To be completely honest the books and films in my life haven't really impacted my goals. All of my goals in life come from my life experiences. I want to do for other kids what nobody ever did for me. I'm 16, and it's been 4 and a half years since my parents divorced, and about 2 and a quarter years since the abuse stopped. When my parents divorced and my dad had me alone at night, he started beating me with his fists and a belt. No matter how many times I pleaded with him, he didn't stop until he moved in with my stepmom and couldn't do it anymore without her finding out. Throughout the divorce process, and then for a year afterward, we had a Guardian Ad Litem who was supposed to work with my parents, the court system, and my brother and me to determine what was best for us. She entirely ignored both me and my brother. No matter how many times I spoke up about being uncomfortable at my father's house, I was brushed off and shut down and told that my father has no issues so it all must be fine. It wasn't. Not only was he physically abusing me but he was manhandling me and touching me in sexual ways. My brother didn't find out until about a year ago when I came out and talked about everything. To this day, the question remains in my head, what would've happened if we had had a Guardian Ad Litem who did her job? We'll never know what would've happened, and I can ask "what if" questions all day. That won't get me anywhere in life. What will get me somewhere is trying to make a difference in the world. Trying to make it so that no kid ever again has to go through what I went through. If I can go to college and then law school, I'm going to try and change the lives of children who are in hard situations. I recognize that this will be difficult, but I'm going to try. I don't have the money to put myself through college, but with enough scholarships, I can do it. I want to change the world and change the lives of children. My ultimate goal is to help as many people as I can. The more good I can put out into the world, the better this next generation of kids will grow up. That's my goal.

I am a 16-year-old AFAB demiflux and pansexual individual. I use they/ey/it pronouns. My parents are divorced, and I have a brother and half-sister. My father is a narcissist, alcoholic, and extremely abusive. I live with my mother who is unsupportive of my LGBTQ+ identity but is otherwise extremely supportive of me. I plan to become a Guardian Ad Litem to ensure that no child ever has to endure the abuse I had to, especially when it could have been prevented by a court system if the child's lawyer had simply listened to them. I plan to eventually try to change the family court system so that it benefits the children rather than just simply giving rights to parents because the children are biologically theirs. I am passionate about continuing my education because I love to learn. I know that if I foster my love of learning and inquisitiveness I can help a lot of people. My mom has always encouraged me to do whatever I want in life. I've known what I've wanted to do since about the age of 13, and I've never wavered. I recognize that my goals are very ambitious, but I know that I have the precociousness to succeed if I try. My mental health struggles have been extensive. I've struggled with depression, anxiety, bipolar with psychotic features, bulimia nervosa, self-harm, and post-traumatic stress disorder. All of these struggles have shown me that one can do whatever one sets their mind to. They have strengthened my religious beliefs, I'm Christian and have shown me that I can handle everything that is thrown my way. They destroyed my family relationships, and now we are working on building them back up, slowly. Trust is going to be hard at first, and I've recognized that, but now it's about taking a leap of faith and trusting my mom. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life until after I started struggling with my mental health. My struggles have shown me that sometimes all kids need is someone to be there for them. I do truly believe that some of my struggles could have been prevented if my Guardian Ad Litem had listened to me and what was going on with my dad, and if someone had taken the time and thought to notice the abuse. I want to make a positive impact on the world by doing for kids what should have been and was never done for me.

My ultimate goal is to change the family court system. I hope to do this by first becoming a Guardian Ad Litem to help children who are in the situation I was once in. If I can become a prominent lawyer in this field, I can hopefully change the family court system in Illinois and eventually across the United States. I want to prevent children from having to go through what I did because someone who is supposed to advocate for them didn't listen to them. My parents divorced when I was 11, and from the time my dad was alone with us for overnights until I stopped being at his house at all, he would beat me with his fists and a belt. After having to go through that, I never want any other child to have to endure that pain. What pisses me off though, is that I did say something about my father doing things that made me uncomfortable, and that was brushed off by my Guardian Ad Litem. I want to ensure that no child ever gets treated that way. I want to change the family court system to make it so that there are more stringent requirements for lawyers in the system. The problem with the system is that most of the people within it do not see the flaws. The only people that see how screwed up the system is are the children who are wronged by it. In order to pursue this career path I will need to attend college and then law school. In order to do that, I will need money. I come from a poor family, and I will have to take out several loans to be able to get myself through college. My mom can't pay for college, because she's still paying off lawyer fees from my parents' divorce. My goal is to help other children, and my family. By pursuing this career I will be healing myself and taking another step along my healing journey. This scholarship will help me to put myself through college without putting pressure on my mom or my siblings. I want to pursue my goals as soon as possible and get through the necessary schooling as quickly as possible so that I can help people as soon as possible. My plan is to start getting into the law field this coming year, as a high school junior.

