Student Reflection: Four years ago today

I hope all is well.  Today is a very special day for me.  I’m not sure where I was five years ago right now.  I’m also not sure where I was three years ago right now.  I do know two things though, where I was four years ago, and where I am today.  Four years ago today, at this very moment, I was standing on wooden skis participating in a debrief activity with B team, the first activity they did after B and C teams were combined.  I was terrified.  I was at a new place, with new people, and I had no idea what my future was going to be.  Obviously you know what happened from there.  Four months and a lot of therapy later, I graduated from Traverse, a new person.

Four years ago today, I could not see a week into the future, because I knew for sure that I was not going to be around then.  How I was going to get through Summit was not a question.  How I was going to get out was.  I did not want to be alive anymore, and that was the only thing that was on my mind.  It was so comforting to not have to think further than a few days, because I was 100% sure that I was not going to be around to see the weekend.  In no corner of my imagination could I have conjured up the idea that maybe, four years from that moment, I would be sitting on the beach at college writing an email to the person who saved my life.

That leads in to the second thing I know, where I am today.  Right now, I am sitting in the sun under a palm tree.  I have said it a hundred times, but I want you to know that I would not be here today if it weren’t for you and for Summit.  Four years ago, high school was out of the picture.  The idea that I would someday go to college was pure fiction.  But here I am, because of Summit.

So I guess what I want to say is thank you.  The fact that I am where I am today is because of you, and everyone at Summit.  I signed up for an Intro to Psychology class the other day because I am majoring in Psychology (and possibly double majoring or minoring in Human Development as well) so I can hopefully help kids as much as you do.  Now, instead of not being able to see three days into the future, I am looking a years into the future.  Instead of picturing my story ending in a matter of days, I see myself helping kids a decade from now.  So thank you.