I am a 24 year old who has graduated from NIU. I professionally teach, have a wonderful and very supportive boyfriend, and am learning to live with my bipolar disorder. I have an anxiety disorder as well that seems to create bouts of insomnia. I struggle a lot to maintain a stable weight, and managing my finances and time.

A lot of what I have learned to survive unmedicated came from my past. I was saved by my brother who outed my suicidal side to my mother. I had been sick a lot that year.. 8th grade... I had been in all the honors classes at that point, but managed to almost not able to graduate middle school. As puberty ended it left me with a horrible surprise.... I was depressive... and then having the horrible manics... I was sick all the time... Since then, the overachiever in me has taken to uncovering my own way of coping. I survived high school by the way of the pen-- writing poetry, drawing. I overcame cutting... I graduated in the top ten of my class... I continute to over-achieve, but beat myself up on the inside because I know it will only be a matter of time before I 'prevent' the stress from 'getting the best of me'. 

I am looking forward to the engagement on my horizon. I am going to be settling down with my boyfriend soon. We already live together and are planning on getting married within a year. I hope to continue my career until we start a family, hopefully be able to take some time off from my career, and be a stay at home mom. I want the average life. I dont need anything more than love and peace in my life and I strive for nothing more.