Personally, I really struggled with my mental health for awhile. But ‘they’ were always there. They were my light. My guide. They helped me out of that hole, that darkness, no matter how much I pushed them away. I didn’t want them to be my light. I didn’t want a ‘they.’ But they never left. They stayed. They returned, and they worked harder than before. My ‘they’ were my light. My guide. My hope.
Over quarantine, I developed feelings of shyness and I found it hard to open up to people and new things. I felt very out of place, as if I was missing something in my life, for it was as though I was empty inside. But I eventually decided to open my bedroom window during one of my digital classes and, like magic, I felt free. Opening this path to nature allowed me to relax and realize the beautiful world we live in, and how even just a single breath of fresh air can connect you to endless, amazing experiences.
I decided to create this piece to represent the feelings of letting go. I have faced many situations where I have to stop and let go to move on and be happy. Everyone should know that no one is perfect and making mistakes are ok. I hope those who view my art piece find the courage in letting go of any tension they have kept within themselves.
My painting is based on when I had cancer when I was about five or six years old with Ewing’s Sarcoma. I was in the hospital for a week every other week and I was attached to this panda bear stuffed animal that I got from the gift shop on the hospital’s first floor. I brought the panda bear everywhere I went and it got me to the next day, which is why my painting’s title is named “Tomorrow.” In fact, I still have the panda bear by my bed today, and it’s still giving me hope.
I choose this category because I wanted to reflect on the future.
My entry is about me,10 years from now. I want it to show how much someone can change, and has goals to change. I chose this category because it shows how many dreams and goals I have for myself in the future.
My entry is a letter to myself in the future, describing the events that I have gone through in the past year. It encourages my future self to reaffirm to values that I learned in the present, and discusses the role of mental health in our lives.
My entry talks about my goals for the next five years during high school and my first year of college. It focuses on the things I want to learn and overcome in order to grow as a person.
I chose the monthly prompt because I felt I could express my heart and my soul in words on the page, and be something that I would want to look back upon after graduating from high school to see how far I had come and if my dreams had changed. I also felt that this was a great way to honor my teacher who has had been a huge inspiration to me and taught me a great deal about myself and teaching.
I chose this category because it really connects to me since I can get easily stressed. Writing a letter to my future self really allowed to me understand that there are many different ways on taking care of my mental health. To this day, I still practice the mental health tips to help take care of my mental health.