My Junior year of high school was supposed to be one filled with fun football nights, late ASB nights, and long weeks with my best friend. What I got was not what I expected. You see in high school we all expect things. We never really believe something out of the norm will happen. We sit around and just think "oh my life is so great It's going to always continue like this", but it never works out that way.

In October of 2016 on a Monday morning, everything changed. My sister ended up having a confrontation with a group of 8 girls. Their intention was to beat her while in the gym locker room. The school did nothing. The girls had to miss two days of school and attend an anger management class for a week. All throughout the week I was getting harassed for the confrontation, people were mad at me for stopping it.

I moved from San Diego, California to small town Hoquiam, Washington. Now moves were never ever hard for me. My father recently retired from the military, so I moved often. This move was the most devastating. I had everything I could have ever wanted. I was an honor roll student, the top of the Matador Business Academy at my school, and most importantly I had amazing friends.

When the time came for me to move I had a mental breakdown. I was not public about it, and I kept to myself. People at my new school did not like me, which was different for me. I realized it was because everyone was close to each other, and there was a hard wall to knock down. Depression had me in its hand and was not going to let go anytime soon.

For an entire year, I was depressed. I gained weight, was not social, eating anything in sight. I dwelled on my old life and never looked forward, I thought nothing could ever be better than what I had. At one point within the year, I started talking to my counselor, which helped more than I could ever express. The light in my eye slowly came back. I started to speak more to people and came back out of my shell. It was like my old life just lead me to grow even more.

I started getting involved in school activities, like golf, and future business leaders of America. Getting involved was something that helped me shine the light back into my eyes. I realized people started enjoying my company, and it was just my own mind that knocked me down. One thing I still held onto was the past. I kept saying to myself "what if", and saying that hurt me more than anything. Throughout my senior year, I have learned not to dwell on the past and to look for the future. You might have had everything in the past, but it is up to you to have what you want in the future.

Moving on is hard, but we all have to do it one point in our lives. The key is to not dwell on said topic. You can have deep thoughts about the hardship, but don't spend forever on it. It hurts us. So, here I am, one year after everything went down. I am on my way to college and moving on from my past.