I have always considered my life to be very difficult, enough projects, enough bullshit, everything was enough. I wanted to protest, protest against the entire system and get it changed, but even that’s not an easy thing to do, right? I was sad, just wanted to do something different and so I turned back to the one thing that I love the most, my all-time favourite story “Harry Potter” and it was then when someone told me to watch the Netflix original “13 reasons why?”
Well, I didn’t have a Netflix account, I had a lot of assignments and projects to do and above all, I was watching Harry Potter, so I did a rain check. Recently, I was looking for some random books to read and I happened to pass by a novel by Jay Asher titled “13 reasons why” and I bought it. Yesterday, I just finished reading it and wow! Now I know how easy my life is.
Well, that’s one great novel. I don’t know, how much the Netflix original differs from the novel because I haven’t watched it, but that book, it’s really very great. If you think that I am writing a book review, you are not entirely wrong, I am not actually writing a book review but I am stating what my heart feels.
Well, it’s a story about a girl named Hannah Baker, who takes her own life after having to face a culture of gossip, bullying and sexual assault at her high school and a lack of support from her friends, her family, and her school. Before she dies she records cassette tapes explaining in detail the reasons for committing suicide. She lists a total of 13 reasons as to why she committed suicide. Well, I am not going to do the ultimate sin by disclosing the details of the story but I would definitely talk about the theme that the story is based on.
After reading the story I realized how difficult someone’s life might be, the story is based on the fact that we don’t take things seriously, even the smallest of our joke might have fatal outcomes, they won’t feel anything on that particular moment but they may lead to various events which might be beyond anyone’s control. And most importantly, the fact that we are afraid of talking with people.
While reading the story, I felt sad for Hannah and for every single one of us. It’s true that we easily do believe in rumors and we don’t even try to find the truth behind it, and that is what happened with Hannah, she was the victim of fake rumors, victim because no one believed her, no one tried asking her what the truth was and that she never tried telling anyone what the truth was. The author, through his characters, has very well defined how lack of trust can lead to disturbance and doubts in friendship and that how this all could make a person sad and depressed.
Well, I want to write in detail explaining the entire story but I won’t, because I don’t want to take the fun out of it. The author has made efforts to discuss teen suicide and the reasons behind it. Each cassette comes out with details about Hannah’s life and how that event led her to commit suicide. She clearly showed signs that she needed immediate help, she wanted to talk about what she actually felt, she wanted to talk about things, but the problem was she did not have anyone to talk to, there was no one she could trust, everyone was trying to break her even more. She felt cheated by everyone. Her parents had their own problems and they were not paying enough attention to her.
She started becoming lonely and lonely, and finally when she was going through the worst phase of her life, she became the victim of sexual assault. But even after that, she decided to take another chance with life and so she talked with her counselor, but he was not supportive enough and she finally committed suicide.
Though this is all a fictional story, it happens in reality as well, we all face it in our everyday life, we feel lonely, we feel sad, we feel bored, intrigued and sometimes most of us have the exact same feeling of committing suicide. We find life very hard and burdensome and everything goes against our wishes. We feel that we can’t trust anyone and that’s true to some extent. The reason behind it is that we end up trusting the wrong person and it damages everything, but entirely, it’s not true, we think everything’s over because we are afraid of what society thinks but the truth is no one cares, not a single person cares about what we are going through. There are people who are close to us they might think and care for a while but at the end of the day, we are alone.
You know what you are not weak, you are not alone, if you ever feel damaged, all you have to do is talk because the truth is we all face hardships of some kind and we never know what a person might be going through, these hardships does not mean that we have to give up it means we have to fight, we have to push back, we have to struggle until we become strong emotionally, morally and spiritually. Your past doesn’t define you, it’s your present which should be taken care of because you can’t change your past, but you can create your future by living in the present.
There are a lot of people who turned their life by facing their fears, by facing these hardships, these rumors and they brought about a change in society. Believe me, there are people out there who want to talk to you, who want to support you, who loves you no matter what. Remember this, life is amazing, you just need to live it talk about it, feel it and fulfill your dreams, you need to do things you like and make full of every moment
Suicide is not an option it’s a choice and its one of the worst choices one could ever make because it’s a permanent solution to a temporary problem. If you are feeling low talk to your parents or your friends, if you think they will hurt you more, they will laugh at you, so talk to strangers who you think you could trust, if you are still not sure talk anonymously with people (you could talk with people in games or sites where you could be anonymous). Talk in 3rd person perspective, just unburden yourself, if you don’t find one, talk to me and if you think you can’t do that as well then talk to yourself, talk to God, it does not matter if he exists or not, it does not matter if you will get something out of it or not just talk because we can find peace in the eternal love of God, even during the darkest of times. Talk because you are not alone, we all are here for you. It’s you who needs to open up, you are really very important
I would like to conclude by saying we are the master of our sea and the captain of the ship, we are the hero and the author of our story, it’s on us how we turn a sad and depressing part into a climax and change the entire story. We need to come together and change the system, we need to understand that it’s okay to talk about mental health and suicide, because we are all humans and it’s our duty to help and support each other. So please talk. And if Hannah could talk about everything after her death, it’s better to do it when we are alive. But please talk!
(P.S. If you can’t find anyone to talk to, you can always talk to me).