Introduction:

Many people ask me what I want to do after high school and I’m never sure what to say to them. I know that i want to attend community college and then a university but I’m not even really sure what I want to be when I grow up, there’s so many things to do and places to see that it’s hard to know exactly what I want to do. One of the many obstacles of life is figuring out how you want to live it. I do know that I will still be living at home once I graduate and I will be working at my job. A year from now I see myself attending Mira Costa college and knowing what I want to be when I grow up. I hope to have a car by the time I’m 19 which I’m sure will happen because I have been saving up money since I was 16. Life takes many twists and turns and now is the time to start being an adult and make a life for myself.

Emotional Wellness:  

Emotional Wellness is defined as being in touch with and accepting one’s feelings and having an optimistic look on life. When I think about emotional wellness I think that people should know themselves and be okay with who they are because at the end of the day, you live for yourself and no one else. Even though life does have it’s hardships at times we must not let it get to us because our emotional well being is at stake, if we jeopardize that then we can fall into a depression in which we won’t be able to get out of. As humans we rely on emotions to get us through life, everybody wants to love and be loved and if we don’t feel that we can start turning bitter.

 

What I do to help myself relax after a long and stressful day is meditate. This is good for anyone who would like to help themselves get over a particularly hard day. Many people do meditation so that they can get over any stress or anxiety they might have and it works very well for them. I personally feel like getting in touch with who you are will make you a happier person because when things go wrong you know where you stand and no one can say anything to make you think otherwise. That’s why it’s always good to have friends so they can support you in whatever you do. Being happy is very important to our health because it is what sustains us.

Environmental Wellness:

The definition of environmental wellness is living a lifestyle that is respectful of our surroundings. This encourages us to live in harmony with the earth by taking action to protect it. This is a very good definition of what it is because to me it basically means the same thing, to protect the earth no matter the cost because once our earth is gone we will not be able to live anymore. Many people don’t see it like that but it is the truth, if our world deteriorates to the point where it is inhabitable we won’t be able to live here anymore. Our planet is a very precious thing to us so we need to take full advantage of it and not overuse it. The planet can be a beautiful thing if we just knew how to properly treat her. In recent news I have seen that our resources for food and water have been depleting due to our inability to recognize the damage that we have been causing our planet.

 

A while ago our planet was not plagued by oil spills or hurricanes as badly as it is now. Recent changes in the weather have been the cause of hurricanes becoming more frequent but as for the oil spills, it’s our fault because our factories and waterline systems haven’t been working properly. We need to realize that our ecosystem is slowly dying, more and more animals have been going extinct as a result. I would like to plant many trees around the city of Vista so that we can try to give back to the community.

 

Financial Wellness:

Budget #1 Income:

For my income I plan to be working minimum wage (since I work at Souplantation) and I would like to get a second job because I need a car so I would have to be making monthly payments on it. My income every month should be around 600 or 650 since I work 20-28 hours per week and I get two paychecks per month while I would be going to school. If I were to combine those for the whole year i was be making about 7,200 per year which isn’t too much but I am barely going to turn eighteen. As I get older I would like to be making more money which is why I would need a second job which is for when I have already reached my goal.

Budget #2 Expenses:

As far as expenses go, while I’m still in school I would only buy things that are necessary like food, basic human needs, and shoes. My other expenses would be paying a car payment and paying off credit cards which I plan on getting right when I turn eighteen. Once I reach my goal if I still haven’t paid off my car or credit card bills I would need to continue making those payments and hopefully I would be halfway done with them.

Financial Wellness is described as an intricate balance between mental, spiritual, and physical aspects of money. The definition for me, is basically having enough money for whatever you plan on pursing such as getting a car or getting a credit card. You can’t just get things that you don’t even know if you can afford because that will ultimately hurt you in the end, you’ll be in debt and eventually you will have to apply for bankruptcy. That’s what happened to my mom, she got lots of credit cards and maxed them out and when she realized that her minimum payments were 200 dollars she struggled to make ends meet. Money is a good thing but people need to realize that it can get you into a lot of trouble if you misuse or misjudge it, it’s a balancing act.

Intellectual Wellness:

Intellectual Wellness is defined as activities that stimulate your mind in creative ways. People like to invent new ways of stimulating our minds such as brain games. Brain games are very fun so maybe once I start college and I feel stressed out I can play them so that I can de stress myself. I believe that many people can overcome things when they look within themselves and try to function. People do this in order to have a successful life because when they stimulate their mind so that they become smarter. Skills are an important part of stimulating the brain because it will help you hone in on what you are good at. Being mentally prepared for life will help you discover what you want to do and will be helpful.

