You sit down in your 8th hour English class, all the smiling faces around you, jittering with excitement because they know that in exactly 50 minutes they will be either in their car, on the bus, or walking away from the school towards their sweet, and comfortable homes. However, you aren’t nearly as excited as everyone else. 

You show up late all the time to your first hour class because you don’t like it, and you have detentions lined up through the end of the month because waking up is so hard when you have no motivation. 

Your parents are concerned, your dean is concerned, even your grandma knows about it. The only thing to do now is try and fix yourself and your schedule, but where to start with all of it, is the question.

The first step is finding your resources, and dealing with what’s in your head (eating the elephant one bite at a time, if you will). The first place to go is upstairs to guidance and talk to your guidance counselor.

Well, what if I don’t want to see them, Alexan?

Well, according to Genesis Casillas, “we do have other resources here in the building side from counselors so we have social workers, we have the students Assistance Program Coordinator. Miss Oldenburg, who is fantastic and does a lot of programming and she sees students individually as well.”

But I’m okay, I promise! I mean I don’t really need help even though I can’t go to first hour without feeling like I’m glared at for coming in late.

Dean Griffin sat down with me and talked about the stigma and how some students can be a little hesitant of going to talk to someone. Griffin says that “If you had a chronic health condition of some kind, you go see a doctor. So why is it so different… if I’ve been suffering for months with being depressed, why wouldn’t you go treat it like you treat a chronic health issue that you’ve been struggling with?”

There are people here, though, that I know need the help more than me.

If you’re really thinking that Casillas also says “we have support groups and things like that available too…Some of them are short term groups, they run maybe six or eight weeks. So, if there’s not a group running currently it may run in the next cycle and they can get in on that yet.”

I’m not so sure if I am ready to open up to anyone about my situation, whatever it may be.

In the real world, you aren’t always going to have a social worker on hand. The real world isn’t nearly as easy as high school is.

Griffin thinks that “If you’re struggling with some social emotional issues, you better be comfortable enough to go and seek out some assistance when you need it. There’s a…strength to… go and get that professional help outside of the home or outside school when you need it.”