Anxiety, panic attack these are the words I learned at 8th grade. My hearth was pounding, I sweated. My inside turned outside. My grades were always high but when this overwhelming feeling covered inside my body, my brain felt like shutting down. The biggest problem I did not know when it was going to flush me with these emotions. One day I talked to my mom when she asked why my grades started to drop. After we talked she enrolled me to art and sports. I started 5 days a week swimming and Water Polo. We started to cook together, different cuisine every week. We hunt for recipes, we hunt for ingredients. The feeling was always there like a dark shadow ready to take over however I started to learn the shadow was afraid of activities. Activities was the crypto for that shadow. For around 4 years I managed to push it back. That was a mistake. On December 9th, 2020, my dad who has leukemia, went into septic shock. Had multi organ failure, cardiac arrest and had multiple strokes, everything happened less than 3 hours. I was on the class online because of Covid and kept texting my mom for updates. No answers. 3 hours later when she came, red eyes, she kissed me and said “he is intubated. Will live.” The monster that shadow started to grow again, but my focus was on classes, swimming, cooking and building blocks. 3 months passed by my dad was alive, came home, was skin and bone. I helped him with walking, physical therapy and bathing during the day. Keeping myself busy helped me a lot with anxiety attacks. In 6 months, he become who I was recognize again. I was happy until a feeling at the middle of the night made me so unhappy while sleeping. It is indescribable. It is like happiness have taken away from you. You don’t have one good happy thought. The thoughts were dark, and harming. It was painful. Next day I did not go to school and my parents took me to a picnic in a very cold November. I told them about my thoughts, they immediately started to make calls, they started to make actions. The found groups, they found help. It was a struggle for 6 months. 6 months of trying to heal, understand why I have these thought and ask help whenever I need. I found out many people have different ways to deal with their depression. You just had to find your own. I found mine. Whenever it got dark, I wrote on paper my feelings, whenever I go dark, I turn of the lights and cook. Whenever I go dark, I exercise. Slowly that monster went away. My mind got clearer, I started to feel myself again. I started to study for my SAT, I started to have fun again, I stayed away from everything that is even remotely upsetting. Currently I am a freshman at Purdue University, studying Integrated Business and Engineering. I am living in a dorm sharing with 2 other students. To keep myself healthy I try to eat healthy, I have a strict sleeping schedule. I focus on my classes, my social life, and my work out. Whenever I have anxiety, I do breathe exercises, yoga and call for help from experts. I am very happy that I have the help that I need. I am very happy to study at Purdue and I love the university life.

Anxiety, panic attack these are the words I learned at 8th grade. My heart was pounding, I sweated, nausea. My inside turned outside. My grades were always high but when this overwhelming feeling covered inside my body, my brain felt like shutting down. The biggest problem was I did not know when it was going to flush me with these emotions. Later I learned that Mental health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well. After seeking professional help, my parents heavily involved in my life, they not just enrolled me to art or sport classes we also started to cook together, different cuisine every week. We hunt for recipes; we hunt for ingredients. We had more family activities like board games, movie nights, pizza day, choose a restaurant day or just walking day. During my challenges I noticed many people have different ways to deal with their depression. You just had to find your own. I found mine. Whenever it got dark, I wrote my feelings on a paper, whenever I go dark, I turn of the lights, I listen to a happy music, and I find an activity like cooking, or I exercise. I also spoke with my friend who was dealing the same anxieties. I shared my knowledge I shared my experience, and I offered help. We as students face many different challenges, for example we must do presentation in front of people, even they are your classmates, your peers you still get anxious. We meet so many people in different environments, like school, like church like park districts. As a student I juggle many things, and if your environment is not stable, if you come from another culture, if the expectations and stakes are high, you struggle to achieve the desirable result. After my episode We started many different activities that helped me with my struggles. For example, we do weekly walks on Friday and Sunday's. As a family. We have family times and cook together, play board games. And my favorite part is shadow games. Basically, we sit in the dark, have a flashlight and tell each other stories. I believe the first step to overcome anxiety, depression or any other mental disorder is, the person must have an open mind, understand that there are people who can help and accept the help. The second step is your surroundings. Understand what the triggers are, eliminate it. The third step is the people in your life can create a support system for you. Either family, or community like school consular, like your pediatrician like your pediatric nurse or school nurse, three you must have a will power and follow the instructions. It is very easy to fall off the cliff, but it is not hard to get up and try again. It is not hard to ask.

