WEBVTT

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And then another way that I coped was

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by becoming an advocate for suicide
prevention and for mental health

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awareness, and I did
that mostly by, you know, starting

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a chapter of Active Minds
at my university, at UT San Antonio.

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And I did that, you know, just because,
like I kind of mentioned earlier,

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I wanted to turn my experience,
my immense grief, into something

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that could help others, right? Something
that would be useful to someone else

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in my--that would be in my position, right?
Where they have a loved one that is struggling

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with suicide or that tells
them that they are suicidal.

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I wanted to be able to give others the
tools and resources that I didn't have.

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So I currently work as a school social

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worker with at-risk youth
at an elementary school.

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And so I provide, among other things,
social-emotional learning activities.

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And, you know, it's really sad to say,

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but there are kids at my school who have
expressed suicidal ideation,

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and part of my job is to create
an inclusive campus community to teach

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that vulnerability is OK,
that asking for help is OK

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and that there's resources
available for our students.

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The way I see it,
starting the conversation about mental

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health is a crucial first
step in suicide prevention.