Beyond The Lines

River shares her experience of being a transgender woman in college and the process of transitioning. She explains her experience in greek life, passing privilege, and how her friends and family reacted to the news. River is in the art school and will be entering her senior year in the fall. 

Ethan shares his journey of addiction beginning at the age of 12 years old when a family member introduced him to marijuana. That led to a series of experimenting with many other forms of drugs to include pain killers and heroin. At one point in Ethan's journey, he was homeless and staying in a retail store's parking lot until he made the choice to get his life together and get clean. Ethan is on his way to law school and is excited about how he can keep telling his story to help other people in the future.  

Being a first-generation college student has its challenges. Zechariah had to overcome financial difficulty and find his path through college and to find his way. Not only is Zechariah now thriving in college, but he has also started a student organization for first-generation students just like him. Hear more about Zechariah’s story of resiliency in today’s episode.

"I felt unworthy and alone, I was always cold and tired. Then came hospitals and treatment facilities. My eating disorder controlled me, but I did not let it define me. I learned to love myself again and bring awareness to what eating disorders truly are."

"I felt unworthy and alone, I was always cold and tired. Then came hospitals and treatment facilities. My eating disorder controlled me, but I did not let it define me. I learned to love myself again and bring awareness to what eating disorders truly are."

At a young age, Mackenzie was diagnosed with an eating disorder. This later affected her high school as she spent time in an in-patient treatment facility learning how to love herself again. She shares about her experiences in treatment and post-treatment and how she managed to not just get through college but thrive. She is an advocate for beating the stigma that society puts around eating disorders. National Eating Disorder Awareness Week is February 24th - March 1st so we wanted to shed light on this topic that is not commonly talked about on college campuses. 

"Life has always been a bumpy roller-coaster, it was tough at the bottom but I always had fun at the top. I lived, I cried and I learned to love and accept myself. I am unapologetically queer, and I am here. 

"College was kind of wild for me. I failed classes, I almost dropped out of school, I abused drugs, I was drugged, I had a stalker, I was arrested and I experienced sexual violence." 

Join Jahaad Carter as he talks about his coming out story as a queer male in today's society. Jahad struggles to find himself but after a roller-coaster adventure of life, he's strong, resilient and ready to empower the ECU community! 

Sharing your story is the epitome of being resilient and real. Rachel speaks out on how she dealt with many issues. She abused drugs, she was drugged, she had a stalker, was arrested and experienced sexual violence throughout her early college experience. Rachel knew she needed help but didn't know exactly how or where to get it. Follow Rachel's journey of how she overcame many obstacles and has became a successful student, graduate assistant and person. 

If you or someone you know has experienced any of the above issues, please contact ECU Cares at 252-737-5555 or ECU Counseling Center at 252-328-6661.