New Trails to Follow

There's a Reason Why | Sarah Bartlett

There's a Reason Why
By Sarah Bartlett

If pictures are worth a thousand words
Feels should be worth a million more
But they're not

Why was love created
Why was fear created
Why was anger created
Why was happiness created

Feelings
The thing that we would later learn
Would play a large part
Of making us stronger
Yet tearing us down
Down to the point of no recovery

There's a reason why that girl cries
When she hears a certain sound
There's a reason why that boy dreads chemistry class
There's a reason why the woman avoids cars
There's a reason why that man cried
When he stood by his wife's grave

Every thought
Every feeling
Every sense
Magnify and consume you as if you're drowning
Drowning in a pool of your own emotions
No one to save you
They say you can save yourself
But you need help

But who's to say that girl at therapy
Isn't still feeling like shit after the session
Who's to say that boy isn't still afraid
Afraid of chemistry class
because of the fire
Who's to say that woman will ever get over
being kidnapped at fifteen
Who's to say that man will ever get over
the loss of someone
Someone he loved so dearly

There's no time
No one knows when the pain stops
Will it ever?
Will anyone feel healed from the pain
The memories
The nightmares
The grief

No one said this would be easy
No one said this would be hard
They just said you have to fight through it
Fight through what
Fight through the tears
Fight through the breathlessness
Fight through everything to appear ok

There's a reason why someone cries
There's a reason why someone wants to give up
There's a reason why someone says they're ok
When they're clearly not
There's a reason why they know no one will notice they're lying
Lying that they're ok
Why?
Because they're afraid to say it
Afraid to admit they're weak

They're fighting a war
A war in their mind
And they're losing
But no one wants to help
Maybe that girl does
But really?
Is she really helping ?
Or does she just feel sympathetic

There's a reason why people don't admit to anxiety
There's a reason why people don't admit to depression
There's a reason why people don't admit to anything

They're afraid
Not of how they see themselves
But of how others see them
The girl with the red hair and blue eyes
She gets bullied for her looks
She gets bullied for crying all the time
She gets bullied for leaving in the middle of class
She gets bullied for not being normal

But what is normal?
Who's to say that normal isn't real
Who's to say that being not normal is normal
Maybe that girl's self-destructive thoughts
Will make her strong
Strong enough to inspire other girls to keep going
Maybe she'll be so inspired she'll be the next person
To do a TEDtalk
To write a book
To start a support group
To be that person she needed

What if people could say whatever they were feeling
What if people knew
Ok had a thousand meanings
Hidden behind two letters

There's a reason why people suffer
There's a reason why people feel inclined to hide how they feel
There's a reason why people want to share their message
There's a reason why emotions exist

So many reasons
yet none of the reasons
Are the same
Each person
Each emotion
Each person's past
They're all different
They're all unique
They all exist
They all matter

There's a reason to everything
And it's up to us
To find a reason to share our stories
To find a reason to not be ashamed of how we feel
To find a reason to feel appreciated
There's a reason to be understood.

- Sarah Bartlett