"What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candor, more unashamed conversation." -Glenn Close

There’s not a lot about life that I know 100% to be true, but this I know for sure: I am not a quitter. No matter how bad things have gotten and no matter how much I hate something, I have never once given up and walked away. I pride myself on the fact that I stay in the rubble, fight my way out, and do whatever I can to lead others forward with a solution. For the past five years and three months, I’ve sacrificed my mental and physical well-being for what I believed in. No matter how hard it got, or how badly I wanted to, I never quit. I made commitments to those kids, and I followed through with them. Until now. I’m 27 years old, it’s September of my 6th year of teaching, and I quit. I’m 27 years old. In my SIXTH YEAR of teaching. And I’m burnt out. You heard me. I burnt out at TWENTY SEVEN. To tell you the truth, I was completely burnt out at 26. By the end of my fifth year of teaching, I was re-considering everything I’d ever wanted in my life. I questioned why I ev

Rough title to this post, am I right? It'll make sense soon. I'm going to be honest. I first started this blog when I lived abroad in college. I added to it when I wanted to share exciting things happening in my classroom during my exotic two years in the Mississippi Delta. But, when it came to the tough stuff, I avoided the blog. I'll just tell it how it is:  It is so much more fulfilling to make people think I'm fucking awesome. Teaching kids, traveling the world, telling funny stories, and posting pictures of the cutest vet-determined-obese little rescue dog in the entire world. See what I'm saying though? SO FREAKING CUTE. But here's the dirty truth: I have depression and anxiety. I've been in therapy for 8 years. I've been on medication for 5 years, with some shifts and changes in the prescriptions if they weren't working. I've tried exercise, I've tried meditation, I've tried "positive thinking" and more. I've