To My Fellow Opussians

When I read through Opuss and I see the things people write, the things they are really going through in life, I feel so sad for them, for all of you.

I see people who are losing family members to terminal illness. I see people being bullied and downtrodden. I see people who think they are worthless because they don't always want to be around people. I see people who are starving themselves because they don't think they're pretty enough. I see people who can't cope anymore and have been driven to self harm to stay alive.

I'm sorry I can't help you. I wish I could. It breaks my heart to see people suffer the way they do. If I could reach out through the internet and hug you all, I would. Because I know that feeling of loneliness, like you can never quite function properly again after this. The feeling of being lost to the world. And I know what it's like to have pain inside you that you can only release by hurting yourself even more. I know. I understand.

This is a terrible time of year to feel this way. But it will get better. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, maybe not even within a year. But one day, something tiny will change, and everything will click into place. The grief will fade. The pain will be replaced with something better and you'll finally see the brightness beyond the clouds of fear you're so used to seeing. Maybe you're sick and tired of hearing people say this, but take it from someone who knows; things fluctuate. You have up days and down days. Happy days and sad days. Good days and bad days. Right now, the bad days overrule the good. One day, things will start to improve, and eventually the good days will overrule the bad. That's when you'll be free.

Yes, we still struggle. And some of us will bear the marks of what we did on our skin forever, plain as day for others to see. But the scars and the tears and the memories are not marks of weakness; they are marks of our courage, that we are brave enough to show what we have been through, what we fought, and what we survived.