Growing up in a single-parent household is hard. My parents have been divorced since I was 11, and I'm 16 now. My world was changed overnight when my parents split up. That first day when it was just my mom at home was really weird. I had to step up and help out around the house. It was hard. I have two younger siblings, one that's almost 14 and one that's 3. The spotlight was definitely taken off me because my parents just couldn't run a household individually, so I needed to take a background role of helping around the house. My dad certainly didn't know how to run a household any better than my mom. He somehow managed to burn the frozen pizza. After that, I took over cooking at his house. For a little while my education had to take the back seat while I helped around the house. Thankfully this was during COVID, so I didn't get held back. When my sister was born, I had to run our household entirely while my mom recovered from giving birth. Now, I've learned how to balance my education with helping out around the house. Meanwhile, at my dad's house, I was being abused every night I was there. It was hard because there was no other adult there to stop it. I was too scared to tell my mom, so I suffered in silence. My goal is to become a Guardian Ad Litem. I want to help children that are in the situation I was once in. My family doesn't have the money to send me to college without taking out extensive loans. My education is going to be expensive. I'm actually being pulled out of public high school next year to try and deal with some of my mental health issues, so I'm going to homeschool. I'll be at home with just my mom, helping her to run the household while doing schoolwork. This scholarship will help give me the money to go to college without ending up in a lot of debt. I plan to get a job in high school and keep a job through college to try and fund my education, but any scholarships I can get will greatly help me. I'm trying not to put any of the financial stress on my mom, because it's just her at home. I don't go to my dad's anymore, and he's not going to help me pay for college. I have to figure out how to pay for it on my own.

My struggle with mental health realistically started in the summer of 2020, when my eating disorder took hold. My mom didn't notice it. I didn't know it yet, but almost 4 years later I'd still be struggling. In the fall of 2020, my mom found a suicide note I had written. She took me to the ER and I had an evaluation done. I lied through it and got placed into an Intensive Outpatient Program for a couple of hours a day after school for a few weeks. This was about a year after my parents had divorced, and my dad was abusing me. One year later, in the fall of 2021, I started self-harming. My mom found out about that by reading my journal pretty much the day I started cutting seriously. I was still in therapy, but it took a long time for me to accept that I wanted and needed to stop. My dad was still abusing me, and cutting was the only way I knew to keep my emotions in check. In the summer of 2022, we moved. Again. No matter where we live, we never stay anywhere for more than 4 or 5 years. The moving around really impacted me. Especially this move, in between middle and high school. I started high school in a new town with no one that I knew. My cutting really got a lot worse during this time, as did my eating disorder. I didn't really tell anyone until one day I was bleeding through my bandages in school, and so I had to go to the nurse, this put me on the radar of the amazing woman who is my social worker at my school. Not even she found out about my eating disorder. My mom hadn't noticed yet, and neither had any of my therapists. At this point, I'd stopped going anywhere private with my dad, but by this point, I had severe PTSD and even seeing him was a trigger for me. In the fall, I spoke up about all the abuse from my dad. I spoke up because I got a repressed trauma memory back from what I was 5 or 6 of my dad raping me. I started to cut him off slowly and I've been no contact with him since April of 2023. In the summer of 2023, I finally spoke up about my eating disorder. My mom almost didn't believe me. My therapist said she had suspected something like this but never said anything. She pointed out the calluses on my hands and my swollen salivary glands, both from purging to my mom. We started to try outpatient treatment. By November of 2023 I was so out of control that it was clear I couldn't stay at home for treatment. My arms were covered in cuts and burns, and I was binging and purging several times a day. Nothing I ate stayed down because I would purge it immediately. I got sent to residential at Timberline Knolls in Lombard, Illinois in October of 2023. I was there for 6 weeks and lasted a good while out of treatment too. I was in full recovery from my eating disorder for 2 months, but it only lasted 2 weeks before I started cutting again. In January of 2024, I was admitted to inpatient for my bipolar and suicidality. As I write this, I'm in a residential program again for my self-harm and my eating disorder. I hope to fully recover from everything. My future goal is to become a Guardian Ad Litem.

