Introduction Of Me

My name is Greg Bretzing and I am a senior at California High School; I am 17 and I have lived in San Ramon my whole life. I grew up playing soccer, as a child I played recreationally then when I went into middle school I stared playing at a competitive level; I played until 7th grade when I shatter a growth plate in my heel. Going into high school I decided I was going to play lacrosse, I played my freshman and sophomore year as well as coached my sophomore year and part of my junior year. My freshman year of high school I was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder. At first it was very hard to deal with but as life went on I learned how to use these two challenges in life to my advantage. I have decided that what I want to do in my life is be a psychologist, specifically for children because when I was going through all of the confusion of hearing voices in my head that weren't there or having huge mood swings none of the doctors understood. All of the doctors I talked to had read about these disorders in books but they could never understand exactly what it is like to deal with it. I want to go into psychology because I can understand what is going through peoples minds because I have gone through something similar. Church helped me out a lot through these hard times as well, I have been going since 6th grade, a friend of mine invited me to go to youth group with him and I've been going ever since. At church I have met the most influential men in my life, these men are why I love church so much, they were right by my side when I was going through all of the schizophrenia diagnosing. They are the reason that I have such a passion for children ministry , my goal in life is to make as big of an impact in someone's life as they have made on me. My internship will be at the very same youth group that I started off at, I have worked there for two years already and I love it! I make it a priority to be open with all of the kids about my life's struggles so that they will open up to me about theirs. I have already had students approach me about relationships, drugs, alcohol, depression, suicide, divorce and many more very personal topics. On the more fun side however, my past experience in sports makes it very easy to connect with the kids whether its playing sports with them or teaching them how to play a sport I find that the kids love it. My goal for senior year is to continue doing the work that I love with the kids at my church, as well as setting a good example as far as grades, and general respect goes.