We Rise by Lifting Others by Zoe

We Rise by Lifting Others by Zoe - November 2019 Scholarship Essay

As stated by the National Suicide Prevention Hotline, members of the LGBTQ+ community are “disproportionately at-risk for suicidal feelings and other mental health struggles.” At the young age of 12, I had yet to have experienced true adversity in my own life, however, a passion and desire for soccer and a quest for a more challenging, competitive, premier team led me to meet Yoanna. She had almond shaped, mischievous eyes, an animated spirit, and a bubbly persona. Connecting instantly, I started calling her Yo. We quickly became friends, camping out in my RV during soccer tournaments, face-timing, carpooling, and listening to Twenty-One Pilots on repeat.

One day, Yo walked towards us with her usual smile, but something was different. Her once flowing long brown hair was cut short, so short you could see her ears. I had never met someone who was so confident in their character. On that day, Yo decided to confide in us that she was a lesbian.

Almost a year later, I was given the soul crushing news that Yoanna had committed suicide. My best friend, who ate pretzels from a bag she’d found on the ground, who would yell and hug me after I scored a goal, and who made me feel accepted on a new team, was gone. Weeks later, we found out she had been bullied at school, and had struggled for quite some time. Her parents knew she had been suicidal, but had left her alone with her little sisters only briefly to run an errand and came back to their daughter, gone. I had never lost someone that close to me, and the sadness was overwhelming. Often I would blame myself for never having known her sadness or not having spent enough time with her to gain the required trust which would have allowed her to confide in me. Eventually, I made the decision to commemorate her life by playing every game with her enthusiasm and treating everyone with dignity and respect. I still wear a Yo leg band to almost every game, proudly displaying her number, 33.

The experience of Yoanna’s suicide has taught me that regardless of others’ appearances, you can never understand the personal struggles one conceals. Now that I am seventeen, I carry this experience with me, and strive to emanate even a small measure of Yo-ness each day; to uplift those around me, whether through sports, volunteering, or through everyday conversations.

Given the opportunity to attend a newly built high school, I have helped to create an environment of intentional inclusivity, and I continuously influence the school’s legacy to reflect my own personal values by being a part of its first varsity soccer team, and first student body. My class will be the second graduating class from my high school, and as such I feel that we have been given the opportunity to create an atmosphere of belonging and acceptance.

For instance, I’ve invited two low income students (one LGBTQ+), who both struggle with finances to accompany me for a free senior photoshoot with my mom, who successfully edited their photos and made them yearbook ready. I’ve donated my ACT books and my time to help a shy football player study for the standardized test in order to improve his test score. He hopes to reach an ACT equivalent to 1000 on the SAT required to reach his goal of a football scholarship. Also, as we build our soccer program from the ground up, I embraced the opportunity to lead summer captain’s trainings for the JV and varsity teams, I am intentionally inclusive toward every person, and I work to make them feel welcome as Yo once did for me. I was nominated as a nominee for Homecoming Hero by my peers, a role of leadership and integrity at my school. These are few examples of everyday things I believe help to shape my school into the community of inclusion. I envision a better world as I see much of my generation becoming more accepting and would love to be given the chance to make an equally safe and accepting environment as I continue my journey into a college in the fall of 2020. As Robert Ingersoll once put it, “We rise by lifting others.”