Some people are luckier than others. They have more opportunities hovering around them than others. I want to create an environment where all kids especially in high school can reach all the opportunities with or without guidance regardless their incomes. Maybe an application that is a roadmap. Shows what they can achieve and teaching their options. Maybe a survey so they could see what the most possible options is available for them. For example, in my Highschool years I learn our government had student exchange program called "YES". I came across this information in a very interesting way. I was looking for something at the library and then clicked by mistake an advertisement and it took me to a web side. It was totally coincidence. I started to follow it, and it turns out it was a government funded student exchange program where you visit a country, learn the language and they not just pay for the airfare but also you get paid stipends. You live with a family and learn the language and learn the culture for a year. It was fantastic. I really wanted to do it unfortunately because of Covid that year it was canceled. Later I learned there were many other student exchange programs, and you did not have to pay for it. Why is this information not given in schools? Why do They only promote the once that you have to pay for it? How many different governments funded programs are out there and why is it we must search for it under a pile of information. It is not clearly out there. Why is it not easily accessible? If there was an application that showed many governments funded programs for different agencies for different age groups, it would be more helpful and easier for us to reach and apply. I would like to create an application that pulls all these information from different governments not just US, also Germany, Japan, Egypt, Moracco, France etc…. so, we could apply, we could see what is out there even without guidance.

My interest developed in Business and Engineering early on in my life. First it started building robots, Legos and R/C cars. However, the older I get the more expensive they become, and my parents could not afford them anymore. I started a small business in 2020 because I wanted to buy another techno lego set, but my parents refuse to buy it. It was $480. I started to check thrift shops, yard sales, craigslist, Facebook marketplace for cheaper price. Maybe someone either donated it or did not want it. One day on YouTube I saw a man making the set on a video. While I watched I realized I had almost all the items I needed except the instructions and couple cables. I bought the cables over the internet and finally I had my ultra tech model ship. One day during my research for another item I realize I was good at searching items, comparing the prices, analyzing every item and understanding the value. In my third week I found myself enjoying the hunt and I learned so many things. I knew which items would sell, I understand the popularity of the items, what was trendy, which price range was more reasonable and when was it important to release the item. Instead of just buying games, robots for myself I started to buy other items for a cheaper price and sell it for a small profit to my friends. I loved finding items in yard sales, I loved repackaging them and selling them. I started also a small dog walking business. I was walking my neighbor's dog, and one day another neighbor asked if I could also walk his dog. It was on my junior year was busy with my studies however I asked my friend who was looking for a job and asked him whether he would be interested. He was, I charged him $4.75 per week. Soon after others asked if I knew anyone else. Less than a month I had 5 friend/employees, and I got 4.75 from each weekly. Not bad. We started doing everything together. Washing cars, walking dogs, cat sittings and going to thrift shops finding treasures so we could sell them on FB. It was an instinct. I knew how to organize, knew how to present, take photos, do the inventory. I think "being into it and taking it seriously" are the keys to success. No excuses. Either become the man of your word or never promise. You must dedicate yourself whatever you do. Some of my friends also tried many different businesses, however only one succeeded the others failed, because they never took it seriously. When it comes to delivery either they were late, or did not deliver at all and always had excuses. This created a distrust between customer and seller. I love the business aspect and would like to develop myself in this area.

