Celebrate Our Super Citizens

by Lisa Johnson, Staff Writer

Morgan is our Super Citizen for February.

Meet Morgan, an athlete, mental health supporter, and advocate for kindness and understanding in her community. Morgan is a senior at South Lakes High School and has been playing lacrosse since she was nine-years-old. She recently received an athletic scholarship to attend West Chester University. Over the years, Morgan has noticed how athletes don’t always get the mental health care that they need, so she became an ambassador at her school for Morgan’s Message, a nationwide organization that supports the mental health of athletes.

Morgan finds that supporting athletes’ mental health in particular is important because it is harder for other people to notice when something is wrong. “Athletes are used to having a lot of pressure,” she states, “They’re good communicators. They keep going when things are hard. They’re used to pushing through. When other people see that, they think everything is fine when really it might not be.”

To support athletes at her school, Morgan and her club members hold monthly meetings where players of all different sports come together to decompress, play games, make connections, talk through any mental health struggles they are having, and get access to extra resources to help them with their mental health. “It really helps normalize what athletes are going through,” Morgan explains, “Otherwise, when people struggle, they might think they’re the only ones struggling.”

Morgan prioritizes her mental health in her own life as well to help herself be the best athlete she can be. “On the field, I really have to have a clear mind since I already have the pressure not to mess up,” she says. To help decompress from balancing athletics, work, clubs, and school work, she says that she prioritizes hanging out with her friends any chance she gets and talks with people when she needs to rather than keeping her emotions bottled inside.

When asked about the importance of kindness in a community, Morgan shared, “There’s always a need to be kind in the world. Even if you’re not getting something out of it, it’s always important to be kind. Especially when there is so much stuff happening now. You never know what someone is going through.”

Do you know someone in Reston who is under eighteen who has done something kind in their community? If so, scan the QR code below to nominate them to be featured as a super citizen in a future issue of The Reston Letter!