It's Kind of a Funny World

Dear Reader,

            This is the happiest book about suicide and depression you will ever read. For some teens issues like untrustworthy friends and bad hair would be a nice break from the harsh reality that boils beneath their rough exterior. For some teens getting up in the morning or the option of not getting up in the morning is a daily issue. Some teens feel alone, unwanted, unneeded, and truly lost. Why bother living in a world that you can’t handle? Why bother living?

            The theme I chose to base this blog around is living, more specifically choosing to live. Choosing to help yourself, grow, challenge, hurt and learn from what you’ve been through. I chose this theme because Craig the main character of my book made one of the bravest decisions a depressed/suicidal teen can make he chose to get help, he chose life. I found his story inspiring, and I hope that his new found acceptance for life can help and inspire others.     

            The theme of choosing life will be demonstrated in this blog through various ways. The first of which is an example of Craig, the main character talking to himself. Something he did throughout his struggle to find his will to live and long battle with depression. Some days the voices in Craig’s head won, on others he won, but in the end he chose life. The second way I’ll demonstrate the theme is through the “Day in the Life…” of someone who chooses to live as opposed to someone who doesn’t. Thirdly I will show this theme in ten ways to know if you should choose to live. And lastly I will demonstrate the theme through personal pictures of things in my life that make me want to live.

Sincerely,

Stephanie McCann

Life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you wish, but you only spend it once.
Lillian Dickson

It’s so tempting. The thought of never having to feel pain again left to float around in an endless pool of nothingness. That’s if we do all end up floating around after we go I guess that would be Forrest Gump theory. I can just leave and float around all accidental like on a breeze.  But what if we don’t? What if I am damned to spend eternity in hell, I would after all have committed sin.

What would my family think? What about Nia and Aaron? Aaron and I would never open our own law firm. What would he do then? What would I do? Oh…right I’d do nothing. I’d be floating or in hell. Aaron would continue to attend Executive Pre Professional and I would float. He would be successful…and I would be nothing. A page for a scrapbook, a sentence in his life’s memoir…I’d be reduced to a memory. A simple memory like Craig Gilner never even lived. Not at least the way I see living…living is well…doing.

If I was floating I would be able to do anything…I’d be nothing. I would finish school, get with a girl, get a job, get a house, make it big…I would have any of that. I wouldn’t just be a page in a memoir…hell I could write my own!

I don’t want to be nothing…I want to be “Oh that’s Craig Gilner, he’s successful,” not “Oh that’s Craig…he’s…well we don’t talk about him.” I want to be someone. I don’t want to be reduced to a memory. I want…I want to live.

I want to go to school, make it big, and maybe even write a book about it. That’s right! Craig, the boy who lived.

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.

~Friedrich Nietzsche

The day in the life of someone who choose life …

You wake up the smell of breakfast hits your nostrils like a brick to the face. Your hunger and worries for the day are washed down with your second glass of juice. It’s bright outside; a gentle breeze shifts the leaves conducting a symphony of soft rustling noises.

You have a full day ahead of you. Crammed with seemingly mundane activities…but that’s alright. You have your whole life ahead of you. Take comfort in the light at the end of the tunnel.

At the end of the day you look back at your days work. It was hard. No one said life was easy but it’s alright. Because you made it, you survived another day unscaved and ready to take on what life hands you next. 

The day in the life of someone who doesn’t choose life…

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living.  The world owes you nothing.  It was here first. 

~Mark Twain

Ten reasons you should choose life:

1. You have friends
2. You have a family
3. You’re educated
4. You’re loved
5. It could be worse
6. You have an endless world of possibilities
7. You’ve made it this far
8. Things are going to change
9. Millions of people before have done it
10. You’re alive

The tragedy of life is not so much what men suffer, but rather what they miss. 

~Thomas Carlyle

 My amazing friends are just one of the things that keep me going. Martha and I have been friends since the ends of sixth grade and have become almost inseparable. Our friendship has helped me through many difficult times. 

 

 Another thing in my life that makes it worth living is my music. I've been playing the cello for seven years and have really grown to love it. It's something I'll always have in my life. Not everyone can say they're fluent in an instrument. 

 Horses make up a large percentage of why I want to wake up everyday. Horses will never judge you and they're incredibly trusting. I think we could all learn a lesson from them. Riding is my all time high and you truly fall in love with every horse. I've been riding Deluxe Edition (pictured above) since I was in sixth grade and he is one of the many that has fueled my love for the sport.

My brother Jimmy is my  main support system and he makes me want to choose life every day. We're best friends as well as siblings and I truthfully don't know what I'd do without him and I know he feels the same.

Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars. 

~Henry Van Dyke

            I choose these particular genres to go along with my theme because I thought I could be creative and enjoy making them at the same time. For the talking to self I started off with Craig in a darker mind set and tried to convey his inner struggle before he finally realized that he did in fact have reasons to live. In my “a day in the life” section I tried to dramatize the difference between someone who choose to live and someone who well…didn’t. I chose to do ten reasons to know if you should choose life because everyone truly has something in their life worth living for. Some people just don’t realize it. Lastly I chose to show pictures of things from my personal life that encourages me to keep going at the end of the day. I didn’t have much difficulty other than writers block and a lack of motivation to actually do the project. I liked the freedom of the project but for whatever reason I just couldn’t find the motivation to do it. I think it’s interesting how it’s a blog project. It is very 21^st century. I learned that you can convey the theme of a story through many different ways.

Works Cited

http://www.quotegarden.com/life.html

All pictures belong to me. Song pictured is Three Cheers for Five Years all music belongs to Mayday Parade.