Content note: This essay was originally delivered as a speech at the 2025 Out of the Darkness Walk, an annual event designed to engage young adults in the fight to prevent suicide. It discusses suicide.
My first year of high school I met a kind, smart boy who I thought would become part of my new circle of friends. I was looking for the people who would make me feel like I belonged, and he seemed like a good fit. But as time went by, he began to slip away, fighting a battle I didn’t understand. My new friend died by suicide in January 2016, the second student in four years to die by suicide at my school.
At his funeral, loved ones told stories about his practical jokes and admiration of Alexander the Great. I felt like I learned so much about my friend that by the time a paper for our final messages got to me, I felt like nothing I could write would be very meaningful. At the same time, I had to do or say something. So I promised him that I would keep his memory alive and do what I could to help prevent others from dying by suicide as well.
A year later, my school received a peer suicide prevention curriculum and we formed a small student club. At first there were club meetings and peer presentations, then there were business cards, fundraisers, and the ball just kept rolling. As a club we began to heal and make a difference in our school community. Nine years later, the club is still running and there hasn’t been a another student suicide.
Before I go there are three things I want you to know.
First, turning your grief into action helps to prevent suicide and can encourage your own healing.
Second, the community here today is incredibly supportive.
And third, your grief is valid. Even if the person next to you has lost a parent or spouse when you have lost someone you only knew for a short time, you are still allowed to be sad.
Thank you.