Light Never Dies

The world is in a balance—in both positive and negative ways. Yet, sometimes it does not seem as if. The negativity penetrates the happiness we try to fulfil in ourselves. At times, hardships seem impossible to overcome. Bleakness. Darkness. Blackness. It’s all consuming. Or that’s what we engrain in ourselves.

The difficultly of taking a step backwards to breathe from our situation increasingly grows with time. We are blindfolded. We cannot seek the help necessary. We lose rational frame of mind that it’s more than one of us in every situation.

Hope for the Day, a non-profit organization, was created to restore our faded hope, our wretched lives. A life ring is thrown out to sea. In over our heads, swallowing what we cannot digest, know we can be uplifted from the weight dragging us under.

More than one of us has felt this way. It’s in stories, narratives, lyrics, books, where we recognize we are not alone. Never alone.

Averting Gaze

Two topics are avoided, touched but rarely spoken about. The room is silent without knowing how to respond to the darker, realistic, and true shades of life. But they need to be addressed. No matter how traumatizing the event, society sweeps rape and suicide under the carpet. It’s not a subject anyone wants to approach. It takes caution and sensitivity to broach such heavy issues.

But in music, topics of such are relevant. Music as we know is it, is a coping method. For some it is writing, others composing, as for the listener it gives insight and comfort knowing they are not the only one reliving with the relentless, horrid memories.

Music has an effect that touches people, moves people and creates awareness.

The Fray does just that in their song “How to Save a Life”. I realize this is a mainstream song, but it feels necessary to bring into light. The song was inspired by an experience of the lead singer, Isaac Slade, when he went as a mentor to a camp to help troubled teens.

He didn’t know how to help. The lyrics bluntly state that:

And I would have stayed up with you all night

Had I known how to save a life

I know you want to say that was just one person. But one person lost their life. To be honest, not knowing how to help occurs more than we’d like to believe. Like the rest of society, we don’t want to deal with confrontation of someone dying or their thought of killing themselves. It’s just normal. We say it’ll pass, but for those with suicidal thoughts, does it?

With no one helping them, it looks as if no one cares. If someone says they’re your friend, they need to help you through everything even if that means staying up ‘til 2am.

The chorus relays that because you didn’t help your friend, guilt is place upon yourself. Just as with the main character, Clay, in Jay Asher’s work of TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY.

Abbey Marshall, a fellow classmate of mine, wrote her own review of the book through her own blog:http://abbeymarshall.wordpress.com/2013/10/13/th1rteen-r3asons-why-you-should-read-this-book/. This is phenomenally written and is strait to the point. It highlights upon teen suicide and realistic motive behind it.

However, this song does not alone bring awareness to suicide of any age, but also focuses on the contributing factors.
 

Lay down a list of what is wrong

The things you've told him all along

With this particular line, its saying that you are repeating the information someone has already given you. It’s not, in anyway, helping them solve their problems or lifting the weight off your shoulders.

Factors of suicide could be anything including, stress, drug addiction, rape, social issues, or relationships. The list could go on and on. Unless you ask, you never know how someone is being affected by your words, how you act, or what you write.

In Sonia Rayka’s blog, One in Three, she depicts the seriousness of rape. Women are taught to avoid a situation and think about how they dress, walk in groups of two or more. But then why are men not taught and enforced that rape should not be encouraged. To read more:http://soniarayka.wordpress.com/2013/09/22/one-in-three/

Anything could be a factor, but frankly, do any of us truly know how to handle a situation, if it were to arise? Is the blame on us, or is it on society because they do not want to truly admit to what hides in the shadows and cobwebbed corners of reality?

Kind-Hearted

Keys unlock a drawer. Sliding open the inside decorated with calculator after calculator, electronic after electronic.

Now who would have so many? Why would someone spend that amount of money?

Well, for you to know, that is the Lost and Found at Mason High School. That’s where my iPod would’ve ended up, if it was not for a kind-hearted custodian.

He could’ve just continued on with his job, ignoring those around him. Cleaning the school and placing all lost possessions in a pile. It’s not his job to help someone if they are lost or looking for someone, or something. With Mason cutting down custodians from 80 throughout the school district to 40, you’d think a person would disregard the fact that an adult was wondering around campus. Yet he stopped, asking if help was needed.

I reached inside my bag to entertain myself with music on the ride home. But when my hand grasped nothing, my heart dropped. It wasn’t there. My iPod wasn’t there. Stomach tied in knots, I rearranged all the items in my bag, praying, hoping that I overlooked the small item. To my dismay, I rode home with the chatter of the bus filling my ears; not music.

As the minutes passed by, thoughts accumulated of the important items and information my iPod held. Interviews. Book ideas. Song lyrics. Piano excerpts. Inspirational quotes. Everything that impacted me daily.

But really, why would a custodian help? They are downgraded, overlooked, and stereotyped. Honestly, though, why does society think they can forget about these people?

It’s a job, just like a teacher, principal, or a counselor. They are people just as you and I are. They have emotions.

I knew my iPod was at the school with the on and off connection of the internet, but when pinpointed the electronic couldn’t be found. And because the school is contracted to two different cleaning companies, Z-pod, where my last class of the day is, was not part of the custodial group who my mother ran into.

Walking around to trash cans, outside, checking empty hallways, the custodian and my mother searched throughout the school. It was only when running into a custodian  of the other group that the two had permission to comb through the halls of Z.

Yet, it wasn’t there either, where they found my possession. It had been collected with other misplaced items in the arms of yet another worker. Books upon books stacked with calculators and phones, the goldenrod case was unmistakably noticeable within the pile. Black headphones still wrapped around the silicon, not perfectly, but well enough.

I couldn’t have been more grateful. My heart goes out in thanks to those who helped. To those who were persistent enough not to let hope fade.

To those who are overlooked in everyday life. You have meaning. You are the kind-hearted.

With a smile, I say thank you. Thank you. Thank you because I take things for granted. I made myself realize the dependence of objects, but you’ve made me realize that one small deed can go a long way.

:D