Dear University students,
We are nearing the end of another semester, of another academic year. Counseling and Psychological Services would like to share something with all of us, with the hope that it might serve as a reminder of how important it is to work with our hearts, along with our heads and our hands, as we all support each others’ mental health. If we don’t use our hearts, we run this risk of being removed from each other; of missing the deeper meaning of what we are saying; of missing the opportunity of an “open door.”
We in CAPS would like to share a short video that attempts to remind all of us that we need Heart Messages — messages filled with hope, encouragement, understanding, listening, resiliency and most of all, a message that says, “I am with you on the road, always.”
As you view all the messages that students have written to each other, we can get a glimpse into lives that go beyond what we see on the surface. We gain a road map that accesses our hearts. And we see the power of friends helping friends.
Michigan recording artist YRLK donated one of his songs to CAPS to use in this video. He knocked the socks off the audience during last year’s “Celebration of Hope: We Can All Change the Story” concert at the Michigan Theater with this song. The concert was the result of a collective of students, including the CAPS Student Advisory Board and the Central Student Government.
I invite you to take a few minutes to view this video, to listen to your own song that needs to be sung that only you can dream and sing, and we hope it helps us all to find in our own hearts the ability to stop by that open door, to have a quick supportive conversation with a friend and to encourage us to help each other.
Written by Todd Sevig, director of Counseling and Psychological Services, on behalf of CAPS.