When I was in the seventh grade my mom and I both read Jay Asher's now-famous novel "13 Reasons Why." We both finished the book incredibly fast. It's definitely one of those books that once you start you can't really stop. It was such a page-turner. I couldn't help but feel like I owed it to the fictional Hannah Baker to read her story as fast as I could. When both my mom and I finally finished it we both admitted that we kind of felt disappointed.

Sure, it was a great book and I fully felt like the author got his point across that suicide is not the option to overcome how you're feeling, but even back then I felt like the story was lacking some realness to it. Being 13 or 14 at the time, this was really one of my first introductions to the idea of suicide. Of course, I knew what it was and how it was viewed in society, but I didn't personally know anyone who had ever been involved in a suicide.

Fast forward a few years and I heard that they were making it into a television series on Netflix. I truly was excited, while I didn't consider it my favorite book I still remembered it like I had read it yesterday. I was eager to see what they changed from the book in order to put it on the screen. By the time it finally debuted on Netflix I was ready with popcorn in hand to binge watch all of it, which is exactly what I did. I was done with all 13 episodes in about three days.

How I felt after watching it all was a little different than how I felt after I was finished with the first season. I was left shocked. The very last episodes depict suicide in a way that I would never have ever thought a television series catered to young adults would. In the novel, it's very briefly discussed as to how Hannah took her life. However, it is nowhere near as graphic as it was on the show. As a viewer, we literally see the main character slit her wrists fully clothed in a bathtub. We hear her screams and sobs as she takes her own life, and while I understand that the writers of the series made this graphic change to bring awareness to suicide prevention, I feel that it could have been dialed down.

The show was informed that showing a suicide on screen has been proven to increase the number of those who take their own lives. Which, in fact, did happen after the airing of the show.

With such controversy and mixed reviews from the audience, it was hard to tell whether the show would be back for a second season even after it ended with a cliffhanger. Once Netflix stated that a second season was in progress many people took to Twitter to voice their opinion on how the show had affected them or loved ones. I for one was upset about the show having a second season because we never got a second book. The whole point of it was to show us that a person's story ends when someone dies. The whole point was to show us that we don't get to see the total aftermath of Hannah Baker's death and making a second season would totally disregard that.

Still, I have decided to give the second season a chance, not because I'm thrilled it's on the air but because I want to see if the show did, in fact, listen to the viewers. Did Netflix really have to put a warning before every episode to inform viewers to watch at their own risks? Is the show going to do a better job at desensitizing some of the elements that may trigger victims of sexual assault or self-harm? Is the show really going to make those suffering reach out for help as opposed to harming themselves further? After all, that is what the show was intended to do.

So, this is why I have chosen to press continue watching "13 Reasons Why" when Netflix asks me. Not purely for entertainment or out of curiosity but because I hope that our generation is able to take comfort in a show that tackles such controversial issues. I do believe that all of these things need to be addressed, but I continue to watch because I hope to see something that helps change our generation's perspective on an issue that is incredibly hard to talk discuss and talked about in the RIGHT way.