As corny as this sounds, it was after my first heartbreak when I started feeling as if I had no purpose in life already.

I remember, I was in grade 10 when I was first completely devastated. I was 15 back then and I really did not care much about life. I was a student-athlete and the team captain of the basketball team. I had both my parents supporting me all throughout and friends laughing with me all the time. Moreover, I also had this special person who I spent sweet and cheesy moments with. I was just a regular high school kid. Simple. But when this special person left, my whole world felt like it was falling apart. I started to feel insecure and like something is wrong with me. And when I thought this emotional torture was going to end soon, I found out that it was only the beginning. After some time, parts of my life were also shattered. When my parents fought, I would instantly become paranoid and afraid that one of them would leave. The drive that I used to have when playing the sport I love the most was suddenly not there anymore. And worst, I almost repeated grade 10 because of failing some subjects. My life just started falling apart. People would tell me to move on, bounce back, and keep on fighting, but I just could not. It is not that I did not want to or I was not trying really hard; I just really could not take it anymore. I started having negative thoughts in my head; I would overthink and worry a lot about everything. I would have a hard time sleeping at night as well. and this just became a cycle. Easily, I was able to get used to it until at some point in my life, I just felt emotionally and physically drained. This was when I literally wanted to die just to end the pain. I started to hurt myself just so that I would cry and be able to burst everything out.

More often than not, depression is not given enough attention by the people. Depression may seem like a normal episode or emotion, but it is a major disorder that can affect a person’s life to a great extent. It not only affects one’s mood for the day, but it can permanently affect how one feels, think, and behaves. Depression is a silent killer. It can make one feel hopeless and in order to successfully escape it, one should approach it with the proper mindset, which is to be positive. Surround yourself with positive people, stay in a positive environment, and find the positives in a life full of negatives.

Today, around 3 years later, I would confidently say that I am feeling a lot better. To be honest, there are still those days when I feel extremely down, but it’s alright because now, it is clear to me that it is normal to feel sad and hopeless at times. Also, what helped me get rid of negative thoughts and stopped me from overthinking and worrying is the verse Jeremiah 29:11. Everytime I get anxious, I just think of this verse and it helps me feel at ease because I know that eventually, everything will be okay. It somehow tells me that even in the midst of darkness, there is light. Maybe it’s difficult for us to see it sometimes but if we change or adjust our perspective or the way we look at things and perceive them, we will understand that indeed there is still hope even in the most hopeless situation.

Stop, ask yourself, and think first before you take another step.

“Think about it,” my system 2 tells my system 1 as I am about to make a rash decision.

The lecture about “The Thinking Self” helped me grasp the idea of the self as a complex force that depends on my new experiences (system 1) and past memories (system 2). Because of the lecture, I was able to understand more how my mind functions. I learned that the mind is one huge faculty that consists of not only my memory, but also my thinking, and even my consciousness.

Globalization has led to the interconnectivity of the world. Its emergence immensely influenced the complexity of common day to day living with the continuous advancements and developments it brings.

Because of the lectures on the bioecological theory (PPCT) and globalization, I learned that we live in a world that is continuously changing and developing. The more time passes by, the more the world gets smaller because of the constant evolution of technology. Thus, bringing the world, particularly humans, closer together.

What’s interesting is that this global phenomenon already happened in the past and eventually led to the world we live in today. Also, what’s amazing is that this phenomenon is still happening now and will definitely happen in the future to create an even more complex world.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.