R U Ok?
I was sixteen - never a good age - and struggling to make sense of this adult world I had been thrown into seemingly overnight. There were exams, there was a death in the family, there were my parents fighting, and there was me, all awkward, being thrown about by the tumble-dryer of teenage emotions.
I was scared and lonely, isolated, and everywhere I looked people were smiling and I tried, I tried so hard, but there was a day when I just couldn’t stand up anymore. The distance between the pavement and the sky was all I could feel - that vast, overwhelming space. I couldn’t even cry.
But I’m one of the lucky ones. Someone (a teacher, I’m not being cagey) came and asked if I was ok. She took my inside, made me tea, pulled me into her arms, gave me tissues, and let me exhale. I cried. I sobbed actually, long, deep sobs into the tissues she kept handing me, and I cried some more until my eyes were puffy and my lungs were full of air and I’d made it up from the pavement almost without noticing.
If there was one thing I could go back and tell my sixteen year-old self, it would be that it does get better. But at the time, all it took was someone brave enough to ask “Are you ok?”
Today is R U Ok? Day, and in light of the recent suicides of teenagers in America, and the 65,000 people who attempt suicide in Australia every year, I want to know, how are you doing today? Are you ok?
[image: a cat in a tree]
