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Written by Isabelle Suen, 14, Canada
laugh it off like you didn’t mean it,
ill say its good advice,
sarcastically of course,
but secretly I wonder if the truth will ever see the light.
see i've been sounding more cliched lately, can’t seem to find which clique to fit into, cause when i try to spread my wings,
you come along for the ride too.
maybe i should make it clearer, i no longer need you.
i admit at one point I must have, nevertheless,
since you started saying those three words, i think i'm just better without you.
still i let you step over me like that,
still making sure to jump over you when it’s my turn, won’t lay a mark on you,
i wish for you that was also the truth.
a lesson i learned from you was to not try to control me, took me long enough to learn that for myself.
Don’t think you realized what you were doing,
thought you were helping rather than demoting me.
with good intentions im good with you, then you said those three words
and suddenly i don't wanna be around you.
then you put that track on repeat,
dance around - same lyrics, just a different beat.
whether it’s about my skills too little, the mask i don,
how i should be in a mental hospital,
those three words,
more or less the final daggers that just about slice off the camel’s hump, are destroying me,
and how i was beginning to think that maybe,
somebody actually cared,
or even just got me.
perhaps I’m wrong,
wouldn’t doubt that,
but i gotta fix the left to make a right,
i guess i’ll just have to follow your three words of pretentious advice.
Just. Get. Better.
(yeah, i wish it had been ‘i love you’, too)
Author’s Note: This poem represents the stigma and the lack of knowledge around mental health, especially mental illnesses and was written at a time when my mental health was at its lowest. It seemed that everyone around me thought that my mental health was easily fixable because it wasn't physical and I should just be able to get better. I hope that this poem shines light on the importance of mental health.
