Depression results from a combination of genetic, biochemical, environmental, and psychological factors. Researchers have said that when an MRI is taken, parts of the brain that are responsible for sleep, hunger, behavior, etc. show up more abnormal when someone is depressed versus when someone isn’t. Unfortunately, I witnessed my friend Carter go through depression recently, however it wasn’t for a long period. Jake was Carter’s best friend from back home. They did everything together as a kid; Jake was basically a brother to Carter. Saying goodbye and leaving to go to college was one of the hardest things he has ever had to do. Before he left to go to college, Carter and his long-term girlfriend, Maddy, broke up. This made his adjustment to college hard at first, but thankfully he was able to get over it and start to move on. However, 4 weeks ago, he got a call from Jake, who attends the University of Virginia. Jake called to tell him that he had been seeing Maddy for the last few weeks. He also told him that they (Jake and Maddy) are going to start dating. Carter was shaken- his lifelong best friend, who his family had done so much for, was now dating the girl he had fallen in love with all throughout high school. For 2 weeks after that call, Carter was sleeping all the time, rarely wanted to go out, never ate, and “felt homesick”. We hung out with him a lot in the dorms, but finally forced him to come get food and go out with us. We wanted to help reset his mind and convince him that there is so much more to life than this situation. He is in a new place where he will meet so many people, and he should put that in the past and just focus on the future, his future here at Penn State. I thought this anecdote gave a pretty clear example to our lecture about moods, depression, and how they can start and evolve.