You.
If you are here.
If you are hurting
And if you have given me your time.
Listen.

By the time I was 11,
I had seen 2 suicides.
Today, there are 2 people-shaped voids
In me
That just sink deeper
When I try to fill them.
The pain
Is a constant pin
Pricking the soft skin of my heart.
I forget it for a minute
And the next,
It is back for me,
An assassin with a vengeance.

Listen.

Across the world,
There is some girl who cries herself to sleep
Because to her
the world is simply a vessel
Of insensitivity.
A boy
Who lives near me
Doesn’t know when he wakes up
And when he sleeps
Because every day
Is a purposeless blur.

Between my street
And the other other side of the world,
There are
Millions-
Yes, millions-
of other boys and girls
Who think they do not matter.
Who do not know
Their purpose.
Who are not told they are loved.
Who turn to harming themselves
In order to let out their pain.
Who take their lives
Because they are not happy.

Who take their lives
Because things aren’t working out.

I want to tell them,
You,
That this life is broken, yes,
But we
Can stitch it back together.
I
Am one person, yes,
And my hands are small
And there is only so much hurt
I can try to heal.
But we-
You and I-
Are two
And we-
together
Have bigger hands.

We, are hurting, yes
But we can heal together.

Listen.

I know
You think
There is no reason.
And no purpose
And no place
For you
On this orb of blue and green.

But if not anything else,
Know.

That you take up space.
Know
That you
Are here.
Alive.
Breathing.

Know
That if not for anyone else,
The air
That tickles your lungs
Will miss you
If you’re gone.

I
am 14, and I know that we as a society are doing something wrong. We are not talking, maybe. Or we are not talking enough. Or we are not listening enough.

We need
To change things.
We need to tell people they matter.
We need to love harder.
We need to set an example
For the generation that comes after us
Because our blunders
Will become their burdens.

We need to leave love
As our legacy, yes,
But we also need to teach them
Strength.
So that just as we have learned
From History
And Scripture
And Mythology,
They will learn too.

If you
Are hurting
And if you
Are here,
I see you.
I hear you.
I feel you.
I am here for you.

Even if
You think I will not understand
And even if you are halfway across the world,
I
Am here.

I know it’s hard.
Trust me, I do.

Listen.

By the time I was 11
I had seen 2 people-
2 children-
Take their own lives.
And today,
I swear to God,
Today,
All I want
Is one more word with them.

So if not for anything else
And if not for anyone else
Know
That there are words
That you are yet to hear
And there are thank you’s
You are yet to say
And there are people
You are yet to love.

And I am sorry
Life has been hard
But if not anything else,
That
Is worth living for.

There is happiness
Over the horizon
There
Somewhere
And I promise
I promise
That
Is worth living for.

Reach out.
Talk.
Listen.
Help.
Heal.
Grow.
We have made it through
So much.
We will make it through
Once again.