On the morning of September 25, 2000, 19-year-old Kevin Hines walked with heavy steps toward the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. He was silently battling the weight of bipolar disorder, overwhelmed by a darkness he could no longer contain. Standing on the edge, he watched the water churn beneath him while traffic rushed by, unaware of the war raging inside him. Then, in a moment of despair, he climbed over the railing and jumped.
Kevin plunged at over 75 mph, falling the equivalent of a 22-story building. The impact shattered three vertebrae in his back; he felt his body breaking even before hitting the water. Against all odds, he survived. But survival didn’t mean immediate safety—paralyzed from the waist down, struggling to stay afloat in the freezing bay, he was in agony and drowning in both water and regret. “The moment my hands left the railing,” he later said, “I knew I had made a terrible mistake. I wanted to live.”
Then, something miraculous happened. Kevin felt a presence beneath him, something large and gentle lifting him toward the surface. Witnesses onshore later confirmed it wasn’t a shark, as he feared, but a sea lion that stayed beneath him, nudging and keeping him afloat until the Coast Guard arrived. That moment changed Kevin forever. He survived not only a suicide attempt but was granted a second chance at life. He went on to become a powerful advocate for mental health, sharing his story around the world, and authoring *Cracked, Not Broken*. What tried to end his life became the beginning of his mission: to help others hold on just one more moment, in case that moment is the one that saves everything.
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