Savannah B., Centerville High School
The Life-Changing Project
Each day was nothing more than an emotional battle I had to survive. A pandemic of depression swept through all teenagers in the world, and it had taken me with it. About two years ago, I had had enough of my constant sadness and decided it was time for a change. Little did I know that choosing to do a simple project would forever change my life.
School, home, phone. That was simply all that mattered in my life. And when everyone at school and on social media was struggling with their mental health, I was impacted as well. However, one night, towards the end of 2023, I came across an image on social media. The image was of a chart that represented the year. The idea was that every night, one must reflect on the activities and events of the day, then color in a square with the color’s coordinating emotion. With the hope of improving my overall mood, I chose to begin the project during the year 2024.
Every night, I could be found cogitating on my day and what emotion I would use to describe it. In previous nights before the project, I came home and hyperfixated on the unfortunate events of the day. However, I started to look back on all the events of the day, both good and bad. I began noticing there were more delightful memories that I had not been remembering previously. Not too long after my switch, I noticed a huge difference.
My life became one that I never expected to have. I was much more joyful than I was only a few months prior. My poor experiences throughout the day had as much impact on my life as removing a grain of sand from the beach. Additionally, I noticed I became more willing to help people and do good things for others.
Although many people in my life felt gloomy, I decided to look past that and focus on the good things. I wanted to share my success with the others around me as well. I told people about the habits they can build for themselves. On my social media, I posted about the project I had seen before. To my community, I recommended that they decide to be joyful despite pessimistic influences.
Two years ago, I never would have guessed that I could choose to do something that would make me a happier person, and that it would be as simple as completing a project. Even when everyone around me was feeling down, I decided not to let it impact my upbeat mood. Whenever I feel lost and hopeless in my life, I remember that project and choose to take time and reflect on the positive times in my life. I learned that in order to live a more upbeat life and do good things, you must choose to reflect on moments that are great and ignore ones that aren’t.
