What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
Things to consider: Think of community as a term that can encompass a group, team or a place – like your high school, hometown, or home. You can define community as you see fit, just make sure you talk about your role in that community. Was there a problem that you wanted to fix in your community? Why were you inspired to act? What did you learn from your effort? How did your actions benefit others, the wider community or both? Did you work alone or with others to initiate change in your community?
My high school is notorious for its competition among students. Many of us are so stressed from trying to balance perfect grades with extracurriculars that we barely sleep for five hours on a good night. I wanted to change that environment into a less stressful and friendlier one to make school less of a struggle.
My friends and I decided to start an online community called Silver Lining to help people combat mental health problems and insecurities while raising awareness for the importance of these problems. I am the secretary, writer, and one of the original six members of Silver Lining. Our mission is to help establish a kinder, more relaxing environment at school through our actions online. To accomplish this, we create motivational posts and tips for social media.
Feeling that no problem should be ignored, I was excited to create Silver Lining to address the generally overlooked subject of mental health. Despite my enthusiasm, I was worried that our impact would not be substantial, since we only operated through social media. I decided not to let that stop me and wrote freely about my own insecurities and experiences to relate with others. Initially, I felt that I was not effective due to few likes and comments on posts, but other members were touched by what I wrote and encouraged me to overcome my own worries.
Fortunately, following the little response during the initial stages, Silver Lining quickly gained traction--130 followers on Instagram and 50 on our website within the first month. Inspired by our efforts, followers regularly opened up and talked about their personal experiences. Silver Lining makes a difference in others’ lives by providing an outlet to let go of some stress and worries and express feelings. That is the best part of Silver Lining; it is not one-sided, but a two-way effort to combat the problems and insecurities of followers and members. This is Silver Lining’s true purpose.