Content Warning: mentions self-harm and suicide

Everyone’s journey is different. What people show publicly can be completely different than what goes on behind the curtain. That being said, Counseling Services are free and available to all UW-Platteville students. If you need help, go talk to a counselor. 

I have been enrolled at UW-Platteville for seven years, from the spring of 2016 to the fall of 2022. I wish I could go into detail about all the things that I struggled with, but 500 words isn’t a lot. 

I struggle daily with depression, anxiety and ADHD. Things haven’t exactly been smooth sailing. There have been several times where I self-harmed because that was how I dealt with a lot of things. There were also times where I wanted to unalive myself. I still struggle daily with both things, but I have met so many people that have helped me.

It’s not a secret that when COVID-19 hit, everyone struggled. When classes were switched from in-person to online, I just about lost my mind. Not because I was excited to not have to go to class, but because I knew I didn’t do well with online classes. The first semester that classes were completely online, I failed nearly every single one. In fact, things got so bad that I was dismissed after the fall semester of 2020. I appealed and got back in, but there were some requirements. The biggest one, at least for me, was seeing an academic coach. This is when I met Kia. Kia Hendrickson is the Director of Academic Support Programs. When I first met her, I wanted to literally be anywhere else, but she helped me with a lot. Kia isn’t the only person who has helped me figure out what it means to be me. 

Along with Kia, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Sara Koeller and Catherine Van Paemel. Between the three of them and the help from others, I have successfully made it to the end of my college journey. There have been several bumps in the road, to put it mildly, but none of them ever gave up. They adamantly refused to let me give up. They showed me that not everyone is fake and that if you need help, it’s more than okay to reach out.

If there is one piece of advice that I can give to anyone it would be: Never be afraid to be unapologetically you. I know it sounds somewhat cliché, but it is something that I have struggled with constantly. Life is messy. Not everything is going to happen EXACTLY how you want it to, and no matter how hard you try, sometimes you lose. That’s okay. Don’t live your life trying to please everyone. It won’t happen. Someone is always going to feel like you wronged them. At the end of the day, the only person who should truly matter to you is you. Take what people say with a jar of salt.