So I am sitting here at my desk after a long day at work, staring at this blank screen thinking of what to write about. Maybe I should write something that people like to read about, or what people would want to hear, or what popular culture event is most prevalent in the news today. Though I think to myself ever so frequently to adjust myself and my thought process in order to pander to the college students reading this, I don't believe anyone should be another sheep following their herder blindly. I look to my window sill and see a bottle of Jameson and a letter; a letter in which I haven't read in the last four years because it destroyed me emotionally. Now, you may be thinking "Wow this is getting depressing...". That's because what I am talking about is depression.
College is a new experience for all who chose the path to a higher education, and for those who haven't gone to college, don't worry about it, it wasn't for me either. Many first year students see it as time away from home, to experience a new chapter of their life. There is also one thing that no one can ever prepare for when they go to college, and that is dealing with the stress, overwhelming amounts of school work, and becoming an adult all at the same time. I won't sugar coat it, college is difficult. It is a full-time commitment as a student and an adult where you don't have anyone holding your hand, but that doesn't mean you can't have someone by your side through it all.
What you need to remember as you read this is that you might have a friend who is dealing with depression, and you don't even know it yet. Depression isn't always as crystal clear as people think. There are not always signs that you can see until it is too late, and unfortunately, it is a sobering fact that depression can cause someone to take their own life in order to stop it. I was there, in the same spot multiple times. I still remember breaking down and having all fourteen of my life-long brothers surrounding me because they were all there for me. No one knew of my depression until I broke down in front of them and they could see how much I was hurting. Though depression happens throughout life, it is not a sign of weakness. Stress, traumatic experiences and even chemical imbalances in your brain can cause depression, but knowing how to treat it is the first step.
The saying "Life isn't fair" is a motto in which I live by. It is also the truth because life really is not fair. If life was fair, everyone would have their way therefore, no one would have their way. Life is not fair for the sole reason of allowing you to learn from mistakes, gain wisdom and knowledge along the path to adulthood, and to pass on your experiences to others in order to help them succeed through life. I want to jump back to the first paragraph for a second. You remember the bottle of Jameson and the letter on the window sill, right? Well, that bottle is empty and that letter is glued shut. They sit on my window sill so when I wake up every morning, I see the sun shining through and I look past that letter and bottle, knowing that no matter what happens, the future is always brighter than my past.
