A Message From A Happy Teenager
Did you know that child and teen suicide rates
are at an all time high, right now?
That suicide is the 2nd most popular cause of death
for 13-17 year old boys and girls?
That, odds are, at least 15 people in this room
are clinically depressed?
Do the math.
& have fun guessing who's who.
As we get older, we are taught that "being a teenager"
is the most deadly time of our lives.
Our parents start checking our phones and our pill cabinets
tryout to make sure they are not given the opportunity to outlive us;
This is not how life was supposed to be.
I mean, what happened to us?
What happened to when food was meant to be devoured
and not cut into a thousand tiny pieces, hiding the fact
that we haven't eaten in days and blaming our growling
stomaches on a "sickness",
and though we are sick, that is not what we mean.
What happened to when we only wore long sleeves
when it was cold outside and we prayed to beat our rivals
instead of praying for survival;
what happened to when we felt loved?
Is it really this hard to be loved?
I have friends that struggle with breathing
and I have friends who don't care to breathe at all.
But their lungs are too good at their job to stop
and I pray that the air they breathe never becomes boring to them,
because happy teenagers get scared too.
I get scared for you.
But what we see is only half of the equation and
there's no such thing as hopeless when their's air to be breathed in;
the sun makes a loop around the earth every night.
It's always darkest right before we see the light and
it's not fair to say that you don't make a difference
because there is always someone
who is listening. Someday,
it is going to be okay.
I have friends who know these things better than I do.
I see people struggling in every moment, and
struggling is okay, but it is not going to last forever,
because food was meant to give us strength and
our lungs are meant to help us laugh until our stomaches ache,
but NOT from hunger. Suddenly we can't breathe
with joy in our heads and love in our hearts..
LOVE.
It is important that we feel loved.
Happy teenagers should not be an oxymoron, a minority;
It is a blessing to have air in our lungs.
It is a blessing to be loved.
and you are loved.
Unhappy teenagers are loved too.