Last night I went to hear a lady speak on campus about diversity and acceptance to a group of incoming freshmen. She had a good rapport with the young group and comes with quite a background in diversity training.

She touched on issues that hit home to our kids generation like eating disorders and suicide. She asked everyone in the audience to stand up who knew someone that had the disorder or who had tried to commit suicide. I could not believe that each time, over half that room stood up! Then she asked those to keep standing if the person they were standing up for had died, and hardly no one sat down. I almost was brought to tears.

For the students that were in the room, the speech was about pay attention to those around you. Be kind to one another and if you know someone has a problem, try and get help for them.

But for me, I was a mom last night. It was heartbreaking to hear. I have two college-aged children, both whom I believe are pretty well adjusted and for that I am thankful. I cannot imagine if your child hurt so much, he or she felt they had to hurt themselves or worse take their life.

It was an eye-opening experience for me.

So be kind to one another. If you know of someone that needs help, reach out to them. Life can be difficult but it can be made a little easier for someone if they just know that someone out there cares.