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Devin Smith

@coach_devv

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🚜 👨🏽‍🌾 The Farm 🌱
🛡️ 🏈 BG 13U Head Coach
🏈 SJCP WR Coach
✍️ Writer
🧠💫 Mental Health/illness Advocate
🙏🏽 ✨God driven

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#thatsthepost by @coach_devv

43

4

a year ago

🧠😶‍🌫️It’s been a minute since I posted deep content, outside of my episodes.
A few years ago, I used this space to journal and be transparent. But I pulled back. Mental Health Awareness Month started feeling more like a hashtag than a healing space.

Still, I’ve been holding something in.
And God’s been tugging at my heart again.

So here’s the truth:
I’m about to release some heavy reflections as I begin my annual 90-day fast.
This is not coming from a place of crisis.
I’m not in a bad space.
But I am feeling. And I do hurt a little.
Especially for those who are tired…
…those losing grip
…or those who already let go.

Here’s what’s coming next:
1. A Letter to Mental Health Awareness Month
2. The final version of my letter to suicide—and my reply
3. A letter to myself as I go into this fast

This isn’t pessimism.
It’s reflection.
Because this goes deeper than a diagnosis.

Mental illness is real.
But sometimes it’s not just chemical.
Sometimes it’s environmental.
Spiritual.
Cultural.
We’re out of alignment with ourselves, with nature, with each other, with God.

We’ve replaced:
Purpose with performance.
Peace with productivity.
Faith with fear.

We are all in survival mode…
Well, everyone except the 1%.

But I believe love is still the secret:
The love of God. Then the love of Self.

Find God however you need to
Through church, mosque, nature, silence, or community.
If you’re searching, God knows.
He’ll find you—even if you feel buried.

Please remember:
This is my truth. But it’s not therapy.
I am not a licensed professional.
I am not a crisis responder.

If you’re in crisis or need support, reach out immediately. You are not alone.

24/7 Resources:
• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline – Call/text 988
• Crisis Text Line – Text HOME to 741741
• Trevor Project (LGBTQIA+) – 1-866-488-7386 or text START to 678678
• Domestic Violence Hotline – 800-799-7233 or text START to 88788

You matter.
Your pain is real.
Your healing is possible.
Let’s talk. Let’s feel. Let’s tell the truth.
And keep growing together.

— Devin | The Loquacious Thinker 🧠

#theloquaciousthinkers #mentalhealth
#mentalhealthawrenessmonth by @coach_devv

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2

a year ago

🧠 I live with mental illness, so I’ll never minimize the struggle. I know what it feels like when your own mind starts working against you.

But understanding the struggle doesn’t mean removing accountability.

Mental illness may make certain choices harder. It may influence how we think, feel and react; but it doesn’t make the harm disappear. A diagnosis can explain the behavior, but it can’t become an excuse for everything we refuse to confront.

Grace and accountability can exist in the same space.

I can have compassion for what you’re battling and still hold you responsible for what your choices caused.

Because mental illness or not…a choice is a choice, and every choice carries something with it.

TLT 🧠

#MentalHealthAwareness #AccountabilityMatters #HealingAndGrowth #ChoicesHaveConsequences #theloquaciousthinkers 🧠 by @coach_devv

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1

10 days ago

🧠 Sometimes we confuse order with arrangement.

The branch was already whole. Every stem, leaf, and flower had a place, a purpose, and a connection to something living. But once we separated it, measured it, and placed everything into straight lines, it became easier to understand, while losing the life that made it whole.

Not everything has to be rearranged by us before it can be called order. Sometimes order is connection. Sometimes it’s movement. Sometimes it’s trusting the pattern God created before we put our hands on it. 🌱

“He hath made every thing beautiful in his time.”

—Ecclesiastes 3:11

—TLT 🧠

🧠 Sometimes we confuse stability with control.

We organize life into routines, titles, expectations, and systems because they make us feel secure. But nature doesn’t always grow neatly. Roots twist. Rivers change direction. Storms clear space. Seeds break open in darkness.

What looks like chaos to us may simply be life reorganizing itself into what God intended it to become.

Maybe everything doesn’t need to be controlled. Maybe some things need room to grow wild. 🌱

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.”

—Isaiah 55:8–9

—TLT 🧠 by @coach_devv

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0

13 days ago

🧠✍️💚
Life, it’s been a little volatile. But thank God my tears no longer weigh me down.

I can cry now without believing I’m weak. I can feel deeply without allowing every emotion to become an instruction. I can admit when I’m tired without believing tired means finished.

That wasn’t always the case.

There was a time when I wanted to die.

Not figuratively. Not just wanting the pressure to stop. I wanted my life to end. I had disappeared with no intention of returning, and I had made peace with the thought that everybody I loved would be better off without me.

But God knew my heart; even when my heart had given up on me.

📸 @cjg_flicks

And when I couldn’t hear Him for myself, He used my aunt to reach me. She reminded me that my life didn’t belong only to my pain. I’m here because God kept me, but I’m also here because somebody answered what I couldn’t say out loud.

Eleven years later, I understand what that nurse meant when she looked me in my eyes and said:

“Oh no, baby. You’re not crazy. You’re very tired.”

Some people don’t need judgment.
They need rest.

They don’t need another lecture.
They need somebody willing to sit in the dark with them.

They don’t need to be reminded of how strong they are.
They need permission to stop performing strength for a moment.

So, no—I don’t judge anybody who wrestles with suicide. That pain doesn’t always make noise. Sometimes it looks calm. Sometimes it jokes, goes to work, takes care of everybody else, and quietly disappears inside itself.

