The Struggles of the Wandering Mind

“Self-care is how you take your power back.” 

– Lalah Delia

In recent years after the pandemic, people have slowly progressed into understanding their mental health. Having awareness of one’s outlook on how much the environment, the community, and their actions can take a toll on their well-being. Considering how time makes change, the idea of mental health and well-being has been overlooked in past years, becoming a normality. However, the current generation–ever so aware and innovative, has broken the traditional ways of avoiding the concept of one’s mentality, encouraging the youth to understand and cope with their emotions.

Not only has the current generation become more aware and educated, but schools have also been implementing activities and means to spread the value of each student’s mental health, especially towards their academics. Balancing the responsibilities of home life and school at the same time it has become a nature for high school students to have pressure put on them for the future, asking themselves, “How successful will I be? What’s on my report card?  What happens after graduation?”

With this, in October 2024, the Guidance Department of Manresa School started the  Mental Health Week for both the students and teachers. This event acknowledges the value of every single person, and what their worth is inside and outside the Manresan Community. The event truly allowed students to freely express themselves and know more about the different coping skills to help them get by life’s challenges. 

With so many activities planned, the Senior High School guidance counselor, Miss Carmela Magno, otherwise known as Miss Mela, has spoken about the preparations and her thoughts regarding Mental Health Week. 

“In this new school year, tell us about your experience on the planning and implementation process of this year’s Mental Health Week!”

“Organizing a school-wide event is always challenging and requires a lot of time and effort. We had to have many meetings to plan and discuss the possible activities to be given, especially since these activities should target the students' needs and be fun and engaging for them. Not to mention that we also thought of the other schedules and activities that the students may have during this time (exams, other celebrations) as we want to avoid stressing them out or interfering with other important school activities. Since it is a school-wide event, these should also be coordinated with a lot of people which would then lead to many changes and editing of the original plan. We originally planned to implement the activities for one week only but due to the different schedules, we had to plot the schedules sporadically throughout the month of October. This allowed us also to have ample preparation in between activities and coordinate them with the students and class advisers.” 

“What were some of the difficulties you encountered during the event and the planning stage?”

“Due to the varying schedules and tasks of the counselors, we admit that we did not have enough time to plan out this event. It’s ironic how we always remind students not to procrastinate but in all honesty, we are guilty of doing that as well. And its effect of course led us to many concerns and difficulties in the buying of materials, decorating, and coordination with the teachers and students. Not to mention that before and during these activities, we also had to fulfill our duties as guidance counselors which includes testing and counseling services. Due to the typhoon and class suspensions, we also had to cancel or reschedule some activities such as the Encouragement Store, Tune-In session, the Mindset Reset session for SHS, and the Brewing Inside event for faculty and staff. However, despite this, I am thankful that we have people who helped us, especially our peer facilitators who helped manage the Encouragement Store.”

Even though teachers may be our role models and our guidance in school, everyone still has their times of exhaustion that may lead to procrastination. In some way, this can bring comfort to students who invalidate their time of motivation. Miss Mela has talked about the difficulty of bringing different activities into motion. Sadly, due to the suspension of classes during the days of Mental Health Week, there were multiple cancellations of activities planned for the students. However, with that in hand, Miss Mela’s peer facilitators from the Peer Facilitator  Organization have gracefully assisted in managing the Encouragement Store, one of the celebration’s activities. 

Overcoming these difficulties, the Mental Health Week came through successfully. Although not all activities were manifested, the promotion and awareness of the students’ mental health have been seen and valued in our Manresan community. 

“How do you feel after the week? Do you think it was a big success or is there anything else you wished to include or add?”

“Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time to bask in the success of the activities as we had to plan for Guidance Week next. However, I am happy with the outcome of the event and I’m proud of the department for successfully facilitating everything. Of course, there are things that we want to add and change such as the proper implementation of the events and spreading the information about it to the students. We hoped to have focused and implemented the activities for the faculty and staff as I believe they also deserve a break and to have fun.”

“Does organizing a Mental Health Week for the students and teachers also benefit/affect your mental health in a way? How?”

“I would say, yes! It is always fulfilling to facilitate activities and see the students have fun and learn from them. A huge part of organizing events is also the feedback and to be honest, there would be times when I doubt if the activities that we planned would be received well by the students. However, I am always surprised whenever they enjoy and participate in different activities. It makes me more motivated to come up with other fun activities in the future.”

“Lastly, is there anything you would like to share or have learned after the Mental Health Week regarding our students' mental health?”

“I think one of the things that I want to share with the students is that as much as we are here to help you and that we are happy to do so, it is also very important to have the initiative to ask for help and advocate for your needs. Of course, us counselors will do our best to be present but it is also a skill that the students need to exercise. It would help not only us but the students eventually since by doing this, they are able to get the help that they need. We hope that by doing these activities, they are able to be more comfortable with asking us for help and that they understand the importance of being proactive in the betterment of their mental health.”

It is evident that our Guidance counselors have taken their time and efforts to provide their students with Mental Health Week. The guidance counselors not only acknowledge our mental health but also our physical health, providing students various activities to show the importance of this.

We, students, are more than thankful for the opportunities and the event of Mental Health Week given by our guidance counselors. Mental Health Week not only was an event for the students’ enjoyment, but also an outlook for every student to lend a shoulder, a helping hand, and their time. It’s worth knowing that through every difficulty, there will always be someone to shoulder some of the burden for you, may it be a family member, a friend, or a loved one–for this case, Miss Mela had her fellow counselors and peer facilitators. It’s exciting to think about what’s the next plan for the next year’s Mental Health Week, all thanks to our guidance counselors.