You’re Not Alone C. S

I'll be honest: I see the evil that people do in this world, the things that hurt and harm, and everyone wants to fix it but it's not that easy; we all wish we could just say, hey, stop, or quit. But I'll be honest: it's not that easy.

When you try to help, you freeze with fear, and the thought is like a ferocious frenzy of feral piranhas feeding on your very confidence in such a fashion that you realize: it's not that easy.

There are some people that pride themselves off disrespect, so when they disrespect the weak, to them it's like easy social points, and when you try and defend yourself, it's not taken as defense, but disrespect and then you're alone, a freak.

You feel degraded; you feel that you've been betrayed by the friends you trust the most. You start to hate yourself because it makes you feel so weak and powerless that when you're down people ask you what's wrong?

You tell them you feel hated, and they think it's their fault, so relationships are getting faded, and yet again you think your emotions have been tainted, and you feel that you have been traded to a side that you found yourself hating. It's not that easy. Emotions are like magnets that pull you to make decisions.

Now, how do you think you'll act when your emotions are negative? All you have in the end is family, and as they try to help and understand and turn that magnets’ charge to

positive, you realize you're taking that anger and hatred out on the people that love you the most.

When that realization comes you're stuck in a pit of darkness, and spiral into a deep depression, the ultimate stage of alone. When there, all you can think about is thoughts, thinking about thoughts, picture that? You probably can't, and now your life is full of darkness and confusion.

You want to give up. You're tired, confused, drained of the very thing that made you alive. But we all have a light, dim, bright, black, white, gas or electric. We all have a light, a flame, a candle, a match. So, you can tell yourself you're not good enough, or that so and so is better than you could ever be, but believe me: we are all human, boiled down to a light, so make that light grow like an evertree and know it's not easy, believe me, we’ve all been there. Even if you’re, 5, 35, or 15, believe me. Open your eyes; you’re not alone.

C. S., Grade 9 Patrick Henry High School, Minneapolis Teaching Artist: Frank Sentwali