The end of 2018 through the beginning of 2019 have been months of realization for me. Mental and emotional health is a common theme throughout a lot of teens lives. There are many different signs and versions of both mental and emotional health. According to pasadenavilla.com, “…common symptoms include mood swings, pulling away from people, having low to no energy, feeling helpless, and sleeping too much or not enough.” Coming from myself personally, I agree with all of these. Mental and emotional health is something that everyone should be considerate of because not everyone will know what another person is going through.

When I was at the age of nine, my parents ended up getting divorced, and of course at that time I thought they were doing a terrible thing to our family. As I’ve grown into the person I am, and as I’ve seen what I’ve seen today, I have come to believe that my parents got divorced not to hurt us, but to benefit us. In the long run, mentally, it prepared me to know that at any given moment something can happen, good or bad, and as a person you just have to toughen through it, but emotionally it definitely damaged me. I was only nine, and it really did affect me a lot because I did know what it was like to have two parents in a household with me so then I would have to get used to not having two parents with me at all times. People that still have both their parents together don’t know how lucky they are to have an unbroken family.

On another note, the past few months have been worse than what happened to me when my parents got divorced. I have gone through some of the toughest events in my life that I’ve ever gone through since December until now. On December 13, I had to get hip surgery, which I know was only to benefit me, but at the time I thought it was just a cruel act that my doctor was doing to me. Dance is the biggest part of my life and not being able to go to the place that helped relieve my stress and gave me a space that I knew no one would judge me really damaged me. At 17, I’ve never felt more damaged in my life.

At the age I’m at now, I have come to realize that when it comes to your own health in any way, shape or form, you need to do what’s best for you. Not everyone will understand what’s happening in your life at any given moment, but finding ways to put out how you feel will help benefit you in the long run. If I had known that I could have found ways to help me earlier, I feel as though I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in today. Always take care of yourself first, although it may sound selfish, but your own health has to come first.