Millennials, here me out. You and I have bought into a lie that we only have two options in life. We have already been set up to fail at least once in our lives and when we do fail it seems like the end of the world. Our parents coddled us and handed us everything including the right to dream big dreams and to strive to success. They were our safety nets and when it was time to leave and make a life of our own, it was hard. We went to school to get degrees that do not automatically get us jobs so we continue to get degrees and it’s hard to find jobs to put us through those degrees.

Do you feel that? The overwhelming sense of failure, worthlessness, and hopelessness?

When we fail or do not see another way we have two choices, to fight or to end it all. I have seen too many take their own lives because of the pressure of life and the only option they see is to give up. But it’s not until they have fought countless nights of depression and thoughts of not continuing on. How do I know this?

This was my life and is my life when I take my eyes off of the only hope I have. Take it from a survivor when I say that you can do something. You can be there for your friends, you can listen and run to their aid when they call crying. You can be a light, you can be the hope. You think you do not know what to say but you do, be real and love well. They need encouragement, they need help, they need you.

Let me elaborate, I was able to overcome only by the hope that I have. It is not hope in myself or in others (even though they help me not fight alone). My answer to the true hope is Jesus Christ. Knowing that he died for me so that I could live and live life to the full changed me. It did not make things go away but He gave me an inner strength that taught me that I could not do it on my own. If you ask my friends from high school if I was in a crazy dark place back then they would say that I was. Let that be a testimony to you, Jesus gave me hope to live. There are nights that seem darker than ever and moments that give an illusion that my life is tearing down around me but I hold tight to what I know. “Don’t forget in the darkness what is to be true in the light.” I can live because Christ lives in me.

You. Yes you. If you are struggling know that there is hope! You can get out of this!

You. Friends and family. You can give hope!

Me. All I can point to is Jesus. Jesus is the answer in my life. Let im find you.

Millennials, you can keep going. Choose to fight. Choose life. Choose that your story isn't over yet.