Mental Health Awareness Week reminded us about what matters

Last week, Cornell organizations came together in a joint effort to address an issue that affects all of us.

Mental Health Awareness Week, running from October 16th to the 23rd, featured multiple events every day with the goal of increasing student health by taking on the ever-present problem of poor mental health on college campuses.

Featuring a visit from Frank Warren (the founder of Post Secret)’s, the #StompOutStigma photo campaign and Lift Your Spirits! Day, the week’s events touched every corner of the Cornell community. I attended Lift Your Spirits! Day by accident on the way back from getting a not-so-great quiz grade.

Lift Your Spirits! Day took place on the Arts Quad. Tables manned by smiling representatives of several involved groups lined the path that connects Goldwin Smith Hall and Olin Library.

I was immediately drawn to the first table I encountered. Scattered with cards and envelopes, the goal of the “Gratitude Day” table was to encourage students to reach out to someone that positively impacted them. I ended up writing letters to my real mom and my “Cornell mom.”

A word to the wise: always tell your mom(s) you appreciate them. It means a lot, even if they don’t say it.

The next stop for my down-in-the-dumps self was the refreshments table. My equally morose friend and I savored the effervescence of our free cups of Coke as we surveyed the sunny day and the surprisingly populated Arts Quad.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many students at such an event before. When we finished our drinks, a friendly volunteer approached us and asked us if we’d like to participate in the free yoga class. If we did, she told us, we’d each receive a free blanket.

Sensing an opportunity to end the war of attrition with my boyfriend over the thermostat (it’s so COLD), I eagerly joined the back of the crowd.

Another volunteer quickly noticed us and hurried over with our free blankets, which we used as yoga mats. This wasn’t my friend’s first time doing yoga, but it was mine. I didn’t know that bodies could contort that way. Wearing jeans that day was definitely not the right call.

Despite the fact that I definitely looked silly, the teacher’s calm demeanor as he walked us through the stretches (or perhaps the fact that there were so many other people in the same position) kept me going.

When my friend and I finally packed it in, I wrapped the blanket around me and marveled at the possibility of being sore the next day from what was basically doing stretches.

Swathed in my free blanket, I finished the march back to my Collegetown home with a little more pomp in my step. I’d entered Lift Your Spirits! Day a suffering student, tortured by my own mediocrity. I left a champion.