Helping Those Who Are Like Me by Riley

Helping Those Who Are Like Me by Riley - August 2024 Scholarship Essay

From a young age I had awful family experiences from being told I was not enough to having to take care of my younger sister to being emotionally and verbally abused by our mother on an endless tangent of how she should have never had kids. Growing up it made me feel as though I was not good enough for anything, so I made a promise to myself to be the opposite of what she thought. I was going to help those around whenever it is needed and I was going to push myself academically to achieve what she thought none of us were capable of. However, as I entered high school it got worse because then the peers around me started to start to say similar comments that my mother had made. I really struggled with my mental health throughout this time and at one point thought what was the point of making friends or socializing with anyone if it was all going to turn out the same in the end. Senior year though, I met one of my best friends that pushed me to be the best version of myself and made me realize that instead of looking at those experiences as awful events that happened to look at it as the passion behind the work I intend to use in my next big education adventure, which is to become a clinical psychologist, more specifically my specialty will be to advocate for children with the same influences that I had growing up. I always wish that somebody would listen to my story, step up for me, and could protect me from the anger and resentment but it made me into the person I am today. I am not sure what I will do with my master’s degree or my minor but I want to work with social workers or the foster care system to help even more than I can as a psychologist. I want my next big educational goal to be one that is going to help loads of people and their families.