A positive impact takes a positive mindset which is what I strive for every day. But I did not start with a positive mindset. Before knowing I wanted to pursue psychology, I was frankly ungrateful if not hating my life. When my parents moved our family thousands of miles from everything we knew, my mental health took a turn for the worse. During that time, I had battled depression and anxiety, but I had no idea until I started studying psychology in college. It was not easy having mental health battles that no one knew about. There were tears, fights, bitterness, and much more. It took me about two years to forgive my parents and finally make peace with the new life I had. That is one main reason why I have chosen to pursue psychology. I do not want someone to struggle with their mental health battles in the dark. It is terrifying and confusing; so, I plan to bring understanding and support to those who need it. This is why I chose to have a positive mindset to help others in the smallest of ways. Mental health is a daily battle, but there are options everyone can choose that could help brighten someone's day. This means the smaller things matter. One small thing I tend to focus on is being genuine in my interactions with strangers. A smile as someone walks by on the street, eye contact with a genuine thank you, tipping with a polite message, complimenting a stranger on their smile, outfit, or personality-- these are all small simple things that I believe can help make a positive impact on anyone's mental health. From a professional view, I am pursuing psychology and my master's to combat complicated mental health battles for individuals. Through my education, I will be able to coach with coping skills, trauma, and disorders. Not only will my education inform me well enough to counsel individuals, but I will be able to use my own experience of mental health battles to keep myself grounded in empathy and a positive mindset. I am excited to use the knowledge I am growing to help others identify mental health issues and combat the problems with help. It makes all the difference when there is someone to support and guide the individual towards healthy coping mechanisms. I am choosing to make a difference by using my experience of being alone during a mental battle to show others they are not alone in their battle and I will be there to help.

Minecraft is not tailored to just one type of audience, it has many different aspects of the game that all can enjoy. My favorite part of the game is exploring the vast biomes and caves. Exploring another world lets me escape from mine which helps me to let go and experience freedom in the game. I may be held down by financial burdens in real life and cannot travel as much as I would like, but in Minecraft, anything is possible. As I explore, it grows my inspiration because of the new environments I stumble upon, from a village in the mountains to a vast glowing cave, the possibilities of what I will find are endless. I thoroughly enjoy exploring by myself but what makes it more fun is exploring with other players! I have many memories of playing with my family and friends exploring different biomes, helping each other when it becomes dark, and sharing resources. One of my favorite memories on my family's server is when we, finally, set a time to go to the End. A little backstory, I had found the End portal about two years before, but we all had been extremely busy in our adult lives. So, none of us could play at the same time to defeat the End Dragon with enough resources. Eventually, we all worked together to defeat the End Dragon which didn't go as smoothly as we hoped. Nonetheless, after a few times of us dying from the endermen, we learned our lesson and slayed the task at hand, the dragon. Teamwork and exploring may seem juvenile in the game but it has taught me some real life lessons. Exploring is a good thing and is needed to spark my creativity in the real world, but exploring with others can create an adventure I will never forget. My family has grown up with Minecraft, it has helped us bond, learn lessons, and spend more time together despite living across the country. Minecraft is a tool to help me connect with my family, have fun, and explore beyond what I could in real life. I am grateful for this game and the amazing memories I have had playing it.

When I was younger, my family lost our home in the 2008 stock market crash. I was four years old at the time, but I remember constantly moving from house to house. At one point, we even camped in a friend's backyard. I kept a small backpack with clothes and personal items so I could take it wherever I went next. It seemed like a fun adventure to me when I was young, but as I look back it strikes me, that we were truly homeless but somehow, we were always provided with food, and a house to stay in. The community we were involved in, our church, helped us through that rough time. People let us stay in their homes so we would not have to sleep in our van. We were able to get food from the free food banks or from neighbors making us food. Now, I look back and remember how much these people sacrificed for us. This has inspired me to do the same because my life would look entirely different if they had chosen to turn a blind eye. I do not want to be the person who turns a blind eye when someone is hurting and needs help. This is why I volunteer at my church and through other organizations to help those who go through difficult times, just like my family did. When I volunteered at the food bank, it brought back memories of my family coming to make sure we had food on our table. So, when someone goes through the line I do not judge them, I know life is tough and everyone needs help. What I do offer is a smile, food, and conversation. Once, my church had a mission trip in Mexico to build a house for a family in need. I immediately signed up. In any way I could sacrifice, I would help this family live in a real home. While we built their house, I saw what they lived in. It was shambles of metal siding and a hole in the ground for a toilet. Though this was not in my community, my heart went out to them as my missions team continued to build the house. I felt grateful for all the able-bodies who came to make a difference because just one action like building a house is something that will impact that one family's life forever. Throughout my life, there have been many ups and downs. I lived in one house for a day and switched to another, but my family never had to live without shelter because of the continuous support of the community. This is just one reason why I feel compelled to volunteer and serve in my community. Another reason is because I love Jesus and I believe he wants us to love our neighbors as ourselves. If I have a home, so should my neighbor. If I have food, so should my neighbor. So, I will share my home or my food if my neighbor is in need because that is what community, and the church is all about.