I love math because of the way I was brought up. From a very young age, I was learning. Once I was introduced to the world of numbers, I was hooked. By kindergarten, I was doing double-digit addition, and my love only grew from there. I believe that part of my love for math comes from my mental health issues. My lucky number is three, and my favorite number is nine because that is three sets of three. When I walk up stairs, I count them. I do triple-digit multiplication in my head. Some people have even called me a human calculator because of my love of mental math. My mother is a math and physics teacher, so from a young age conversations at the dinner table often revolved around numbers, or the latest thing I was learning in math class. When my brother was old enough, I started to teach him math. Now that I'm old enough, I tutor math and I teach my friends when they are struggling. I've always loved math. That's just how I am. Math and numbers are my life. I've always been a logical person, and that's part of why I love math. I love math because through thick and thin, the numbers have always been there for me. Math has always had a right and wrong and math never changes. That's why I love math.

I'm passionate about forensic psychology because I hope I can help someone in the future, the way I should've been helped. My goal in life is to become a Guardian Ad Litem. GALs are supposed to study forensic psychology to pick up on symptoms of mental health disorders in the children they are working with. My parents divorced in the fall of 2019. There was a GAL assigned to our case. Despite all of the signs, and even my telling her about some of the things my dad was doing, she didn't notice the abuse and gave him a decent amount of custody. He shouldn't have had any custody. Years later, now that I've come out about the abuse, there's nothing that can be done, because there is no physical proof. I've had no contact with my father for almost a year. We could've avoided the years of abuse that I sustained if the GAL had done something as simple as listening to what I was saying. As I said before, my goal is to become a GAL. I want to help other kids so they don't have to go through what I did. I'd like to study forensic psychology in college to prepare myself to work with these struggling children. I want to be able to tell when these kids are struggling. I want to know how the abuse and the yelling impacts their brains and mental health. Another reason I want to study forensic psychology is that I'd like to know how the abuse that I sustained from my father has impacted my brain. I know that my trauma has given me PTSD but I'd like to know why and how things like that happen. I'd like to understand myself better. I think that understanding myself better will help me to understand the struggling kids I hope to work with better in the future. A career in forensic psychology excites me because I hope to be able to help other people. My great-aunt is a forensic psychologist and she has helped so many kids over the years. I look up to her so much because she takes her own initiative and enjoys helping others. I hope to be like her one day. I'm passionate about criminology because that's just the way it's always been. I love to read murder mysteries and understand why the serial killers and murderers do the things they do. I guess in some aspect if I'm focused on that, I'm not focused on my own issues. My whole like I've been told to stop reading that sort of stuff, but once I got to high school my teachers saw my potential in this field and encouraged be to keep reading and never to lose my spark and interest in this field.

My experience with mental health has made me a more driven and sympathetic person. My dream career is mostly due to my trauma. I wish to help other children avoid going through most, if not all, of the same trauma that I went through. To this day I still struggle with my mental health. Currently, I am in the throes of an extreme eating disorder. I believe that no matter the status of anyone's mental health, they can still achieve whatever they want in life. I've become a much stronger person, and if there's anything that I've learned through all of my struggles with my mental health, is that no matter what happens, you can always work towards your dream. Before my struggles, I wasn't the kindest person. I didn't understand why people became addicted to things, why some people freaked out for seemingly no reason at times, or how some people could harm or kill themselves. Now not only do I understand most things like this, but even when I don't I know how to be empathetic toward people who are struggling, and I can help people with what they need in moments when they are incredibly struggling. I believe that anyone can achieve anything they put their mind to. Even though when you struggle with mental health, motivation can seem hard, there are ways to work through it and achieve your goals. For years I struggled with my motivation, especially during my depressive episodes and suicide attempts. I could barely get out of bed some days. I got through it, and I learned that even in the darkest tunnels when it seems like there is no light at the end, the grass is always greener on the other side. My mental health damaged all of my relationships, and when I turned suicidal I lost all of my friends. My mom moved us about a year and a half later and told me that I needed to make a name for myself other than the mentally unstable child. I failed a bit at this at first, because I was still self-harming at the time. Then I developed bulimia nervosa, an extremely severe eating disorder. During this time I also came out as LGBTQ+ and my mother to this day still believes that I need to go to conversion therapy and not be trans. In conclusion, my mental health has made me a better person, and even though I still majorly struggle with it, I know that no matter what happens there will always be a light at the end of the tunnel. I've learned to be accepting of everyone around me no matter their background or struggles. I've learned that not everything everybody around me says is accurate, and I've learned to stay true to who I am no matter what situations I run into. My mental health is more important than the happiness of others, and to be honest I still struggle to match my behavior to this belief as I heal, because I am a huge people pleaser.

