Part Three: Everyday Struggles

Hey guys, so I know I missed last week, sorry about that. I just had a little struggle getting all of the information and got weirdly busy during the week. Anyways, as I've said a couple times, this post is about the point of view from another teenager. This one is kind of deep so just try to bear with me.

Alright, so this is about one of my friends that I've the opportunity to grow pretty close to over the past year or so. She is a senior in high school currently. In the past couple years she has suffered from depression and anxiety, and both of them were pretty bad. Sometimes she has trouble going out in public just because she finds is difficult to interact with people her own age because of what she is going through. At one point she was a Christian but has kind of lost her faith over the years. She claims that it's just hard to believe in God when we live in such a cruel and corrupted society. Thoughts of self-harm and suicide live in her brain all day, and she says it is really tough to fight those thoughts and not give in. The biggest support that she has is her family and small group of friends that she feels comfortable around. Even though her family has a very comfortable house and lives in a good part of town, she still struggles everyday. Even though most of these challenges are within herself, they are very much affected by the world around her. The biggest challenge for her is really just feeling like she doesn't fit in. She fights everyday to just be happy and be able to socialize. She claims that since she lost her faith, life has gotten extremely harder. She doesn't have the sense that she has a purpose in this world and is really trying to figure out her purpose here in this world. Even though she has been getting a little better over time, the will to be happy is often very exhausting, and sometimes it just feels pointless to fight for a smile. She is still open to accepting God back into her life, but just hasn't made the big leap forward yet.

This story is a good example of how even someone who looks like they have it all on the outside can still be struggling a great deal on the inside. She says that the only people who even know that she is struggling is the small handful of people she feels comfortable enough to open up to. It's just a good reminder that we never really know what is going on in someone's personal life. You never know when a simple "hey" or a smile can truly make someone's day. I know that sounds pretty cheesy but it's true. One of the biggest reasons that people choose not to be Christian is because of all the people who call themselves Christian, but don't prove it by their actions. If people were to start truly loving each other as much as they loved themselves, I think this world could become a pretty awesome place.

Thanks for taking your time to read this and I really hope that you can come back in a couple weeks and see what I have to write about then!