By: Donald Kelly

Entertainment Editor

It only took one person. Just one person to ask why that man was walking back and forth along the Golden Gate Bridge.

That’s all that the guest speaker, Kevin Hines, wanted someone to do that day he jumped off the bridge. Two years before Hines attempted to commit suicide, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He was an outcast among his friends in school.

On the bridge that day, Hines was just pacing, asking himself whether he should take his own life or not. The one thing that would have kept him from jumping is just for one person to tap him on the shoulder and ask if he was okay. Then it happened someone tapped his shoulder. He took a sigh of relief believing that someone was trying to check on him. The woman tapped him on the shoulder to ask him to take a picture of her and her family. He politely took the picture then began pacing even harder because she didn’t even ask if he was okay.

Shortly after, he ran toward the ledge of the bridge and jumped off. Hines explains his experience of his suicide attempt

“As soon as my hands left the ledge I instantly regretted what I did and I was hoping that I don’t die,” Hines said.

When he hit the water, the Coast Guard started to try and get him out. He wasn’t moving, but the Coast Guard was able to get him out the water. During his fall he broke three vertebras and lacerated most of his lower organs according to www.mcall.com.

Hines was four of the thirty-six surviving people that jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge, and Hines is the only one that has full control of his limbs.

Hines is an award-winning global speaker, bestselling author, documentary filmmaker, suicide prevention speaker and a mental health advocate who reaches audiences with his story about having hope when you think there is none. He uses the phrase “The Ripple Effect” a lot.  Hines explains that the people that who are committing suicide think that no one really cares about them, but they really do. It affects so many people like family, friends, and just about anyone you come in contact with.

Hines made a long lasting impression at our school. Sophomore Kennedy Cook explains how Hines affected her life.

“Hines made his speech applicable to everyone. Even though he was talking about his own personal suicide attempt, he talked about hope. I recently lost my mom and I almost lost hope, then he helped me realize that there is so much to hope for,” said Cook.

Since his suicide attempt he has served on the San Francisco chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP).