“The toughest thing I’ve had to overcome in my life was my depression.”

“The toughest thing I’ve had to overcome in my life was my depression. It started my 7th grade year during a tough time. And it carried on up to last year around this time.

Although I’m still dealing with it, over the years, I started doing things to help overcome it. I started painting in the summer of last year. One painting that I did that a lot of people like, and is my prize possession now, is my painting of J. Cole. And just yesterday, I painted Lisa Simpson from The Simpsons. I also painted an elephant in some grass. And I painted a flower for my mom, because she loves flowers. Really, I just randomly paint random things.

And it’s weird because painting was something that I didn’t like doing when I was younger. I actually tried different things. I tried basketball. But I didn’t like it. I was also in the chorus. And singing is fun, but that was not something I wanted to keep doing. I tried sewing. I do hair, but that gets tiring. So, I needed something that didn’t involve other people, something where it could be just me and my own thoughts. And that’s why I came back to painting.”

– Ayana, sophomore political science major from Atlanta, Ga.