MY MENTAL HEALTH COMES FIRST.
Updated: Aug 12, 2019
Winter Park, FL
I was given this shirt right when I had moved to Florida from LA. Mentally and emotionally, I was at a point in my life where I hadn’t recognized myself. At the time, it felt as if I was consumed in a dark pit no one could help me out of. I didn’t want help, I didn’t want to eat, I didn’t want to talk, instead I wanted to waste away in the darkness I lost myself in. I cried everyday, I wanted sleep 24/7. Everyday my head was filled with thoughts of just silencing what I was going through mentally, but that little voice in my head told me “Lexi this isn’t you.”
The words depression and anxiety were not words that I could use to categorize my emotions. I felt like it was more and what I was feeling couldn’t compare. I remember calling my sister every single day crying. She kept telling me “Lexi just come home” but I didn’t want to. I thought I was able to fix my mental on my own.
I wanted and planned to stay in LA much longer. My original goal was to take every opportunity LA had for me before I made the decision of leaving but I had to come to the realization that my mental health had to come first. That brought me to the decision of moving back Florida. Finding my center again.
The process of me moving from LA to Florida took only 2 full days. 1 day to inform my job, talk to my school advisor about online classes for my last semester of college then another day to pack up 4 and a half years of my life that I had spent in LA into suitcases and boxes.
Fast forwarding to today, I look back extremely proud. Proud of what I was able to overcome, proud of having to drag myself out of my darkness and most all PROUD OF BEING A COLLEGE GRADUATE!
With all that I went through mentally, I thought taking time away from school would be best but honestly I just said Nah, Fuck that - ya girl tryna finish.