Truth Challenge: Day 26

Day 26: Have you ever thought about giving up on life? If so, when and why?

Once I nearly gave up. I was in high school, junior year, and I just couldn’t deal anymore. I was struggling to keep up, wasn’t feeling well, and felt like there was too much pressure to keep up with everything. It was more of a feeling that I just wanted to stay in bed all day. I barely went to school, told everyone I was sick, and stopped talking to my friends.

It’s funny, but my best friend and I were fighting at the time, and she’s the one who pulled me out of it. My mom tried but I didn’t want to talk to her. She let it go pretty easily when I told her that I just didn’t feel good. I figured that nobody really cared. Then I was walking in a stairway in my high school (I can still see it in my head and I’ve blocked out so much of high school) when my best friend came up to me. She asked me if I was ok. She told me that I didn’t seem happy lately, and that she was there if I needed her. Just the act of her reaching out was enough to pull me out of the funk I was in.

There are people who have dealt with depression that was a lot more serious than anything that I ever dealt with. I have a lot of respect for those people who find a way to keep going. This wasn’t anything big, didn’t last very long, but I’ve always remembered my friend and her compassion. She reached out and I’m grateful to her for looking out for me. I’ve tried to be that friend for others based on her example. It reminds me of the saying that you should smile because you never know what it means to the person you are smiling at.