Excerpt: Burning Letters

The reason I’m writing this is so that I can try and explain to those people who don’t have depression, what it’s like. So that we can have a fair chance; so people won’t bully us or tease us for having what they call, the emo disease.
Now, how would you feel if people seemed to stop smiling at you? If they just walked past you as though you were worthless, scattered and broken? If all the positive parts of life seemed to drain away, and left you with a dull aching sense of loss?
And then even that last sense of emotion disappeared?
That’s what depression is.
So… look around you now. Look at your friends, look at your enemies, look at the person you like. Look at the people you want to avoid, the people you want to get to know. Ask yourself, if I could have the power to change their lives, would I?
Only you can answer that question. And the power’s already in your hands. Each time you smile at someone, or each time you make a cruel remark about them; each time you ignore them or wave at them in the hallway, you’re potentially limiting or heightening their chances of happiness.
Do you really want to be responsible for how someone winds up feeling? No? Too bad, you already are. If you don’t have the gift of feeling happy, no matter what the situation is –and very few people have that gift– then you’ll find that your emotions largely weigh on how other people treat you.
Think about it.
A smile can change someone’s life. A cruel remark can lead to suicide. Do you want someone to remember you for your sense of humour, your friendship, your smiles? Or for the time that they spent trying to avoid you, skirting around you and keeping a fair distance?
There are people around me who deliberately hurt others, and I’m addressing this next part to them: Why? What’s the point? Do you hate yourself so much that you have to take it out on other people? Because if that’s the case… All you have to do is just smile. You’d be amazed at how many other people will do the same to you.
In the end, I guess, the choice is really up to you. But you get what you give… So, do you want to receive joy, or sorrow?
Think about it.