Math My love of math started very early on in my life. Around 14-month-old when I started to count the peas. I admired the numbers, I admired patterns. I started to sort my legos out at age 2, and my parents called my day care because they wanted to inform them that I straighten the legos, the building blocks and the cars, they wanted to make sure I did not have OCD. I was not. I just loved patterns and numbers. WHat I most love about math is,it is absolute. It is in every field, you can be a farmer and need to calculate the area for the crops, or you have to calculate how much water do you need, or you can go into more complicated samples like from circuits to fluids to gravity. It was like a never-ending game. You can build up math to new levels, so from set theory to group theory, group theory to abstract algebra etc. Math is a graph of nodes; each topic is connected to others. It is a giant game and the more you learn the more you want to play. I think Math helps me to understand quantify relationships, logical reasoning, problem-solving skills and analytical thinking. I think the only reason I loved math was absolute. It was not tricky. It was not complicated; it was very simple. Once it is proven you can’t unproven.

Master manipulator God, you're so good at what you do Come for me like a savior And I'd put myself through hell for you Hear all the rumors lately That you always denied When I heard these lyrics I could not believe how they were expressing my feelings for teammates at the job. She was all smiles, all nice towards me however I had a gut feeling that all was a show. She was a master manipulater, whenever it was convenience she turned on the water work like it was a faucet. Her language skills were way better than mine, she loved to play with words, and put you in difficult situations. She tried to getting me fired , however when alone she was all nice, at night she was texting me, asking me for help, and my work was never appreciated. Later I learned she was spreading rumors about me because people started to notice the manager liked me more, not just because of my personality, because I do the job, don't complaint, or troll. I took my responsibilities seriously, I did not make excuses or played the blame game. I played by the rules. This did not go unnoticed by the managers. I quickly have been raised to a lead position. It was during this time I felt something was wrong. Something changed however I could not put my finger on it. Later I learn she was spreading rumors about me, my friends. She tried to manipulate my manager, she on purposly misplaced items or denied any wrong doing this let me to loose trust in myself. I started to loose my confidance, the more she manipulated people and people believed on her and attacked every situation I started to doubt my self. I started to lost my trust in myself and not just double check tripple check my work. It become exhausting. I wanted to quit, I tried to understand why she was doing this because she was never even considered to this position. Finally I understood the situation. In fact she was the one who had no self confidance, she was the one who got manipulated all her life, and thought this was the way how to communicate and climb the ladders. Her logic was faulty so was mine. I went through all the arguments, and I understood I was too soft. There was no logic for her no it was for me. I started to grow a ticker skin. Now, I am happy again, do what I have to do, concantrate, not getting lost in small manipulations, check my work, regardless. Be more communicative and understanding people have been raised differntly and have their own demons. It is not me.

I am currently a freshman at Purdue University Integrated Bussiness in Engineering. During high school I was in chess club, robotics club. On 4 th grade I got my first meccanoid Robot and it took me a week to assemble and program it. Couple years later that simple robot helped me correct a program which lead my robotics team 1 st place at Illinois State Competition in 2022. In 2018 for my birtday my Lego Technic and I was hooked. I asked my parents for a more advance one unfortunatly my parents were not able to buy it. I started to look more and more on the internet for a cheaper model and than I realized something. Almost every item individually came from something else, For example remore control. I had 5 lego sets and could ask my friends to negotiate some of their pieces if I needed. I started to do a list for my ship, wires, batteries, remote control, some small and some large lego pieces. Than I went to the thrif shop, the wires I needed were also used in a old cheap kettles, I paid $2, I build a model from legos and used my old RC cars and used those old kettle wires to make it swim. Without the internet I could not see what pieces lego used and without youtube I could not see how they assemble it. Freshman year I started the After School Program Matters in Chicago, Applied and natural science, audio/visual, industrial and information technology. I become a lead even I was the youngest one that continued the program. I created a project which is currently used by AFM. I believe technology should be involved in every aspects of our life. For example, recently I bought a instanpot and I save time and energy. I don't have to be worry about if it is going to burn my food, or if it is going to explode. The digital timer save me money and my food is ready when I come home. A very easy technology that made a difference in my life. The best part of technology is you can reuse, reinvent, recreate shift because you have the information available for almost free. You can connect with professionals, you can gather the informations. The question is what If we can sort, rebuild, restructure the information with simple codings, you can create a giant machine that works by itself, sort of the enigma that has been used in WW2. I am very interested in the stock market and I am focusing on 3 companies however I also look other stocks that I don't invest. The problem is human brain is insufficient and slow, it organize, sort, calculate the information but forgets. I would like to have a program where l can reach to an information when I give the desirable outline, data. The idea came up to me when one day my mom was looking for somethiing to cook and the problem was for every recipe she had to go to the store, what if we could create a program where we can write what we have at home and the application gives us alternatives what to cook from different cousines. How about lets say there is couple new companies, it will be impossible to analayze one by one all of them however, if we can organize the financial data, give a rating, sort them how likly they would succeed, we could invest in them and make our investment more secure.

