I felt a stinging pain in my throat as I read this article. Sara Diaz' article titled "Hope," I felt the words kind of serenade me as I began to delve further into her idea of hope. In her article, she talks about how her father faced devasating odds trying to achieve the American Dream. No matter what hit him, he never gave up, and that was admirable. He became a teacher and passed on his perserverance and dedication to his students. However as Sara states,

"It is very possible for hope to thrive, even in rocky soil."

My rocky soil was depression. It's not uncommon for teenagers in this modern world to go through it. However- even if you are an African child starving, bone skinny in the plains of Nigeria, you can have just as much depression as a rich, stuck up businessman who just got his car stolen. Depression is all about perspective, and in it's fundamental form, you can take it lightly or you can take it hard. This is why no one has to deal with more depression than others.

I dealt with bullying and loneliness, and for a while I didn't really understand what I was going through. I thought the right thing was to be depressed, to be hurt. After all that's what the kids around me wanted, to hurt me. So I let it happen, thinking that there wasn't really any other option to really take. Thinking I was kind of stuck. Then, a miracle happened. I found my best friend, Jedediah. That kid... a kid whom I know call my brother, probably saved my life. Made me feel better about myself. It wouldn't be then that I learned that I had a choice, but later. And I owe it all to him.

Sara's father had to face some disgusting, dirty and dreadful odds. And he decided that he would hope. He decided he wouldn't sit on his rear end and feel sorry for himself, sulking in a chair in a dark, dirty apartment. He decided he would hope. Hope to get better, and climb higher than ever he had before.

Do you understand where i'm coming from? Maybe this example will help you.

Let's say that you're a boy named Richard. Now, let's also say you're about twelve. Now what would you do if you lost twenty dollars? Would you choose to overreact and cry, tell mom that you want another twenty dollars and be upset about it, or take it lightly and say it's just twenty dollars, money isn't everything. You can buy that new game later. No matter what happens to you, you can always have the choice to hope for the better. Personally, I believe that this is the message that Sara was really trying to convey. That even in the darkest times, you have the choice to hope. Depression is only as bad as you make it.