There comes a time in your life, maybe a few different times, when something in you just clicks. You know, the moments when you can't really explain it but it all just seems to make so much sense but you still don't understand it. But in it, you understand that you get to move forward in the next chapter of whatever it is you have been working toward.

The element about this that makes it so frustrating is not being able to understand it or explain it. It is one of those things you just have to trust is good and then build on it. It is really hard sometimes to just "trust" that the feeling of reassurance or peace (maybe?) is something you can depend on when you struggle so much with uncertainty.

I am almost 23 years old, and I have experienced these feelings a few different times, mostly in the last few years. But there are several people (some that I knew personally) who don't ever, and won't ever, get to experience these moments in their lives. There is a sort of pain and suffering that comes along with never being able to feel or reach that next chapter. The feelings of being stuck, being trapped, sometimes moving backward and further away from goals.. it can be the loneliest place to be.

Add in the factor of labeling- labeling someone a loner, someone who pushes everyone away, someone who never accomplishes anything, someone who is a loser, someone who is a nobody, someone who is nothing, someone who is a mistake, someone who did something they never did.. these are the types of things that contribute to people feeling like there is no "next chapter" to reach and strive for.

I am honestly not sure what to take from this article... Do I take from it that there are people in this world who strive for greatness and they do nothing less until they reach it? Do I take from it that there is darkness in this world that consumes people so much that it destroys them? Could I take from this that there are people in this world who experience both the need for success and the feeling of never-ending darkness? I will leave that up to your interpretation.

I just know my story... I know pieces of others' stories... I know of a young girl who took her life way too soon because of labels... I also know those labels to push someone toward success. I know of a young boy to be bullied to death, and I know of people who continue to be labeled even though they are no longer with us because it justifies some peoples actions.

I wish that there was a way to make a difference- a difference in homes, in communities, and in schools to help authority figures and children realize that this behavior is not okay. I wish more teachers cared as much about the conversations in the hallways as they do their low salary. I wish principals cared as much for the wellbeing and whole story of an entire student rather than the grade they see on a test or the undisciplined actions they present in a classroom. I wish parents would understand that it all starts at home- discipline your children but don't be so strict that you are abusive; neither of these things produces good qualities.

I hear all too often, with a brother in a public high school, of the amount of superior behavior that goes on in schools with little to no attention paid to the actual problem. When will state education systems recognize the importance of mental health, bully and suicide prevention systems, and assemblies addressing the deaths of students and actions of abusive behavior going on within their education systems and communities?

I truly do not understand why we are still talking about some subjects but not others. Mental health is no less important to that of equality of race, gender, and socioeconomic status. If anything, it should play a bigger hand seeing as though it is usually because of race, gender, and socioeconomic status that bullying lays a foundation and builds on.

Let us pay attention to everyone getting a fair and equal shot at life and reaching those moments that we cannot quite describe but understand when we feel them. Let everyone get that opportunity to reach their next chapter in life. Don't be a part of the period that ends their book, be the sentence that makes them want to turn their page

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