Since I was six years old, my maternal grandparents were very open with me about their struggles with mental health and how mental health issues have plagued the family for decades. One of their main philosophies was: taking care of one’s mental health is the most important thing you could ever do in this lifetime. Even more, they always told me to have respect for people who had mental health issues. As I got older, their philosophy began to deeply resonate with me; I believed that everybody has the right to be respected and given grace by open-minded people because mental health issues are very tough to overcome and manage. In fact, my own experiences with mental health struggles shaped and molded who I would become, as well as what I would decide to major in.  

Notably, I discovered my passion for clinical psychology when I was in the 9^th grade. My class assignment was to choose a career, then, present everything I researched about my career to the class, including, my plan to successfully get in said career. After sitting down for days and discussing this assignment with other teachers, a teacher finally suggested I should be a counselor because I had a gift for motivating people. Over time, I shrugged this off because I had no faith in myself. Yet, my final year in high school, my English teacher told me that I was too intelligent to forgo college, and that she whole-heartedly believed I could inspire people because I greatly impacted her life and inspired her too. Unfortunately, I still did not have the same faith as she did. When I left high school and enter the workforce, a coworker told me I did not belong in the restaurant we worked at. She told me that my intelligence and the way I carried myself did not belong at a ‘dead end job.’ She successfully motivated me to go college regardless of my own fears. Initially, I chose nursing, but my heart wasn’t into it. Therefore, I decided if I was going to pursue higher education, I’m going to choose Psychology regardless of the ‘useless degree’ stigma around Psych majors. 

            Eventually, I ended up in academia with the full financial backing of my grandfather, but I dropped out of college after a bout of anxiety and self-doubt. After almost two years in the workforce, I was overwhelmed by the constant anxiety and depression I experienced by not giving myself a fair chance to succeed in college. Once again, with motivation from my colleagues and family, I went back to college. This time, I successfully completed my associate’s degree and transferred to Old Dominion University full-time. In short, I am committed to my major in Psychology because the same values my grandparents passed down to me align greatly with a carer in Psychology. I pray that one day, I too would be able to support, motivate, and help people with mental health issues so they can live a fulfilling life.