Dear World, what have you done for us? Wait that's not the right thing to be saying for this. So let's start over.
Dear World, what have you taught us and what can we do for you? We want to share our stories even if they're short and nothing special. Here at Ball State, and any university or city for that matter, have stories that we bring with us and they all vary from those of good times and finding God, to stories of abuse, mental illness, and everything else that could be wrong in our worlds. Dear World, the people behind the movement, have given people all around the world this chance to tell our stories.
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So here are some of the stories from Ball State students, some weren't easy for my fellow students to share and others were proud to share.
My story is a simple one. I had a lot of stuff thrown at me at once when I was in high school. I had a major knee injury and surgery followed by a close family member passing away and then a trip to the ER that ended in finding out I had severe anxiety. I'm now in the middle of my second year of college. I've faced struggles that I don't quite care to voice sometimes but I've found a home here and made some friends who could be family. I just "Keep pushing on" and seek the help I need and push others to do the same because we're not super man but we're pretty super sometimes.
Another wonderful Odyssey writer was willing to share her story with me and it makes me so happy to have even had her story shared with me. Her story is one that honestly did not shock me because I had many friends in high school who had the same struggles, maybe for different reasons but it was still there. "Never live in fear" because "you're not really living or being yourself." Because living in fear sometimes prevents you from doing the things you love for fear of being judged, for fear of being a failure. While we also struggle with this from time to time some, like my fellow writer, struggle with it daily. Sometimes it results in self-harm, other times in perfectionism, sometimes its multiple things at once. "My scars don't define me. We all matter, you matter." This is one thing I wish I could tell everyone who struggles daily all the time. You matter as a person, someone out there loves you and cares for you and is there for you. That is one thing I can promise.
Another friend of mine, who is quite frankly a goofball, shared his story. It's short and sweet but the message he sends is one that everyone should hear. "I AM BEAUTIFUL" His story was simply one of affirmation and how words make an impact. The negatives leave a not so great impact but the neutral words can have a similar effect on someone. For those that don't hear things like "you're beautiful, you're handsome, you're worth it" but don't hear the negatives either can make them question so many things about themselves. For him those three words gave him a sense of confidence because he knows he is a beautiful person and the sunshine he brings to someone's day is unbeatable.
Now this is just a very small selection of stories. 4 stories out of the roughly 325 stories shared by the 20,000 ball state students. We all have our stories and what we've went through and it's so different for everyone. My struggles aren't the same as someone else's who also has anxiety. We are all worth it, we are all loved, we are all beautiful.
One last story is one of Faith and coping. A wonderful person that I met last year as a freshman and saw literally all the time because we lived in the same building shared her story with me. "Just Breathe" for her means she can think of her faith in God at rough times where it may be hard to breathe or she's feeling anxious and she just breathes. "Breathing is something that is essential to life and to running. God is the reason to that." She is such an amazing person and while her story is short she is sweet and caring. She reminds us all to just breathe sometimes and that's ok.
So Dear World, this is Ball State University. We are more than just college students trying to better our futures with 18 credit hours and a ridiculous amount of student loans just to make it happen. We are people who have so many ideas, so many struggles and achievements. We get out of bed every day and we work our butts off to make things just a little better for ourselves and for the world and we just want your support. That's all we want. If you would like to see the collection of other photos done at the Dear World event that took place on our campus click HERE and it'll take you to the Facebook album on Dear World's Facebook page.
