AWC Friends of the Earth

To Publish Mental Health Journal

The AWC Friends of the

Earth Newsletter

Oct. 10 2014

Volume 1, Issue 2

It’s coming: The Bor-

derline Journal 1

AWC Friend of the

Earth—Student Profile 1

Stay Strong -

Regina Elder

2

2 Trutha and 1 Lie 3

Mental Health

Film Festival

4

A Word from our Prez. 4

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

It’s Here: The

Special Mental

Health Issue

This fall English 101 stu-

dents are exploring the

"parallel universe" of writer

Susanna Kaysen. Her mem-

oir Girl Interrupted details

her teen-age struggles with

a complex and often fright-

ening personality disorder.

We all agreed. Susanna is

not alone. We are dedi-

cating out writing to men-

tal illness. Beyond the

text, we discuss the complex cases of anorexia, post-partum depression, ADHD. We are writing about tortured artists like Kurt Cobain, Maria Callas, and

Demi Lovato. With our writing, our goal is to engage our readers in im-portant issues that may affect them, their friends, and their families.

Nursing student Sandra Franks knows what it’s like to be down. She also knows what it’s like to get back on her feet. Here in an excerpt from a cause and effect essay, she reflects about tragedy and trauma. She writes with compassion. She takes us down a bumpy road to rebuilding her life….

On November 15, 2009 my husband of thirteen years died of heart failure. This is

when I started assessing my life. As I did this, it became clear my husband was gone.

My sons both graduated high school and were living their lives. The home that once was

a busy nest was empty. I was not prepared for the depression and emotional feelings that

followed. I felt like someone had come in my home and stole everything I loved. This is

when I met Omar and his family, he was always working outside. Omar had a friendly

nature and was easy to talk to. As we began to talk, he would offer to help with things

around the house. This is when I realized Omar was reading me like a book. Omar

saw my loneness and despair, and began to revive this lonely soul. After my husband’s

death, Omar helped me to realize that I was still young and didn't have to be alone.

( Look for more of Sandra—page four)

“Crazy isn't being broken or

swallowing a dark secret. It's you or

me amplified. If you ever told a lie

and enjoyed it. If you ever wished

you could be a child forever.”

― Susanna Kaysen

Girl, Interrupted

THE AWC FRIENDS OF T HE EARTH NEWSLETTER Page 2

English 101 Students Show Some Skin -This semester English 101 students introduced themselves with their tattoos, that is to say, with their tattoo writing. We are into visual analysis. Regina Elder takes a close look at the textual message imprinted across the wrists of Disney star Demi Lovato.

Stay Strong — by Regina Elder

“Stay Strong” is the phrase that Demi Lovato has lived by through the pres-sure of her life as a Disney star. In 2011, Lovato checked herself into a re-habilitation institution for bulimia and wrist cutting. Before she went into treat-ment she had been suffering from depression and low self-esteem. Her tat-toos are more than just an excuse to have ink on her body; Demi’s reasons go deeper than the surface of the skin.

The words “Stay Strong” are tattooed on Demi’s wrists. When she turns her palms upward she is reminded of her hardship in her life. The word “Stay” is written on the left wrist and “Strong” is on the right. Both of these words, taking up about two square inches of her wrist, are in Old English, black font. A small red heart printed below seems to punctuate the phrase.

“Stay Strong” symbolizes the incredible growth and recovery she had made, as well as the tremendous amount of support she had received. After being released from rehab, she decided to get tat-toos to remember the trials she put herself through. The words chosen signifies the will to go on, while the little red heart is to rep-resent the fans that supported her recovery.

“Stay Strong” is a short but encouraging phrase to anyone. To Demi, though, it is more: it is a life style. She said, “… it was very symbolic for me to be able to cover (the scars from cutting)and also replace it with something else permanent so that I’ll nev-er be able to forget the support that I had when I went to treat-ment” (“Steal Her Style”).

I would do something similar in the fact that the tattoo I would get that has meaning to me. The tattoo would be the pink breast cancer ribbon in remembrance of my grandma, with the words I live by, “Seize the Day”. I do admire Demi Lovato for never wanting to forget the struggles she had before treatment. These tattoos are a reminder of her journey to a better life, free of self-inflicted mental and physical harm.

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2

I live in Mexicali. I’m a marathon runner. Most often, I run 8-9 miles per day in the early mornings. I’m always on the look-out for quiet, safe areas where I can run without the worry of getting hit by a car. Probably, my favorite place to run is along the Cali-fornia side of the fence that separates the U.S. and Mexico. I can run from la garrita central to la garrita nueva without looking up. Anyways, one day about six miles in, there I was listening to my music and running with my head down, and BOOM! Some-thing fell out of the sky and landed right in front of me. If I wasn’t going so slow, I would have been flattened like a tortilla. It was a fence-jumping illegal immigrant! I suppose he was up on top look-ing into the distance for la migra and didn’t think to look directly

below.

