It's okay not to be okay.
From the outside looking in, Harry Miller was living the dream at Ohio State. In addition to having a 4.0 GPA as an engineering student, the junior was highly regarded as one of college football's best offensive lineman.
But on March 10, Harry announced he would be "medically retiring" from the game after sharing his mental health struggles with the world. In a new interview on Today, Harry explained why he decided to speak out.
"People have called me brave, but to me, it just felt like not dying and felt like being honest," Harry told Savannahh Guthrie, Hoda Kotb and Carson Daly on March 21. "Maybe bravery is just being honest when it would be easier not to. And if that is bravery, then so be it. But I've just been really grateful to one, receive the help I have. And two, to have learned some things that I can share with others."
Harry described receiving hurtful messages online when he made mistakes during a football game. And while he would try to get support from family and friends, moving on is easier said than done.
"You can't worry about it too much because you have an exam the next day and you have that for weeks and then months and by the end of the semester, you are like, what is happening right now?" he said. "It just breaks my heart. While I was going through my therapy, I was seeing stories of Miss Americas and athletes all over the board and I just kept thinking if somebody would say something. I'm just really grateful that I was able to have received the care and love and affection that I did so that I could."
While he may not be suiting up for the football field, Harry is grateful that Coach Day has allowed him to find a new way to help others in and out of the athletic program.
"I am a life preserved by the kindness that was offered to me by others when I could not produce kindness for myself," he wrote on Twitter.
And although he lives by the motto Dum Spiro Spero, which is translated to "while I breath, I hope," Harry had one final message for viewers watching across the country.
"I would just say hope is just pretending to believe in something until one day you don't have to prepend anymore," he said. "And right now, you have all the logic, all the rationale in the world to give up on it. But I would just ask, pretend for a little bit and one day you won't have to pretend anymore and you will be happy."