Hey community, I’m back with another update! Last week was Suicide Prevention Week here at Hillcrest. That’s a pretty powerful topic, and the Hillcrest club Rams Matter did a wonderful job at making sure they covered mental health and all that goes into it with such care! During lunches they had a booth set up that allowed students each day to do something new. One day, students were able to add songs to a curated playlist that they could listen to when they needed a little mental break (link available on the HHS homepage) and one day they had students that played Human Bingo, allowing the students to walk around and learn about all new people! There were green ribbons handed out and an all green photo booth - did you know green is the representative color for Suicide Prevention? They are even posting some of the encouraging notes that students wrote anonymously on an awesome Club Bulletin Board that is in our halls! Sometimes it’s just nice to know that there is a club in such a large school that really tackles the hard-to-talk-about issues.
What I love is how both Rams Matter and all they did last week really showed us Rams that it’s important for us to make sure that when we are getting to know people, we understand that they are SO complex, with lots of passions and interests that we can connect with! Speaking of getting to know people for who they are, one of my very good friends right here at Hillcrest wrote a poem that means a lot to him. He wrote this poem when it was important for him to feel seen, after a friend of his moved on because of one part of him. Here is both his poem and a few thoughts that help to explain it:
“You have your own book of life. It tells a story of your passage of time. Your memories are etched in stone; they are immovable. The experiences you’ve lived have an impact on your life and your own perspectives, whether you want them to or not. So what will we see when we look through your book? Grief? Joy? Love? A break-up? What will we see if we turn to the chapter that holds your beliefs, or maybe the God you believe in? Or perhaps even who you voted for in the last election.
I wrote this poem when a person who I considered a dear friend could not come to terms with the way I leaned politically. This friend viewed a single page of my book – didn’t like it. And put me down.
Affixion
Flip through me.
Look at my design.
See the genome of my being
The tensile strength of my spine
For I am a wrinkled book
With many old pages
Etched with fine detail
Yet impulsive through stages
Though as you peruse me
You will plainly find
Sincerity and passion
Death. And Devine.
Resurrection and redemption
Will both lie there
And the wonder of love
Refusing to tear
You relate to the memories!
You’re excited to turn
To discover what waits
In a world where I learn.
The layers are captured
Words seared through time.
But you’ve glanced at one blemished
In your eyes. Not mine.
Tainted and stained
A mind-war you wage
A riveting volume
Contaminated— by a page.
What beauty awaits!
If you just keep on reading.
I’ve got so much to give
I’m begging. I’m pleading!
You cannot get past
This page with a blemish
Your mind-focused hatred
The life-book may go unfinished
So you close my album
You can no longer go on
Affixed on one page
And not my passage of time.”
I leave you with this, my fellow Ram community: while life is tough and we often feel alone and misunderstood, there are amazing people and groups right here at Hillcrest that will accept us and make us feel like part of the Ram family. I love Hillcrest, and I love that clubs like Rams Matter love us back just as much!
Last week was amazing!