Nevada Collins

Sizemore

English

13 May 2019

Pride Sample

I don't feel that I have accomplished many things throughout my high school

years.I was never in any sports. I didn’t get honor roll or any special college

scholarships. What is an accomplishment defined as. Is it physical; something that you

can hold in your hand like a certificate? Is it mental; a mental challenge you may have

defeated while still in school? My accomplishment was a combination of both.

December 30, 2016, a girl named Katelyn Nicole Davis had committed suicide at

the age of 12 years old. I didn’t know her; we did not go to school together; never met

her. Yet, somehow this child had such a big impact on the rest of my life and my high

school career. She had went live on an app known as live.me when she committed

suicide. I originally didn't know what I was looking at because I just saw a girl crying and

next thing I know I was looking at something that I could not even comprehend.

I had sat down with one of my friends after watching the video sometime after we came

back after christmas break and I remember sitting there just crying and not being able to

figure out why I was so upset. My friend had asked what was going on and after

explaining it to him he simply said so, I don’t really care because I didn’t know her. I

couldn’t even comprehend why someone would even begin to say something like that.

He continued to try and put blame on this girl and said that she was just doing it for
attention. After that day I realized that people real do think this way about people who

have mental health problems, self harm, o commit suicide. I wanted to bring awareness

to the underlying causes of what triggers a person to do such things. As a result of this

conversation at the end of my sophomore year of high school I started a suicide

awareness club on campus.

During my time running this club I gained so much knowledge about my

classmates around me and what we were going though. I created slideshow

presentations that were presented very thursday about specific mental illnesses;

depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, etc. These powerpoints also consisted of

personal stories from the club members and the stories of other kids lik katelyn nicole

davis. We also participated in all the food fairs on campus which led us to raising

enough money to getting club t-shirts. On the front of these t- shirts it said suicide

awareness club with a green ribbon behind one of the letters and had the national

suicide hotline on the back.

I made so many friends during my time there and learned so many new life

lessons. During the month of may which is mental health awareness month we even

brought in a speaker from NAMI ( national alliance on mental illness). We had about 40

people that signed up to view the presentation and it was more than I could’ve ever

asked for. This was also an opportunity that I was given to talk about my own personal

story and that of my moms that I had went through earlier in the year. We all cried;

mostly me but it was worth every second to see how much it helped them in their own

lives.
 To conclude, this club by far was the greatest accomplishment I think i'll ever

have. I discovered things about myself and others as well that I would have otherwise

not known. I was able to help not just one person but multiple and tht is the greatest gift

that could have ever been given to me.I ran the club for about 2 years up until now. As a

graduating senior I can not even begin to explain how much I will miss it when I am

gone.