Ever since I was a child, I believed my purpose in life was to save others. I dreamed of being a firefighter that went to work in order to save lives every single day. As I grew up, I discovered I wanted to save lives by being a clinical psychologist that helped others overcome some of the debilitations of mental illness.

When quarantine first started, I had nothing but time by myself to think. During that time I realized I had really let myself go — I wasn't helping myself. I was so busy worrying about my family, friends, and school that I hardly ever stopped to make sure I was happy with who I was and how I was feeling. I needed to get a grip on myself and really find out what I needed to do to become the best version of myself I can be because I genuinely think when I achieve that I will be more helpful to others anyways. So I did what I thought I needed — I began working out, eating healthy, reading, and focusing on my own feelings.

This was challenging at first since I didn't want to come off as selfish, but I think it was evident I needed whatever I was doing. The first and biggest part I began to focus on myself was though exercise. Without a doubt working out consistently and efficiently has been the hardest but also the most rewarding part. I slowly incorporated working out into my daily life, and now work out about five times a week, and rest on the weekends. Through being more active, I feel I have more energy and am altogether living a healthier lifestyle. Of course, I couldn't work out and eat horribly so I also began to cut out any fast food, and food that simply didn't have much nutrition.

While this all helped my body become healthy, I still needed to work on my mind, so for that, I began reading. I am currently about halfway through a book about how you receive the type of energy you put out into the world. Yes, I know it sounds a bit superstitious at first, but if you really think about it, when you live a positive life, the bad parts tend to not affect you so much. So with the book, I have been trying to simply look at the good parts of everything. For example, quarantine was not very fun and social distancing measures are still recommended, but without the time I had of not seeing anyone, I probably would have never taken the time to better myself.

Although I know I still have a very long way to go with completely being happy with myself, I am at peace knowing that every day I make an effort to better myself.

While it is important to look out for those around you and make sure they are happy, it is important to also realize that we won't be able to help and fix others if we too are struggling. My best piece of advice is to remember that it is not selfish to better yourself before you try to help those around you.