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t all changed when a close friend
attempted suicide. Obviously,
I will never know exactly what
he was feeling, thinking or going
through, but I got a sense of it. As he
began to share what he was feeling,
including that he did not matter, my
mind opened to the fact that these
questions do need to be asked, and
that they are just as important as
any others.
Through numerous conversations
with my friend and with others will-
ing to help, I learned a lot about how
these questions actually affect indi-
viduals and began to think about
my own life through my friend’s per-
spective. Why do I matter?
I realized many of my friend’s
concerns revolved around the worry
that he would not accomplish any-
thing noteworthy in his life, which
made it not worth living. He thought
that mattering requires doing
something significant that sets him
apart from the crowd. While I think
people who do such things certainly
matter, I realized they weren’t seeing
the whole picture.
This epiphany led me to my own
conclusion: You don’t have to be
famous for curing cancer to matter.
I haven’t done any such thing, and
I matter just as much as the next
person. Like my friend, I matter
because of the smaller-scale things I
can do. I helped my little sister with
her math homework; I let someone
borrow my textbook because she
forgot hers; and I called my grand-
mother who was fighting pneumo-
nia to make sure she was all right.
These may not be world-changing
feats, but it’s because of them that I
make the world a better place and
that I matter. •
These anonymous essays are shared with the
Jewish News by Friendship Circle.
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20
March 8 • 2018
jn
U
Matter is proud to present “One
Thing I Wish You Knew,” a com-
munity event highlighting the
honesty and vulnerability of their men-
tal health, Wednesday, March 7, at the
Friendship Circle Meer Center in West
Bloomfield. This event will focus on
how teens in the community attempt
to overcome challenges and often feel
isolated and alienated.
UMatter is a program focused on
empowering teens to shatter the stig-
mas surrounding mental health chal-
lenges and suicide.
This event will highlight the vulner-
ability and honesty of teens who will
tell the people in their lives what they
wish they knew about their journeys.
Multiple relationships that teens in our
community have, including parent-
child, sibling-sibling and friend-friend,
will be highlighted, including the dif-
ficulty of sharing what occurs beneath
the surface.
How do teens tell the people they
care about how they are feeling,
when oftentimes it is hard to put into
words?
This event, sponsored by Friendship
Circle, Friendship House and the
Andrew Kukes Foundation for Social
Anxiety, will be accompanied by a
community resource fair and light
dessert reception.
The community resource fair begins
at 6:30 p.m., followed by the event at
7 p.m. Friendship Circle is located at
6892 W. Maple Road. To register, visit
friendshipcircle.org/umatter-event. •