In an effort to keep this as real as it can possibly be, I'm not going to tell you that I had some sort of interaction with God, Jesus, Mary, Buddha, Allah, or any other spiritual being. This one? This one was all me.

I fell in love with life because I have hated it before.

I have hated life, and that was so exhausting. It was scary to plan out my own death, to think of minuscule ways that I could die that day if I wasn't careful enough. It was exhausting to wake up and not be thankful for everything. The fog that cluttered my brain was absolutely exhausting. It was tough, and I pushed and pushed every day to keep myself around.

One day, I woke up, and I listened to the birds outside. I listened to them chirp away at seemingly nothing, and I woke up and felt that perhaps I had a purpose on this Earth. That perhaps my purpose was to change the world, and I didn't want to wait around and dread my days or wallow my life away.

I realized that to be the best version of myself, I needed to be surrounded by people who lift me up. So, as difficult as it was, I rid myself of toxic friendships. Toxicity was going to get me nowhere, so I left the toxicity behind.

I decided to do some soul searching. The majority of my journey consisted of going on long drives on back roads, throwing myself into school work and doing yoga almost daily. I rejuvenated myself. I don't know, perhaps I just picked myself back up. I'm not saying it was easy, but it was one of the wildest years of my life.

During my soul search, I learned about the world and, most importantly, myself. I discovered one of my biggest passions: science!

It struck a match in my heart and lit a fire in my soul. Science is such an integral part of my life at this point, I really cannot be without it in my life.

I now get to wake up each morning with a purpose, and no matter how hard it is to leave the warmth and coziness of my bed, I get to see the sun shine today, and every day. I get to push through the challenges of life.

Hopefully one day I will get to see the sun shine 10 years from now, surrounded by love and those who lifted me up to my greatest potential, those who paved the road to my love of life.