Post Snippet; Forests and other wonders...

Depression is pretty much the score for school, I feel. It's probably one of the more natural things in today's world, simply because of all the pressures, changes, and the fact that people aren't often nice to one another at that age, and you just have to let it go. The world lets it go because it's somehow normal. It's really not.

Being depressed is like being in a desert. It's not a physical challenge so much as a mental one, and that makes it all the more difficult. You get told about actual people being in real deserts and reminded about how many good things you have in the world. After all, what do people have to be depressed about when they have a home, family, heat, computers...

I mean, nothing really, except for the idea that you may have no worth in the world and that your life doesn't matter.

That the world doesn't need you.

Which actually is a remarkable idea in and of itself. If you take a look around, so many people act as if everything is fine and yet if you look at the world...what's fine about it? The world actually needs you more than ever. It needs people who care, so much so that society will try to crush that out of you while you're still young. It needs people who want to make a difference so much because there are so many people out there who won't invest in hope, simply because they can't bear to see another dream die.

If you look around, there are more people who would rather argue against a good idea, rather than back it. Because inside their heart of hearts, they live inside the real desolation that yes, the world will never change, and yes, they are okay with that. Nothing will ever get better and that's okay.

That's why, in the desert of depression, you can actually feel happy. The sun is beating down on you like a hammer, and yet, it's still shining. Where there's sun, there's hope - because there's you. And you already know what you can do to change things. You know where to find water, and there are already some seeds in your pocket. It might take a while, it might take your whole life and then some, but if by the time you leave you're knee deep in trees, well, that's really something.

Depression is sometimes a chemical imbalance. Sometimes it's environmental factors and psychological issues ganging up on you. Sometimes it's just stress. But I feel that at least once in a life, depression is realising you're standing in a desert and realising somewhere inside yourself that you can either accept it, or you can accept what will be the most difficult thing you've ever done and start planting.

Because you'd rather live in a forest.