"What's the Deal With Mental Health?" by Brandon Padierna

Looking back, Brandon's first memory that he remembers was when he was 6 years old.  It was a hot summer day and Brandon's birthday finally came around and he was excited to go to six flags with his brother Daniel, his sister Cristina, and his mother Naty. On the ride there, Brandon remembers yelling and crying about being hungry and as he was crying over his addiction to McDonalds, a large deer came running out of the woods from the right side of the car. The deer came charging at the car and as Brandon's mom pushed down on the brakes, the deer went flying.  The deer surprisingly grazed the car and barely damaged the front hood.  Brandon, his brother and his sister got out of the car along with his mother to check on the now dead deer lying on the road with its eyes rolled back and tongue laying just out of its mouth. Brandon's mom called animal control and they came to take the dead deer off of the road.  After the deer was taken away by animal control, Br...

Ever since i received my first smart phone at the end of junior year of high school, i feel i am more interactive with various forms of multimedia then ever before.  Mostly to keep me from being bored to death, these two examples of multimedia saved me from countless nights of boredom and have influenced me in ways i could not have imagined. One of my favorite forms of multimedia is an animated show called "Dragon Ball Super".  This show is commonly referred to as an anime and tells an incredible story about some of the strongest fighters in the Universe.  Besides the emotional battles and insane power-ups, who doesn't enjoy huge fighters beating the crap out of each other? This show is released every Saturday night or Sunday morning and has become a center piece for discussion between most of my friends and I.  This ritualistic culture where we watch the episode immediately when it airs then discussing the episode the day after with my friends has become on...

My name is Brandon Padierna and this is my story.  I grew up in a town that measures one square mile in diameter so you could imagine how closed minded of a kid i was.  I was only interested in two things in high school, academics and sports.  Growing up in a tiny town like Wallington, New Jersey, I never could wrap my head around what was outside this miniature Polish town that always smelled like beer and pierogi's.  I graduated with 89 kids my senior year of high school in 2015 and everyone knew everything about everybody.  For a small school, everyone i knew had big dreams.  The further you went away for college and the bigger school was, the more people believed that "you've made it".  This was my dream.  I graduated high school, eventually got into Rutgers University where i believed i would be set for the rest of my life. This is my high school in Wallington New Jersey.  In comparison to my friends in college it seemed as though i...