"Strength is in the moments when you think you cannot go on, but you do."
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I'm KateI'm Kate. I'm a runner. I'm passionate about suicide prevention. And suddenly, all three of those things now make me Kate, team member of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention for the 2017 New York City Marathon.
This is my journey to 26.2. This is why I care so much about this cause. This is me. |
Have you ever felt like you were meant to do something? That the timing was just right, the factors were all aligning, and you look back and realize maybe it was all leading up to this one thing?
That kind of chance, an opportunity, has been put right in front me. I realized that maybe everything, every messed up or really great or nearly-impossible or just every-day thing that I lived for the last 23 years (well 15 really, because who actually remembers anything about their daily life before they were 8?) brought me here. How can I not take it and run with it?
As one of ten athletes running the New York City Marathon for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, I was asked to shortly summarize why I’m running a marathon to fundraise for the AFSP. I drafted something quick and high-level to fill the space, but “short” is not exactly how I would describe the reasons I’m putting in the miles for suicide prevention, or for how long this cause has been an important part of my life.
Why am I running for the AFSP? It’s for today’s conversations about the Tony-award winning musical Dear Evan Hansen (if you haven’t listened to the soundtrack, stop reading and do it now - just make sure you come back later) and the novel-turned-Netflix phenomenon 13 Reasons Why; it’s the death of the late and honored Robin Williams, and the jokes at the expense of Amanda Bynes’ mental health. It’s my issues with the Boston University Health Services Office in 2015, the wonderful relationships I gained at Endicott College in the REACH Peer Education program, and the perspective-shifting experience of the EC LIGHThouse Leadership Retreat in 2013.
It’s because of the teen suicide prevention and mental health awareness presentation I created for the Guidance Counseling department as part of my Senior Project at Souhegan High School in 2012. And it’s because of the personal treatise that I read out loud to a room full of my peers that same year.
It’s for these reasons that I will run. For everyone who has been unsure if they could make it to tomorrow, I run for them. For the ones who decide that they can and they will, it’s for you; for the loved ones left behind, and for those who will not be forgotten. I will run for them, and I will run for me.
How can I not feel like all of this, the good, the bad and the beautiful, has brought me here to this race? Not to mention I live in the #2-ranked best running city in the U.S., just moved to a new neighborhood with beautiful running paths, and I am a new member of the Heartbreak Hill Running Club with access to a coach and training practices and a marathon training plan and cool shirts! I couldn’t be better equipped to take on the physical aspects of this challenge.
Please join me on this journey to 26.2 for the AFSP. Don’t worry, you can leave the running part to me. But the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is an incredibly worthy cause of any support you are able to provide. And if you follow me along, you can find out where your generosity is going, and how the AFSP is working to achieve their goal of reducing the U.S. suicide rate 20% by 2025.
Thanks for watching. Thanks for reading. And thank you for your support.
Here’s to another tomorrow for us all.
That kind of chance, an opportunity, has been put right in front me. I realized that maybe everything, every messed up or really great or nearly-impossible or just every-day thing that I lived for the last 23 years (well 15 really, because who actually remembers anything about their daily life before they were 8?) brought me here. How can I not take it and run with it?
As one of ten athletes running the New York City Marathon for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, I was asked to shortly summarize why I’m running a marathon to fundraise for the AFSP. I drafted something quick and high-level to fill the space, but “short” is not exactly how I would describe the reasons I’m putting in the miles for suicide prevention, or for how long this cause has been an important part of my life.
Why am I running for the AFSP? It’s for today’s conversations about the Tony-award winning musical Dear Evan Hansen (if you haven’t listened to the soundtrack, stop reading and do it now - just make sure you come back later) and the novel-turned-Netflix phenomenon 13 Reasons Why; it’s the death of the late and honored Robin Williams, and the jokes at the expense of Amanda Bynes’ mental health. It’s my issues with the Boston University Health Services Office in 2015, the wonderful relationships I gained at Endicott College in the REACH Peer Education program, and the perspective-shifting experience of the EC LIGHThouse Leadership Retreat in 2013.
It’s because of the teen suicide prevention and mental health awareness presentation I created for the Guidance Counseling department as part of my Senior Project at Souhegan High School in 2012. And it’s because of the personal treatise that I read out loud to a room full of my peers that same year.
It’s for these reasons that I will run. For everyone who has been unsure if they could make it to tomorrow, I run for them. For the ones who decide that they can and they will, it’s for you; for the loved ones left behind, and for those who will not be forgotten. I will run for them, and I will run for me.
How can I not feel like all of this, the good, the bad and the beautiful, has brought me here to this race? Not to mention I live in the #2-ranked best running city in the U.S., just moved to a new neighborhood with beautiful running paths, and I am a new member of the Heartbreak Hill Running Club with access to a coach and training practices and a marathon training plan and cool shirts! I couldn’t be better equipped to take on the physical aspects of this challenge.
Please join me on this journey to 26.2 for the AFSP. Don’t worry, you can leave the running part to me. But the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is an incredibly worthy cause of any support you are able to provide. And if you follow me along, you can find out where your generosity is going, and how the AFSP is working to achieve their goal of reducing the U.S. suicide rate 20% by 2025.
Thanks for watching. Thanks for reading. And thank you for your support.
Here’s to another tomorrow for us all.
26.2 for AFSP
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