Sacramento State’s Latino Greek Council put on an open mic mental health workshop on Monday, April 30. People were welcome to attend and share their story, relate to others and get advice.

Josue Sanchez, a junior here at Rocklin, was invited to go by his sister who attends the school.

“This week is like their preparation for dead week, which is like AP testing. They organized it for the week before because people get nervous and anxious for finals.”

They taught techniques at the convention like breathing to help with stress, one of which was the 4-7-8 rule. Josue was invited to give a monologue, where he talked for five 

minutes about his own personal experiences with mental health. 

“I told my story through a poem. I made it relatable to the point where it touched their feelings. I even made some of them cry.” He decided to use a poem because he thinks if you share your story in a concise way and you make it relatable, it goes further than just telling your story.

Josue said that the college students were surprised by his struggles, because he is much younger than them. It was a good eye opener for them to realize that everyone, no matter what age, deals with mental health issues.  

Part of his poem says, “The greatest love of all is from those who know pain, who know the value of death to once again, restart the cycle of life. Whose life, such as my grandfathers, will push me to try my hardest and realize that there is such thing as hope… Such as my life, for which I hope helps you understand that life isn’t all that worthless, but just a chain of unfortunate events.”

His words are truly inspiring. No life is worthless.

He goes on to say, “There is hope in life, there is grace at the last breath, there is peace within the final struggle. And most importantly, there is light in every soul that radiates like a flower blooming in springtime.”

Thank you, Josue, for sharing your story and reminding us that each and everyone one of us has purpose. Conventions like the one he attended are wonderful, and need to happen more often. Share your story, you may never know how it will affect the people around you.