This Saturday, March 24, the seventh annual Walk for Hope will be hosted at Bridgewater College from 11:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. Sign up for the Walk for Hope by searching for “Walk for Hope Harrisonburg” on Facebook to ensure enough refreshments and t-shirts are provided. Activities will include the walk, music, creative arts activities, and refreshments, including donuts and smoothies. This year’s guest speaker is Frank Warren, creator of PostSecret, a community mail art project in which people anonymously share their secrets on homemade postcards through the mail.

The Walk for Hope sends a powerful message to people struggling with suicide and depression that they are not alone. The event lets everyone know that every day, we want to see you tomorrow.

I do not support many causes publicly. The causes I do support publicly are typically those that relate to something that has had a direct impact on my life.

Every year since arriving at EMU, I have publicly supported Walk for Hope. I take pride in having Walk for Hope shirts from the last three years. I wear them as a badge of honor. Participating in the Walk for Hope has been one of the most meaningful things I have done. Walk for Hope’s mission is simple: raise awareness about depression and suicide as a community. But to me, it is much more than that.

I have lived with depression, and I attempted to take my own life March 27, 2015. I attended my first Walk for Hope the very next day, on March 28. I have not tried to take my own life since. I do not know if that is just a coincidence, but if I tell you what Walk for Hope means to me personally, maybe the impact it has can be better understood.

On March 27, 2015, I was having trouble. I felt alone. I had just moved to Harrisonburg a few months prior, and being a little older than most of the undergraduate students at EMU, had difficulty connecting and making friends. I had roommates, but I felt like a guest in my house and did not interact with them too much. This loneliness was not new. I had felt it for a while and is probably the core reason I live with depression.

When I attended the Walk for Hope, I walked with hundreds of people who wanted to send a different message than what I was feeling: you are NOT alone. There are people who care, even if they do not know you. There are people going through what you are going through, and there are people who want to give you a shoulder if you need it. There are good people in the world that care. I had never met any of these people, but the message they sent was clear: every day, they want to see me tomorrow.

The feeling of loneliness is still there from time to time, but I battle it with the knowledge that there are people who care. Even if I do not see them or speak to them, knowing they are there gives me a feeling of security that I did not feel until I attended the Walk for Hope and saw it for myself.

Let’s show people that they are not alone. Somebody might be attending their first Walk for Hope looking for a reason to keep going. Come out and walk with us this Saturday and send this simple message to people who are struggling: we want to see you tomorrow.