When talking about giving and helping, we are not just referring to material things, but also love, empathy, solidarity, and, above all, humanity.

Many people may think that we can make big changes with big actions, but the truth is, by doing something for others, no matter how small, we are improving every little corner of our world.

Feeling in your mind that your world or life is collapsing can change everything around you. One year ago I had a difficult experience in my life, to be exact, with my mental health. There were days when I did not find meaning in my life and long nights when I did not know what I was supposed to do with myself, overthinking until sunrise about what was wrong with me and why. I felt scared and alone all the time. I could not find a purpose in my life, and one day, on a hot afternoon, I thought…if I am just existing and feeling bad about myself every single day, what am I still doing here? Am I good at doing something? At that moment, I started crying without consolation, with suicidal thoughts.

I have gotten through this situation thanks to the desire to help others. I had bad days where I just wanted to leave it all behind and give up, but one day I participated in a workshop about depression, one of a few that existed during the quarantine. While I was in that meeting, I realized that I was not alone, that there were many young people like me, going through the same or even something worse. Seeing mental health issues as something most people don't care about, while also realizing that I could not live fully because of my own, led me to the idea of creating a project about mental health so I could have the opportunity to help others. It was that night when I decided to do something to change young people’s lives and also mine.

I am sure that with this project we are going to make positive changes in young people’s lives. The name of this project is "SanaMente," and it has two meanings. The first one is "heal the mind" and the other is "live healthy." With this project, we want to help young people who are suffering from mental problems like anxiety, depression, stress, and others. All of these can be addressed with many activities. In these activities, they will be able to find some useful tools so that they will be able to handle their emotions in a better way. My project aims to help young people through free workshops and support groups with medical professionals so they can achieve well-being, prevent mental illness, and eradicate the stigma of discrimination. We are creating, step-by-step, a safe space, where every young person can find tools to take care of their emotions.

Life is not perfect, but it is beautiful when you want to help and even more beautiful when you do. As I said at the beginning, we all have different perspectives about what it means to give and help, but, for me, it means feeling pleasure by doing something good for others without expecting something in return. But whether you like it or not, we always get something, not necessarily something material but rather knowledge, personal growth, and more. With this little idea of doing a project, I learned a lot of things, but especially I got my salvation. Thanks to the wish of helping others, I found again the purpose in my life, and I hope that other people also find it by giving and helping so that we can all have the opportunity to improve every little corner of our world.