Obstacles We Face As people, we tend to face many obstacles in our lives. These obstacles could be a matter of things from family situations, to financial situations or even personal battles. Throughout my life I have faced a lot of different obstacles, but I believe these challenges that are presented to us make us stronger. A challenge I had to face was during my freshman year of high school. During this time I was quite literally going through hell. I had been getting sexually harassed by a classmate, I was dealing with an eating disorder and the veterinarian had informed us that our family dog was very sick. The mix of all these situations really affected me negatively. At the time I had just started isolating myself and felt lost. I was 14 and felt like the world was ending. Something that helped me ''turn it up to 11", was getting help through counseling. I started seeing a professional and slowly was able to pull myself out of the dark place I was in. One of my friends saw the person in my class bothering me and reported him. My dog ended up recovering and is now happy and healthy. Despite this being a horrible time in my life, I was able to overcome these challenges. I learned that even when it may seem like your world is ending, there is usually light at the end of the tunnel.

As someone who is close to the end of their freshman year of college, I have learned a lot about personal finance. My first semester of college, I was excited as I had the freedom to buy, and essentially do whatever. However, at the end of my first semester I realized that I had almost ran through my entire savings account. Constantly going out, eating food off campus or ordering food and non essential items online. I realized I really had to set a plan and figure out ways I could better manage my money. One thing I did was I started tracking how much I spent per week. I set limits for weekly spending. Instead of eating out off campus, I would opt for the dining hall. Another thing I did was I stopped spending so much money on coffee, and I can tell you first hand that a $2.50 latte adds up. Especially when you buy it almost every day. I opted for the dining hall coffee instead, and while I would much rather prefer espresso, you got to do what you got to do. As I became more and more financially conscience, I would ask myself is this a want or a need? One thing about me is I hate asking for money from my parents. All the money I had been spending was from my own pocket. Money I had saved from working over the past year, so learning how to better manage it really benefited me. One part of growing up and being on your own is learning how to manage money by yourself. Not to mention it is quite literally a critical life skill. Managing money is something every person in the world will eventually have to deal with, so it's important we learn.

Living a long, healthy life is something I think every person aims to achieve. Over the years my family and I have turned around and tried to develop as healthy of a lifestyle as possible. Personally, I eat 2-3 meals a day with a few snacks. I try to eat minimally processed food that is high in protein. I try to incorporate different food groups. I also work out 6/7 days a week, leaving one day for my body to rest. While diet and exercise are very important factors in living a long, healthy life, there is more to it than just that. Another factor in living a long healthy life is maintaining your mental wellbeing. By this I mean activity that stimulates your brain such as crosswords, reading and writing. Doing activities that will cause you to use critical thinking, because just like your muscles, you have to "work out" your brain. A good example I can give is my 83 year old grandmother. She is constantly reading and writing, and while most people her age struggle with challenges like memory loss, her mind is sharp as ever. It is also important to take care of your mental health. Doing things like just relaxing, listening to music and meditating. A common struggle I see nowadays in young adults like myself or my friends are illnesses like anxiety and depression. I think there is a direct correlation on why this is so common in my age group. That correlation being that many people in my age group do not do activities like reading, meditating, writing or physical activity. To save the younger generation that I am a part of I think we need to unplug more and have conversations, focusing on both mental and physical health.

There are many ways to keep a growth mindset. At times when you or someone you know is dealing with hardship and feels lost, it can be hard to keep this mindset. I know countless times over this past semester I have had a hard time keeping a growth mindset. I think some ways to keep a growth mindset are setting a rountine for yourself. When planning out your day, and make sure you add in some activities that will nurture you mentally and physically. Doing this will help you not get so burnt out and will give you extra outlets when you feel overly stressed from school. Words of affirmation are also something that will help you keep a growth mindset. Just telling yourself you can will enable you to do better. Other ways you can keep a growth mindset are by focusing on small goals at a time instead of big goals. For example instead of focusing on getting an A in your hardest class, focus on getting an A on the next assignment due for that class. By focusing on smaller goals, you are reducing stress and in a sense making your overall goal for that class(getting an A), more manageable.

I have struggled to have a healthy relationship with food my whole life. Growing up overweight and dealing with criticism, to restriction to the point where I was sick. I dealt with weight gain and loss all through middle and high school, however one thing that helped me somewhat overcome it was going to the gym. I now eat balanced meals high in protien to fuel my body properly. However I think factors that surrounded my previous bad eating habits were the ideals plastered by society. Saying you needed to look a certain way or you weren't good enough. Potraying skinny as "better" to young girls and boys from the time they are literally babies. It is something that we do need to change in society. As for me I maintain my change by following a schedule and pushing myself when feeling unmotivated.

Coming from someone who attended public school in California from kindergarten up until high school, I can accurately say that the California Public Education System, is seriously inadequate in preparing its students for college. I can say this due to the fact that I originally started off at public school, attending school in a public setting from kindergarten through middle school. Prior to the start of high school, my parents realized the inadequacy of public education and switched me to a private, college preparatory school. The difference in teaching methods and class sizes really enabled me to learn better in that setting. I truly feel if I had not switched from that public school setting that I would have had to attend a community college. To further cement my argument, the majority of my friends who were still attending public schools, and graduated from them ended up going on to community college or not to college at all. Do not get me wrong there is nothing wrong with attending a community college, however, they ended up attending due to the fact that they felt they were not prepared for college. Also due to the fact that the information that was 'learned' really had not cemented, and they were not ready for fast pace of college. Getting back to the issue, the California educational system needs serious reformation. Earlier this year in my english lecture we read an article regarding the underfunding of public schools in minority communities. I saw this issue constantly due to the fact that the private school I attended was proximal to a public school in an impoverished area. Kids are forced to attend these schools due to where they live, and from what I remember from public schools, the supplies are worn out and old most of the time. Even worse, the majority of these students are what would be considered 'minority'. These are the kind of students we especially need to see succeed. This is why we seriously need to reform the public education system in California, as there is a very small amount of people who can afford a private education. However we need to make sure that the public schools are still keeping up, because people really should not have to pay thousands of dollars just so they can get properly educated. The California school system should be able to prepare students for college just as well as a private school, with the exceptions of class sizes, because again not every can afford private education and they should not have to just to get decently educated to succeed in life.

Usually when answering a question like this, most would say something like communication, or ability to lead. However instead of saying the usual things, I would say my best skill my my resilience. Throughout my life I have been through some extremely difficult times. Many times I just wanted to give up, I even had thoughts of not even attending school because of some situations. I really could not talk to anyone about my problems which made my situation even more difficult. The only person that has 100% had my back was myself. Seeing the person I am now, my younger self would probably be both shocked and proud. I am very proud of myself as well. I have learned to love and accept myself, which takes resilience. I am improving this skill everyday through a combination of taking care of my body, both physically and mentally. I am also not afraid to seek mental help anymore which was something that terrified me for the longest time.