I want to take a brief moment away from the comedy routine to tell everyone that I love you and appreciate you. You matter. Not only for the podcast and for supporting us, but in life - YOU matter.
In September, we chose Suicide Prevention and Awareness as our charity. Andy brought up To Write Love on Her Arms which is super powerful if you get a chance to read through the website and it echos the sentiment of YOU MATTER. There's a great blog that they update often with some spectacular reads that I suggest anyone to take a look at.
In today's world, people lose their jobs, struggle with school, battle bullies, battle demons - nothing comes easy in our media obsessed world. It can be really negative to see the bad side of news constantly thrown into your face. Shows like 13 Reasons Why show the hard truth of what goes on in today's world. Maybe it's on the dramatic side...but maybe it's not? This happens everywhere - whether we accept it and acknowledge it or not.
Everyone has been through tough times and everyone has gone through some struggles; some worse than others. Something that really hit me hard, personally, was when Robin Williams tragically took his life in 2014. Robin Williams - who had openly battled some demons, but was one of America's funniest people. You can take a movie that otherwise would have been pretty bad (RV, Old Dogs) and as soon as you put in Robin Williams, it's watchable. To see someone who was always laughing, smiling, and helping others succumb to such horrible demons was eye opening to me. How could someone so "happy" be so troubled? But that's when it became real - depression is real. Hiding behind a fake wall is real. Lying to protect - maybe not yourself - but others...is real.
A song by Jessie J captivates depression and hiding:
Wants to scream no
Takes over everyone's stress
And ignores her own
The life and soul of the party
But loves to stay home
She say's she's not broken-hearted
But cries on her own
I shouldn't hide it
It isn't right
Being a liar
I'm crossing the line
Dancing with fire,
When I'm not fine
Should I deny it?
I keep praying that the cracks don't show my pain
'Cause even when I'm falling, I say my life is like a dream
But I'm fighting through a nightmare,
'Cause I'm not really being me