When I was twelve, my parents divorced. Originally, I was devastated. I really thought my life was destroyed. My father had torn apart my world. But what I didn't realize was that it really was much more than that. Since my mom wasn't around anymore, he was able to abuse me. I should've known at the time that he was going to abuse me. He raped me at the age of five, I never spoke up about it until age fourteen because he scared me out of it. When he moved out, I had to live with him for part of the time. He continued to hit me and belt me every time I was with him at night, especially if he was drunk. Let's go back to the beginning of that story. When my parents divorced, we got assigned a Guardian Ad Litem. She did not listen to anything that my brother or I had to say. When I told her that I was uncomfortable with the fact that my father would walk in on me while I was changing, after not knocking before entering my bedroom, and then refuse to leave, and stare at me while I changed. Her response was that it was not a problem for my father. I've heard and been a part of so many issues with judges and Guardian Ad Litems in the court system. I've heard of so many people who are abusive and don't get their children taken away, and then other people who aren't abusive get their children taken for no reason whatsoever. I can provide evidence of something just like this which happened in my area, in the town that I go to school in. I won't name any names, but a child's school filed multiple reports with DCFS concerning abuse, and the little boy told the court system about the abuse he was sustaining. Ultimately, the court repeatedly returned him to his home. He was eventually killed by his mother, his head bashed with a shower head, and then left in the shower to develop hypothermia and get water in his lungs, His father then assisted his mother with hiding him from the police until weeks later when his body was found. Knowing about all of this, I really want to help fix the family court system. I want to give proper justice for abusers, and I hope to become either a Guardian Ad Litem or a judge who will listen to children, and give appropriate punishments to parents and fair custody agreements with respect to the safety of the children. In short, I want to change the family court system to benefit children, rather than abusers.

My mental health experience has been quite a long journey. It started with just depression and anxiety, I thought that was the only thing that would happen. But I was wrong. Not long after I developed PTSD and bulimia nervosa, and began self-harming. I knew I was in deep waters. The thing is though, despite the immense amount of struggle that comes with dealing with my mental health, I've learned a lot too. One of my long-term goals will consistently be to stay ahead of any relapses or lapses in my mental health disorders. I know that nothing will ever be perfect, but if I can constantly be putting one foot in front of the other and moving forward, nothing can stop me. I've definitely learned that relationships can be both forged and strengthened under fire. Once those bonds are created, nothing can break them, not even the most volatile fights. My own struggle with mental health also taught me that even those who think they're invincible and appear to be perfectly fine from the outside usually have some sort of their own issues going on. Just because someone seems like they're perfectly fine, doesn't mean that they are. I've definitely learned that it's a good idea to check on everyone. I've also learned that there is no definition of normal. The most important thing I've learned through all of this is to always stay true to yourself.

My mom has been a huge supporter of my education. She homeschooled me for preschool and taught me how to read chapter books by age four because I longed to be able to read them by myself. My parents divorced at age eleven, and since then my dad has been out of my life, really only paying child support whenever he feels like it. I've always been an inquisitive person, and I truly believe that this trait comes from my mom. She helped me to learn to love learning from a young age and let me learn whatever I wanted to. She never said no if I asked to learn about something. If she didn't know the answer to something that I wanted to know, she'd help me to find that answer until I was satisfied. My mom currently works three jobs to support my brother, sister, and I. Both my sister and I have significant medical issues, and I truly believe that without state financial assistance there's a chance we might not be alive. My mom also drives us everywhere. She funds everything I want to do educationally and lets me participate in all the extracurriculars I want. Since my parents divorced, my mom stepped up, she became both a mother and a father. Both the good cop and the bad cop. She never stopped and never gave up. Sure, there were times when I hated her, and I'm sure there were times when she felt like trying to get through to me was pointless. But despite all this, through the toughest of times, she's always been there. My mom has definitely been a bit of an emotional crutch for me at times, and she's realistically the only reason that I'm here writing this. I recognize that she won't be able to fund my education. I know she'll try to contribute as much as she can, but I don't expect much. She has two other children along with herself to care for. I know that she'd give me the shirt off her back if she could, but I want to make sure that she can take care of herself and I can take care of her after she's spent all these years taking care of me. I really love my mom, and I hope that even though she won't be able to help much financially with college, she'll continue to be the amazing mom that she is for my siblings and I.

