R U Okay? Day | 11th September 2014

Are you okay?

First of all, nope, they didn't make me post this. I find this campaign worth the spread and so here goes the blog post.

Back to rambling about what happened in the campus today.
So I volunteered to help out for this event a month ago and this day has finally arrived! I was pretty indecisive whether I should go on helping out as I had another report due today which had yet to be done. Pfft. Last minute work again but I'm so glad that everything turned out to be well! I am really happy with my decision for joining this campaign as well.

Okay. I'll just quote from what I saw from the slides given to me as a part of the training. I find it pretty helpful & meaningful and I wanna share! Credits to RMIT's R U Okay Day organizer.

• So what is R U Okay Day? It is actually an annual day of action to promote mental wellbeing by encouraging open and honest conversations to stop small problems from turning into big ones. And for 2014, R U Okay Day falls on the 11th September which is this morning. 

R U Okay Day is a non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging all people to regularly and meaningfully ask 'are you okay?' to support to those who are struggling with life. 

• R U Okay Day's mission is to encourage all Australians to take responsibilities for reaching out regularly to people in their communities; to emphasise what you don't need to be an expert to connect with someone who's struggling; to help Australians understand that supportive families , university and workplace communities are crucial protective factors for preventing suicide.

What shocked me is the stats that was displayed on the slides.
Research showed that over the last ten years, an average of 2200 Australians have died by suicide each year. Source from ABS 2012. 

For more info: Visit here!

:O This shows how depression really kills if there's no one you can reach out to. DAYUMM.
It's really scary isn't it?

So today, I got myself a job as a surveyor. I was pretty lost at first because I didn't know what to do so I went over to the photobooth area to release some stress heh. First time taking pictures in a photobooth with random strangers LOL
Back to the point, my survey questions were do people know about the R U Okay Day thingy? If so, how do they know about it. etc etc. Two of the questions that I find it quite impactful was "Have you asked someone if they're okay today?" and "Have you ever asked someone if they're okay? If so, did you find that experience positive for you and the other person?"
TOTAL MINDBLOWN. Okay maybe it's just me.

And I find it true when one of the participants mentioned that the experience positive thingy really depends on the situation or the person; some people can be grateful, some people don't appreciate it. *fist bump*


I dragged few of my survey victims and it is pretty nice when they asked me if I'm okay after finding out about this event hahaha. not sure they're just fooling around or what but it does feel good when people asked me. Some of them are just funny HAHA. One of the girl asked if she can have the t-shirt that I'm wearing. Another guy said that I have a nice smile (shy la HAHA). Another dude answered the campaign should have more people like me LOLOL (double shy, i can feel my ears turning red damn; i dont mean to sound boastful, just wanna jot down what feedback that i received for my own personal memories). A very big thank you for you guys that spared your precious 5 minutes or less to answer my questions! Couldn't have done it without you guys and certainly made my day! Specially for those that asked if I'm okay too. Heh.

Lastly, my own opinion of this campaign:
I love the idea of this campaign, really. Not because Imma volunteer or shit.
Especially what happened recently to the late Robin Williams, he was full of sunshine and you can't even notice any blues from his face and look what happened to him. Sigh. People use smile as a disguise too often that we people got so blinded by the smile.
It is also really important to know what people are going through without judging them so that they feel connected and resilient.

People, it's really okay to say you're not okay.

Wonder if i'll see these faces again. Nice meeting you guys!

I AM OKAY :D 

Till then xx.