My Farewell Speech.

Hello everyone!

This is Mercy. I am a listener on 7 Cups. I am writing this to inform you that I will unfortunately be leaving the teen side today. I turn 18 in February but I need to take a break now due to academic stresses. Ive made many friends here and gotten the chance to empower many people, and I am very glad because of that.

I started on 7 Cups in grade 9, when I was 15 years old. At that time, I got a concussion, and I was very bummed out because of it, so I sought support and came across this website. I first wanted someone to talk to, but upon seeing the opportunity to become a listener, I jumped and got so excited.

Today I have a 5 star rating, lots of good reviews, and I am very confident in my abilities as a listener. However, my first chat went very wrong! I got 2 stars, and the member told me I was very robotic and failed to help at all. But I did not give up. I continued to chat. I had a few more bad chats and I kept going.

This is what happens when you fail. You fail, you learn from it, you pull yourself up, and you keep going like a warrior.

Anyways, 2 months later, I got hit with anxiety. Severe, crippling anxiety, about the fear of being a bad person and harming people. I would be afraid of cheating on tests. Ive had this anxiety for very long, for years, and I still struggle now. It is very painful, but something you learn is that when pain hits you, you have the choice to be strong and continue to push through life. And I chose that.

Fast forward to around 1 and a half years later, when I started grade 11. As some of you may know I am in an accelerated program (international baccalaureate, if you guys know that). Its very intense and you must work hard. I also wrote animal rights articles a lot and had many extracurricular. This was quite difficult with anxiety and all, as i often did not have the will to get up and do these things. Yet, I persevered. I did what I could. Some days I couldnt do them, other days I got them done, and done well. I learned that its okay to not be productive every day. What matters is that you are focusing your time and accomplishing what is meaningful to you. It is your overall progress that matters more, so dont beat yourself up if you have a few unproductive days. Just keep going.

Fast forward to today, and Im sitting on my proud 91% academic average, with over 10,000 words of articles written for animal rights, multiple internships either completed and underway, and 300,000 cheers on here. I am showing you that you can do a lot if you put yourself to it. Anxiety, depression, mental disorders and struggles do not have to limit you. At all. I am a passionate believer in seeking support, persevering through, and focusing on your priorities. That is how you win the battle against mental health. I struggled with severe feelings of anxiety . And burnout. And some depression. But I pushed through. And so can you. Today, I am proud to be me. And my anxiety does not want that, haha.

Six months ago, I got a video game called Dance Dance Revolution for my console. You should definitely play it, it is very fun. Meanwhile, I had just quit dance club at my school. I was in my schools dance club and I was the worst dancer, and I constantly had very low confidence in my abilities.

When I first started playing Dance Dance Revolution, I was able to clear some light to medium songs. But to my real surprise, one day I managed to clear a hard song! I was in disbelief. Ive always seen myself as someone uncoordinated.. how could I be good at something.. dance-related?? When I was... kind of a flop at my dance club?

I kept practicing and I pushed through my barriers. And I got to the hard songs, then the very hard songs, then the hardest songs in the game. Those songs where you step on... 400 arrows in a minute. What I learned was that... you never know how good you could be at something.. unless you try. Do not doubt yourself for a second.

The next time you start wanting to be a listener but afraid you will not do a good job, try. Try. And fail. And learn from your mistakes. And seek help from a mentor. And read the training guides. And improve. The next time when you want to take that job interview, take it. Dont be afraid to mess up. Who knows? You lose nothing by failing, and gain everything by succeeding.

The next time when you want to pursue your hobby and be good at it, take the chance. Even if someone thinks you wont be good at it. I failed many, many, many times on DDR Kimono Princess Expert before I passed that monster song. And thats okay. Its perfectly okay to fail because it allows you to become wiser and eventually succeed. Dont be afraid of trying. You never know the greatness you could create just from trying.

Im not perfect. Ive screwed up so many times. Youve seen a lot of the good side of my life due to me talking about it, but in reality I struggle too. My relationship with my family is somewhat cold and distant, I struggle to take care of my health a lot, I beat myself up constantly. Ive cried myself to sleep at nights sometimes, Ive had crippling anxiety attacks and vicious spirals, sometimes I even felt as though all I do is screw up. Ive broke someones heart before due to forgetting to talk to them. Ive blown opportunities, and I got rejected to many positions Ive applied for. Ive made mistakes everywhere: including acting unprofessional on 7 Cups. But what matters is that we push through these challenges and persevere. And love. And encourage. And achieve. And today I am proud of myself. As a listener, Ive always believed in empowering people. I would often say things like I believe in you to people when I meant it. Because you are loved. You need to believe in yourself and treat yourself with kindness. And persevere. And love. And encourage. And achieve.

Well, that concludes my inspirational speech, haha. I wish you guys the best of luck on 7 Cups! Hugs. Hugs for everyone.