When I saw Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were going to be in New York City for World Mental Health Day, the first thing I did was head to Project Healthy Minds Festival to attend three talks created in partnership with Archewell.
Walking into the venue space was just glorious. I could feel the good vibes all around me, which makes sense since it was a festival dedicated to mental health, and trust me, the complimentary snack station to the right of the coffee stand did not go unnoticed.
While it is nice to be treated to niceties, that was not the purpose of the day, at least not my day, it was to sit, listen and observe.
The event kicked off with the founder of Project Healthy Minds taking the stage. He delivered a welcome speech and then invited Prince Harry to take the stage.
As Harry took the stage, I thought to myself, “There’s Prince Harry, he’s right there, he’s giving a speech, and you know what it feels like? It feels… normal.”
Possibly, it feels normal because I see photos of Harry on a daily basis, or it feels normal because the royals are people just like us (maybe just a little fancier). When it comes to senior working members of the Royal Family, it may be different; there’s an air about them, but when it comes to Harry, he seemed like a really relaxed, nice guy, looking out for other people.
Harry was on stage to kick off the panel; his intro was two minutes and a bit, and the panel was about 30 to 40 minutes.
The panel discussion was interesting in itself, but there was one standout moment, when a teenage girl talked about the trauma of TikTok, which is how she learned about restrictive eating, and as a result of severe weight loss, she was rushed to the hospital.
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The second talk was at 1:30pm, and Harry was in the front row, but he didn’t hit the stage. He was an audience member like the rest of us. If I hadn’t known Archewell was a part of the panel discussion, I wouldn’t have known Harry was in the room, in a good way; he was doing his thing, and the audience members were doing their thing, focused on the talk.
The third talk was at 2:30pm, and Harry did not attend. While interesting and just as important as the first two, it did feel different, possibly because Harry wasn’t there.
Going into the talks, I thought to myself, what will it be like to breathe the same air as a royal, which I said in a sort of joking manner, in reference to being in the presence of greatness, but more seriously, Prince Harry and Meghan being a part of this event brought people together.
At the end of the day, I asked myself the same question, but it felt different, because it was a day filled with people talking about trauma and recovery.
There were the experts on stage, passing along their knowledge, but I also crossed paths with several survivors and for them to tell their stories of loss, followed by healing, that is courage.
And I feel like that is the Power of Harry. Yes, Meghan was at the first talk, but she sat with the audience.
Her attendance was very much appreciated, but it seemed like this was more Harry’s thing, that he was the thread bringing the topics and people together, with one survivor saying to me, Harry knew exactly who she was and knew her story and if it weren’t for him and his efforts, they would still be in a dark place.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.the-express.com ’
