hits a few bumps in the road. Mine is my fear of failure and I can't let that hold me back. Taking time this Summer to reflect on my first year of college has allowed me to come up with positive solutions I know will work. My fear of failure will not hold me back from my career of helping my community that has faced the same troubles as me.

The book that always kept me on edge while reading was “They Both Die at the End” by Adam Silvera. This book took me on an emotional rollercoaster and I like that in a book. The book had a lot of romance, which was unexpected and the couple happened to be queer, which I wasn’t expecting. I thought the book was just going to be how Rufus and Mateo die, but that is really wrong. The book took them on an adventure and made me realize things about myself. The adventure they went on is something everyone should take in their life with a loved one. In the book Mateo and Rufus took turns doing things, Mateo wasn’t really outgoing while Rufus was. Mateo had many outgoing things on his bucket list that he was scared to do, but Rufus always held him accountable. This book is my favorite because I felt like I related to it. I’m more of a Mateo mixed with a little Rufus. I’m shy and like to stay in my room when its safe. This book taught me it's okay to take risks and live life to the fullest. The main takeaway is you’re not promised tomorrow, so take all your chances today. The point of the book is why “They Both Die in the End” is my favorite.

Lean on me. Freshman year is one of those transforming years when you start discovering who you really are. Even though you are finding new aspects of you, some of your traits are bound to stay. The trait I know that is going to stay with me forever is caring about others. No matter the situation, I know I will always be there for others. I will be everyones rock. It doesn't matter if we are friends, acquaintances or strangers, I will be there to help. Whether that be a shoulder to lean on or an ear to listen or arms for a hug. After a rough day of classes I was getting ready for bed doing self care. I went to get water in the lounge to stay hydrated and when I turned to walk into the lounge I saw this girl who was on the phone. The call seemed to not be going well. At first I thought to just mind my business until I got that feeling in my stomach that said to go check on her and make sure she is okay. By the time I went to my room to put the water down and go back up to where her room was she was off the phone. I went to make sure she was okay. I decided to give her some words of encouragement and made sure to give her a hug because I know how it can be being away from family and dealing with something alone. Yes, you have your college friends, but sometimes that just isn’t enough. In a room full of people you can still feel like they just don’t understand so I made sure she felt loved. Sometimes being a stranger and comforting a stranger can really turn someone's bad moment into something better and that's what I wanted to do. Especially during the middle of a pandemic, weve all been going through something and it costs nothing to be kind to others and help pick them up. A week after she and I had that interaction I saw her in the bathroom and she realized who I was. She told me thanks and that she really needed it. She told me that night was really rough and that interaction helped her. I told her I was glad that that helped and told her which room I was in and that I will always be here with open arms and ears to talk and listen. This whole interaction made me realize that being off alone for the first time can be scary and that it pays nothing to be nice. This had a very positive impact on me. More people should be willing to help people even the ones they don’t know. Even though you’re helping someone else you’re also helping yourself. Not only are you impacting someone's life, but you are also impacting your own. The main thing that I took away from this interaction is to help your peers and that they are in the same boat as you. No matter where you are or what you do, it always takes time to help someone. This will lift your spirit and others too. Anyone can save a life or turn someone's life around. In this day and age, so many people are focused on spreading hate and it's often because a lot of us are misled and if we all come together we can change that around.

A “guide” for a healthy college life! Meditation-This may be silly to many, but taking a step back and breathing is really helpful. People who are always on the go tend to forget to breathe and enjoy the moment. Creating list- Creating list will help you be at ease when returning to assignments and you won’t panic about forgetting anything because you made a list with everything you need to do. Self Care- You don’t have to dedicate a whole day to this, do small things that you enjoy. During the semester getting my nails done was one of my main forms of self care.. It was something that refreshed me every two weeks. Reading- Reading can be therapeutic when you find a book or genre of a book you really enjoy.Whenever I was stressed during the semester I would make sure to read a romance book that I enjoy to wind down, oftentimes it was before bed. Music- This is no surprise to anyone, but if you listen to uplifting music it will put you in a good mood. My go to artists are Kehlani, Tyler, the creator and Mac Miller. Farms- If you have a local farm visit it! My campus had a farm and I often went down there to look at the animals and pet them. This calmed me down and gave me a sense of life after class. This also gave me time to reflect. College or High School sports- Take time to support your school. This is something fun and gets you away from schoolwork for a responsible amount of time. The key to school is having a balance of life and school. Take time to live and learn about yourself.

