You know, it must be something living off of other people's pain.
I thought like this. People who can be mean to others just a person who doesn't understand other people's pain.
It comes down to one question. Will you survive high school? Will I survive? Because I know too many people who didn't. In the past two years, three people who I loved have died. And two...two other people...who I thought I hated, also died. But I learned that hate is too simple. Jessica's right. Hate is easy. Love and understanding are harder. But they are how we take care of each other, how we survive. My dad loves to tell me stories about when he was in high school. The stories usually involve chess club and obscure bands with funny haircuts, because the '80s were a strange, strange time. But he always gets one thing right. He knows high school can hurt. That it can be painful. That there are days when that's all it is. And he once told me that he's living proof...you can survive. You can get through it. He's living proof, and so am I. And so are all of you. And the thing is, for me, for us, this class, this...generation, high school actually is life or death. We show up every day not knowing if this is the day we die. If this is the day someone shows up with a gun and tries to kill us all. We practice what we'll do if that happens. Life or death. I suffer from anxiety...and, uh, depression. But mostly anxiety. I sometimes think all of us kids do, in some way. And how could we not, with the world the way it is? We hear a lot of promises that things will get better. And...and, look, maybe they will, maybe they won't. And what I think I've learned, what I wanna say to you...is whatever happens, keep moving. Get through it. Choose to live. 'Cause even on the worst day, there are people who love you. There's new music waiting for you to hear, some...something you haven't seen before that will blow your mind in the best way. Even on the worst day, life is a pretty spectacular thing.
The idea that we are
So capable of love
But still choose
To be toxic
Experience does not come without pain, open up to it without fear.
Through love, all pain will turn to medicine. And Jesus says, "Everything I can do, you can do." You know? He had a very human death. He's in labor, you know? And God never leaves him for a second. And that... You're just in a process. It's contraction and release and breath and peace, and, "Oh, no, here, it's back!" It's okay. Remember the last one? You contract and you constrict and then you release... and you breathe. And it's what heaven will be like.
- 1
- 2