Advice to Grow Hope by Megan

Advice to Grow Hope by Megan - July 2025 Scholarship Essay

As a child, I struggled immensely. My parents did their best in raising me, but my emotional needs were not met. My mental health was poor- I grappled with anxiety, depression, and suicidality. I felt so alone in the world. My family was openly hostile towards gender and racial minorities. My parents and grandparents would openly mock LGBTQ folks and make racist comments in front of me. Eventually I realized that I was queer, and that significant amounts of my own self-hatred stemmed from living in a family who had a very narrow-minded view of the world. After I moved out of my parent’s home, I gained enough self-confidence and courage to leave the religion that I was raised in.

If I could go back and speak to my younger self, I would want to reassure her that “it will get better.” I would want to share with my younger self something that I didn’t know at the time—eventually, I would be able leave. I think that the most important piece of advice I could have gotten when I was young would be that “you can find a chosen family, someday.” I could not fathom that I would be able to leave the oppressive religious system I was raised in. I did not realize that there was a full, joy-filled world outside of my small religious community. I believe that advice like this would have given me hope that I could have clung to as I weathered the very difficult years of my childhood.