"Steptember," or 300,000 Steps for TWLOHA
This September, I entered a challenge I found on Facebook--300,000 steps to raise funds for To Write Love on Her Arms. That's an average of 10,000 steps per day for the month, or for me, about 150 miles. As someone who generally averages about half that, this was a pretty daunting challenge, but since I'm trying to lose weight, and September is Suicide Awareness Month, I thought it would be a good way to combine two things I care about. I had no idea when the month began how much I would learn through taking on this challenge. To keep me motivated, I decided to walk each day in memory or in honor of a person or group. I had a few people in mind: a cousin who took his own life a few years ago; a friend who struggles with alternating anxiety and depression; celebrities whose suicides are well-known. Some were people I'd never met: in 1992 I traveled with Continental Singers for the first time. The night of our first concert, I stayed with a family who warned us when w