SA for life came about after many years of me wondering what my purpose in life was. At the age of 14, I experienced the most traumatic event of finding my mother after she had passed away. Since that moment, I have struggled with anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts. I have been hospitalized, and I have struggled throughout these years, most times alone. Each time I attempted to take my own life, God somehow stopped it, and I could never understand why I was still here. "What is my purpose?" I would ask myself... Why was He keeping me here knowing that I was in pain?

One day I fell into a deep sleep, and I was jolted out of sleep with a clear vision in my mind. The vision was so strong that when I tried to go back to sleep, the thoughts of the vision kept me awake. This is the day that God spoke the vision to me. I now know the reason why God spared my life. I know that I am still here so that I can be a voice for those who don't feel that they have a voice, in hopes that one day they will use their own voice. I want to make people aware that depression is real and that more people go through it than more people really understand. Some people are ashamed or afraid, and they don't speak about it, but instead, they hold it inside.

Depression, suicide, and anxiety are like cancers, and they will eat away at you unless you do something! You have to be aware that behind those smiles, sometimes there is sadness. With a kind word, smile, or your truth, you can help someone else to speak their truth. I created SA for life, as in Suicide Awareness, as in Staying Alive, as in my mother's initials, Shelley Andrews. There are so many things that SA can stand for, and it just depends on what SA could stand for you. My goal is to raise money to donate to suicide awareness in hopes that one day it will be easier for everyone. Let us all be AWARE.