Randomness 2. The sequel no one wanted.

Dear Friends

^one of my friends brought that to drama class. he dresses up like every week so it wasn't too out of place^

Dear Friends,

Last night, I got asked a question by a close friend on here.

"How do you do it? How do you deal with all of us depressed people and not snap?!"

And even though I answered it, I thought I'd share some things I do to stay calm in depressing situations, like the ones that already happened.

Take Breaks:
I don't mean like 'you have to take a 3 week vacation' or anything. Just take a lil bit of time away from wattpad, watch a YouTube video, read, write, whatever calms you down. If you're empty and upset and all that, you won't be helping anyone. So getting recharged and calm will help out a bunch!

Think:
Thoroughly thinking about what you type before you send it. At times, I have a bit of trouble with this one but at least giving it a minute or so of thought can go a long way.

Walk In Their Shoes:
This one is more of a two-parter. First, sometimes it's good to imagine what it'd be like to see the world through their eyes, and figure out how to help them though that. I remember back in Colorado, we went to this place called Compassion International (which if you don't know is an organization that helps children across the world living in extreme poverty.) One of our activities was going out front, wearing old flip flops, and pretending to be in a family living in extreme poverty and working together to do the tasks those families have to do everyday. Shining shoes, selling garbage, walking a mile with water, building shelter just to have it knocked down by a tornado or a storm. Seeing the world from another perspective can go a long way. The second part of this is that you might HAVE been through the same experiences. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason(the words even showed up in the right order in my predictive text) and for the most part, that reason is to help others going through similar experiences. Now, I've never been depressed, I've never cut, never had suicidal thoughts, so although I try my hardest to connect with the person I'm helping, I can't. What I do is I'll ask one of my friends irl who does sometimes cut, who has friends with depression and suicidal thoughts, and I ask her what'd be best in the situation. Maybe you've had all that and survived. It's always nice to know you aren't alone. My personal experiences can help someone who is grieving, since I've been through that when I lost my grandmother to cancer in 6th grade, I can help someone who's hung up over somebody, because of this punk I used to like in 6th grade who I thought like me back but told me he liked my best friend, and other things. Different people have different experiences and, ergo, can help different people.

And the last thing I'm going to put on here is...

Be There:
Just be there for them. Let them know they matter, that everything will turn out alright, and that you can be someone they depend on. Things are way easier with people who care about you in your corner.

Some of these steps are easier for me than others. For example, when it comes to staying calm and happy, I'm a relatively happy person irl who does have bad days but gets through them. But maybe you aren't that kind of person. Maybe things have been worse for you and you survived it. So you may be able to help others better than I could. Anyway, I love all of y'all and want you to know I'll always be there for you <3

-Meg