“I’ve struggled with depression since I was 10 years old. Anxiety and depression. I’ve had a lot of health problems. I missed half of seventh and eighth grade. I’ve struggled with narcotics abuse so that’s pretty tough…but I find happiness in helping other people. I think that’s just one of the best things you can do in life. 

I try and teach anybody anything I know. If anybody has any problems, I will immediately help them with anything and I’m a big dude so if anybody is getting bullied I’ll tell them, ‘come to me, i’ll protect you.’ Me and my parents have always had the same motto: ‘if you don’t have a safe place to be, then you can come stay at my home.’ No matter what your circumstances. My only thought is to just keep that person alive. 

The thing is to help everyone you can… why would you put someone down? You don’t know what kind of circumstances they are in, you don’t know what they’re going through… just a smile could impact their whole month and just completely change everything.

It’s a community. I mean you see it in science like ecosystems, everything feeds off of each other so we should all feed off of each other’s positivity. And then there’s those people who help you up and you just need to get closer and closer to those people because those are the people who are gonna make such good friends in your life and that’s who you want to stay close to. 

Definitely my parents [have inspired me], [because] they are really concerned for mental health. My brother has depression. They have depression and anxiety so they really know a lot about it, they’ve always had the philosophy that if you need help we’re always here.

Another one is the rapper Logic. He was a biracial baby and his mom was a racist. He was kidnapped. [He made] multiple attempts on his life. People told him he wasn’t going to be anything, but he persevered and persevered and persevered and look where he is now. And so I think to myself what if I persevered? What if I get up? What if I keep helping people? What if I keep going? Then maybe I can get as big as him some day. “

Information by: Sami Stuart, Courtny Hastings, and Emma Wilson 

Photo by: Sami Stuart