 

By keeping your intellectual curiosity high you can achieve many things that you wouldn’t have perceived as achievable. People keep their intellectual curiosity high by reading newspapers, doing crossword puzzles, and sudoku. For me, I’ve never really thought about my intellectual abilities because I always thought that nobody could do anything if they are not as smart as other people. I like to be able to talk to other people and see their perspectives on things and how they take certain things. My family is a very open family so we always talk about things and everybody gives their opinions on the situation and whether they agree with us or not so i think that’s why i like to talk with other people about things.

Occupational Wellness:

When I grow up I want to be a family lawyer which helps people go through a divorce and custody battles. I would need to complete a bachelor’s degree program, pass the law school admission test, identify law schools and complete applications, earn a juris doctor degree, pass the bar examination, and finally you can advance your career. The total cost of going to law school according to an article will be 212,707 because it also includes the undergraduate degree which costs 76,000. For a while I was set on going to college to become a forensic psychologist which is a person who interviews people who have murdered to see whether they are mentally insane or malicious enough to have consciously done it. Then this year I took an AP psychology course and realized that I did not find it interesting enough so I decided to change my major to lawyer. I’ve always known that I wanted to be someone within the law, the doctor field never interested me. This career can be mentally draining because you will have to remember every last bit of the law in order to be able to defend your client to the best of your ability. Before you even get to call yourself a lawyer you have to put yourself through a lot of school in which you will have to study and pass the bar exam which is very hard. If this does not work out for me I really don’t know what I would do, if I’m still young enough I would probably apply to become a police officer but if I put all of my adult years into this career and it doesn’t work out I wouldn’t know what to do. I would like to remain positive and hopefully this career will work out for me.

Physical Wellness:

Physical wellness to me means being healthy from the mind and body. In order to be healthy you need to exercise and eat healthy foods. Some steps you can take to maintain a healthy lifestyle is exercise for at least 30 minutes every day, control your meal portions, and get 7-9 hours of sleep each night. In my lifestyle I do not sleep for 7 to 9 hours each day I usually sleep around 5 or 6 hours each day. Most people don’t really take care of their body or mind because they don’t think they need to but they should. My grandparents never took care of their bodies when they were younger because they didn’t have enough money to and they paid for it now that they’re older because they have heart and teeth problems. Eating healthy can consist of eating lots of vegetables and fruits while also eating protein. You need to have a balance in your diet or else it’s more likely that you will gain an unhealthy amount of weight. My family does practice healthy eating since my dad made us start cooking healthy. He’s 54 years old so he really needs to keep track of his diet and his eating habits. I have recently gained a lot of weight when I shouldn’t have so now I need to keep track of what I am eating and lessen my portions. I am going to start going to the gym with my family so it will help us lose the weight we don’t need. Being healthy can be good for you in the long run.

Spiritual Wellness:

Spiritual wellness is defined as a personal matter involving values and beliefs that provide purpose. I believe in God but technically being spiritual doesn’t mean that you have to believe in God, you could just be in tune with your well being and emotions. One of the habits of mind states thinking about thinking which means being aware of your own thoughts, feelings, intentions, and actions. We need to be aware that what we say can hurt other people’s feelings and so we should always be careful as to what we say. One way to be in tune with our spiritual side would be to try yoga, it makes you calm and regulate your breathing. Last year when I went to mission vista I took a yoga class which really helped me with my posture and be calm. It also really helped me stretch my body out and become a bit more flexible. Being positive all the time in your life can also help you be spiritual since you won’t have negative thoughts that will cloud you from being spiritual. When I was younger I did try to be in tune with my spiritual side but I wasn’t really trying hard enough so as I got older I stopped tuning in so much. Another reason why i wasn’t very spiritual is because my family was somewhat religious so mostly every sunday we would go to church where they praise god, not just spirits. I hope that once I get older I will still continue to be with my spiritual side and not let negative thoughts get the best of me.

Social Wellness:

Social wellness refers to the relationships we have and how we interact with others. Being able to have good relationships with people is beneficial for us because we need support from family and friends when we start going through hard times. I should also not be quick to judge people, I never really do but sometimes if someone rubs me the wrong way I will automatically make my mind up about them. I have a lot of friends but I only have one best friend who I met in middle school and we’ve been best friends since then. Whenever her and I get into arguments we both always try to own up to our faults and fix the problems we have. We’re really good at doing that for which I am grateful for because i’ve seen friendships end because they were both too prideful to admit that they were wrong. I hope that her and I will continue being best friends until we are much older. I don’t associate with too many people because I do like being by myself most of the time but I wouldn’t consider myself anti social, I just talk to who I want and when I want. I’m also really shy so that also probably impedes on me making new friendships but it honestly doesn’t bother me. Going out with friends also helps me get my social interactions for the day which is always good for anyone. I plan to move away once I’m in my twenties so I can do a lot more living away from people that I’ve known for most of my life.