Endure

It came from a small paragraph in a paper which means you kill yourself and you make a big old sacrifice and try to get your revenge. That all you're gonna end up with is a paragraph in a newspaper. Sixty-three degrees and cloudy in a suburban neighborhood. That's the beginning of the video and that's the same thing is that in the end, it does nothing … nothing changes. The world goes on and you're gone. The best revenge is to live on and prove yourself. Be stronger than those people. And then you can come back. - Eddie Vedder

This one goes out to all the would-be Phoebe Prince's in the world.

Suicide is not the answer.

It's cliche. It's heard often. It's the truth. Eddie Vedder makes a great point. The quote is referring to when he was asked about the music video for Jeremy. It starts and ends the same way. Suicide may seem like the answer. Suicide may seem like the best way out of your situation. It's not. The day will end the same way it always has. A new day will start the same way it always has. The message you want to send will not be sent. It will break your parent's hearts, and make them question things they have done, could have done differently, or never did. It may not even be their fault at all. You will be missed. Over time however, the pain will heal. There will be a scar, but the pain will heal. Your death will not bring along great changes in society.

The suicide of Phoebe Prince has brought the nation's attention to the new kind of bullying going on at schools today. In the end, nothing is going to change. Her bullies will go on living, and their trial will eventually fade out of memory. There won't be great changes in how schools monitor their students. There won't be a great change is how schools handle bullies. In the end, the death of Phoebe Prince is a sad story. The real tragedy is that with a case like this, there will be no changes made to prevent future suicides from happening.

If a story as strong as this can not bring about changes in society, how can your suicide, your story, bring about any changes? It won't. The real revenge is surviving. Make it one more day. I know that High School is supposed to be the best time of your lives. You have no responsibility, no bills, no one to provide for. It's just you, some stupid homework, and being with your friends. I understand how the day to day living in High School can be viewed as a nightmare, and it seems like it will never end. This is all you know, and it's a hellish reality. Persevere. Get through another day. One day, when you think just get through the day, it will be your last day of High School. You can leave, and never look back. You can remake yourself in the real world or in college. You can go out and be successful, be who you want to be. Your goal should be to embarrass your bullies by becoming rich, powerful, successful, famous. Your killing stroke to the people who bullied you can be to use your power, your influence, your money, to bring about changes in the way the system works. You can use your fame to tell the story of how you were bullied, and use it as a shield to make sure it does not happen again. That should be your goal. That would achieve a greater glory, and have a more profound effect then a suicide. Your suicide will go down as a statistic somewhere, and you will be forgotten. Imagine if you could change society where kids like you were won't be bullied, because YOU made that change happen by becoming an activist and speaking out about what you endured.

Suicide is not an effective motivation for societal changes. The only person who can right the wrongs in your past is you, as an adult, in the future. Make something of yourself to bring about changes. You can do more damage inside the system then you can outside of it. Use that as your motivation. It's a lot stronger then any rope, or bullet that is readily available.