My experience with mental health has shaped my goals, relationships, and the world by giving me new insight into not only myself but the things that I do to other people and how I'm able to see them. When I was growing up, I was bullied a lot, but I didn't think much of it since I was a kid and didn't care about that kind of stuff. When I grew older and went into middle school, the bullying continued, but I still didn't care since I had friends to back me up, sometimes they did. After middle school, I was left behind by them, I expected this, but one of my closest friends found new people and started to dislike me. Which ended up making us fall out, and that made me spiral into a deep depression that lasted an entire summer into high school, I wasn't the same person after that since I thought everyone hated me. Rejection became something that I feared for the rest of my life even now, I didn't feel like a real human since I lacked that social aspect of myself that other people seemed to get so easily. Throughout high school, I had repeated thoughts of suicide, which didn't help since I was still being bullied, I almost went through with it multiple times in my life but never did end up doing it.
As a kid, I've always wanted to help others, and I didn't care if I didn't know them, but I'd do it anyway. I always loved helping others, it made me feel good to do good in my life, and I'm happy I'm like that. Without it, I wouldn't be here writing this essay for this scholarship, I'm incredibly thankful that I like helping others, and it made me rethink suicide. I had the thought that if I ended my life, no one would be there to help someone in need when they need it the most. So I continued to live on, without telling anyone this life story, and I've continued to help other people, no matter what. Although I struggle with social anxiety, that doesn't stop me from helping even with a disorder that contradicts what I strive to do in life. I've even helped other people from committing suicide since I know where they're coming from and show them that there's a way out. I've met wonderful people who have interesting stories to tell from my willingness to help in Louisiana.
I love the life that I live now, even after what I've been through, it's been hard with my depression, but I'm with cool people now, and I want to be a psychiatrist with what I've learned from my experiences with mental health. It's helped my goals by giving me a purpose to help other people, my relationships have improved drastically from when I was younger, and I've learned to look at the world through a new lens. I'm happy to spend my time writing this scholarship, to get my voice out there, and show that there are people in the world who care.