I Grabbed It Immediately

Two days after Christmas I was in New York with my boyfriend and his family. My mom called me mid way through the day telling me we had to talk when I got home, that something serious had happened. I wondered all day what was going on, only to find on my Instagram feed a list of photographs with the captions reading "R.I.P, Jeff." I immediately called my mom in tears and asked if it was true...my dear friend Jeff, who was only a college freshman, had killed himself the night before.

Jeff suffered severe depression just about all his life. He was too smart for his own good, and felt extremely lonely all his life due to his mother being bipolar and never paying him much attention because she was too caught up in struggles of her own, and his father constantly favoring his successful older sister. All of his girlfriends seemed to leave him for somebody better, leaving him to feel utterly stranded at a dead end road.

Having suffered for a long time with depression myself, I knew what it was like to lack the HOPE for something better. I came across the giving keys in a small store in my local downtown, and saw the the key with HOPE sprawled across it. I grabbed it immediately in honor of my friend Jeff, and all those who suffer depression. Luckily, I have yet to find someone who is struggling enough to need this message. However, I am looking forward to giving away my key of HOPE to someone else, in HOPE of keeping them from making the same mistake my friend Jeff did.

For all those suffering, know that there is a way out of the dark hole you seem to have fallen into. The latter up to the sunlight may not always be there, but sometimes you've got to have the HOPE and strength to build your own. There are many others on the bottom of the hole with you, ready to lend a helping hand in finding a way out, myself included. Have HOPE.