This article is addressed towards the Activia Training Scholarship Competition, and is going to be revolved around the question, "Why is learning important to you and how has it impacted your life?"
Learning has always been such an important aspect of my life and has led me to where I am today as a student. Being able to learn new things has crucially impacted my life, and is extremely important to the development of my being. Something as simple as learning has impacted my life so drastically, in fact, that I could easily say it saved my life.
Growing up was a difficult process, having struggled with mental disabilities for such a long period of my life. These disabilities include Major Depressive Disorder, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder--two disabilities that can halt one's life in a matter of seconds if they lose themselves amidst the ominous, thick fog that shrouds one's mind when suffering from them. Having come from a home laced with poverty and past abuse, depression and PTSD has heavily effected my life and my ability to push myself to success. However, school truly saved my life and my desire to succeed in my life. Being able to leave a home that I never wanted to be at and to arrive in a classroom where the point of being there was to learn and understand new things was therapeutic for somebody like myself. I was often told while growing up that I was stupid, understood nothing, and that I would fail in my life. Every day, I would go to school, determined to learn everything I could despite the disabilities that tried to hold me back and slowly but surely succeeding. Learning taught me that I was enough, that I was capable, and that there were endless possibilities to live life. I learned that I could study animals, plants, people, or the vast mysteriousness of space around us. The opportunities were limitless, even if my brain tried to tell me that they were not. Over time, I finally took a introductory class to Psychology in high school that introduced me into the idea of studying such a broad subject. Due to it being an introductory class, it dipped into many different subjects of psychology, but didn't get too specific into any of them. This being said, I was still terribly fascinated by anything surrounding mental health. This led me into the desire of wanting to help other people who suffer from mental disorders. This decision ultimately saved my life helped me realize the purpose of my existence was something I truly wanted.
I have always been high functioning for somebody who struggles with my mental disorders and have never let them pull me away from what I want in life, no matter how bad it could get. Due to being so high functioning, I want to learn how to help other people that also struggle with mental disorders who are having a hard time succeeding and pushing through the hard times. As a Sophomore who is about to graduate with a psychology degree before transferring to a 4 year University, I have been itching to dive deeper into the counseling aspects of psychology so that I can change other people's lives as soon as I possibly can. If all goes the way I intend it to, I hope to get a Bachelors degree in Psychology before applying for a Masters Counselling program offered at the University of Wyoming. I know that counseling is the career path for me, and I hope to learn specifically about how to help mentally ill LGBTQ+ community members and be a support that they may need while figuring out their paths in life and be able to help and support them in any way that I could.
Without learning, without the ability to explore a wide variety of different paths of study, I know that I would have struggle to find what I wanted to do with my life. Learning how to help those struggling with similar problems in their lives as my own has helped me resolve many of my issues and learn that I am capable and destined to help others as others helped me, such as my teachers, my counselors, and my friends. Learning can truly leave a huge mark on a person's life, and I am so happy that it did so on mine.