My parents divorced when I was eleven years old. Since then, my mom has raised my brother, sister, and I pretty much all on our own. People often look at us and whisper or snicker, when they see me holding and taking care of my sister. But the truth is, I'm not doing it for them, I'm doing it to help my mom. My mom has taught me so many amazing things, and she's helped me through so much. My mom homeschooled me for preschool. She taught me to read chapter books at age four, and always nurtured my love of learning. She protected me from all the bad things in the world at that time. My parents were still married back then, but my dad is a school social worker, and at the time he coached football. This meant he left before we got up and didn't get home until after we were asleep, effectively rendering her a single mom even though she was married. After my parents split, I went through some dark times. My mom taught me that it doesn't matter what other people think, life is worth living. She showed me that even when it seems that there is no point, and when it seems that no one cares, she will always me there for me. I definitely got bullied in school, and sometimes it was for the fact that when we had school events, the only parent that ever showed up was my mom. She fought with the schools for me. She begged for higher math placement for me, and it worked. She got punishment for the kids who would tease me, spread rumors about me, and shove me. My mom has always cared for me and always tried to help me even when she can only do what seems like very little. Constantly having her support has always meant the world to me. My family has never had very much, and things got even worse once my dad left. Still, my mom made sure we had everything we needed. Sure, we couldn't go on extravagant vacations like everyone else, but she made sure we were fed, clothed, and getting a good education. She made sure we were staying active, always encouraging us to play one sport or another or get involved with school extracurriculars. No matter what the scenario was, my mom has always found some way to fix it. She's truly amazing. I know that she won't be able to help fund my college education very much, if at all, but I know that she'll try, and that she'll always be there to support me.

As a small child, my favorite question to ask was always, "Why?" I constantly needed an answer as to how things worked, even if they seemed to be perfectly simple and quite obvious to the adults around me. If I ever got told off for it or told that it was how it was, I went and found the answers for myself. Usually, that meant that I was taking things apart or sticking things inside them. Let's just say my parents weren't too happy about that side of me. I've always been fascinated with the way things work, from the rotation of the earth on its axis to the foundation of human relationships. Once I wanted to know something, nobody could stop me from finding the answer. As I got older, my curiosity surrounding everything became quite an annoying trait to most, but it's what my parents believe has allowed me to excel in classes like science and math. Consequently, it also tends to be why I'm extremely bored with classes like English and history. One of my favorite things to do is to sit and read instructions or repair manuals on household appliances. I also enjoy learning about woodworking and welding. When I finally reached high school, my amazing school librarian showed me how to harness my curiosity for the better, no longer letting it get out of hand. I learned how understanding the universe and how things work is actually quite important, but also trivial, in subjects like English and history. She showed me that no matter what the question is, someone, somewhere, knows the answer, even if they don't want to tell you what it is. The biggest thing she taught me was to never, ever, stop questioning the world around me. In conclusion, I intend to always continue asking questions, no matter how annoying it may seem. I intend to keep trying to learn and understand more about the nature of our universe. If we can't do these things, and I'm going to sound a bit morbid here, then the human race and the planet Earth may be doomed. I plan on continuing to question and continue to encourage everyone around me to question and learn about everything around them. I wish that when I was younger the adults in my life would have fostered my love of learning, and encouraged me to question the way the world worked. I wish to grow the level of questioning in younger people to motivate them to try and make our world and planet a better place.

When I was little, I felt like the world was my oyster. I could do anything I wanted. Nothing could stand in my way. As I got older, I started to understand that in reality, the majority of the purpose behind my life seemed to be taking care of my younger siblings and the rest of the family. It seemed to me that the sole purpose of my conception was to help everyone. If I could have everyone read just one book, it would be My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. The first time I read this book was in 5th grade. My father's at the time assistant track coach gave me the book. My mom had been limiting my reading up until this point, trying to shelter me from what seemed to be the rest of the world. I finally felt heard when I read this book. I still have my copy of it 5 years later, and usually, my books get donated right after I read them. So many emotions flowed through me, and I felt like my world finally made sense. Years later, when my younger sister was born with a congenital heart defect that she'll eventually need surgery for, I reread the book about 3 times in that month, because it felt like my only solace and the only thing that truly understood me. I've been reading chapter books from age four, but this is the only one that has really truly stuck with me through the years, allowing me to feel free and heard without being overbearing and trying to tell me what to think and feel.