Do you think about the words that come out of your mouth? I never thought much of the words that people say until I lost someone. Once I overheard a girl say, “He is gonna go to college with me so I don't kill myself.” I lost it at this point and screamed at her for saying this. I realize how many people at this age say stuff like that as a joke and I wonder how many of them mean what they say. It is something that you shouldn’t joke about at all. It makes me sick, thinking that this could be the last thing that someone needed to hear to make them kill themselves. We can all start helping to stop suicides by starting with ourselves-- by thinking before speaking. Before you say something, think about how what you say will affect them or what they could think of you if you say it. We can talk to people who say these things and get them help if they need it. We can also make them think about their words just like I do. Dont wait until you lose someone to watch the words you say or stand up for what others may say.

The day my father received the phone call was a perfectly normal day turned upside down, he almost immediately ran out with my mom to the kitchen. After a long time I went out into the kitchen to talk to my mom when I found her crying. I was confused by this because to me my dad was on just another work call. When I went to confront my mom she told me leave the kitchen and give her time. I went to my sister’s room to ask if she knew anything about our parents crying. She was on her bed watching videos like always and had no idea what I was talking about. While I was in my sister’s room, my mom came to tell us the bad news. which made my sister and I cry. Ever since the day that Iain Donovan  committed suicide my entire life changed.

There are many things that we can do to help step up and help people in need, like Iain Donovan’s family did. They are a huge inspiration to me. As a family, they did a race called the rugged maniac, as a family to raise money to help raise awareness for suicide. They had a goal of 2,000 dollars. They had exceeded that and still are getting money from people even after the race. I think this is an amazing idea. I would love to run it with them next year in memorial of Iain. If you don’t know people personally that do something like this like I do, there is a walk called Out of the Darkness and this is held all over the United States that anyone can do.

Self evaluation:
I have grown alot since I have entered college. within the last few months my write has become something that I am proud of. I have never be able to share my writing never mind feel comfortable to post it on a website. I think if i didn’t have the last two English college professors I wouldn’t be this proud. I have been able to come out of my shell and change who I am as a writer. I would never of been able to get in front of my class and let them listen to me talk about my grandmother. I also think that I have change a lot about my writing. I now know that editing is not a one step process and even after four its still has room to keep writing. I realized that i used words like “so and really” just to add more words to my paper and it didn’t change the context of the story.