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With summer underway, WYSO Youth Radio is back with a new season of stories from young people in our community. To kick things off, members of a teen-led group called BATS, Bringing Awareness to Students, stopped by WYSO to share their real-life superpowers. What if the greatest superpowers weren't flying, invisibility, or super strength, but the everyday abilities that help us survive high school and life?
Mary Cunningham, a senior at Miami Valley High School, says her superpower is as simple as taking a breath.
Cunningham: Sometimes it all just feels like too much. All the pressure, all the noises. But I have a superpower. I breathe.
Your superpower is already inside of you. Just breathe.
If your anxiety or stress feels like more than you can handle, talk to someone you trust or call or text 988, the crisis lifeline. You are not alone.
When I first started struggling with stress and feelings of being overwhelmed and anxiety in middle school, it was really hard to get through those moments by breathing and slowing down. But as I've talked with more people and gotten more comfortable with myself, I've definitely got a lot better at just taking a beat and taking a second in some high-stress situations.
And I think forcing myself to be in uncomfortable situations where I can feel comfortable and grow and be with people and form a connection has really helped me.
Anaiah Westmoreland, a sophomore at Greenon High School, says she found her superpower in the battle against her own inner critic.
Westmoreland:
"I'm not good enough."
"You're learning and growing every day."
"I always mess things up."
"Mistakes help you improve."
"I can't do this."
"You can do hard things, just take it one step at a time."
"Everyone else is better than me."
"You're on your own path to success, and that's enough."
Negative self-talk can feel loud, but it isn't the truth. The way you talk to yourself matters. Be patient. Be kind. Don't let those thoughts control you and keep you down. You are stronger than your negative doubts.
Let your positive self-talk be your superpower.
I would say this is definitely a superpower I developed over time because I have struggled with negative self-talk all my life. I believed that I truly wasn't good enough, and it took time to realize that I am. I did that by combating that with positive self-talk.
Lively Garringer, a sophomore at the School of Innovation High School in Springfield, Ohio, says their superpower is understanding people.
Garringer: A superpower that I have and that I feel like I utilize greatly is my ability to understand other people.
I figured this out when I got my certification in Teen Mental Health First Aid because I had many people coming to me asking for my support and my advice. That was a time when I really had to step back and think about what made a person think this way, what caused them to do certain things, and how I could better understand them to approach the situation and make it easier for them to live and enjoy life.
I feel like my ability to understand has created more connections with the people around me, and I think that's very beautiful.
One question I've been asked is whether this is a superpower I was born with or one that I developed over time. I feel like growing up in the situation I grew up in—with very hippie parents in the middle of nowhere—you learn to understand. You're constantly being taught how people interact and how people love each other. But I believe that it was developed over time to become a superpower and not just an ordinary trait.
Thank you to BATS for sharing their superpowers with us. You'll be hearing more from the Bringing Awareness to Students group from Clark County in the coming weeks on WYSO Youth Radio. Special thanks to Beth Dixon for helping bring this project to life.
WYSO Youth Radio is made possible with support from people like you and the Ohio Arts Council. It's produced at The Eichelberger Center for Community Voices.
