“We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one.” Anyone and almost everyone takes life for granted. People who have all the money in the world can be depressed, while the poorest of people can be happy. Everything in this world is mindset and how you view life. Everyone goes through many struggles, but it is how you overcome and handle yourself in which a person’s character will show. Like many other people I go through struggles, whether big or small.

People handle their struggles in many ways and I have learned a way of handling struggles and stresses in a way I consider it betters myself. During the time I’ve been alive, I have lost many friends that I thought cared about me and I was dependent on them to make myself happy. I was going through a tough time losing my friends and I felt like I was all by myself. I didn’t want to make my bed or go out and do what would typically make me happy because I felt like without my friends I couldn’t be happy. I started letting my grades slip and just played games all day. I thought by playing games I could escape reality and not focus on what was happening around me. One day my mom saw my grades and she got so mad and took my pc away. In my mind at the time, she took the last thing that made me happy and I fell into a dark place. I would just lay in my bed all day scrolling through Tik Tok, eating, or sleeping.

One day my aunt’s decided to make me and my cousins go with them on hikes and just planned a day full of physical activity. At this point, I didn’t realize how unfit I was because during this time while I was letting myself go; my cousin was putting the work in the gym. I thought that time had stopped for me to be sad and that I was still ahead of him. I have never been so wrong, this hike really woke me up. I had to take a break at least 6 times and almost didn’t finish the hike, while my cousin wasn’t even breaking a sweat. While I was killing myself over something I could not control, the world still went on and everyone went on improving themselves. From that day on, I worked on improving myself and learning my own self worth.

At first it was hard, I would go from zoom calls to not doing anything. I was searching for stuff that made me happy and not people. Some stuff I found that made me happy were sneakers from the way they look to the way I can style them. I also found my love for the gym and consistently went to gym the whole summer. I didn’t need anyone in the gym and loved feeling like I was making myself better.

Throughout my life, I have gone through many struggles and looked for many outlets to avoid them. I go through big struggles and daily struggles, but the way I perceiver through these struggles is by realizing that I don’t need anyone else to be happy and that I am a fun person to be around. Whenever I feel lonely or unhappy, I would workout or hangout with my cats and just remember that I don’t need anyone to be happy. I will never let anyone take away my happiness again and that I can be happy on my own.