I managed to be resilient in life despite difficult circumstances of my childhood.

I always got bullied in school as a child. I always liked school though. I also managed to feel good about myself despite the things other people did to me or just unfair things people did to me like bully me. By the time I was starting high school my freshman year I started to hear distant voices and all it took was an encounter with racism in my sophomore year in high school to cause my early onset of mental illness. I thank God I have NAMI the organization I volunteer with and I’m also a consumer of. I try to stay out of trouble. I have plans to finish up my course in writing for children at The Institute of Children’s Literature later this new year 2020. I have been through some tough times but I always put a smile on my face because I managed to be resilient and feel good about myself despite what people say about me. I just know deep down on the inside that God is in this fight with me. Giving up is not an option. I will keep fighting this battle with my mental illness. My life is pretty good despite my illness. I am excited about writing for children in the near future. I hope to have children’s books credited to my name and I also hope to publish a memoir. I disagree if anyone says because of the traumatic circumstances in my childhood it gives me a pass or a reason to be angry about the past. There were still very nice aspects of my childhood too. I understand now that I need to appreciate what I had and now that I’m older appreciate what I have.