We are living in unprecedented times. We are young. Some of you reading this are a part of the class of 2020, some of you are going into high school, some of you have just graduated high school, some of you are still in college, or the rest of you are chilling at homes having quite literally messes and riots in your own brain. I mean, who can blame us? In this era of exploding coronavirus outbreaks, rioting, and peaceful protests, our lives in our country have paused.

Gone are the peaceful trips to the mall, the movie theatres, local restaurants. Gone are weeknight raves, weekly book clubs.

Now, all we know are staying six feet apart and making sure to stay sanitized with our own share of hand sanitizers and surgical masks.

Our motto is no longer "live, love, laugh," it's more like "make sure to social distance." Gone were the meetups with friends, the people you care about. Now, what replaces social meetups are just the endless zoom parties that have interrupted our once happy lifestyles.

I am a very anxious person. I overthink endlessly, always coming up with the worst-case scenario to every situation. I am one of those people of my college community that want fall 2020 classes to be in person, even though there may be peaks for the coronavirus situation considering most researchers are speculating that the sickness may be seasonal. I am not selfish, I am simply watching out for my mental health.

My mental health has been weakening ever since I went home from school.

Having extremely overbearing and helicopter parents aren't helping my wellbeing, nor encouraging me to have the freedom in doing what I love to do.

I believe in having my mental health steady and for all those people out there struggling with their mental health, it's okay. It may be weird to think, but our mental healths are the very things that are keeping us going in life. It is the one thing that stays with us, regardless of what we go through. It may push us down, stretch us thin, and keep us dehydrated from what can really bring us happiness, but it is that pin in the haystack that tends to bother you one moment to another. It's something that pushes us to places we never thought would be possible to go.

To all of us: we are strong. We need to stay united during all this. And, it is in this era, especially that we cannot overcome this separately. We have to stand together.