Some thoughts I had on my plane ride home from Washington DC ~ Being surrounded by like minded individuals is nice. They understand more than others where you come from and what your story means to you. Everyone at the Mental Health Youth Action Forum was so well spoken and so confident in themselves. If they weren’t, it certainly didn’t show. I like to consider myself decently spoken when it comes to talking around new people but sometimes it does get too much, especially about topics I’m really passionate about. At the White House, when speaking on the topic of mental health I got quite emotional in front of Dr. Jill Biden, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, and Selena Gomez and it was fun in the moment. Thinking about all the struggles and hardships I’ve gone through to end up on a stage like that had me overwhelmed with emotion. I am comfortable telling people about my journey but when the tears started falling, I felt embarrassed. I felt shame even though I was being authentic and showing how passionate I am about the topic at hand. No matter how much it looks like I have it together, I still go through things and that’s okay. Reflecting back on who’ve I’ve lost due to the lack of resources and support for mental health keeps me going. I push through to help those who can’t quite speak for themselves yet. Vulnerability is nothing to be looked down upon. It takes strength to be vulnerable. It is okay not to be okay. I try to be as open as I can to normalize the emotions that I experience day to day. Displaying your feelings to people is not weakness. As my project group of new friends say, we’re all healing from something. ~ #MentalHealthAction #MTV #MentalHealthYouthActionForum #MentalHealth @mtv