Here is a copy/paste of something I wrote to a girl who I saw was having a rough time (edited to remove identities/locations). I am a Division I student athlete and she is a high school senior who will be a Division I athlete next year:
Hey (girl), I saw what you said earlier about u being treated horribly for years and I just wanted to say that I feel for you. I don’t really know you but anyways I just wanted to reach out. To be honest I thought things would never work out for me. In high school wasn’t fast enough to run track in college & I didn’t get any offers to run for any schools so I went to (School 1) and ran on the running club. It sucked to be on the club because it made me feel like I was never good enough because I couldn’t make the team. It really felt like shit to be told I would never make the team and it made me want to quit. At the same time school wasn’t going great and everything was falling apart. I wanted to kill myself for months and I can’t tell you how many times I thought about going through with it. It was the worst I have ever felt. Eventually I looked for a school that I could run for and the coaches at (School 2) said there might be a spot for me. I worked my ass off all year to get it and I had a ton of ups and downs. Eventually I got the times they wanted and they gave me a spot on the team because they saw me work hard for it. This year I got to run cross country at the 3 biggest meets in the country (excluding nationals), and I can’t tell you how great that was. To be told I wasn’t good enough and then get to be the #4 guy on a team at (one of the top meets in the country) was incredible. Sometimes I look back and think how lucky I am that I never followed through with suicide, because my life is so much better than I imagined it would be now. You just gotta do your thing and work hard because things will work out if you stick to it! I just wanted to share that with you because there are so many good things ahead of you that you might not see now, but trust me if you work hard they will come and you will be amazed at the results. Best of luck at (her school)!