If you’re there right now, tell somebody the whole truth—even if all you can say is:

“I want to die, and I don’t feel safe by myself.”

Let somebody sit with you. Let them help carry what has become too heavy for you to carry alone.

Your darkness may feel like a grave, but it could also be soil. God may be establishing roots in the same place you thought you were being buried.

I ain’t going to tell you it’s easy. I’m telling you I’ve been low enough to want my life to end—and somehow, I lived long enough to watch that version of me become somebody I finally understand.

Cry if you need to. Get help. Take the medicine. Go to therapy. Pray. Call somebody. Sit still. Start by @coach_devv

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0

13 days ago

🧠Yall remember, I told yall years ago, that football and my son saved my life… Right?🥹🥲My God… Look how far God has brought me… Thank you 🙏

This season is personal…

But it’s not about me.

It’s about what comes through me.

I’m not just out here coaching football. Young people are watching who I am before they listen to what I say.

At 44, I can finally say I know who I am—and I’m not ashamed of how long it took. I went through hell to get here.

So this season, confidence is leading… second only to God.

Not arrogance. Not ego. Just trusting what He placed inside of me and refusing to shrink from what He called me to do.

This new dream may have started with me…

But the purpose has always been bigger than me.

🫡🧠 Coach Devv

📸CJG_flicks by @coach_devv

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8

a month ago

🌱 👨🏽‍🌾 THE HANDS BEHIND THE HARVEST

Every harvest begins with a vision, but vision alone isn’t enough.

It takes people willing to prepare the soil, plant with purpose, protect what is growing, and remain committed long before the results become visible.

Over the next few slides, we’re introducing the leadership helping build The Farm—a team of educators, coaches, mentors, and youth-development leaders committed to cultivating brighter futures from the roots up.

We aren’t simply developing athletes.

We’re cultivating scholars, leaders, and human beings who will become positive assets to themselves, their families, schools, teams, and communities.

Meet the hands behind the harvest. 🌱

#TheFarm #FromTheRootsUp #HandsBehindTheHarvest #YouthDevelopment #brighterfuturesstarthere

👨🏽‍🌾 Devin Smith — Founder & Executive Director

(Coach Dev) Devin Smith is a youth-development leader, educator, coach, mentor, writer, and the Founder and Executive Director of The Farm. His professional journey includes experience in education, student support, healthcare, athletics, and community-based youth development.

Coach Dev has served young people from Baltimore, Montgomery County, Bethesda, Olney, Northern Va., and Fredrick Md as a Student Success Coach, Youth Development Specialist, a high school career and technology educator, pharmacy technician instructor, high school Wide receiver coach, basketball coach, and longtime youth football coach. Through these roles, he developed a deep understanding of what young people need beyond the classroom and playing field: consistency, accountability, meaningful relationships, exposure, and adults who genuinely believe in their potential.

He founded The Farm to create the kind of developmental environment every young person deserves—one that helps them discover their purpose, apply their gifts, rise with character, and multiply their impact.

As Executive Director, Devin leads the organization’s vision, partnerships, program development, community engagement, and long-term growth. His work is rooted in the belief that when young people are properly cultivated, they do more than succeed—they become positive assets to their s by @coach_devv

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a month ago

🧠🐶 And he’s always doing too much lol, just not on days like this… #Javi #javier #esa

Yes, my esa is a pitbull

God Is good by @coach_devv

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2

a month ago

🟢🟡 @sjcp_vikingsfb Almost Game time babbby!!! by @coach_devv

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1

a month ago

🧠 As light produces fruit, so does darkness.

We may never scientifically prove whether darkness possesses a supernatural personality. That is where evidence ends and faith begins.

But we don’t have to prove demons exist to recognize darkness. We can see its fruit in deception, abuse, hatred, manipulation, exploitation, isolation, and the destruction of human dignity.

We can also recognize light by what it produces: truth, courage, healing, mercy, accountability, connection, and transformation.

Light does not require us to deny darkness. It asks us to see it clearly without allowing it to decide what grows through us.

Trauma is not a demon. Mental illness is not spiritual corruption. Faith and psychology do not have to be enemies, and prayer and treatment can coexist.

Darkness may exploit our wounds, but it does not erase our responsibility for what we do with them.

Light and darkness are both real—but they are not equal.

Darkness consumes life.

Light produces it.

So tell the truth. Seek healing. Break the pattern. Protect people’s dignity. Refuse to become what wounded you.

TLT 🧠💫

#TheLoquaciousThinker #LightAndDarkness #FaithAndPsychology #Healing by @coach_devv

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0

a month ago

😨😫😑Bruh, first, yesterday I run into what looks like a HUGE wolf spider chilling on our door frame… cool, whatever, I survived.

Then today, I’m chilling, writing in the outside man-cave and this big ugly ass spider decides the ground wasn’t enough and CRAWLS UP MY LEG instead. 😳

Nah.

At this point they can have the whole house, bruh. Somebody come help me cut my leg off. 😰🤯😳😫😖😮‍💨😂😂

Exposure therapy was NOT on my schedule today. 🤦🏽‍♂️🕷️😭

#Arachnophobia by @coach_devv

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6

a month ago

🧠😮😅 Maaan… Boosie bad-ass (Brix) is growing over night lol, Javi won’t be able to handle her at 6 months lol

#canecorsopuppy
#canecorso
#pitbull by @coach_devv

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a month ago