I attended a high school with about roughly 500 students.

Nothing too exciting, we had the typical Friday nights spent at sporting events. Pep assemblies for spirit week, and our annual homecoming dance.

Everything was kind of just routine for us. School all week, kids who had jobs worked when they could. We all went to sporting events on the weekends and then to our local Applebee's. It was all just something we were familiar with.

Something else that was known like the back of our hands was grief.

The struggles and grief that my teeny tiny community has faced honestly leave me speechless. But here I am, ready to talk about it and let our lives be your eye-openers.

I attended Swan Valley school district for five years.

From eighth grade until graduation. I got to know my classmates, who they were, what cars they drove, and who their siblings were. We were all friends, we all knew each other's drama and we were all, for the most part, comfortable with each other.

When I was in eighth grade I heard a name talked about all of the time, a student from the high school that had passed away.

Then when I was a freshman, a boy who graduated from Swan Valley, who was very well known, passed away in a car accident.

The end of my freshman year, our school's counselor's son had been diagnosed with cancer.

Sophomore year, a new graduate was in a car accident right in town, and unfortunately passed away.

My junior year, another Swan Valley alumni, and my classmate's relative suddenly passed away.

The spring of my junior year, my eighth-grade history teacher passed away.

Junior year, two kids from the middle school were also diagnosed with cancer.

My senior year, the worst of it all hit.

It was November, and one of my classmate's father suddenly passed away. It hit my class hard, and for the most part, it brought us closer together.

Then come January, my little brother was diagnosed with Leukemia.

Then May rolled around, a sophomore at Swan Valley had taken his own life.

Now listen, I am not here to have you all feel bad for my community and I. That is not it at all. I am here to tell you all, that no matter what the circumstances are, things will be okay.

My classmates and I went through a lot of loss, and many struggles but we persevered. We made it through, we stuck together when things got tough.

I consider myself blessed to have been able to attend Swan Valley school district for the five short years that I did. I am blessed to be apart of such a loving and caring community.

I am so honored to call these people my family and to have faced these struggles with them. Without each other, we would all be lost.

Together as a community, we have lost many, and we have watched many struggles. Through these hard times, we become stronger.

I want you to realize as you finish reading this article that things do get better. Things happen, but you just roll with it. You get knocked down, but you pick yourself up.

Everything happens for a reason. I am a strong believer in that.