By Madison Howard, Revelstoke Secondary School
On March 24, Revelstoke Secondary School was swept up into the gymnasium for yet, another presentation. Most speakers come to the high school and well, speak.
Everyone was surprised when they walked into the gymnasium to see a band was set up.
Robb Nash had a different approach to connect with the kids — he did it through music.
Nash is a performer who is gaining recognition for leaving a successful music career to share his story with students across Canada, and inspire them to live lives of purpose. His re-invention is the result of a serious accident that nearly killed him. A difficult recovery left him with a new outlook on life.
At RSS, each song Nash played had a heartfelt meaning behind it along with a story about a life. Nash’s lyrics, stories and videos covered a wide variety of issues such as drugs, alcohol addiction, bullying, self-harm, depression and suicide.
He inspires youth to stay hopeful, recognize their unique strengths and make positive choices.
Through his mini-concert, he told stories of youth he encountered, and, with a sense of humour, he managed to present the students with a one-of-a-kind approach to some of the struggles people encounter.
There were moments of utter silence when he mentioned that he had more than 200 students from across the country hand him suicide notes, which he carries in his pocket. One of the songs he sang was called Thief of Colours, whose lyrics said, "Just for today I will breathe/Just for today I will wake."
When asking some of the high school students how they felt about Robb Nash’s performance, they remarked he was really good looking, he was really tall, and he looked like country singer Luke Bryan. Others felt more impacted by Nash, saying his performace was meaningful, and that his show took serious issues and brought them out of the dark. One student was left speechless.
Everyone, no matter if they had been affected by some of the things he mentioned or knew someone who had got something out of presentation.