From second grade up until fifth grade I played softball a lot. I played on many teams and I loved it, but there was a certain team I enjoyed playing on the most. I loved my teammates and I loved my coach. My coach’s name was Chuck. Coach Chuck was also a pastor at the Baptist Church and he knew many people in town. I always remembered Coach Chuck looking and sounding happy all the time, or so it seemed.     

 He would always tell me, “Alex even though you are not a power hitter, you will always get on base; whether it is by a hit or a walk, I can always count on you to get on base”. He wasn’t just my softball coach, he was a close family friend, and his daughter Reese and I were close friends too. She and I would practice together all the time. I remember being happy. At those ages, I never thought much about mental health. At the time. I always assumed if somebody looked happy, they felt happy. I never thought about my teammate's mental health, or coach Chuck’s. I know I wasn’t worried about anything, and I’m sure I assumed things must be fine.   

After a while, we lost touch with Chuck’s family, but I still thought about them hoping everything was still going well. I had also stopped playing softball after fifth grade; however, I thought about picking it up again since I’d enjoyed it so much when playing softball for Coach Chuck. A few months ago, my mom came up to me in my room, I had finished my schoolwork. There was something in her facial expression that made me feel uneasy. I felt a mixture of sadness and confusion as she told me that Coach Chuck had recently committed suicide.                                                                                    

I felt confused because I remembered him seeming so happy, and the fact that he was a pastor, I really did think he was a happy person. This proved to me that just because somebody may look happy on the outside, does not mean they feel happy on the inside. The entire scenario made me feel sick.                                                                                                                                                   

I didn’t go to the reception for him a few weeks later, my mom recommended that I should not go. However, I did start thinking more about the mental health of other people. Is it more likely for somebody my age to be mentally healthy, or mentally ill? I did some research and found out that approximately one in three teenagers have experienced mental illness. Also, more than 700,000 people die from suicide each year worldwide according to the World Health Organization. I was so surprised by these statistics. I didn’t think they would be that bad. Many companies work specifically to stop mental illness and there is also a suicide hotline. Yet still, mental illness is a huge problem in the world, and suicide itself is among the ten leading causes of death in the United States at the tenth spot. This shocked me more; while people and numerous health companies are trying to deal with this, it is still a big problem.                 

 Learning this made me want to help by raising awareness, supporting organizations that are trying to help, and checking in on family and friends to see if they are okay. It is so important to fix the issue of mental illness, and it is so upsetting to think that one is so depressed they might end their life. I still think about Chuck and his family. I decided to pick up softball again in his honor. Even though I’m not a power hitter, one day when I hit a home run, as I’m running the bases, I will be thinking about Coach Chuck.