background: if you've known me for long enough, you'd know that suicide is a very personal topic for me and that i have been a big proponent of suicide prevention--i'm QPR Certified--and have taken part in many things to encourage people to remove the stigma of talking about it. a few years ago, i had the opportunity to take part in "Send Silence Packing" which tours colleges in the united states with an exhibit of 1,100 backpacks to represent the number of college students lost to suicide each year and the following reality really hit close to home for me, so for anyone and everyone even considering it... sometimes the most important thing you can say is just "are you okay?"