Members of Know Resolve, from left, Anna Benson, Dennis Liegghio and Bradley Mott play and sing original songs Wednesday night in the Engineering building.
When Dennis Liegghio was 14 years old, his father committed suicide. As a young teen, endless feelings of shame and confusion built to the point where he contemplated killing himself. Living in reality, as it seemed to him, was a day-to-day struggle of trying to mask the pain.
On Wednesday evening, Liegghio, the executive director of NoResolve.org, held his Know Resolve presentation at the Engineering Building. The event was sponsored by MSU’s Union Activities Board and ASMSU.
Liegghio said the nonprofit organization aims to be more of an intimate conversation than a lecture, with a goal of promoting the idea of hope after the loss of a loved one though coping skills and resilience.
Since his father’s death in 1991, those feelings accumulated through the years until the physical and emotional toll made an impact. Nothing he did in an attempt to bring back a sense of balance and normality was working, so he tried something different, Liegghio said.
“I wrote a letter to him. I said that everything that I’ve been holding back for the last 10 years — everything that I wanted to say to him,” Liegghio said. “And I went to his grave that day and I read the letter to him out loud.”
Returning home, Liegghio he picked up his guitar and started to write a song summarizing everything in the letter. Titled “No Resolve,” the song has been a catalyst for the nonprofit organization established in the spring of 2007.
“When you lose somebody that way, you feel a couple of different things,” Liegghio said. “One of them being guilt. ‘Why didn’t I see this? How could I have saved this person?’ (Another) was anger. We feel, as survivors, that they’ve given up.”
According to NoResolve.org, suicide is the second leading cause of death for college-aged students.
A national 2008 study showed that 7 percent of students had considered attempting suicide during the school year, according to Olin Health Center’s Web site.
In eighth grade, education senior Kristen McAlpine officially was diagnosed with depression. Although each day can come with its difficulties, she said she copes by surrounding herself with good friends and family.
“The biggest thing you can do (to help someone) is listen,” McAlpine said. “At least let them vent or whatever and then try to keep positive — listening is key. Understand like you know them.”
When graduation is fast approaching for seniors, interdisciplinary studies in social science senior Drew Losinski said stress levels are at an all-time high.
“I feel like a lot of kids, especially seniors, are going though this quarter-life crisis,” Losinski said.
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