NEDA WALK 2012 :D

      So Saturday the 13th was the National Eating Disorder Association Awareness walk. I was really looking forward to this walk. My team raised $495 only $5 short of our goal of $500. The walk was a very rewarding experience. I left feeling inspired, and hopeful. There were 3 speakers, Jennifer Duvall a high school student who is recovering and also coordinated the walk, her sponsor who has been in recovery for 8 years (holy crap, AWESOMENESS), and last but not least Miss Texas. Yes, that's right I said Miss Texas, she spoke about how eating disorder awareness was her cause and that she herself is recovered from anorexia. So as you can see there were many strong, inspirational women there. It was so good to see people getting together to support something very dear to my heart and I'm sure the hearts of many others. Here are some pics from the walk, hope you enjoy them. :D 

*My aunt and I*

*My girls from outpatient sporting our NEDA tats*

*My girls from outpatient sporting our bright shoes*

*Me and the first girl on the left who made it all possible*

 For this post I asked Jennifer Duvall to do a guest post. I'm so excited to have her on my blog. I hope you enjoy her post as much as I do. :) 

This is Jennifer, the girl who made it all possible this year! :D 

 

My whole life has been spent trying to prove people wrong. As a little

girl, the words, “Jennifer you can’t do that, you’re not old enough” were my main motivation. I purposely bought craft kits that were designed for older girls because I wanted to prove that I could do it. This little girl’s spirit was taken by a horrible disease, eating disorder not otherwise specified, during her junior year of high school. My headstrong personality became a weapon that I used to starve and hurt myself with. Luckily, after many months of treatment, I was able to use my persistence to help myself. Slowly, my reasoning became rational again, and as time grew on I learned that I did not need my eating disorder. All that ED told me was “you aren’t good enough”, and now instead of fighting the people that loved me, I began to fight the demons in my head. Three and a half months into my recovery, I was sitting in my health class (which at one point was a horrible class because I heard “healthy” everyday), and looking on NEDA’s website. I was looking at the awareness walks and realized that there were not any planned for the Houston area any time soon. Being the ambitious one that I am, I emailed CJ, the national walk manager, and he helped me get started coordinating the 2012 Houston NEDA Walk. My summer consisted of sending countless emails begging for money from treatment centers and major businesses. Unfortunately, due to the economic circumstances, not many places are looking to donate $1,000 to an organization that they have never heard of. One thing that recovery has taught me is to keep going when all I hear are no’s, a core belief that I once had. So I persisted and sent around 200 emails, which paid off in the end, securing three corporate sponsors for the walk. After months of emailing, October 13th finally rolled around. The walk was a bigger success than I could have ever imagined, we raised $9,133, but most importantly, we raised awareness of a serious illness that is overlooked by too many. Next year I will be in college (hopefully UT, fingers crossed!), so I will not be able to coordinate the 2013 walk, but I hope that somebody out there will pick up where I left off and continue the tradition until eating disorder awareness is as common as breast cancer awareness (even the NFL wears pink!). If I inspired one person by coordinating the walk, then I have achieved my goal. At the end of the day, we could have raised $500, and it would still be a success if I changed one life. Eating disorder recovery is 100% possible!

                                                                                                     Yours truly,
                                                                                                                 Jennifer

Wow! Jennifer is so inspiring! So glad to have met her and her determination to make a difference has definitely inspired me to do more. :D I hope this post inspires each and everyone of you to make a difference. Whatever your mission is, just know that with the right amount of passion and determination it is possible. :D