“I could just be real and not hide or put on a brave front.” -Naia-
For the 2023 Annual Fund, Next Step is looking to raise $70,000 to bring their Song Studio music therapy program directly to hospitals where teens and young adults receive care.
After going through the ordeal of a brain tumor diagnosis — doctor’s appointments that don’t lead anywhere, numerous tests and scans, and the treatment that followed — I was in a bad place. I hadn’t given myself space to process everything or had anyone to talk about what I was going through.
Then I attended my first Next Step Campference. It was a very scary experience at first; here I was just after treatment, with a group of people I’d never met before, in an environment I wasn’t familiar with.
The first night, I wrote a poem. It was the first time I’d thought about everything I had been through. In the morning, I worked with Kimberly, Next Step’s music therapist, who helped me turn it into a song I could sing and perform at Stage Night, the last night of Campference.
“I was so afraid and I was so hurting; being accepted for that and being affirmed and told that it was okay helped me start to heal.” – Naia-
The love and support I received from my peers that night let me know, you know what? It was okay to feel overwhelmed; most of them had been in my shoes at one point or another. I had found a community of people who understood me and would help me overcome my feelings. Next Step’s Campference program was exactly what I needed to turn my mental health around.
Please consider donating to the 2023 Next Step Annual Fund and help more teens and young adults, like me, find a space to be themselves, to know that it’s okay to feel whatever you feel.
Thank you and happy holidays,
Naia
