Recently, Netflix released a show based on Jay Asher’s popular young adult novel “13 Reasons Why.” I can’t lie, I loved the book. It made me think of things differently, but it wasn’t an easy book to read. When they announced that they were making a Netflix series based off the book, I was skeptical. Most books that get transferred to the screen these days either get butchered or they give the book a whole new life. “13 Reasons Why” surprised me. It didn’t sugarcoat the subject matter like I was expecting. It didn’t shield the audience from seeing and feeling what Hannah Baker went through.

I’ll admit, the show was hard to watch, and I mean really hard to watch. You don’t see many shows or books or movies that deal with suicide these days. It’s kind of taboo. We all know it’s there and that it’s a problem but we refuse to talk about it. Well, this show certainly got people talking.

“13 Reasons Why” isn’t supposed to be easy to watch. It’s supposed to be hard. It’s supposed to throw all the issues that we just ignore in our faces where we can’t ignore them anymore. I think that we’ve all experienced some aspect of Hannah Baker’s truth. We’ve all walked the halls of our high school with targets on our back, or been the object of some unwanted male’s attention, or dealt with people taking something that they knew nothing about and blowing it out of proportion, which ruins our reputation.

“13 Reasons Why” is set up in 13 episodes because they want us to feel as if we’re listening to the tapes with Clay. Did you rush through them like Justin Foley? Or did you take your time actually listening to what Hannah Baker was saying like Clay Jensen did? I’ve heard people say that what happened to Hannah was no reason for her to kill herself, and maybe they’re right. The other side is that nobody took the time to listen to Hannah while she was alive. She felt alone and she wanted her story to be told, and by the only person who could tell it the way she experienced--herself.

The only way she felt she could make people listen… was to not be alive anymore. It literally got to the point where Hannah didn’t care if she lived or died and that is absolutely terrifying. It’s terrifying that people are driven to the point where they feel like they have nobody. That feeling is something I know many of us are familiar with.

The events that Hannah described on her 13 tapes are things that happen every single day in today’s schools. The administrators sit back and do nothing, the other students let it happen and even encourage it to keep going, and the parents notice nothing that’s going on with their child because we live in a world where we all hide behind our phones and our computers. We don’t pay attention to the signs that anyone else is hurting or feeling alone.

This show was a really hard thing for me to watch, as I’m sure it was for all of you. It achieved its goal though, it made us think. It forced us to confront issues head on instead of shying away from them. It made us realize just how important every little thing we say or do to someone is. “13 Reasons Why” is an honest and real depiction of today’s high school environment, and if you weren’t listening before, you should be now.