The Breaking Point

On Thursday, November 20, I attended an event put on by the RHA called "The Breaking Point." The focus of the event was on Stress, Anxiety, and Depression. The audience was presented with a video and a panel of students and an adult representative of the MSU counseling center who discussed the issues in their lives with which they struggle the most and how they deal with the stress, anxiety and depression that are often times the repercussions of these issues. It allowed me to take a step back from my own stresses and realize that everyone on campus has issues that are difficult to deal with. 

I felt the concerns being addressed at this event directly related to our TE 448 class because the voices I heard were speaking out about feeling like an outcast because of their race, culture or sexual orientation. Students also spoke physical attributes they cannot control (i.e. clinical depression) that presented an obstacle in their lives that many people cannot or will not try to understand, much like some individuals we learned about in class when exploring various persons with special needs. 

I was constantly reminded of the sort of added pressures and stresses that the characters deal with because to their cultural backgrounds in the multicultural literature we have been reading in TE 448. Attending this event was one more step to help me open my mind to the realities of oppression and stereotyping in the world around me. I saw how people in the same room as me are forced to deal with obstacles and challenges similar to what we have been exploring. This means that there will absolutely be students in my classroom who experience the same things and I need to be equipped and ready to teach these students in an equal and accepting way. Providing a safe environment for every learner just might be one more step in preventing these issues from causing so much stress in the lives of young adult college students, like those that I saw at this event.