Recharge Week: My First Ever Event

Have you ever wanted to write something just for the sake of it being read by others, and yet still not want the words to be known as yours?

Two weeks ago, on May 20th, my school’s Mental Health Club (founded & led by me) hosted an event that aimed to promote emotional well-being and strengthen our peer support system within our school community. It was organized to have 4 different stations: “Letters You Needed to Hear” Wall, “Take What You Need” Affirmation Station, De-Stress Corner, and Anonymous Reflection Box. Each of these stations was intended to provide a healthy, stress-relief space and increase awareness of the Mental Health Club and mental health in general.

The event started off perfectly, students were coming up and writing words of encouragement on the wall or reflections in the anonymous box. Mental Health Club members monitored all the stations, and the area was packed. It felt amazing to have so many people participating, and I thought that all was going well—

That is, until someone asked me, “Do I have to show you before I submit it?”

To give some context, for one of our stations, the Anonymous Reflection Box, every letter had to be viewed before it was submitted. We did this so that no one would write anything inappropriate, and we let everyone who wanted to write something know that we would randomly pick submissions and share them with the school.

The girl was holding a letter she had written against her chest, as if not wanting to reveal the words it contained. Staring at her, I had come up with two feasible reasons why she didn’t want to show it before slipping it into the box.

One, she had written something highly inappropriate that sharing would only land her in trouble.

Or two, something so deep and valuable to her that sharing it would only lead to her being embarrassed, which she shouldn’t be.

At that moment, I realized something. Students felt way more comfortable sharing when they knew that what they wrote could not fully be traced back to them. They could share anything they wanted and not have to face any consequences or “embarrassment”.

At that very moment, I told the member who was at the Anonymous Reflection Box station not to read any of the students’ notes before submission. Instead, I told her to read and take out anything improper later, after the event. This way, students would write anything they wanted and feel safe doing so.

Here are some of the submissions/quotes:

• “People used to (they still do) make fun of what and who I love, so I learned to embrace it. They don’t control me. Embrace what you love.”
• “One time, I was playing until something happened to my hand. The doctor had put a bandage on my hand. I could have easily stopped playing, but I didn’t give up. Instead, I used my other hand.”
• “Life really taught me how to look at the bright side of things. You’ll lose something, but that’s okay.”
• “People used to say I’ll never make it in life. But now, I have played 15 competitions.”
• “One lesson I learned recently was to stop putting others before my health and well-being.”

In the end, we had over 100 students participate in our event across all of our stations, which was way more than we had initially anticipated. Especially since this was our first event, and it was not perfect by any means.

There were a lot of things I learned from hosting the first-ever Mental Health Club event, one of them being that supervision is extremely important. We faced an issue with some of the girls writing things that were not meant to be on the wall poster. All of that started with just telling one person that it was okay to put their class number and letter on the wall. This helped me and my club members learn that next time we need to set clear and strict rules, and we need to carefully supervise what can and what can’t go on the wall.

Another thing we as a collective learned was that next time we needed to have a larger area. We had initially planned to have 4 separate stations seated at four separate tables, but things don’t always go according to plan. We could not find a second table, so we made do with what we had. As a conclusion to this, the stations got crowded, and students found it hard to color or write a reflection since there were many students that were standing at the “Letters You Needed to Hear” Wall. Next time, we will plan accordingly and ensure that everything we need is there when we need it.

This is one of the posters from the event (keyword being one)

Overall, I learned that sometimes changing the rules is worth it if it helps the community around you feel safer. I am so happy that the Mental Health Club was able to create a space where students could feel comfortable opening up, sharing any experiences, and really reflecting on how they impacted who they are today.

I believe that this was one of the most important things that this event managed to achieve. It had a huge impact, and I’m so grateful to everyone who helped make this possible. Thank you to the Mental Health Club participants and our teacher supervisor; you guys helped make all of this possible.