Through My Eyes #MindOverMatterContest

The Cliff

When you're standing at the edge of a cliff, looking down below, the freedom to choose your ending is inviting. It's hard to take a step back. One big step forward and you will be flying, feeling the wind against your face as you plummet to the ground below. Your heart pounding from the exhilaration caused by the adrenaline. For those fleeting moments, you are untouchable. Then, it will all be over. You will be spared from the pain that consumes you.

Wanting to take those steps back, to turn around and face the bleak reality makes you sick to your stomach. Your world is not full of color any longer, it's all in black and white. All you wish to do is disappear and do yourself, and the world, a favor.

In your eyes, you are alone in this world. Orphaned by the time you're 21. In your mind, the scene of the accident plays over and over like a twisted home movie. You feel the blame deep down in your soul. You were meant to be the one who perished.

At first your family was there, but they disappear as they go back to their everyday lives. They don't have to face your loss, your guilt, head on every minute of every day. Your friends have no idea how to help you. Your pain is out of the scope of their knowledge. They want to console you but their efforts make little difference. You are on an island, waiting to be rescued. The problem being that there is nobody to rescue you from your own mind.

The hero in this story cannot be anyone but you. You must grasp onto the fact that you have survived for a reason. You must remind yourself that their death cannot be for nothing. You are their legacy, you are the person they gave life to, the person that they saw making a difference in this world. You cannot take that lightly.

If you continue to remind yourself that your life matters, that your presence is not a burden but an enhancement to this world, soon it will become easier to breathe. You eventually realize that you can rise from bed easier and smile wider. Your memories become easier to bear, less bittersweet. It's easier to strive to be that person they knew you would become.

Grabbing onto those thoughts and holding on tight is everything. It's a buoy in the raging waters that threaten to drown you. Give yourself a break, let those around you lift you up as only they can. Rely upon them not for their ability to save you, but to help you shine, to show you the person they love and need in their life. That is how you overcome. That is what will keep you away from that ledge. That is what will give you strength and mend the cracks in your heart.

That is how you survive.