“Okay, so I would say a multitude of ways [helped me with my depression]. The one thing I think
is really important to have is hobbies. And so for me, two things that were very influential and
positive for me would be basketball and painting. Both those two things, I put a lot of time into.
They gave me a lot of confidence. They gave me a lot of [stress] relief, because I know I can go
back to those things, but I can continue to build up that skill on a daily basis, and I can see that
progress. I’ve been able to see, you know, like with the game of basketball, I wasn’t necessarily
ever the least gifted person, because I wasn’t ever the shortest person or the slowest person, or
least athletic person. But I was never really the tallest or the fastest or anything like that. So I
think I’ve been able to prove to myself through the game of basketball, at least, that you can
overcome things and you can also achieve the things that you want if you put in that effort, you
know. And that’s given me a lot of satisfaction. And obviously, as a kid, you dream of going to
the NBA or whatever. For far too long I thought I was going to the NBA, very silly of me. But
then, I realized that doesn’t necessarily have to be the goal. The goal can be, you know,
progressing yourself as an individual. The goal can be me, knowing that, like any of my high
school friends, I could absolutely destroy at this point, and that wasn’t the case in high school,
you know, I would have been a little bit okay, but I’ve now, you know, I’ve been able to elevate
myself far beyond them at this point with the game of basketball and that’s just something that I
dedicated myself to, and that’s a positive thing. I have confidence about that, and it just proves
to me that I can do something. I think that’s a big thing with being depressed, is like ‘I can’t
overcome this’ or ‘this is too much’. And so having those hobbies to go back to ground yourself
is super important and super helpful”