About a year ago we knew we would be moving. Matthew nor I no longer worked in Georgetown and we knew we would put Keaton in a school in Round Rock ISD so his schedule would be the same as mine. We knew at some point that meant putting the house for sale and finding our new home.
I honestly have been excited to move to Round Rock. I am very invested in the community. I have met so many wonderful community members through work, especially as I work with the Round Rock ISD Partners in Education Foundation. Even though we could just transfer Keaton to a Round Rock school, we really wanted him to live in the neighborhood where he goes to school.
It has been four years since I did my first overnight walk with AFSP... it has been four years since I was introduced to the amazing organization of AFSP. I not only have completed four overnight walks (about 16 miles each), but I now serve on our local board and provide countless education sessions. I wasn’t sure I was going to do the overnight walk this year, but when they posted the dates and cities, I felt a pull. It really is one of my favorite parts of the year. I decided to sign up and Matthew agreed to walk with me in San Francisco. Neither one of us have been to SF, so it was a great excuse to explore a new place.
When January hit, I was ready to start training for the SF hills! I was convinced having a treadmill in our room would be the key to training this year… then we decided to put our house for sale at the end of Feb… that meant making the house look open, and big… and like we don’t live in the place… it meant the treadmill needing to go to storage and my fantastic plans went down the tubes.
Training got put on the back burner once we got an offer on the house and we put an offer on our new home. As our to-do list started to grow, my anxiety about a 16-18 mile walk in June started to grow. At one point I asked Matthew if we should just not go. He quickly stated we would still go… he pointed out the money we had already raised and reassured me we could do it.
I was on a training walk tonight… I am trying not to focus on how far behind I am on training or the HUGE hills we will walk in SF… and it hit me. When depression, anxiety, suicide happen in life it is not at a “convenient” time… it is in the middle of life. Life doesn’t stop for it and I shouldn’t use life as a reason to stop advocating and walking for others. So Matthew and I will walk in about a month through the chaos that is our life. By then we will have packed up our house and moved into our new home… oh and have new floors installed. The hassle and stress of the next month is so trivial compared to those who are walking through the darkness of depression.
For us to walk we must each raise $1000. Please help us get to our goal! Can ten friends of each of ours donate $20 to our walk? That will almost get each of us to the goal.
To donate please go to:
Amy Bigbee Grosso, PhD 