The “Struggle Wall” at EMU is a space for students, staff, and faculty to come together and share that which they are struggling with. This project was motivated by the Social Justice Project from Professor Durham’s Race and Gender class.  It operates based on the idea that naming negativity is the first step to dispelling it. When we first came up with the idea the goal was to create a community that could help maintain mental health on campus. Through this goal, we came to create the Struggle Wall. At first, we weren’t sure how we wanted to do this. In the planning stages, we weren’t sure how many walls we wanted to put up, where we would put them or what materials we would need. Therefore we started with multiple locations one in the cafe and one on Common Grounds. The wall in Common Grounds seemed to be more highly trafficked whereas the one in the cafe wasn’t as suitable for multiple reasons. Thus the struggle wall was created. Bradley Kirkdorffer provided the art easel for it and the library donated the extra-large notepad for the project. Over the course of the last month, there have been multiple pages of the wall filled to bursting with entries. Entries that consist of struggles and positive affirmations. 

“When I read this, it’s nice to know I’m not alone in the struggle.”

This was one of the entries on one of the later boards throughout the project. This entry really captivates the overall goal of the “Struggle Wall.” College is hard, and some people have traveled great distances and traversed great heights to get to this space that we all share. Taking a moment to name those struggles that we are every day overcoming should be part of our daily lives. This is the purpose of the wall. To come together and overcome that which holds us down, and come together as a community of compassion together. 

This project has really been a fantastic thing to be a part of. I am so proud of all of my peers that helped build this community with us throughout the project. The Struggle wall became something that I checked on daily and it really helped me in my routine. I’ll be sad to see it go.

This project has been a real eye-opener for me. It helps exemplify that almost everyone is fighting internal battles. Seeing people write their struggles down on the Struggle wall has helped bring the EMU community together in a sense. I think my favorite thing from this project is reading the struggles, but also reading the encouraging messages written by others in accordance with the struggles. It shows true compassion here at EMU.

The “Final Struggle” wall will remain up throughout the remainder of the semester as final exams begin and end. There will always be a hardship, there will always be a struggle, but through compassion anything is possible and compassion never ends.