1. I deserve this scholarship because I need extra money in my pocket to have fun. My parents already paid for school, but I'd feel more productive by filling out scholarships. I see people stressed about them in movies so I thought it would be fun to see if it would stress me out. 2. My goal is to be an advocate for lgbyq+ youth and to be Chief of the Fire department. I’ve always been very passionate about helping others. We live in a world where older generations look down on gen z and x because we are trying to fix their general curses. Therefore, I want to let people like me know it's okay to be different. 3.One of the biggest obstacles I had to overcome was staying in the closet. If I had come out, life would be so perfect. I wouldn’t have to prove myself to society. When staying in the closet it is safe and I have a fair opportunity with everything.

School isn’t something that you just do, it is something to help you grow. School teaches you more than just knowledge. It teaches you how to adapt and go after what you want. Along with all of that my interest in school peaked when I realized my ancestors didn’t have the same opportunities that I have. I know when I go further in my career, I will grow more passionate for what I want to do. Personally, I feel like I need to complete school to be fully prepared to help my community. With the right research techniques and the right way to approach people. I can't wait to help people who are a part of my community. I’ve realized there are a lot of minority lgbtq+ youth that are silently struggling. I know if I stay passionate about my education I can help them get out of those tough situations. Helping my community can help me grow as a person. It will give me the drive to do the unthinkable. Being in school has made it harder for me to give up on myself. It has made me passionate about achieving my goals. School has taught me that if I set a goal I can achieve it, but it’s all in me. The school has helped me become passionate about learning new ways to achieve my goals. School wasn’t meant to be easy, it’s supposed to be a challenge. I know this challenge is something I will learn to love throughout the years. I’ve taught myself how to adapt and how to push myself to do better. This is the challenge that I’ve been needing in life. In elementary school we all learned that Slaves weren’t allowed a proper education. They had to go out and “steal” it. I know that I have family members that used to be enslaved that wanted an education and had big dreams. I’m not only doing this for me, I'm doing it for them. So many people have fought for African Americans to get an education and I’m going to go get it because my ancestors didn’t fight for it for nothing. I’m very dedicated to learning, with an education I can change the world in many ways that would make my ancestors proud. With my education I can help fix systematic racism and help create a world that is equal with everyone in every shape and form. My education is very important to me and I know I can do so much more with it. Degree. My education will help me challenge myself and others. Without passion for school I don’t think I would be able to achieve my goals fastly and efficiently.

My name is Safiyah Dawkins and I'm studying Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. I’ve always liked helping people growing up and always tell myself “whatever career field you go into it will deal with helping others”. I feel like I spend a lot of time helping others and looking into society's issues. I’m currently reading a book called “Nobody Knows The Trouble I've seen: The Emotional Lives of Black Women”by Inger Burnett-Zeigler.This book is really about the day to day life that a black woman lives. As a black women we go through so much in the daily. We often face a lot of racism and microaggressions and push through them because we feel like we are not allowed to react because we don’t want to be perceived as the “angry black women ''. This book has helped me create goals of getting rid of the stigma of “angry black women'' and “strong black girls or women.” I’ve done reserach on these two sayings and have learned these are a common stressor among many black women. My major will help me reach my goal of spreading information to people to help kill these two stigmas. The way I will attack this first issue would be through social media. I know we live in a world where everyone is always looking at their phone meaning that would be the best way to get the message out. I’ve also read the book “Badass Black girl” by Jessica Fièvre which taught me how to conquer the world. We live in a society that wasn’t made for us. The book lets us know that we can do anything we want. As a black woman, don’t be afraid to step out. Go after your goals. The book let me know that it’s okay to step out of my comfort zone. To get where you want to go, be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Throughout the black they gave readers black trailblazers the ignored social boundaries and did them.As a black woman I feel like my role/ goal is to help the black lgbtq+ youth be comfortable with who they are. Most black lgbtq+ youth grow up in homes where they don’t feel okay with being themselves. I want to further my education to learn how to create my own organization when they can feel comfortable and heard and learn coping mechanisms they can use to feel comfortable with themselves. I’ve taken a big interest in Gender and Sexuality Studies because I relate to all of them. It’s something I'm passionate about. I want to help fight for rights for people who aren’t the norm, I want to be able to comfort the people that feel like they don’t belong because they aren’t the norm. These books taught me to chase my goals no matter what you do, someone is going to judge you. All you have to do is put in the work,trust yourself and believe in yourself.