I just finished reading All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven. The story of a boy called Finch and a girl named Violet.
Finch is a troubled teenager, fascinated by death, and yet he manages to find something in everyday to keep him alive. Violet is a popular girl with a bright future, and yet deep inside she is aching with grief and a desire to escape.
While this might sound like a predictable teenage love story, I was intrigued by so much more than that.
These two characters are given an assignment – a report on at least two wonders in their humble state. Their mission is to go and see each one, take pictures, shoot video, delve deep into their history, and describe what it is about these places that makes them proud to live there. They have the entire semester to complete this task – and all I can think is… “WOW, why did I never have an assignment like this?!”
The point is, I think we should all take the time to wander. Buy an old fashioned paper map, do a Google search for some not-so-famous attractions in the area, locate and circle them on the map and just drive. It could be a hidden local coffee shop, a travelling library, a record-breaking vegetable patch, or an untouched lagoon off the beaten path. As long as you find some joy in the journey, it doesn’t matter where you end up.
Intertwined with all of this physical wandering, I was also able to read through the complicated wanderings of the human mind. When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school – six stories above the ground – it’s unclear who saves whom. Both of these characters are dealing with internal battles of the mind, and both worry a lot about labels.
There is, unfortunately, a good deal of stigma that still surrounds mental illness. This is a topic close to my heart, and I could go on and on about it for a while, but I will try to keep it short.
We have to talk about it. As much as it might seem dark, scary, and secret, we have to try. Because…
Every forty seconds, someone in the world dies by suicide.
Every forty seconds, someone is left behind to cope with the loss.
Maybe we simply have to embrace the wandering of our thoughts. Let the fragmented ideas escape onto sticky notes, into a notebook, or out loud. It might not make sense entirely, but it’s our personal truth, and it has value.
You are not alone. Help is out there.
And when the world seems dark and dreary, find your bright place.