13 Reasons Why

Unless you have been living under a rock the last couple of weeks then you will know that almost everywhere everyone is going crazy about Netflix's newest show - 13 Reasons Why - I must admit, I was pretty apprehensive about watching this for a number of reasons.

Part of me was worried that this show may just be too close to home. I felt that it may open up issues that I had kept closed, that it may trigger feelings and emotions, and I also just felt that I couldn't bring myself to deal with watching a show based around suicide. I have known too many people, family members, friends that have sadly felt the need to take their own life's, In a way I felt it would be disrespectful to them, for me to indulge in such a show.

Despite my reservations, I started watching this beautiful, eerie and haunting show. I was hooked.
I am not going to sit here and discuss the filming, the camera techniques, or how the show reels you in. It does, but that's not the point. The show is based on the life's of a group of 17 year olds. Todays generation of 17 year olds. Despite now being 26 myself, it seems that todays generation hasn't really changed much. I suppose if anything has changed its technology and how today it now plays an even bigger part in teenagers life's then before. But the issues have always been there, regardless of the generation its playing a role in.

What struck me, was how much I was able to connect to the show, to feel everything that's happening on screen. I started to think about why, and realised that we have all played a part in this story, except it was our own story, our own school story. We have all played a part in what the characters are going through and feeling because it is based on truth.

I was instantly took back to my own 17 year old self, and how hard that age is to go through. How confusing it can be and how much really goes on in these later school years, and how it dramatically impacts our whole future and those around us. There will always be those that suffer more, that get picked on, bullied or victimised. Whether we knew it at the time or not, we would of all played a role in someone else's life for the worst. Laughing along when someone was joked about, not standing up to a school bully, not reaching out to the one person that seemed alone and lonely. How we can never know what goes on in someone else's mind. How we can never know who is too close to the edge already. The one who has been made to feel worthless, the one who feels there is now no more options other than to take their own life. I want you to think back to your 17 year old self, I want you to do it right now. Remember those comments you made, the horrible ones about someone else in your school year. Remember the time you didn't stand up for someone else. Remember how you laughed when someone was a victim of a joke? You will remember. We all will. We all did it. You probably was the victim of a joke too once or twice, we all went home and cried after school. We were all a lost 17 year old. That's the problem. Nobody gets out easy.

Most of us leave behind our school and college years. We grow up, we get out not too badly harmed. But some of us don't. Even writing this makes me feel guilt, sadness and nostalgia. It makes me want to go back, it makes me want to stand up for anyone who felt this way including myself. I want to tell my 17 year old self and those around me who felt the pang of dread that it will all end up being okay. But I can't. I would hate to go back to those years knowing what I do now. At the same time I would love to go back and put bullies in their places. We never know how much damage we can cause somebody else by our words and actions. We are young then, foolish, we are not developed enough to know what we know now, that words do hurts and that sticks and stones do break our bones, words will always hurt us. I dread when my own children go to school, the days where they come home from school and tell me nothing about their day. It hurts to think of all the teenagers who come home with hurt in their hearts and nobody to tell. It kills me sitting here thinking of everyone contemplating suicide because they haven't been treated with kindness or shown love and compassion. We all suffer.

You could say this is what this shown has brought to the surface for me, for everyone who has watched it. But I think its always been there, we just haven't talked about it. We all just get out alive and take a deep breath and move on. I'm glad that perhaps there is a little more awareness now then there was then but in my mind, doesn't it just come down to thinking before we speak. Putting our feet in someone else's shoes, being open minded, and with open hearts, looking out for one another, being kind? Our actions have results and sometimes just sometimes we might be able to save somebody else.