please take a moment today to think about your friends, your family, your loved ones. treat them with love, treat them with respect, try your best to understand why they act the way they do.
if you're a parent, i implore you- treat your kids the way your parents didn't treat me. be there for them, listen to their struggles, and never, ever make fun of their interests or their friends or their hardships. let them cry on your shoulder. having parents who did nothing to support me, even ridiculed me when i was having a bad time, only closed me off from the rest of the world. now i can't admit when i'm hurting, and that's a terrible thing to feel.
confront your friends about your feelings. never leave someone in the dark, never talk behind their backs when you know the problem could be solved if you only asked. keep your friends close, reach out to them when they don't feel well, but don't put yourself into a position where you're nothing but someone to complain to. communicate with each other, try to work everything out the best you can, but if the problem just gets worse and worse it's okay to leave someone behind. you are strong on your own, you are wonderful, and don't let anyone ever suggest you aren't.
please, in these dark times, support your brothers and sisters. try your best to give love to whomever needs it. work your hardest, try your best, be the person i know you can be. stay strong.
on a lighter note, if you're feeling down, try out the comedy advice podcast 'my brother my brother and me', hosted by justin, travis and griffin mcelroy. their laughter has really brought me back from bad places during bad times, and they mean a lot to me- i hope they can mean the same to you. another podcast they run alongside their father that i adore is 'the adventure zone', a dungeons and dragons podcast with some amazing storytelling and overall fantastic jokes and goofs. they're a group of lovely people who i feel really deserve to be supported and appreciated, and if you like them, tell your friends about them!
thanks so much for reading! feel free to email me if you want to talk about anything, i love hearing people's stories.
mari
out there
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