“What you do matters.” So if what you do matters, then does what you say matter as well? From a young age, the lesson we are taught is, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.” Is this rule supposed to be a rule we carry with us through our childhood into our adult lives, or does it stop at a certain age?

I am guilty of using the phrase, “I’m going kill myself,” jokingly, as many people do. Saying things such as, “I don’t want to go to class, I’m going to kill myself” or “This is so embarrassing I want to kill myself.” Maybe, sometimes, I let it slip but I instantly regret it. When you use a phrase like this you never know the impact it could make. When you say these five words, you never really think about the countless amount of people who have attempted to take their own lives or lost a loved one.

People always listen, whether you know it or not. Picture this: you are walking down the street when all of a sudden, you hear a smack on the ground. When you look down you realize your phone had dropped and it is now shattered. Now you say, very loudly, something along the lines of “what the f***, I’m going to kill myself.” Now in this scenario, you are on a busy street with many people around whom you don’t know. Among these people, there is at least one person who may have attempted suicide, or lost someone to suicide. The point of this story is that you don’t know who is listening or watching, and who you are impacting.

According to SAVE.com (suicide awareness voice of education), approximately 105 Americans die from suicide every day. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among people ages 14 to 24. This clearly isn’t a joke or anything to be taken lightly. There are many campaigns about stopping the “r-word” or using the word “gay” as an adjective but how come there is nobody starting a campaign to stop this phrase.

A couple weeks ago, on Jan. 7, Ellen Degeneres wrote, “After this, I started ending my show every day by asking everyone to treat each other with kindness. Five years later, I haven’t stopped. It means just as much when I say it today, as it did then. Be kind to one another.”

This is a serious issue and needs to be treated like one. So please -- think before you speak, and be kind to one another. Respect others feelings even if they are just strangers. Saying something along the lines of "kill myself" could bring a person back to one of the worst times of their lives.

In high school, my principal would always end morning announcements with, “What you do matters.” This was something that the student body just grew used to and rarely thought of. Now, it is really starting to make sense. Words are powerful and should be used to make a difference. Do you really want your influence to be made when you say something as unthoughtful as, “I want to kill myself?”