Anxiety hit me hard when I was at 8th grade, I suppose to give a representation however I was occupied with my new play station that month and did a lousy job, did not follow the instructions did not had all the materials prepared. 3 days before the presentation I realized I underestimated the work , I should have done more research, collect more materials and make a better presentation. Presentation day came, some of my classmates created excellent presentations. I was wondering if their parents had any thing to do with it or were they smarter than me, had they more resources ? did they had easier subjects? The truth was they did their jobs, they put their time and effort and I just wasted my time with playing online games instead of concentrating on my work. That day I had my first panick attack. My insincts kicked in. It was not just embarresment it was a full blown hearth chirping, light headed, i felt nausia and had an anxiety attack.The teacher send me to the nurse and the nurse called my mom and she took me immediatly to the pedriatrician. It was the first time I heard about anxiety and panic attack. After checking my vitals the doctor came in and talked to me. He thought me some tools so I could calm myself if I feel that way again. That day I realized something, the times I feel anxious, jiggelish, my blood flows faster, nausia, when I get light headed are the times when I don't do my chores or homeworks. I needed to learn time management. I needed to learn how to prioritize my works, needs and me times. I started to do scheduling and honestly the hardest part was sticking to it. After couple times missing some of my works, chores I finally started to obey my own rules. Tech time 1 hour a day after homeworks. Do your studies daily, take notes, clean the bag, clean the notes... Once I started it it took me less and less time. Once I obeyed my own rules, I saw my grades going up, less panic attacks, less anxiety attack. Another miracle happened. The more I rise on school grades, more kids wanted to become my friends. I was not so lonely anymore. I got invited to couple birthdays, sleepovers. The more I connect to my pears I learned more and my anxiety attacks lessen. I realized everyone had concerns, I realized everyone was lost and all needed help. Some managed better than other however time to time we all face the same problems. I followed the schedule to the theeth till end of high school. Regardless the grades I knew I gave time, I studied, I tried to do my best. This helped me a lot for college applications and this is my second week at college, honestly college had a faster pace than I ancipiteted. This made the anxietly slowly crawling back. I am taking action. I will over come this feeling. I want to finish college because I want to become someone in this world. I want to get inspired and inspire the next generation.

My interest in basketball started when I was 8 years old. I loved it. The problem was even I was tall, I was not talented enough to enter any groups. However this never changed my interest in Basketball. I watched multiple games on the internet, regardless they were played in the 80s or 2020's. I realized than when someone is a "king" there no mistake. He is compacinate he is hard working and he has etichs. His style makes it look easy. I might not be a excellent or even good basketball player however I can become an expert in my field by just applying his rules. During one of his interviews he said he never posponed or even took an extra day off just because he felt like it. He said he always was prepared, he always was focused and never let anything, anyone get under his skin. That stuck with me, regardless what you do, you have to focus, practice regularly, regardless it is math or sports. You have to understand if you want to be good, you practice, if you have to become great, you have to put at least 2 hours more than anyone else into your work. That is now what I am practicing, I work my studies, I work on my body, I work on my mental health. He thought me in a small interview that you have to take care of yourself and when you become great you can help others. I thank you LeBron, with one interview you changed my vision to life.

