Today is World Suicide Prevention Day. Through my work at The Suicide and Crisis Center of North Texas, I’ve learned that youth suicides are a very real, very tragic issue. It is the third cause of death for young people between the ages of 15 and 24, and about 5000 young people complete suicide in the US each year. You can learn more facts about youth suicide on the SCC’s website here. But today, I’d like to focus on the hope and the strength that we can gain from each other, so our teen contributor, Alaysia Monroy, has some words of hope for her fellow teens.
Dear Friend,
This is a world with great wonder,
Only not everyone can see that.
It’s times like this when you wonder,
Where is the world’s wonder?
Friend, I know you may be facing challenges. We all do. But I’d like to tell you: You are worth it! Just live. Don’t worry. I understand that things can be hard sometimes, but in the end, you won’t regret it. There’s a dark world out there, but how are we supposed to shine without darkness?
When you’re sad and struggling for a purpose, just remember you aren’t alone. There are other people hurting. Trust me. Take a breath. This is just a bad day and not an all-out bad life.
Happiness is a world of bright colors and dreams, fulfilling every bit of satisfaction you need, but you can’t get sunshine and rainbows without rain. Too much sunshine will dry everything up, and too much rain will wash everything away. Once that unimaginable place in your mind has been unlocked, those rainy days will come less often. Just one smile can change a life, change a world, and change a mind. When you change the life of another, you get that all-out feeling of satisfaction.
Just a simple act of kindness can put a smile on somebody else’s face. Sometimes, the only thing we can do is forgive a person for an idiotic action they did, or help a person out when they are being miserably tortured.
Bullying causes so much sadness. The one getting bullied experiences major fear and self-doubt. Honestly, bullying is a cruel nature that I wish would just go away. This time and age is so involved in technology, giving a path to even more bullying outside of school. It can turn into a never-ending loop of torture and rudeness, of always looking over your shoulder wondering if you will be next. The agony and abuse one can suffer is horrendous. It affects all of us. There are too many ways one can bully and get away with it.
We’ve created a world of followers. We see one thing, and we copy it. Then our friends learn it, then their friends, and the friends of those friends. It turns into a continuous loop of junk. We waste our time and energy following the wrong things.
I have to believe this doesn’t go for everyone because the world has hope, and it starts with us. All we need to do is believe in the fact that we can make our world a better place. We can share one act of kindness every day. It will eventually come full circle…
Always and forever, stay true to you,
Alaysia
To learn more about World Suicide Prevention Day, visit the International Association for Suicide Prevention. For a list of resources if you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please visit the Suicide Prevention Resource Center online or the SCC website if you are in North Texas.
