IF IT WASN'T FOR DREAMS

"My classmates sent around a 'We Hate Demi Lovato' petition. It was ridiculous! And yet, there are kids out there who kill themselves over this sort of thing. I'm sure if I hadn't had dreams, I could have been suicidal." -Demi Lovato, Time Out New York Kids

I read this quote a couple days ago online and it's really stuck with me. 

This month on TheOneLove, the charity focus is on the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention, a cause that I've obviously been very personally effected by.  (If you don't know what I'm talking about, scroll down a few entries to my very first blog and read my story).

This has been an interesting experience for me, becoming a blogger here at TheOneLove, because I never thought this would be how I told my story.  Not that there's anything wrong with it, but I never thought that this would be how I put it out there for people to hear.  Even months after writing my first blog here and telling my story, a lot of times I go to update this blog, and find it hard to find the words.  After dealing with not one, but two suicides, there are many times when everything else seems so trivial.

To read a quote like Demi's, it really hits close to home.  Here is a 16 year old girl talking about suicide because her world could have been made so bad by her peers.  Is Demi wrong for thinking this way?  I don't think she is.  I'm not justifying suicide, but at the end of the day, you can't help the way you feel, and unfortunately, some people feel this is their only option.  But it's not.  Not only that, but feelings of depression can be prevented in many different ways.  Even though you can't help the way you feel, imagine being on the other side of things.  Imagine being one of those people that created that list.  Imagine how you would have felt.  The point I'm trying to make with all of this is that compassion, caring, and outreach can be all it takes to prevent a possible suicide.  On a daily basis, you never know what people are going through UNLESS YOU TAKE THE TIME TO ASK.  It literally takes two seconds, and sometimes those two seconds can save a life.

So, this month, I have a challenge for all of you.  Take a couple minutes out of your day - stick a note in your friends locker just to tell them that you love them, take a coffee to your mom or dad when they're stuck working instead of being home, open the door for a complete stranger, put a teddy bear in the mailbox of a sick friend...it doesn't matter what you do...but I challenge you to do that one little action - that one tiny thing to let someone know that you're there for them. 

Sometimes the best friend is the friend who isn't just there when you need them, but is still there for you even when you think you don't. 

I challenge you to be that friend.  And never change.

And if you or someone who know has been effected by suicide, please visit: http://www.afsp.org/.