My parents are from Turkey, and we eat medditerian diet. I was always a fan of vegetables and fruits and my parents cooks daily from scratch. They refuse to buy pre made pr pre cooked food, they patiently buy regularly every sunday fruits and vegetables and legumes. Even when we go to vacation they mostly visits the local stores, and prepare home made meals instead of going to a fast food joint and be done in 10 minutes. One day I understand the magnitute of the effect of real food and vegan food. In 2020, my dad was hospitilized and intubated, and the doctors told us that he has little chance to be alive, we were devistated. 3 months passed by, he came home bones and skin, lost 68 pounds, he was 6ft2 and now he was 120lb. It looked scary. He had no energy. However less than in 3 month doctors were suprised to see him walking by himself without any help. The miracle was in the food. I watch my mom prepare the foods, root vegetables, dark green leafy evegtables, legume and more. When he came back she started curing him with vegetables and herbs. The cure was so intense in less than 2 months he did not need any medications at all. All medications started to dissapear one by one of the counter top. I was going to be a vegan. I started first with twice a week and slowly increased the days. My skin cleared from akne, my headaches were gone. I felt more energetic. I think they should teach how to cook at schools from different countries. Grow small gardens all around the schools, colleges and actually should have field trips around the world. Recently I did my own veggie dish ratatouille. Everyone loved it. I am also lucky because my family is encouraging me on my decision. My parents and grandparents thought me how to cook Turkish vegetarian dishes. Like olive oil greenbeans, or musakka, or cacik. The most interesting part for me was even when you use same ingredients, different preparation styles, adding different herbs and spices makes such a difference in the taste. Another interesting thing was you have more options, your health and your energy is higher, you feel better. Another good side effect was cavity. Most my friends dealing with cavities. During my research I came across some studies that suggest that dairy products can be one of the reason for cavities. Since I eliminate dairy products I am hoping to keep my theeth for a long time without any problems. Last year I spoke with a surgeon and he said the reason people have health problems was how they feed themselves, and even you use all the medications the veins were clogged because of animal products. Of course with no exercise, getting sugar from candies instead of fruits made the veins weak, clogged and almost impossible to fix. I think if we regularly explain the healing power of food, like how garlic is an antibiotic, how plums, cucumbers dried apricots helps for a healthy colon, our second brain in our body, and how we can actually heal ourselves with food instead of getting pumped up with medications, like cholesterol medications, or T2D medications and dealing with their side effects people would be more willing to feed themselves with real food. I prefer to be a vegan because I want to live longer with no medication in my life, and I really hope they would teach more about farming, food preparation in schools.

I had my first panic attack in 2020, after my father was diagnosed with leukimia. It never crossed my mind that any of my family would get cancer or can die. When I think now, I can see how immature and how life was careless for me. Unfortunatly I was also not aware how it would effect my mental health. One day at school, for no good reason I started to get the jiggles. I felt my hearth pounding, light headed and not well. It is very difficult to describe. I drank water, I washed my face, but the feeling did not go away, Finally I went to the nurse. She checked my hearth rate and called my mom, She took my to my pedriatritican, he told us I had a panic attack. He thought us couple exercises however the attacks started more and more, and it came to a point I was expecting them rather than concentrating on my lessons. That experience was let to my classes to drop from A to B than one day I had a D. Finally we came with a plan with my parents. We did intensive research and started to do breathing exercisings, walks and paintings. The ley was doing it regularly, It takes time. Also I gave up sugar. The more healhier my choices the lesser attacks. on my 4th year I realized I was not afraid of the attacks anymore. I know the tools, I know I had to take care of myself. The more I focused on my mental health, found interesting sports, socializing with different groups, keeping up with my chores and studies the attacks started to dissapear. I now helping my friend with panic attack. I am teaching her what helped me and we are trying to adopt her interests and so far it helped. I suggested that she also should find a professional because she might had deeper issues. Her grades also got better. She quickly came out from depression and started to stuudy and focus. We started to grade ourselves and it became more clearer why we had these attacks. We sometimes wasted times on unnecessery things, for me it was gaming, for her it was sleeping. Staying behind the class, work made it very very difficult to catch up. In order to prevent it we started a time table and tried to obey it. The classes started getting easier, the grades started to get where they should be. I was lucky to have adults around me who did the research, provide me the tools and helped me over come this issue before it become worst. Unfortunately I realized also that many of my friends have the same issue minus help. I think maybe if there is a class where minors can join once a week for 40 minute to a professional health clubs, regardless their diagnose it would helped before it happens.