Trust the Heart That Feels Too Much by Austin

Trust the Heart That Feels Too Much by Austin - July 2025 Scholarship Essay

If I could go back and tell my past self just one thing, it wouldn’t be some clever quote or a warning about mistakes. It would be something simple: Trust that the heart you think is “too soft” is exactly what will lead you to where you belong.

There was a time when I doubted that. I didn’t see my empathy as a strength; I saw it as something that made things harder. I felt everything deeply. When someone around me was struggling, especially someone I loved, it hit me like a wave I couldn’t ignore. And no one made me feel that more than my younger sister.

She’s the reason I started asking questions about how people interact, how they learn, how they feel safe in a world that doesn’t always make room for them. She was diagnosed with autism when we were both young, and although I didn’t understand the full weight of that at the time, I knew it meant that her life, and ours, would be different. I watched the way people responded to her, sometimes with patience, but too often with confusion or judgment. It made me angry, protective, curious, and above all, determined.

At first, I didn’t know what to do with that feeling. I thought maybe I’d grow out of it, or that I needed to find a “real” career that had nothing to do with emotions. But I kept coming back to the same desire: to be someone who could actually make things better for kids like my sister.

That’s what led me to become a Registered Behavior Technician. It wasn’t a random choice. It was personal from the start.

Working as an RBT has changed everything. It’s more than a job; it’s a reminder every day that compassion is powerful when paired with patience, consistency, and training. I work directly with children on the spectrum, helping them develop communication and social skills, supporting their progress, and often celebrating the kinds of victories that go unseen by most people. It’s exhausting sometimes, but it’s the kind of tired that feels worth it.

And in every session, I think about my sister. About how I wish she had someone like me back then. About how lucky I am now to be that person for someone else’s child.

There were times along the way when I doubted myself, especially in school. I didn’t have the highest GPA starting out. I struggled and I failed; yet I kept coming back to this path, not because it was easy, but because it felt right. Every time I questioned whether I was “cut out” for this work, I remembered why I started in the first place, and that reason always brought me back.

So if I could sit across from my past self now, maybe on one of those nights when I was overwhelmed and thinking about giving up, I’d tell him this: Don’t shut off your heart just because it makes things feel heavier. That heart is going to carry you through things you never imagined. It’s going to lead you to a career, a purpose, and a version of yourself that’s stronger than you think.

I would tell him that the love he had for his sister would one day become his motivation, his education, and his direction. And that his story, our story, isn’t something to be ashamed of. It’s something to build from.

And he’d believe me. Maybe not all at once, but eventually, he’d start to see that the very thing he thought made him “too sensitive” is what made him capable of changing lives, starting with his own.