When I was 16, I felt as if my whole life was wrecked. In the Summer of 2020, my parents decided to uproot everything we ever knew and move across the country. When I started going to my new school, it did not start out well. I felt as if I did not fit in because I was thrown into a small private school where everyone knew each other and I was the oddball out. I made a few friends in my class but I lacked a bond with someone who I could share deep things with. During this time, I felt alone and began having depressive episodes. I started slowly losing touch with my friends who lived over 2,000 miles away when I moved across the country and therefore I lost the deep personal connections I strived for. I was bitter at my parents, at the world, at almost everyone because I felt alone and disconnected from reality. On the other hand, my parents loved the new state. They often told me of the hikes they went on or the moose they saw in the park. I did not care. They loved the new mountains we could see and the skiing they could do. I did not care for any of those things because of my mindset. I lacked a good relationship with my parents because of my bitter mindset; and because of this, I never told my parents about my depressive episodes or the dark places my mind wandered the first year of the move. Then the semester changed, and a new elective was available, theater. Back in my home state, I started theater and absolutely loved it. So naturally, I took that elective and started working on the play. During this time, I met more people who I connected with. They encouraged me, helped me work through difficult times, and most importantly, they saw who I was and loved me. Theatre was a perfect outlet for me. Everyone became a big family through sharing our vulnerabilities. That was the first time I shared about myself feeling bitter and how I hated moving. This changed me completely. Many others shared and we hugged, cried, and overall comforted each other through the difficult times. After the play, I kept my connections with those who were in it and I continued to have more positive experiences in my new state, my new home. A little later, I realized that the move was a good thing because my school back home was clicky. Now, I know that going into a difficult situation requires an open mind. I hate that I wasted my first semester of school feeling sorry for myself and being bitter at my parents. Now that I know I will have to move again to go to a college out of state, I am grateful for my experience. I know what to do when I feel alone because I have felt it before. I have healthy coping mechanisms now instead of ones that made me feel like I needed to hurt myself. As the date grows closer to me moving away to a new college in Fall 2024, I am becoming more excited. It is an opportunity to start new, meet new people, learn new things, and become a counselor to help others. I can’t wait to see what the year throws at me because I know that I will fight back with all I have.

I grew up in a broken home. My parents fought all the time. Their personalities clashed with almost every choice they made. My siblings and I were affected by this mentally. I had four other siblings who grew up with me in my broken home and we have all been affected differently. As I matured, I started to realize that my home was not normal and that my siblings and I began to pick up unhealthy coping mechanisms to deal with our parents frequently fighting. This is one of the main reasons why I have chosen psychology as my major. I learned that even though my siblings and I grew up in the same environment, it doesn't mean we have the same mental battles. Psychology is not a basic science. There is no scientific law like gravity to understand what goes through someone's mind, perhaps this is why I enjoy it so much. Because psychology is always changing with new findings or correlations in a groundbreaking study it will keep me excited. There will always be more to learn about psychology. Though I do not want to work in experimental psychology, the aspect that psychology does not have one simple answer to the equation, like math, will keep me curious. The career path in psychology I am choosing will be counseling. I am not entirely sure what branch I will focus on, but I have a few ideas. My first idea is to go into family and marriage counseling. I am not sure if this will be a good field for me because of my family history. I could make myself relive trauma or try to fix a marriage or family in ways I wanted to fix mine; so, this means I could create a difficult situation for myself and my clients. On the other hand, my experience with a broken family could strengthen my ambition to find counseling techniques for families or marriages that work for the situation at hand. I figure I will understand more of what I am getting myself into when I finish more psychology classes but for now, this is where I am at for this option. My second idea is going into substance abuse and addiction counseling. I have not personally been addicted to any substances, but I have watched it happen to two of my brothers and it is heartbreaking. I feel like I could handle this situation well because I stay calm and collected when I learn about these sorts of things. Instead of looking at the coping method and criticizing the client, I can sympathize and find out what is under the surface, the real reason they feel the need to do these things. When I tell someone my future plans about becoming a counselor it is always the same response. They tell me that I should not choose it because listening to someone's problems all day is draining. Much to their surprise, I laugh at this response. Everyone seems to have something they need to heal from and I do not find it draining when I learn why this person copes the way they do. This might sound wrong to others but I enjoy the puzzle of figuring out someone's brain because I am constantly challenged and amazed at how the brain works when it needs to cope with trauma. Overall, I plan to use my degree to further my education by obtaining my master's or doctorate degree and then practicing counseling to help others heal.