My Senior Collection “Meraki” is about my personal journey of surviving the year 2021. Meraki is a Greek word defined as “doing something with soul, creativity, or love—when you put something of yourself into what you’re doing.” My six garments Broken, Grief, Hope, Happiness is a Butterfly, Once Upon a Dream, and Survivor reflect emotions and feelings I experienced in 2021. This collection will shine light on themes of the importance of mental health, surviving trauma, and how often suicide actually happens. It is estimated that 800,000 people die by suicide every year, which is one person every 40 seconds and is one of the leading causes of death in young people. I did not realize how often suicide occurs and a part of the issue is the stigma around mental health.  I left 2021 as a survivor of some traumatic experiences that were both emotional and psychological. HelpGuide defines emotional and psychological trauma as “the result of extraordinarily stressful events that shatter your sense of security, making you feel helpless in a dangerous world.” This collection reflects who I am and how it impacted me to push for change in how we view mental health and destigmatize talking about our traumatic experiences.