2025 JayDee Schena Beaver HS

A Story of Hope

I am writing this essay with a different perspective on things, I would like to share how someone else’s mental health helped me view everything differently. Although I haven’t struggled on my own, I hope you can find meaning through how I helped someone else with their struggles.

I grew up with mentally strong parents, which had both positive and negative effects. My mom had been married before and was carrying her first child when she faced extreme abuse from her husband. Despite her struggles, she never asked for help. She then met my dad and had 2 more daughters with him. My dad also had a tough childhood. His father left when he was born, and his mother neglected him. To both my parents, asking for help was a sign of weakness. I was raised to figure out every problem on my own and never talk about my struggles.

In the summer of 2023, going into my junior year of high school, my perspective changed. I met a boy on July 24th, and we spent almost every night together for a week. Everything seemed great at first, but soon, his behavior took a darker turn. He began sending me life-threatening texts, pictures, and videos, telling me the only way to truly help him was through sexual activity. As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I knew this wasn’t what I was supposed to do. I told him there were other ways I could help, and he stopped for a while. But the next night, it happened again, and I was terrified. I was too scared to tell my parents or ask for help, so, despite knowing it was wrong, I went along with it to try to help him.

Though I knew mental health was important and had always been understanding of it, I didn’t blame the boy for what he put me through. At first I thought he was selfish, but as I gained more knowledge, I knew it was never his fault. That was how he needed to cope and what he thought would help. I knew he was struggling with his own battles, including suicidal thoughts. I’m grateful that he trusted me with his pain, and I’m glad I was able to help him during such a difficult time in his life.

This experience led me to deepen my understanding of suicide and its impact. I had joined the Beaver High Youth Coalition as a freshman but didn’t take it seriously at first. By junior year, I decided to dedicate myself to learning more about suicide prevention. The Coalition focuses on studying suicide rates, understanding their causes, holding mental health assemblies, doing service projects, and attending conferences to gain more knowledge. After my experience with the boy, I realized I could use what I’d learned to help people struggling with suicidal thoughts and guide others on how to help as well. My experiences have made me more compassionate and empathetic, and I want to keep helping others who are struggling with their own mental health. I’ve realized that my journey is not just about overcoming my own struggles but also about supporting others and offering them a safe space to talk about their own challenges.

I’ll forever be grateful for the boy who came into my life and the lessons I learned from that experience. It changed how I view mental health and helped me understand that it’s okay to ask for help. I now want others to know that reaching out is not a sign of weakness, and there are people who care and want to help. Through my work with the Youth Coalition, I’ve been able to make a difference and hopefully help others who need it.

I hope my experiences can support those in need and that I can continue to be a source of help for others in the future. The journey has been difficult, but it has also been a learning process that shaped who I am today.