Sunday Secrets
03.28.10
is an ongoing community art project where people
mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard.
—–Email Message—–
I wish I had taken a naked picture of my husband, back in the day when he was a hard body and looked like Bob Seger. He is gone now and I miss him.
—–Letter—–
Dear Frank
I thought about sending a postcard but wanted to share a story without anonymity. I’m a senior at Cornell University and at your Event here two years ago, I shared the following secret: “My main motivation for applying to the PhD program in Clinical Psychology was to honor the memory of my three cousins who took their lives by acquiring the training to help alleviate the despair of others.”
Recently I received an offer of admission to the USUHS in Bethesda, Maryland where I will be joining the Suicide Behavior and Prevention Laboratory. As soon as I received that offer, I remembered the secret I shared with the audience that night and how deeply meaningful it will be to follow through.
It makes me smile to know I’ll be moving so close to where all the secrets are sent and being only a few miles away from someone breaking down barriers in the mental health field in a way science has yet to discover.
-Jen Bakalar
—–Response—–
I still have good memories of the Cornell Event in 2008. And being a basketball fan I enjoyed watching Cornell’s team go deep in the NCAAs last week. But I’ve also been distressed to see the lopsided media coverage of student basketball compared to the half dozen student suicides at Cornell this year.
According to Yahoo, 7,573 news stories were written about Cornell Basketball in the past 30 days. During that same period, only 275 stories were written about the six Cornell students who took their own lives.
Suicide is a secret that we collectively keep from ourselves. But if we can find the courage to tell the painful stories, together, we can take the actions that will bring help and hope to those of us who suffer in silence.
This year over 1,000 college students will kill themselves. March is the month with the highest rate of suicides. Here are five ways you can fight back today.
1. Support the Pick-Up-The-Phone 30-City Tour with headliner Blue October.
2. Tell your story (or your friend’s story) and learn how Active Minds can help you fight suicide at your school.
3. Join Congressman Kennedy, HopeLine founder Reese Butler, Jamie Tworkowski and myself in Washington DC, April 12th, for the 6th Annual National HopeLine Network Capital Hill Press Conference.
4. Text “Suicide” to 20222 to make a $10.00 donation to HopeLine.
5. Share this message on facebook and Twitter.
See More Secrets. Follow on Twitter.
Order Your Copy Online Today.
