Meet Taylor-James.

I used to live with my grandfather before he passed away not too long ago. I was his caretaker. Mainly due to COVID, my grandfather’s health really declined fast. I’m still kind of getting over it, going through the grieving stages of that.

Before the pandemic, I really wasn’t comfortable talking about feelings, but now I guess with the new norm, it actually does help a little.

I used to be really quiet and still I’m kind of but actually it feels better to get out and talk to people when I can. It’s really like exercising your mind, in a way.

Some people like myself spend a lot of time in their head.

I guess I just kind of self-soothe in a way. There’s a lot of stuff people hold back and hold in. I’m not as open as others, but it is at a point nowadays where talking would actually help a lot. It would help everybody, actually.

I don’t really want to name names, but some of my family members are self-harming and, you know, self-inflicting pain.

How do I manage my mental health? I talk to my family. I pray a lot. My Uncle Chris, he’s a really good person to talk to. He’s been through stuff in life. He’s ex-Airborne, a Ranger and coming home, being discharged for disability, he is in a wheelchair now, can’t walk anymore. He’s really the person that really helps me out.

Now that I’m more open to talking, counseling would be really nice to have more widely available. That would really help, you know.

Coming out of my shell a little bit, I got that experience from the pandemic. I guess something good came out of the ugly.

Because being quiet and, you know, inside my head, I guess it gets to a point where it’s not good. It’s good to talk.

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