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Watching her Kids running in the front yard of a new house while standing in the arms of

someone she loves is what Elizabeth Cifuentes Garcia thinks about when picturing her future and

this is what motivates her to move forward in life when at times it can seem like a struggle to see

the purpose behind things. She understands what it means to create a happy and positive

surrounding for her future kids and to have respect for those she cares about. “Creating my own

life outside of my close family is what keeps me going because I know I won’t and don’t want to

create a place of pain and feeling as if you’re not good enough every day because I know what it

feels like.” This was surprising to her because if you ever had conversation with Elizabeth you

would never think that she felt this way, or was treated like this

She thinks about what type of parent she would be to her children taking lessons from her

parents, knowing how she doesn’t want her kids to feel. Elizabeth is the type of person that all

her friends admired and wanted to be like, someone who was compassionate, intelligent, and

hard-working. When I asked how she would describe herself one sentence truly stood out to me,

“ I will not give up on anyone and I look for the light to brighten my day.” This fully describes

the type of person she is. Someone willing to do anything for those she cared about even if she

was hurting but no matter what happened she always tried to look for the positive side of things.

Elizabeth has big goals for her future which she is sure to accomplish, one of them being

her goal of completing her master's degree. Education is very important for her. When speaking

about what was the best thing to happen to her, she stated that moving into the Jordan school

district was the best thing. Because this move gave her many opportunities for her education

including being a part of many clubs like Latinos in action, the newspaper, and even one of her

biggest achievements which was being a part of madrigals. How motivated she is and how she

takes charge of her education is something that Elizabeth is very proud of.
 For some students having so many responsibilities can be very stressful and take a toll on

them. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, one in eight students is

diagnosed with anxiety and many aren’t being treated. ( Impact of anxiety, 2020) Outside

sources and school stress can have negative effects on students such as poor performance or

disinterest in keeping relationships. In this case, Elizabeth used the pain to motivate herself and

she owes some of these traits and behaviors to the strength of her sisters.

Along with her sisters, Elizabeth has had some hard balls thrown at her but when she

looks at how her sisters stay together and push forward even when they feel like everything is

too much and want to give up they rise to the challenge and make sure everyone stays strong.

Elizabeth admires this in her siblings and does the same for her friends. Although she may be

struggling you will never hear her complain about how hard life can be but she will also put

aside her feelings and problems to care for others because she knows what it feels like to struggle

and never wants others to be in that situation.

As much as Elizabeth likes to put on a strong face like most of us she also has her scars

and trauma that she deals with. Being anxious was a normal feeling, something everyone went

through whether it was having a big assignment or talking to new people but it became apparent

in 2017 the anxiety she was feeling wasn’t just from her expectations with school but her home

life. She remembers at the lowest point having a panic attack and not being able to think clearly

and being filled with this sudden surge of pain. It was then her mental health started to take a toll

on her, her parents becoming separated, having to go home to home, and eventually feeling like

she needed to make a choice of which parent she wanted to be with. For any child, this is a hard

thing to do but for Elizabeth, there was another layer.

 She had known about her mom wanting to leave her father since her mother had confided

in her and at first, she was left with her father, and then soon her mother wanted Elizabeth to

leave with her. This was heartbreaking for her because she remembers sitting with her father

laughing and having a great time while also knowing what the future held. She recalled a

memory, coming home from school knowing her mother was gone but her father not realizing

until he saw the empty drawers. From an outside view, it would appear that since her father was

still there it would be obvious which parent to pick but her relationship with her father was also

failing. She didn’t want to choose so she did whatever to make her parents happy but no one

stopped to consider her feelings. Times got hard for Elizabeth because of her home life but also

she was putting so much pressure on herself when it came to her school work.

The pressure from both her parents, stating they were doing everything because of her but

also the pressure of being a good student and friend was catching up to Elizabeth. Because of her

past experiences and dealing with mental health issues she makes sure to always check in on her

friends and help them out. She wants people to know that they are strong and good enough and

that with time things will get better. Something she even struggles with is sharing her feelings

and bottling them up but recently she has worked on that and realized she doesn't have to go

through everything alone. When Elizabeth first learned about her mother’s plan to leave she had

only informed one friend about her struggles but with time she was able to speak more openly

with others.

To Elizabeth, her showing her feelings may have been scary but for those listening it was

a sign of strength. Seeing this side of Elizabeth was also a sign of hope for her friends, that it was

okay to share emotions and that everyone goes through things. I ended the interview by asking

Elizabeth how she felt about the stereotypes and assumptions surrounding mental health and her
initial reactions were feelings of anger, confusion, and misunderstood. She stated that mental

health is something serious and it shouldn’t be bottled up or looked down on. For the younger

generation, mental health is more talked about and accepted, but there are still a lot of stigmas

surrounding mental health and reaching for help. For some this may be a cultural thing such as in

some Asian cultures seeking help may go against values of emotional restraint and avoiding

shame. Another example of this is in some African American communities, which distrust the

mental health care system, these can all be barriers to speaking out. ( Stigma and discrimination,

2021) Besides culture, some were raised to believe that mental health doesn’t exist and

everything is just made up. This can be very dangerous for people who are dealing with trauma

or things such as depression.

Mental health is very important. We can look at Utah alone and from 2014 to 2019 620

died from suicide each year, and Utah is ranked number ten of highest suicide rates. (Nielsen,

2019)

But even with everything going she doesn’t want to be seen as someone broken or who is

dealing with an illness but rather someone who has strengthened to carry on and speak about

what she's gone through. She wants to be viewed as caring, loving, trustworthy, thoughtful, and a

good friend. Something Elizabeth wants people to know is that what scars you have don’t define

who you are and a rainbow comes after the rain.

 Sources
Impact of anxiety and depression on student academic progress. (2020, April 17). Retrieved
March 04, 2021, from https://ibcces.org/blog/2019/05/01/impact-anxiety-depression-
student-progress/

Nielsen, L. (2019, November 15). Utah's suicide rate drops for the first time in over a decade -
but just barely. Retrieved March 04, 2021, from
https://www.ksl.com/article/46674687/utahs-suicide-rate-drops-for-the-first-time-in-over-
a-decade--but-just-barely

Stigma and discrimination. (n.d.). Retrieved March 04, 2021, from

https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/stigma-and-discrimination