Hi friends!

Excited to bring you another look at how Car Window Poetry is impacting people across America! This one is a little bit closer to home for me.

Last Friday, my friends MEDIC, a rock band based in Castle Rock, CO, hosted an event entitled HOPE. The event aimed to shine a light on mental illness, depression and suicide. Colorado, especially where I'm from in Colorado Springs, has experienced a teen suicide cluster this past year, so I was grateful for the opportunity to speak to a crowd of mostly teens at MEDIC's HOPE event.

To introduce me, MEDIC showed Car Window Poetry's NBC Nightly News feature. I then got up and shared how depression has played a role in my life and in the life of my family, as well as how Car Window Poetry offers students a way for them to speak words of life into their classmates. Scanning the crowd, I couldn't tell if the audience was following along.

Being my biggest critic, I became super discouraged after I finished speaking. We tend to go to extremes when critiquing ourselves, so I felt like nothing I said made sense, and I was convinced my talk didn't inspire anybody. Not one person. But then, later on in the event, Emili, Naomi & Lexi tapped on my shoulder and whispered, "We covered every car in the parking lot with poems."

I wanted to cry. I thought I was showing up to encourage and ended up being encouraged in more ways than I could've imagined. Emili, Naomi & Lexi shared with me how Car Window Poetry inspired them to encourage the people around them and talked about it being something they wanted to continue doing.

Then, I walked back to the Car Window Poetry booth the event staff had set up for me and found that, during the event, people had come up to the table and begun writing their own poems, as well as a few encouraging notes for me. After the event, a few more students came up to me and shared how they were inspired by Car Window Poetry and wanted to share encouraging poems with their schools and communities.

We all have areas in our lives where we feel like we aren't enough. But when we feel hopeless, all it takes is a small reminder to show us hope still exists. People are hurting all around us. I believe you can be that reminder of hope in someone's life. How will you share hope with the people around you?

I encourage you to begin with gathering your friends, writing a few poems, and sharing them on car windows in your community or at your school. The words you share with someone may be exactly what they need to make it through the day. Don't forget to post the poem you shared or received on Instagram using #CarWindowPoetry!

Much love.