#nspw15

Hey I'm Emma. September is Recovery Month. This week is National Suicide Prevention Week. Yesterday was World Suicide Prevention Day.

And I figured I made a video today cause I'm (holds up a post it for tag with the blank filled in with hope) posting it forward for hope AND also (holds up the TWLOHA Tomorrow Campaign flyer filled in with "I know hope is out there, even if I can't see it") You'll see me tomorrow because I know hope is out there, even if I can't see it.

I don't know your story. And you don't know mine either. But I feel like the important thing to talk about is not necessarily what the specific story is, but that our stories and our voices matter.

Maybe you have a mental health challenge. Maybe an addiction. Maybe you're an ally who had someone you know attempt suicide. Maybe you're a survivor of a suicide attempt yourself. Maybe there's some combination of those going on and yeah they make life hard.

But you'll see me tomorrow because to quote Cecil from Welcome to Night Vale which is my favorite podcast currently, "What's past is prologue; what's future is epilogue. This, right here, is maybe Chapter Four or Five."

I believe I have more chapters of my story to tell you and I want to hear more of yours. I want to hear and share stories about how while life and existence and all the things  that make it up are the most thrilling experiences you can have, that sometimes it's equally as terrifying and hard.

But that's OKAY. Because there are and will be people who get it. You just have to find them, even though sometimes that's the most terrifying and vulnerable part of the whole adventure.

Hope is the quote board and to-do list that saved my life in high school.

Hope is printouts from LB Lee's "Cracks of Sunshine" on the bedroom wall or the fridge or wherever you put them.

Hope is my fandoms with their amazing quotes about finding hope and sometimes that all you can do and that the best thing that you can do is to keep going... even when it's hard.

Hope is finding my Dumbledore's Armies in the Real World: the people and places that help me be powerful in my own right.

Hope is knowing that even when I can't see the way out, this too shall pass.