I Need A Life That Isn 't Just About A Mental Illness

I struggled so much when learning to drive, I didn’t think I would ever be able to get my license. Everytime I go out and drive something different would always go wrong. I would get too caught up in the freedom of driving and listening to the blaring music that I would forget something. When I first started I wouldn’t think it would ever be this hard because my parents make it look so easy. When I was fifteen I was learning how to drive, but I kept struggling with a couple different aspects of driving. Eventually after I kept practicing I was able to perfect the art of driving, and come closer to becoming an adult.

One warm summer morning my sister, dad, and I were sitting and watching T.V. and my best friend’s dad called and invited us over for the weekend. He said

After I got my permits my mom and dad started to let me drive the car more and take them places when they aren’t feeling like driving. When I got my license they began to send me to places alone to go get stuff for them that they needed. The first place they sent me was to Bogalusa to go meet up with my sister at her job at citi trends. I knew where and how to get to Bogalusa because I been there so many times, but the only thing I couldn’t remember sometimes is where my sister job was at. So every time I was to make it to Bogalusa I would call my mom or my sister to give me directions. The next day the whole family wanted to go out to eat somewhere at a restaurants to celebrate me for passing my driver’s license test, but the only thing about was that I had to drive the whole time and it was supposed to be a surprised for me. I had to drive all the way to Hattiesburg to some restaurant I never been to before. The food there was good and I had really enjoyed myself. That was one of the best things to happen to me in my life. All I got to say about driving is that it was the best of the best thing to ever happen to

memoir about my father. This memoir described and expressed the feelings that I had and

I couldn’t find better words to start off my speech with than those of Matthew Healy, “I think about dying but I don’t want to die. Not even close. In fact my problem is the complete opposite. I want to live, I want to escape. I feel trapped and bored and claustrophobic. There’s so much to see and so much to do but I somehow still find myself doing nothing at all. I’m still here in this metaphorical bubble of existence and I can’t quite figure out what the hell I’m doing or how to get out of it.” (Matthew Healy, The 1975) I’m sure a lot can relate to that quote, and if you can’t I hope it’s because you’ve found your way out of the bubble. The truth is that most of us have been forced to perceive things in certain ways, follow a certain path,

“Hello, HELLO!” I remember when I was 8 years young and I had just come home from a long day of what I had believed to be rigorous work. I had hoped upon my arrival there would be someone I would be able to speak to about my day. I had not heard a sound besides the gust of wind which slammed the door shut behind me “Whoosh Bang”. With no one in sight, I had bursted into tears with the absence of the sign of life. My parents had divorced when I was 7 years old which truly affected my life. As a child I remember sunday breakfast with my family and many activities and trips taken as a

Even though my anxiety has completely altered my life, it has taught me a great deal. At first I would envy others, they would never understand the struggle I face everyday. I was angry and felt that others took advantage of their normal life, and I was broken. Many nights I stayed awake cry asking God why he wanted to punish me. However, as the years past I started to truly understand the beauty of my “curse”. I have a view of the world that most people don't have, and it makes me stronger. Most people never face a real struggle in their life

Instead of fearing life, I want to experience it. I want to go and make the world my own. I want to be known as a person who lived and never let my own sparks

I remember thinking about how fortunate I was for having none of my family members to die from cancer. It was just another late night of working hard in the laboratory trying to find something. It was precisely 10 o’clock at night where I had never felt so accomplished. I had finally done it, I found the cure to cancer. At first I couldn’t believe my eyes when I had been reading the chart, but when I gave the antibodies to cancer patients their symptoms left and their cancer had been cured. I was 35 when I had found the cure and I lived in Iowa City, which is where I met my wife. I called my wife, Selena, and told her about my discovery and she started crying. It was a different type of cry..no it wasn’t tears from joy, it was tears from sadness. I asked Selena why she was crying. That day was never forgotten, not because of my discovery, but of the news that my wife told me. Our son passed away that afternoon from Lung Cancer. I was devastated. I went into a deep depression and I kept asking myself, “why couldn’t you have found the cancer just a couple hours earlier.” My story was all over the news, for awhile I never cared about anything but my son. I had received an extremely high number of money. I didn’t care about money anymore. I gave over half of it to people who needed it more than I did. I didn’t feel like doing interviews until about 6 months after his death. I learned something from my experience, In order to achieve your goal, sacrifices will need to be made. I found the cure to the most deadliest thing in the world but I had lost my most prized

I gripped the steering wheel so tight that my knuckles turned white, hoping I wouldn’t hit another car or do something equally stupid. Then came the elation of being told I had passed, getting my driver’s license after months of work. My mom and I stopped at a coffee shop on the way home to celebrate, coffee and delicious donuts to go

I lost everything, my home and family. I lost friends and colleagues, if any survived I never found out, I was forced to evacuate after sustaining injuries, I lost contact with everyone.” His voice shook as he spoke, “Today’s the first time I’ve gathered enough courage to share this.”

When I turned 11-years-old my whole childhood began to change my life went from being perfect to everything but perfect. One day I came home to hear the news my father, my best friend; my hero was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. Not knowing the struggle my family was about to take on I just began to cry. I had a million things running through my head what’s going to happen? Will everything be okay? Why him? What is going to happen? With all these things rushing through my head all I could do was cry not knowing this was least worse to come.

Often, what someone believes is motivational and inspirational is actually incredibly debilitating. When you grow up brainwashed into believing you are destined for success and that you will achieve greatness, it does not ever occur to you that you are not invincible. Maybe you were encouraged to strive for academic success because everyone said you were capable. Maybe you’re not so sure anymore. Maybe you have forgotten that failure is inevitable and necessary. We have taught ourselves that if we aren’t invincible, we must have a glamorous excuse. Predominantly, females have begun self-diagnosing themselves with mental illnesses as a way out, consequently fabricating the suffering that anxiety holds the power to inflict. However, in adopting anxiety as a “get out of jail free card”, we are forcibly removing humanity from the situation. It is not glamorous to come out of an anxiety attack with a body entirely numb from exhaustion and fear so immense that the nausea lingers all week. As we continue to ignore the reality of anxiety, our society edges dangerously close to forgetting to support the people who really need help, and drowning in the romanticism and prejudicial perspectives on mental

It was of my early High-school years when the doctors finally diagnosed my Dad with lewey-body dementia. It was a blow to my family and has altered our lives since. I have watched over these last few years as my Dad slowly fades before my eyes, his steps are no longer sure, his mind no longer sharp. His anger is quick and sudden. His mind often reverts him to a childlike state of mind. Through my Dad’s struggle I have learned to love people at a greater level, to love them always no matter how angry or challenging the day is, because time is short as life has shown to me year after year.

There I was, at the top of the Grand Canyon. It is the grandest of all canyons. I had my backpack all packed-I had food, water, and clothes. The most important thing, my body was ready for this treacherous journey, and my mind was ready for this mental meltdown. I honestly don’t know what was going on in my mind at that time, I’m sure it was an exited thought.Then at that moment I knew that this was my time to prove myself, my time to make my mark in life and to cement my legacy in life, it was my time.