Alyssa S.

Alyssa is a 19-year-old student at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Originally from Graham, Alyssa is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Finance intending to become a financial advisor for an investment company called Edward Jones. She enjoys taking care of her four pets, hanging out with friends, spending time on the beach, and traveling to different vacation spots. Alyssa’s mental health journey inspires others to push through different challenges with grace and never lose focus on the bright future ahead. 

Alyssa describes her childhood as being incredibly fortunate as both her parents worked diligently to provide her with everything a child would ever need. Coming from her family as being the only child, Alyssa would feel lonely at certain times because she didn’t have a sibling to play with or lean on for support. Although she was an only child, she found a sense of community and friendship through the other children in the close-knit neighborhood. During her high school experience, Alyssa attended Early College —a program that allowed her to finish her high school degree in two years and then go on to earn her Associate’s degree during what would be traditionally known as her junior and senior years of high school. The decision to attend Early College boosted her to be able to achieve her Bachelor’s by the time she was 20 years old. 

As her goal, Alyssa would like to acquire as many internship opportunities as she can before starting her career as a financial advisor at Edward Jones. She values the idea of learning new skills and being able to have meaningful connections with people through striking up conversations with anyone around her. Alyssa credits her father for helping her find her passion for finance as he too works as a financial advisor for Edward Jones. Fortunately, Alyssa has been able to learn the ins and outs of her future career from her father who has been successful throughout his job as well. 

In terms of mental health, Alyssa believes that oftentimes when issues are finally being addressed, it’s too late for the proper interventions to take place. She asserts that mental health as a topic isn’t being advocated for enough. By having deeper conversations to attack the core of mental health concerns, Aylssa articulated that people need to start paying more attention to the early stages of when issues are starting to rise. She also thinks that providing children in the education system with basic information regarding mental health topics could be a helpful tool in advocating for more awareness of mental health. 

Alyssa recounted going through her mental health challenges starting in 2020 when Covid-19 struck the United States. Because of the damaging effects of the pandemic; schools, businesses, churches, etc. were all shut down to help reduce the spread of the virus. After being confined to her house because of quarantine restrictions, Alyssa started to struggle with her mental health due to not being able to properly socialize with her peers and family members. Alyssa started looking for solutions to help her cope with her mental health by attending therapy sessions and even starting medication to help ease some of her anxiety. Alyssa remembers therapy as a helpful tool but she also wanted to find other outlets, so she started teaching herself how to play the guitar and drawing pictures on a sketchpad by freehand. 

Although she found techniques to help herself get back on track with her mental health, Alyssa felt like she should have taken the time to branch out and leave her comfort zone. “I was kind of comfortable in my sadness,” she explained when addressing her unreadiness to leave her current mental state. Change can be extremely uncomfortable for people even in terms of releasing unhealthy habits and turning them into a positive difference. For some people, It is easier for them to stay in a mental state of dwell, misery, or sadness because of their fear of entering into a new environment that they aren’t used to. 

When asked about mental health advice she would give to others, Alyssa expressed the need for people to keep their friends by their side throughout all of the victories and triumphs life presents. She concluded, “It’s super beneficial to have people there with you. You definitely can’t do it alone… also treat yourself kindly.” Being part of a loving community and having a designated support group can help people who are seeking companionship become more interconnected with other people which in return can help other people learn more about their selves. “I would like for people to take away the fact that I felt like it wasn’t going to get better and it did all because I wanted it to…after I started applying myself and putting in the work to get better,” Alyssa stated. 

Through the eyes of Alyssa, mental health can be an uncomfortable and tedious subject when learning how to deal with inner conflict for the first time. By learning how to destress and cleanse her mind, she was able to push past hardships, making her a stronger individual, ready to tackle her future career goals. Her journey teaches others the value behind leaving one’s own comfort zone to seek opportunities for the betterment of their mental state.