{"id":8062,"date":"2019-03-22T13:13:45","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T13:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2019\/03\/26\/a-path-to-recovery\/"},"modified":"2022-09-07T15:19:39","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T19:19:39","slug":"a-path-to-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/a-path-to-recovery\/","title":{"rendered":"A path to recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sydney Wright \u201918 keeps a special rock in her apartment. Painted on its smooth surface is the word \u201ccont;nue\u201d with a semicolon in place of the letter \u201ci.\u201d It serves as a reminder that life is meant to be continued, not cut short \u2014 as in a sentence that has more to say following that bit of punctuation.<\/p>\n

Wright came across the rock during an Out of the Darkness Overnight Walk in 2017 sponsored by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. At mile 15 of the 16-mile trek in Washington D.C., Wright was so exhausted she was ready to give up. That\u2019s when she spotted the stone that would inspire her to cross the finish line.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Furman students display assorted messages painted on rocks to support those at risk of suicide.<\/p><\/div>\n

But that\u2019s not where her story began. At age 15, and suffering from depression and wrestling with family issues and general high school pressures, Wright tried to take her own life. She called her father, who lived across the country, to say goodbye, but, she recalls, \u201cthe hurt in his voice made me realize I didn\u2019t want to die \u2014 I wanted help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her mother took her to the hospital, and she began medical treatment and psychological therapy. That night, Wright\u2019s journey to recovery began.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn high school, I thought I was crazy, and I didn’t want anyone to know what I was going through,\u201d she said. \u201cPeers only knew I was missing school because I was sick. But I learned that mental illness is much more common than I thought. I just hadn’t heard about it because of the stigma surrounding it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, Wright who volunteers with the AFSP, established a Furman-based Out of the Darkness Campus Walk, a 1 1\/2-mile walk that took place on Sunday, March 24.<\/p>\n

The walks are designed to engage youth and young adults in the fight to prevent suicide, which claims more lives each year than war, murder and natural disasters combined. The walks, which take place at campuses throughout the U.S., also serve as the AFSP\u2019s signature student fundraising events.<\/p>\n

Kappa Kappa Gamma is a co-sponsor in addition to the Paladin Peers, who, with the assistance of Heller Service Corps, painted 500 \u201ckindness rocks\u201d to line the walk route around Furman lake.<\/p>\n

Tracy Davis, operations assistant at Timmons Arena, leads the Paladin Peers, a program aimed at supporting and encouraging the Furman community with service projects, motivational seminars and opportunities to connect with others. Messages like \u201cbe amazing,\u201d \u201chope,\u201d \u201clove,\u201d \u201cjoy,\u201d \u201cyou matter,\u201d \u201clive a great story,\u201d \u201cyou can,\u201d and \u201cbreathe\u201d are some of the sayings inscribed on the stones.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so excited for the opportunity to bring this awesome cause to my alma mater,\u201d Wright said. \u201cI want to start a conversation about mental illness at Furman. I also want to provide a community for those who have either personally struggled with or who have lost someone to suicide.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sydney Wright \u201918 keeps a special rock in her apartment. Painted on its smooth surface is the word \u201ccont;nue\u201d with a semicolon in place of the letter \u201ci.\u201d It serves […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":257,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-four-news-4th-story"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/257"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8062\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}