Two Truths and One Lie - Which One Is It? To introduce themselves in class, English composition students were to write three paragraphs about themselves on the class discussion board. Two of them were to be true, one of them to be a lie.. The writing below was selected at random. Can you detect the liars in the class?

Page 3

J. Le

we

nste

in

Everyone in Yuma is al-ways complaining about

how there is nothing to

do, but with a sense of ad-

venture and a little motiva-

tion to get off the couch

there are countless oppor-

tunities for fun out there.

During the summer, just

about every weekend my

boyfriend and I go cliff-

diving. We pile into our

cars with friends, ice

chests full of food to grill and drinks, and drive

out about 20 miles to Senator’s Wash. I absolutely

love cliff diving; something about getting totally

hammered, and jumping off a 30’ cliff gets my

adrenalin pumping. Although the first jumps always

the hardest, the second your freefalling, nothing

matters because you have no control, there’s only

one way you can possibly go, and then in seconds

you’re engulfed by water; it just swallows you

up. When you float back up to the top all you want

to do is climb back up the cliff and throw yourself

off again. Other than Senator’s Wash I have cliff

dived in a couple places along the California coast

line as well as places in Ohio and Colorado. I

would love to travel the world and cliff dive

in as many places as I can while still able.

Ka

tie K

ilgo

re

My sister Kate and I are practically twins. We rarely ever do anything without each other, and we always have each other's backs. We are so close that we always get into arguments about things that we share. Once I had just thrown on this precious silky gray sweater of Kate’s. She wasn't wearing it so I assumed it was totally all right to borrow. Unfortnately, my assumptions resulted to be extremely wrong. She ended up trying to yank the

sweater off my body as I ran away. .

She yelled across the house "Take it off, Alex-is! TAKE IT OFF!" But, I refused to take it off. I mean, she wasn't wear-ing it anyway. Before I knew what was hap-pening, she picked up her cell phone and threw it at my face with all of her strength. Just my luck, I caught her throw and of course threw it right back at her. She wasn't so lucky, however, and ended up with two broken bottom teeth and a fat pur-ple lip. On top of that that night we had

to go to a wedding!

Lexie Havins

What’s Next? It’s Coming Soon:

The AWC Friends of the Earth Mental

Health Film Festival

Here we go: Look for us Fall 2014. We envision the development of a cross the campus, cross-the-curriculum series of events that com-bines plenty of counseling, writing, art, and HOPE.

Let’s face it. None of us by ourselves is trained or confident to handle, or even identfy, extreme emotional trau-ma, but here with our selection of films, IVC Friends of the Earth hopes to open important discussion in the classroom and across campus.

We begin with Girl, Interrupted . Look forward to an array of film clips, guest speakers, and positive messaging.

Sandra: Back On Her Feet Again

Ricardo Garcia—President

Haleigh Litchford—Vice President

Regina Elder—Event Coordinator

Kayla Hern—Multi Media Director

Alani Cabato—Art Director

Jakob Hunter—Editor-in-Chief

Bianca Lopez - Production Manager

Yesenia Gonzalez - Public Relations Director

Club Advisor: J. Lewenstein

Jay.Lewenstein@azwestern.edu

Organization

AWC FRIENDS OF THE

EARTH

Like us on Facebook: AWC Friends of the Earth

( continued from page one) This was one of the lowest points in my

life. My husband was gone, my youngest son joined the Navy and the eldest

son got married. Omar began doing little things like changing light bulbs,

fixing the dog door. On some occasions he came over with beer, we would

sit on the front patio and talk for hours. We became great friends, Omar en-

couraged me to get out of the house and become more active. He would say

“Franks you need to go out more, and meet a man.” I thought no I don’t men

are too much trouble. He would invite me out with him and his family; we

would hang out or go to the speedway and watch stock car racing. I enjoyed

getting out of that empty house.

Omar taught me that I didn't have to be alone. I needed to learn,

who Sandy was again. My life of being a wife and mother of two young

sons’ no longer existed. I changed my attitude about life, and how to live it. I

was becoming more active, meeting new people. Before I knew it, I was los-

ing weight and gaining some much needed confidence. I took a chance and

went out with Nathan. We have been together now for 4 years. I noticed Na-

than and Omar had a lot in common like working outside, being friendly and

riding Harley Davidsons. My life was looking up, Omar and Nathan both

continued to encourage me. I was changing and didn’t recognize this woman

in the mirror. She was the beautiful woman I had hidden by the years of

abuse and emotional eating.

An invitation from AWC FOE President Ricardo Garcia - “Join Us in the Discussion” AWC Friends of the Earth is not really an extension of our English class. It’s an extension of us, our best ideas. Each week , we meet to discuss ways to become more actively involved on campus. Join us in our weekly planning sessions. We’re eating popcorn, watching film.

We’re building bridges from out

classroom to the community.

When: Wednesday afternoons

between 3:30 and 4:30

Where: LR 47 (around corner

from the campus library)

Don’t know anyone? No prob-lem. You’ll be with AWC

Friends of the Earth.

— Ricardo Garcia