“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.”
~~ Barack Obama
All of the most influential people in history agree that we are not put on this earth to serve ourselves. There is a greater good, there is more than just each of us, there is all of us.
While browsing the blog, you may have come across a post about things that I am passionate about. Chief among them are education and something that was not mentioned in that post – Mental Health. I am happy to say that I have had the opportunity to volunteer for projects that directly affect children’s education like St. Mary’s Montessori School Children’s Library and hope to have more chances to do work like this.
But I have not yet had, taken, or made the opportunity to volunteer or speak out about mental health. Until now….
Late last year while searching for some very specific information online, I came across NAMI. I had never heard of the organization but was very interested in what I found – NAMI tackles both education AND mental health! Not an easy task. Since then, I’ve joined NAMI and decided that, at some point, I would want to get involved and perhaps even work to get others involved.
That’s a pretty tall order for me; not only am I very introverted (but friendly), I am also really anxious! So clearly it is not easy for me to stand out, and certainly not to recruit people. But it IS easy to step up, speak out, and help support others when you genuinely care. And that is exactly what I decided to do. Fast forward to January 2015 and my NAMI Volunteer application was completed and sent on it’s way…. there was no going back.
Now I’ve started working with my local NAMI on a program called Sharing Hope. This comes on the heels of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated and NAMI announcing a partnership to raise awareness on mental health issues in the African-American community.
And I have also assembled a team for NAMIWalks Greater Houston. Expect to see more about each of these here on the blog.
So I am excited to share the news with you that I, and by extension Xtraordinary by Design, officially support NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness!
