Brent T.

Brent is a 21-year-old young adult from Mebane, North Carolina. He works as a customer service representative at a textile plant called Elevate Textiles located in Burlington, North Carolina. When he is not working at his job, Brent spends much of his free time focusing on his fitness at the gym and fixing up cars. Brent’s mental health journey started during his teenage years and since then, his experiences show the meaning behind having true strength to prosper through challenges, coming out on the other side as a more open-minded individual with goals and aspirations to follow down a path of success. 

Being the oldest of three, Brent grew up with two younger siblings and two loving parents. He described his family as being deeply involved with the Pentecostal church which presented its members with high standards of rules that were expected to be followed. Brent’s grandfather was the head usher of their particular church and as a result, they spent much of their time congregating with other members, cleaning, and making the church look presentable. However; when Brent was around 12 years old, his mother and father divorced. The divorce between his parents directly impacted their status at the church and the family as a whole stopped attending services. Up until that point, Brent and his siblings weren’t allowed to participate in sports, which is a hobby that they always wanted to pursue. When his family finally decided to step away from the religious structure, for the first time Brent and his siblings were able to freely express themselves in any manner they chose, which involved playing on sports teams. Throughout the rest of his primary education, Brent became heavily involved in playing lacrosse, wrestling, and soccer. 

When it was time to start his freshman year of high school, Brent decided to enroll in a program called Early College, offered at his local community college. This program allowed for high school students entering their freshman year to earn their high school diploma within the first two years of the traditional educational schedule. For the last two years, students were allowed to earn an Associate’s degree, giving them a head start into building their future career path or earning more college degrees. However, Brent claims there was one huge aspect missing from his experience during his time in Early College —socialization. Because not many of his friends entered into the program and chose to go to traditional high school, Brent remembered feeling left out of the regular high school experience. After talking with his family and weighing out the pros and cons, Brent decided the best course of action for him would be to return to a traditional high school environment; where he could spend more time with his friends and enjoy his remaining years as a teenager before going off into the real world. 

Working as a customer service representative has provided him with the opportunity to experience what working in a business is like. He has learned how to form professional relationships, the value of communication with others, and how to effectively problem-solve disputes if something isn’t quite right. Through the experience he is currently gaining, Brent hopes to one day buy rental properties or become an entrepreneur by starting his own business. To strive to become an entrepreneur, Brent details his core principles as “Be a good person, treat others the way you want to be treated. Have a good work ethic and show up every day.” Following these values has helped him become a well-rounded, contributing member of society. 

Brent sees mental health as a topic that is getting much more attention than it has in its previous history. In the past, many people have struggled not knowing what course of action to take when trying to help themselves or other people mentally recover from experiencing hardships. Even if a person is battling their challenges, their mental health may also have an impact on the people around them. Unfortunately, this circumstance occurs often as a person’s mental state can change the relationships they possess with others. Brent expanded on his personal experiences with mental health by recalling the socialization issues he had when attending Early College. Going back to the traditional high school environment after not having socialized with his peers, took a toll on his ability to effectively communicate with others. “When I went back to public school, it was hard to socialize because I hadn’t been. I had a bunch of anxiety about it,” Brent explained. Although Brent had missed a year of socializing with his peers, playing on his high school's sports teams helped him learn a greater sense of community which ultimately helped him get back on track with regaining his ability to socialize with people his age. He managed to build lasting friendships that he had acquired through being a member of the soccer, wrestling, and lacrosse teams. 

Brent’s philosophy is noted as being intertwined with reasoning. “Everything happens for a reason…there’s good things that happen and there’s bad things that happen and they all help you get to where you are and where you’re going,” Brent explained. Even though tough situations can be uncomfortable, people need a balanced experience to even know what the “good” things are that life has to offer. Good and bad experiences in life build a person into a stronger, more dynamic mindset because they eventually learn how to go about challenging circumstances. 

Brent acknowledges that his path to regaining confidence in his social skills could have taken its course at a faster pace if he had sought help and talked to someone about the issues he was experiencing. He explained that topics surrounding mental health have a negative connotation because people don’t usually like to admit that they are going through rough patches and need help from others to regain a stable thinking process. People often avoid speaking about their mental health as a whole because of certain stigmatizations. As part of the stigmatizations that exist within society, people view having mental health issues as a sign of weakness, especially within male perspectives. In Brent’s opinion, advocacy for mental health is important in educating others regarding how to handle certain issues when they present themselves. Although the process of regaining a stable mentality may be lengthy in time, education on the appropriate tactics is valuable for a person to help themselves and others around them who may be experiencing mental health challenges. 

Through the powerful message of his story, Brent wants people to take away the idea that going through mental health challenges is not necessarily a bad thing even though it may have a negative connotation surrounding it. Brent attributes his ability to push through difficult situations to learning how to manage his mental struggles. Education on mental health topics and becoming aware of one's mentality may be the first vital steps in helping anyone experiencing difficulties regain confidence in themselves and move towards a path of success and fulfillment.