This is an informative speech assignment submitted as part of a course requirement for Advanced Presentation Skills I (CCM715) of the Public Relations - Corporate Communications program at Seneca College.
Hello. Let me begin with the story about the girl in the trail.
In April 2020, this girl was poised to go back to her home country. Then COVID happened. She was locked down in a country not her own.
And during the darkest days of the pandemic, her only light came from a computer screen. Everything in her world - work, school, family and friends became virtual. Nothing felt real anymore.
Deep inside she was lonely. Then she ventured outside for long walks to parks and trails. There she can breathe. She can cry alone where no one is watching, no one to tell her she’s so emotional, no one to judge that’s she’s being dramatic. There in the trail she can be real.
But one day the crying stopped. She wasn’t alone in the trails anymore. There was Riley. There was Max. There was Ricco. And there was Elsa too. She became a familiar face to them that they wag their tails when they see her. And with every hello that she exchanged with those she met in the trail, the girl in the trail is now known and greeted by her name.
Three truths to be told about this story:
The girl in the trail is an international student.
Her struggle with mental health is real.
And that girl in the trail is me.
My name is Charmaine Deogracias, I am a volunteer for the yellow is for hello campaign of The Friendship Bench, a not-for-profit organization.
The bright yellow Friendship Bench can be found in most schools across Canada. It is meant to remind students to take a moment out of their day to sit, breathe, talk or think about their mental health. It is a safe place for peer-to-peer conversations about mental health in order to reduce the stigma and encourage to seek help.
Why? Because according to the World Health Organization one person dies every 40 seconds by suicide. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among 15-29-year-olds.
The Friendship Bench started from the story of Lucas Fiorella who secretly battled depression and took his own life in October 2014. But his life story is not defined by why he died, but by every story shared by those he reached out to, made conversations with and often with just a simple “hello.” He helped others cope and prevented a suicide attempt even as he himself was struggling.
Lucas’ hello echoes to this day at every yellow bench installed in over 50 schools nationwide. Last year, the pandemic preempted the unveiling of what could’ve been the 60th friendship bench in a cross-Canada tour of the yellow is for hello campaign.
So, what’s next for the friendship bench, that destination for students who are struggling to connect with others, who find it difficult to ask for help? Where to now if you want to talk with someone willing to listen or lend a shoulder to cry on or just to say hello?
In a world where social distancing keeps people safer, and where students now are studying online with no yellow bench in sight, how do you say hello now in a masked world?
The friendship bench is no longer a place, it is the time and space you make for others who may be struggling in silence. At a time such as now when masks can hide a smile, hello should not be silenced.
Conversations about mental health do not need a physical space. It needs only you to start it wherever, whenever. Start with what’s in your hand - a phone? Call. A pen? Write.
Let not social media breed social isolation. Feed it with positivity. The world is going through so much already, can we be a little kinder virtually? Remember, the cyberbully never wins.
Physical distancing should not stop us from making conversations. Meaningful connections are still possible. The mask you wear only stops the spread of the virus, but not to mute you from saying a kind word - to say hello.
The girl in the trail found new friendship benches from a Muskoka chair by the beach, or a wooden bench in the park to a rock in that forest trail. The bench wasn’t yellow nor was it a place. I found it in people who said hello to me at a time I needed it most.
That hello started conversations. Then connections, that one day the girl overcame her fear of an evil hill in the trail. But that’s another story to tell another day. For now, it’s enough to know there’s power in saying hello.
Thank you.
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