Since her freshman year, junior Kylie Hatfield has been very interested in psychology. She was sitting in psychology class, learning about how the mind works in millions of different ways, and her interest in the subject was sparked. Around that same time, and partly because of that class, Kylie became interested in a potential career choice as a mental health therapist. While it’s not her only idea, it might be one of her top career pathways when she goes to college.
“I’ve always wanted to know what goes on in the brain and why people think the things that they think,” Kylie said. “I’ve also always wanted to try to help people with [their thinking]. I feel like I’m a very caring and outgoing person, and I just want to be able to help people. I want to be there for people and try to understand why they think things and help them improve on that.”
Along with becoming interested in psychology and mental health, her curiosity about the subject was also sparked as she began experiencing her own anxiety and started going to therapy. It made her more interested in mental health because she got to see how therapy worked and because she began understanding others with anxiety.
“[My anxiety] started a little after COVID,” Kylie said. “Being in quarantine, you learn more about yourself because you aren’t around anyone. It mostly started in sixth grade. In middle school, obviously, there was friend drama and all that. I feel like that made me stressed out about my friendships and stuff, and that made me start over thinking more. That made my anxiety kind of worse.”
Middle school and high school can both be incredibly overwhelming for many reasons: friend and relationship issues, the heavy workload, and extracurricular activities. Kylie has experienced all of these struggles, and one of the most influential aspects of her life is one of her extracurricular activities.
In the spring, Kylie plays for the varsity tennis team. She has been playing tennis since she was seven, but got especially interested in it when she began playing in high school. Sports can be a lot of pressure and hard work, and Kylie experienced this firsthand.
“Tennis sometimes made [my anxiety] worse,” Kylie said. “We would go against big schools, including schools that I wanted to beat like [some of our biggest rivals]. When we would lose, I just get really hard on myself, and I obviously have to stop doing that, so [tennis] also led up to my anxiety a little bit.”
The pressure from tennis and other high school problems has been a part of the cause of anxiety for Kylie. Because high school is overall a very stressful time, Kylie would want to work with teenagers if she pursues a career as a therapist. Since she has been through some hard times in high school, she could understand what they are going through and easily put herself in their shoes.
In the past few years, Kylie has learned many tricks for anxiety from her therapist. However, in addition to her therapist, the people in her life have been another big help.
“I love my teammates,” Kylie said. “They’re always good to each other and very sweet. They’re always lifting you up if you lost [a game] or had a bad day. The coach [does] too, [and] I love my coaches. They’re always gonna be there and make sure you’re doing good. If you get into your head, they’re going to be there to try to calm you down if you’re upset.”
Kylie has been playing tennis since third grade and became extra competitive in her freshman year when she made the varsity team. While it has been a little bit of added stress, it’s mostly been an incredible experience for her.
Kylie has had anxiety for over five years. As a junior in high school, those years are very fundamental parts of childhood. Because of this, anxiety has partially helped her grow as a person. It has helped her be more mature in certain situations and understand others around her more.
“I’ve had anxiety all of my life,” Kylie said. “It’s been stressful, so I feel like I can put myself in people’s shoes and try to help them through their anxieties and give them coping mechanisms that they can use; I just want to help, because I’ve been there.”
Kylie’s main reason for wanting to become a therapist is that she genuinely cares about others and wants to help them feel better about who they are and how their lives are. Throughout her past few years of therapy, she has learned a lot of different things to help with her anxiety.
“My therapist would give me recommendations on what to do if I have really bad anxiety,” Kylie said. “Listen to music, go out on a walk, simple things like that, and don’t be on your phone [because] that will make it worse. Just little things like that.”
