Katie K.

Katie Kubec is a 21-year-old student-athlete at Belmont Abbey College where she is an active member of the women’s golf team. Originally from Hendersonville, North Carolina, Katie is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Biology with the hopes of becoming a physician's assistant. When she is not studying, Katie volunteers as a front desk assistant at a local hospital near her college. Katie’s story can help others see the value in persistent hard work and deliberate decision-making for the betterment of herself and her future goals. 

Growing up, life for Katie consisted of having a close family that depended on each other for emotional and physical support. Her parents raised her and her little brother to be dependent on one another but also independent in terms of being able to become strong-willed and goal-oriented individuals. When Katie was 16 years old, during the midst of Covid-19, she started playing golf for her high school team. Although she hadn’t played previously, Katie discovered she had a natural talent for the sport and realized she had a passion to earn a scholarship for the opportunity of playing golf at the collegiate level. Throughout high school, Katie worked tirelessly to improve her skills and was eventually offered a scholarship opportunity to play golf at Belmont Abbey College. She expressed her short-term and long-term goals as being able to earn her degree in Biology to continue her path of going on to higher education to build her career in preparation for becoming a physician’s assistant. 

Throughout the years of putting in hard work to achieve her dreams, Katie has developed the values of determination and drive. “Always keep going no matter what happens because, in the end, something will work out…something beneficial will always come out of everything I have put myself to move towards,” Katie expressed when speaking about her motivation to do well in every aspect of her life. She expressed her main inspiration for success as being her father. Growing up, Katie watched her father start a concrete business from the ground up. At times, Katie remembered her father making sacrifices for the overall benefit of growing his business and providing a sufficient lifestyle for his family. When speaking about her father Katie stated, “He always pushed me to keep going because I watched him never stop and I feel like if I follow in that path, something will have to open up like that for me.” 

Katie believes that mental health is a topic that everyone experiences and struggles with at some point in their life. Mental health experiences differ from person to person because of the unique thought patterns people have on an individualized basis. She expressed that although the topics surrounding mental health are relatively new in an overall sense, mental health issues are not being talked about in the magnitude that they should be advocated for. Katie spoke about the negative effects of the issues surrounding the outreach of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the slippery slope of young people becoming involved with social media. Social media acts as an internet-based platform that allows users to see what other people want them to see. In other words, the content that people post on social media is only a limited perspective of what occurs in their day-to-day lives. Social Media influencers have also started making a huge impact on others because it allows followers to compare themselves to the surface-level version of who people see online. Social media users have created this overall snowball effect of comparing themselves to the content creators they see on the internet; ultimately, damaging their own self-image and mental health. 

Through her eyes, Katie has dealt with her mental health concerns in the same manner. “I have experienced a very large background of different types of events that have affected my mental health in very different ways, between death, trauma, or assault…all the traumatic events in my life, I have handled differently but almost in the same way at the same time,” Katie acknowledged. She addressed that within all of her negative mental health experiences, one thing remained a constant: learning how to deal with grief. Even though each hardship was different in terms of the events that took place, Katie expressed that the grieving process itself was similar in each case. Katie remarked that pushing through the grieving process was one of the hardest situations she’s had to overcome because of how overwhelming emotions can seem when they take over the mind in periods of chaotic circumstances. 

After Katie’s brother suffered an almost fatal motocross accident, she expressed learning how to deal with her mental health more maturely. She was able to confide in her friends and family about the issues she was facing and became more open to communicating her true feelings. However, in her most recent times, she expressed that felt as if she had taken a step backward in her overall communication skills as she became more closed off when reaching out to her support system for help. “It's almost like people are afraid to talk about their mental health,” Katie said when explaining why she felt the urge to remain silent about the struggles she was facing. She also marked another big reason why she stopped talking to others about her mental health was because she didn’t want to potentially trigger other people with her own experiences as she stated, “You never know what someone else is going through.” Sometimes, certain mental health topics or traumas can be triggering for other people to hear because they have dealt with a similar struggle that was difficult for them to overcome. Revealing issues surrounding serious mental health topics can set back a person's progression in their mental health because the reminder can put them back into the emotional state they experienced at the time the traumatic event occurred. “I don’t think you ever fully get over it, you just learn with time how to cope,” Katie shared. After going through personal mental health issues and progressing through the stages of grief, Katie now views herself as a stronger individual, stemming from her growth and journey through collecting pieces of her mind that had been previously astray. 

As far as utilizing techniques to help regain a positive outlook on her mentality, Katie took an ample amount of time off from school and athletics to refocus on her mental health. Taking the time to regroup with her family and implement routine self-care methods helped her combat the struggles she was facing. She expressed that the time she took off helped her regain a sense of a conscious self-image and a new profound love for herself that only she could access by allowing her mind to enter a free state, void of thinking about daily responsibilities. Although she admits it may not work for everyone, Katie also practiced controlled self-isolation in dealing with her trauma and grief. She learned to find a balance between confiding in her family while also immersing herself in time alone to process the issues she had been battling. Katie also advocated for the importance of striving to meet future goals by setting expectations for herself, every week. She explained, “I do try to look at the bigger picture and I always try to set something to look forward to. Even if it's something small.” Creating goals and setting the parameters to meet those goals has helped her stay on track with her mental health and set a standard for success in the future. 

When asked about advice she would give to others who are facing mental health challenges, Katie stated, “I would say to not be afraid to slow down and allow yourself to understand what's going on and why you’re feeling these emotions and what’s causing them.” She touched on the idea of people learning how to use self-reflecting methods to analyze what is and what isn’t in their direct control. Worrying about the things that are out of reach or out of their control only sets their mental health journey backward. Learning to reach a place of full transparency regarding one’s true thoughts and feelings can be a freeing experience for anyone who wants to have a mental weight lifted from their shoulders. 

 In Katie’s perspective, self-awareness of the controllables of one’s life can be beneficial in moving forward with the prosperity of a clear mentality and realistic self-image. Through her journey of self-realization, Katie acknowledges that she has finally dared to speak with honesty about her experiences after reaching a point of overwhelming dissatisfaction. Katie wants people to take away the clear message that “good things can come from the lowest points in your life. When you’re in you’re lowest points it’s almost impossible to see that but when you’re coming out of it and you’re reflecting on yourself and how you were in these points of your life, you see the growth and it’s inspiring…the events in your life that have caused any mental health problems do not define you,” Katie explained. Instead of people letting their mental health issues define them, they should look at the experiences as a chance for positive character development. Even though mental health problems can be emotionally draining, taking a step back to view the overall picture life has to offer can help anyone regain a sense of worthiness and patience to see which way their journey will lead for them.