When I was a kid, I was chronically behind academically and had a difficult time focusing. This always made me feel behind compared to my peers. What I lacked in school I channeled into singing, theater, art, and fashion. As a teen, I would spend more time matching my earrings to my purse than on arithmetic. Unfortunately, my classmates weren’t huge fans of my eccentricity, which added to my feeling of isolation. It was a time in my life where I felt trapped and haunted by extremely dark thoughts. It was like that Nine Inch Nails song “Everyday is exactly the same.” The only way I felt a little relief was drawing in my sketchbook.

Luckily as a young adult, I learned from the college I attended that I had an impairment related to attention and short-term memory. To me, this felt like a missing key. I started to develop more compassion for myself and sought out positive personal development content to keep my motivation and spirits high.