The human mind is one of the most interesting phenomena of our world. While humans have been able to break down almost everything around us down to its roots, our own minds elude us. We’re only able to grasp at patterns we see, and find it an achievement to find a cause for a single problem. Because of this, I’ve chosen to pursue a career in psychology.

Jobs shape our lives, so it only makes sense that people think about them a lot. But not everyone cares the same. My parents want the very best for me and my siblings. A fancy college, smart classes, a high-paying job, normal aspirations like that. In contrast, I never really cared. I would be happy with a bag of rice, a nice bed to lie in, and some peace and quiet. I’d always felt that most jobs could afford me wishes as simple as mine. However, as I’ve aged, peace and quiet have become more and more of a commodity, forcing me to think about what I want to do with my life. This always leads me back to psychology.

The study of the human mind, behavior, emotions, and much more. This field has always had some sort of a draw to me, partially due to the people I’ve met making it personal. The main reason, though, is what it will mean to other people.

I am incredibly lucky to have the capacity for peace and contentment that I do. Unfortunately, the majority of people around the world lack this gift of peace that I hold. In fact, one out of every five American adults suffer from a mental illness in any given year. These people can struggle in ways that others can’t even understand, their experiences wholly unique to them. As a psychologist, I would be able to help guide them through their issues, and to bridge the gap of understanding at the same time.

This gap of understanding is responsible for one of America’s biggest problems. Rather than receiving the help that they need, the mentally ill are often cast aside. Over 20% of the homeless have a serious mental condition, and 37% of those incarcerated in state or federal prison suffer from a diagnosed mental condition(“Mental Health by the Numbers”, NAMI). People with serious issues are put behind bars rather than mental institutions. Then, when in prison, only two out of every five receive treatment at all, much less helpful treatment. 

As a psychologist, I would do more than just help my patients. I would ideally be able to help to further humanity’s knowledge of the human brain, intricate and complicated as it may be. This is, once again, to help as many people in the field as I can. However, there is more that even the average person can do. People who suffer from mental illness in the form of anxiety disorders often take up to 30 years to reach out to the people around them. Nobody should ever be forced to spend such a large amount of their life suffering silently because they feel as though they can’t trust the people around them with their problems. Therefore, I urge you to make sure to check on the people you know, and to make it known that you can be trusted with information as important as this.

At the end of the day, not everything can be solved by support, as helpful as it is. So, I plan to pursue psychology in its completion, in the hopes of stopping as many people as I can from suffering for all those years without anything to gain.