39 A Significant Personal experience
Jahtae Madrigal
5/2/2024
English 101
A Significant Personal experience
My name is Jahtae Madrigal, and I am in nursing school to get my RN license. Before I knew I wanted to get into the nursing program, I didn’t think I was good enough to do anything, but I knew I loved making money and braiding hair. I was depressed and felt lonely and thought turning to substances would help me. Instead, it distracted me and only healed me temporarily. I was in 11th grade when I knew I was not going to finish school and would drop out. I was failing all my classes, not attending school, and wasting my potential. My mom is a very religious person who I appreciate more than anything. I knew something was up with me, and would constantly reach out to me, offering to study the Bible or go on walks and exercise with me. I always brushed her off and kept dwelling on what bothered me. My mom came to me one last time and sat me down. She explained to me, “Jahtae, you cannot sit around all day feeling depressed and sorry for yourself, expecting things to get better, unless you do something about it, it will just continue in a cycle” When I heard those words coming out of my mom’s mouth, I cried more than I ever imagined because it was true, I didn’t even try or think about me being able to heal myself from being depressed, and those words stuck with me and replayed in my head over and over again. One day, I woke up and sat on my bed, thinking about my life and my purpose. I suddenly thought, “My mom is right; how am I going to improve my life and reach my goals if I just sit around lingering on the bad parts?” That day, I finally decided to get up and do something about it. I started exercising daily, stopped my bad habits, and started eating better, praying, and staying positive. Now, of course, I didn’t start on that exact day, but with patience and faith, I have gotten closer to my goals, and each day, I push myself more and more to become the best version of myself that I know I can become. Since I have made a change in my life, I have started my business braiding hair and am ready to apply to the nursing program. I am incredibly proud of myself and continue to grow. My mom encouraged me to get up and put in the work and constantly reminded me of a bible scripture that we would say every night before going to bed. 2 Timothy 1:7: “ For God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power, and of love, and a sound mind”. This scripture means the world to me, and with this scripture and through God, anything is possible. Depression is a severe and unfortunate illness that a lot of people experience, and I would encourage anyone who is fighting that battle to trust in yourself and know that you can do anything you put your mind to. If you need to go on a run to distract yourself from being sad, or you need to put on some loud music and dance, I say do it! Do whatever will make you feel better as long as it means self-improvement.