Today, I will be brave.
I will admit to the fact that I still haven't found that happiness I've been searching for.
It could be the fact that I haven't looked hard enough, or maybe I've just been looking too hard.
It could be the fact that there's a hormone in our bodies called serotonin, but my therapist says that I don't produce enough and that's why I have this thing that she calls depression.

So I take pills to make me feel better and that might be weird, you can think that if you want because the truth is that I think I'm weird too. Sometimes I think my weirdness is good, I can make people laugh if I really want to and I think that's pretty cool but there's also a bad weirdness to me that makes me feel really sad even though my life truly isn't all that bad but I can't help it. I can't just tell myself that everything's going to be okay because sometimes I don't even think I believe that anymore.

But today, I will be brave.
I will admit to the fact that yes, I have scars. But you know what? I have a birth mark on my right leg. I have freckles on my arms, I have ten fingers and a heart that pumps blood into my lungs and my lungs help me breathe. I have brown eyes and approximately one hundred and fifty hairs growing out of my eyelids that protect them from dust.

Yes, maybe I have purposely tried to hurt myself but so what? People say that whatever doesn't **** you only makes you stronger. Well I must be pretty **** powerful because every day is a war between life and death and I may not think that I'm beautiful, or smart, or worthy, but I have a broken heart that's still beating and a terrifying mind that is still able to think about the children in Africa and the people suffering from cancer and the lonely girl in my class that I wish I had the courage to talk to and tell her that we are all human. We may not feel that we deserve to be alive but we have blood coursing through our veins and purity in our souls and mouths that are capable of speaking every single language in the world and brains that hold an infinite amount of knowledge and bones that allow us to move and hearts that can love.

So please, be brave.
Put the gun down. Step away from the bridge, throw the pills away, untie the knot and stay with us. Use your bones to lift your hand and place it to the left of your chest and feel the vibration of the most important ***** in your body pulsing, keeping you alive. And that, my friend, is called purpose. You are still here despite everything that's ever happened to you. You survived the day when your best friend stopped calling and the day you waited two hours for that person who never showed up and the day you got picked up early from school to have your parents watch you get beat up on the playground and that's the day when they realized that their daughter is a loser but it's okay because you survived. You ignored the monster in your mind that is constantly knocking on doors but never being let in because you had the courage to say "stop. I deserve to be happy. I deserve to feel good about myself."

You are not a freak. You are not a loser. You are not fat, you are not ugly, you are not stupid. You are sixty percent water, sixty-five percent oxygen, eighteen percent carbon and one hundred percent human. Do not hate your body, you're beautiful. Do not hate your scars. Love them. Learn from them. Be the person who can say "yes, life was a battle and I didn’t come out untouched. I was beaten down and torn apart and bleeding from the skin and the heart. But I won." You conquered the bloodiest war, and you are so brave.

Yes, life is full of grief, and tragedy, and so much pain. Life is full of evil people and sickness and days where all you want to do is just get out of this place with so much hatred and cruelty and unfairness. But I have seen someone helping a stranger on the sidewalk, children holding doors open for the elderly, and love. So much love. And that's gotta be enough. We have to find a reason. We have to discover that one thing that will save us; that one good thing in this world that will give us hope. Hope that some day, things will be better.

But today, we will be brave.
Braver than yesterday, yet not as brave as we will be tomorrow. We will wake up with a smile on our face, and we will look in the mirror and say to ourselves:

"We are not our parents, we are not our siblings, or our teachers, or our friends, or our enemies. We are only ourselves. But one day, we will become doctors, we will become writers and lawyers and activists and dancers and rock stars. We will be mothers and fathers and lovers. We will not be perfect. But one day, our bruises will heal and our scars will fade and our pain will lessen and our smiles will become genuine. We will admit to the fact that bad days happen, but we will have so many good days and those are the ones that matter. We will not be our past, we will not be our mistakes, we will not be our fallen tears or our heart aches. We will be human, and one day, we will change the world."

At the first meeting of a boy and a girl, the slumbering embers had been awoken
With words and glances, dancing light burst forth
As time passed, sparks ignited and the flickering flame grew
It fed on youth and the new
Soon sorrows and grief were thrown to the heart
But nothing could quench their hunger and thirst
It was a forceful blaze and the crowds watched in awe at the waves and the haze
Passion consumed the two beings with growing intensity
The inferno cast out a howling roar, with the duo of hearts desperate for more
Each moment they were parted, the sensations were sorely missed
In their minds eye they were still embraced in a kiss
It was the marriage of peace and the striking power of the storm
They were stirred by restlessness as their minds were bent with longing
As this love of fire matured in its age, it feasted on the beauty surrounding
The letters of the great poets,
The words of the countless tomes,
The sound of stunning chords,
The eye alluring views of artistry,
And the words from the Giver of Life
Nothing escaped consumption
But soon, they were tired of the old ways
The beauty of the world was not enough to feed the furnace
They left the face of the earth in search of new waters, and left the air far behind
The love fire danced among celestial bodies, and spaces of dreams
And so it does evermore, awaiting new creation

It was March, somewhere near the darkened salty wood
When I heard a girl say something, a cry out to me.
She ran out of the forest as fast as she could
To greet me with eyes the shone like the glass of the sea.

"My name is Avery," a silver flute chimed,
"Would you like to come find shells with me?"
I was stunned; all seemed to be perfectly timed,
She came right when I was about to leave.

The ocean waves crashed like thunder.
It was surprising how comfortable she was with me.
All at once, I began to wonder:
Could this be real life? How on Earth could this be?

In the distance, I heard the bell ring,
Seven o'clock the sun signaled to me.
Avery looked upon my face, began to sing,
Which reminded me of a soft and sweet honey bee.

My boat pulled ashore near the beginning of dawn,
And Avery pulled aside and whispered to me,
"Don't leave, who knows where you'll land upon?"
"But my home is not with the trees."

As the ship left, I could see the tear glisten on her face,
And something was struck deep inside of me;
I could only think of the imaginary place
Where I would once again meet my dear she.

Four years later when my home pulled ashore,
Avery was not there waiting for me.
I could not find her anymore,
Perhaps while I was gone, she had found a he.

Slowly, I followed a path into the darkened salty wood
Where a grave had waited upon me.
There, in silence I stood,
Was my poor little Avery.

Nevermore could I hear her whisper her love for me
Nor the songs that she would sing to the sea.
Nevermore would I feel her heart beat,
The only sound would be the weeping, coming from me.