by Abi Kennedy
As part of the Committed eSeries, we’re featuring different types of mediums as part of the the month to show “What Mental Illness Looks Like.” This vlog was submitted by Abi Kennedy, who talks about how a physical injury manifested into a mental health issue and her struggles with describing what she was going through. Continue reading
by Renee Dowdy
In November I shared a post, What Breaks You, where I wrote about being at a concert with my husband at The Vic in Chicago seeing the Old 97’s (feeling like I’m out of a scene from The Breakup – epic, right?!). I began to panic about having cell phone reception in the theater. Staff in my department expected that I respond to my residential communities 24/7 during the academic year. I kept looking at my work phone, and that’s when the panic came over me like a tidal wave. What if I miss a call? Why can’t I do this job right? Why can’t I seem to do anything right? Why was I hired to do this if I am completely incapable? Were my past six years in residence life just easy – is this the real hard work and I’m failing at it? I’m a failure. An absolute mess. Continue reading
by Joe Ginese
“Wow, great job finishing the race! How are your legs?”
“Hey, you look tired. You feeling okay?”
“How are you today?”
Raise your hand if you have ever had someone ask you one of those three questions.
Now raise your hand if your first instinct when asked those questions is to default to how you are physically feeling.
by Shane Cadden
I believe prioritizing and practicing an authentic ethic of care with students and staff makes me professionally successful because it makes me credible. I’ve always been the advocate for being your true self and the person who has appropriate but authentic dialogue around the question, “How are you, really?” I never thought that enhancing this authentic dialogue could have resulted from a crisis that happened to me. That is what happened one particular summer during the Housing and Residence Life training craze when I nearly died from a pulmonary embolism (PE), a blood clot in my lung.