Beautiful words in that quote box written by Harry Miller, a redshirt junior at OSU taken from a long post he made via Twitter, opening up abt his journey toward improving his quality of life & tackling his MH.
I say beautiful for two reasons – one, the line itself is eloquent: how we often times need the support of others bc we can’t (literally can’t) give it to ourselves. But also, bc it makes me think of the countless athlete (& sadly soo many other college students & members of society, not just athletes), where the story of the individual’s life didn’t go this way…the individual didn’t open up…the place they went for help didn’t provide that support needed…& we lost that person to suicide.
In the msg he posted, Miller said prior to last season, he informed Buckeyes coach Ryan Day (a MH advocate himself) that he intended to kill himself, & Day immediately put him in touch w the school’s MH counselors, who provided the support he needed.
What if Coach Day hadn’t been so open abt his own MH? Hadn’t been an advocate? What if OSU didn’t have sports psychologists on staff. One such individual on that staff, @mrs_g4real is someone I/we’ve worked closely w. She’s advocated for more MH assets on campuses for yrs. What if those assets weren’t there for Harry like they aren’t on so many campuses in so many areas of student focus (not just athletics)?
Look at this segment from the piece Miller wrote, showing how dire the circumstances were: “Maybe the scars were hard to see with my wrists taped up. Maybe it was hard to see the scars through the bright colors of the television. Maybe the scars were hard to hear through all the talk shows & interviews. They are hard to see, & they are easy to hide, but they sure do hurt. There was a dead man on the television set, but nobody knew it.”
Think abt those words next time you see fans rip on players online…make heated comments directly at their social accounts…they may be on a big stage…they may even be in the pros & making millions of $s, but…they are HUMANS…& w humans we never know what the story is “beneath the helmet.”
This story has a happy ending so far…how many don’t?