Growing up with a schizophrenic mother - My 25th Year: InsideOut

if you want to see me InsideOut, you can read my piece here: https://miguel.url.lol/miguel25

It's been a year of ups and downs for me. Moreso than previous years.
The downs have been:
going in and out of my father's second divorce, facing the long ago mental loss of my mother, having the most severe depression I've ever felt, turning my classes in Incomplete Classes in the Spring 2013 semester due to the divorce and blowing them off in the Fall, going to therapy four times a week some weeks in the Fall was so draining, facing suicidal impulses, fighting the feeling that finishing undergrad is a waste of time and money at this point, facing dread at having to sell the house and move due to the divorce, and feeling like a horrible, terrible failure of a son to my mother.

But the ups were so much sweeter because of the lows:
finding a group of friends that I can look up to and who inspire me, training myself and ran my first 5K, running two adventure races, going into family therapy at my suggestion, completed the National Alliance on Mental Illness's 12-week Family-to-Family course to learn more about my estranged mother's brain disease (schizophrenia), found my voice and took voice coaching sessions, got a new job through a friend, and completed a ten-day silent meditation retreat.

I write all this because it's just been my birthday. I am 25 as of yesterday, January 4, 2014.
I'm sick of carrying my story with me inside my head. I want it down in writing so I don't forget it. And I want it on here, for anyone to see. I want 2013 to be the last year of being scared of my past being 'found out'. So I'm taking charge and just putting it all out there.

If you want to see me InsideOut, you can read my piece here: https://miguel.url.lol/miguel25
or here: https://miguel.url.lol/miguel25sc (SoundCloud)