There is that time in our lives, every year, every week, sometimes every day, when everything seems to fall away. Darkness takes over you and you just want to break down. People become self-centered idiots and you struggle to stay on top of it all. You’re at that point where one person, or action, or comment, or image, can push you over the edge. And the whole time, everyone’s looking at you funny. If only they knew. When you try to take hold of it, you find that the helplessness of the situation has eaten away at your abilities to focus, and you’re cornered unwillingly, trying to escape but not even knowing which way is which. There’s left and right, and there’s right and wrong. But each is shadowed over with doubt and lies and hurt and pain and deception. So you say to yourself, I am nothing. I don’t deserve this...life. You work up the courage, slowly, but surely, and you end it. Your last thoughts are that this is oblivion and let’s see them try and stop you now, the suckers! Because you don’t have anyone who cares about you, right? No one loves you, no one understands, no one’s willing to listen without being judgmental – right? Wrong. In fact, more likely that each person you come into contact with is a human, like you. They have thoughts, too. There are beggars in fallen countries, and you may turn your nose up at them, but they feel what you feel. They know. The dying people in hospitals, the orphans, not knowing or deserving the so-called life ahead of them, they all know what it’s like. Some people say the best way to approach someone who’s falling quickly is to comfort them, show them love and give them guidance. You can combine these with the one thing that all young people crave: a hard, sure dose of reality. Tell them to wake up! Look around you, life is everywhere. Get up and go – look around and opportunities will be falling over themselves to show you that, it’s okay to let off a little steam, but you are alive. So make the most of it. It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, gay or lesbian, straight or bisexual, disabled or ‘strange’, nobody’s perfect. And yes, that may be clichéd, but so are we, because we are the human race and we see and we do. We find comfort in each other’s sorrows. Don’t be typical, stand out from the crowd, be who you’ve always wanted to be, don’t do things for others, achieve for yourself. Because in the end, as you take your last breaths, you should be able to say, ‘I lived, and I loved, and I laughed.’