. . . so you have Depression

My first real education on depression happened with my best friend.

Before this, depression was quite difficult for me to understand.

"I know you're sad, but you can get over it."

I tried desperately to snap my best friend out of it.

It wouldn't budge.

She would pull bitch fits on me; where before, I was the one throwing the hissy fits.

Out of this, I learned to be patient with others and not hold things against them.

I knew the real her; I knew she wasn't made of terror, anger, and frustration.

It was the d-e-p-r-e-s-s-i-o-n talking.

From personal experience, I can confidently say, you need to deal with someone with depression first hand to understand the impact. I feel like there is so much literature to self-identify depression within yourself or others, but never how to deal with it. Other than the proverbial, "s-e-e-k help."

Again, this is something that is learned from experience, and it's something that arises more than once in you life. Then you ponder it for a while, and you realize that on top of being thankful for your physical healthy "Thank god I can walk and am cancer free," you should also be thankful for mental health.

"Thank god you aren't trapped in a mental hell."

Day 4: Religion

I am not atheist, but am against organization religion. I used to teach Holy Communion classes and have most of my rites in the Roman Catholic faith. Yet one fine day, it hit me that religion does not mean compassion. The other CCD teachers were temperamental, without compassion, rude, and judgmental against the children and their parents. I couldn't take it anymore, any longer and I would have descended into MADNESS! I never looked back, and haven't attended mass in nearly 3 years; I cannot bear it.

Religion is so controversial, yet my reserved personality and Political Science major have influenced my views. I don't believe others moral beliefs should infringe on the rights of other in their free choices. Whether you or I believe in abortion or gay marriage is inconsequential to the happiness of others. Yet in an anthropological view, there has been no society without some kind of faith. Coupled with the human knowledge of mortality there is a need to believe in something.

I fall in the deist category: I believe there is a higher being, but he doesn't concern himself with our day to day wishes for a boy/girl to like us or to get good grades. I feel that all we can do is ask for the inner strength to overcome problems in life. If this inner-comfort is all this higher being serves for so be it; yet, I believe in the existence of it. I call it god, the universe, and fate.

My future children will have their baptism pictures as has become a cultural Hispanic custom as opposed to a sacred religious rite. However, they will be raised secular, to believe in classical moral teachings, the golden rule, and the enrichment of society is the product of science.

A little older, a little wiser

It is as if fate has decided to show me my past writing on the same day that I calculated that I won't graduate until December 2013 (God willing).

I feel happy with the course life has taken and I have renewed faith in myself.

Life should always be this way; no, my attitude should always be this way.

I love life.