Eh, I kinda didn't want to post this, but whatever

It's amazing how fortunate we are. Think of all the things we should be grateful for having: water, education, work (well, for most of us anyway), family, etc. We think, "Sure, anyone can have that, big deal." Well, it is a big deal. Yes, I'm one of those nuisances that will tell you how fortunate we are to have all these things and blah blah blah.
However, it's still not enough. If we're fortunate to have an IPod, we complain how it keeps breaking. If we're lucky enough to afford a decent education, we complain how boring and expensive it is and how our kids don't learn anything important. If we have food on our table, we complain if it turns out wrong. If we have running water, we complain if the hot water runs out and we have to wait another half hour to take a shower.
Geez, we have to stop whining! In our economy, it's nearly impossible to achieve some of these things.
Take this for example: About a year ago I was telling someone how I hardly ever see my dad and how much it bugs me. My friend told me, "I haven't seen my dad in, like, 6 months." Just that little tidbit of information made me think, "Wow, things could be much worse." I'm lucky to see my dad as much as I do now. I should never take those kinds of things for granted.

Charity Case

The block party was starting to bore a group of 9 teenagers, so they went in the alley and played dodge ball.

“Wait,” said Erick. “We still need Ashley.”

“She said she’d be here by now,” said Jen.

Just then, Ashley showed up. She had a bandage on her chin and a bruise on the right side of her face. There seemed to have been more make-up on than usual.

“What happened to you?” asked Anne.

“Oh, I was riding my bike and hit a tree,” Ashley shrugged. “No big deal.”

Rob lightly threw a dodge ball at her. "I suggest you quit staring at the ground and keep your eye on the ball," he joked.

Ashley, Jen, Rob, Allen, and Kristy were on one team. Anne, Dylan, Erick, Lizzie, and Jimmy were on the other team. As usual, the guys were the only ones really playing while the girls hung out in the back of their side. Once the guys were out, the girls would awkwardly try to hit each other until one of the guys finally called, “Jailbreak!”

In the third round, Erick aimed his ball at Allen. It bounced off Allen’s shoulder and hit the left side of Ashley’s face. Although it didn’t seem like a very bad hit, she looked like she was in a lot of pain; she nearly fell over.

Erick rushed over to her side.

“I’m so sorry,” he said. “Are you OK?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Ashley sighed. “It must’ve hit me where I hit the tree before.”

Erick stared at her until she’d look at him. “But that was on the other side, wasn’t it?”

Ashley hesitated. “Well, then, I’m a wimp,” she joked. “Don’t worry, I’m fine.” Erick looked at her like he didn’t believe her. “I’m fine, let’s keep going.”

As soon as Erick crossed back to his team, Allen hurled the ball at his back. Soon enough, Ashley was out, too. When she sat down, she pulled her hair back to fan out her neck. Her neck was red and purple.

“What happened?” asked Erick.

Ashley looked down and her mouth almost fell open. “Um, yeah, it…was a big tree.”

Erick shook his head. “Look at me.” She looked up. “There is no way a tree did that.” She looked down again. “Tell me what happened.” She shook her head. “Did someone hurt you?” She struggled to look him in the eye. “It wasn’t your mom, was it?”

Ashley almost looked offended. “No, of course not.”

“Oh, sorry,” Erick said quickly.

“Look, it’s nothing you need to worry about, alright?” Ashley assured him. “I’m fine.”

“No,” said Erick. “I want to know who hurt you.”

“It’s nothing.” Ashley exaggerated each word she said.

“It wasn’t your brother, was it?” Erick pressed on.

“No!” exclaimed Ashley. “God, just drop it.”

“Your dad?” Erick still asked.

“It’s none of your damn business, alright?” said Ashley.

Erick stared at her. “Your dad did this?” he exclaimed too loudly.

Jen was walking toward them when he said this and she stopped where she was. A couple others may have heard him, too.

Erick slunk in his chair. He looked at Ashley sheepishly. “That was too loud, wasn’t it?”

“No, why don’t you say it a little louder next time?” exclaimed Ashley. She got out of her chair and walked into their friend’s backyard.

While Jen tried to convince everyone Erick and Ashley were just arguing over something stupid, Erick followed Ashley.

“Hey, hey, hey,” he called out. He grabbed her shoulders to turn her around.

“Don’t touch me!” she said quietly, glaring at him.

“Look,” Erick started, “I’m really sorry if I said that too loud, but your dad? Really? What happened?”

“It’s nothing!” she shouted.

“Cut the crap, Ash,” Jen called out. “A guy hitting you, especially your dad, isn’t nothing,” she mocked her.

Ashley rolled her eyes. “I’m fine, OK?”

“No, you’re not,” said Jen.

“Yes, I am,” said Ashley. “Besides, it’s none of your God-damn business, alright?”

“Ashley!” exclaimed Jen.

“What?”

“You think you can go out looking like that without people being concerned?”

“What’s there to be concerned about?”

“Look at you!”

“I’m fine.”

“For the last time, Ashley, you’re not fine!” said Erick. “Look at you: You have bruises, you have cuts, you can’t look anyone in the eye. All that make-up you’re wearing can only hide so much. And of course we’re concerned. What do you want us to say? Sorry we give a crap about you?”

Ashley looked away from the two of them and tried to fight back the tears.

Jen finally said, “Ashley, you have to tell someone about this. Your mom, your teachers, anyone.” Jen hesitated. “Hey, my dad knows a psychiatrist you can ta-“

“Are you kidding?” Ashley finally looked at them. “I don’t need some shrink telling me how screwed up I am.”

“No, no, no,” Jen reassured her. “It’s not like tha-“

“Jen,” Erick interrupted her. “Ashley’s not a big fan of those.”

“Whatever,” said Jen. “You still have to tell your mom”

“Of course I told her,” said Ashley. “And, of course, she told the cops. But it doesn’t matter. We don’t even know where the hell my dad is. But we’re handling it, OK? Just quit worrying.” She looked at Erick. “I just don’t want you guys to worry about this.”

Erick looked down and nodded.

“Tell us what happened,” said Jen.

Ashley shook her head and started to cry. “It doesn’t matter. No one will ever understand.” She sank down onto the ground against the fence. “Do you guys have any idea what school has been like? People are starting rumors about what happened. Half of them aren’t even true. Every two seconds, someone asks me if I’m OK, as if they care. Everyone keeps asking what happened. I have people I’ve never seen before saying how sorry they are for me.” Ashley wiped her nose on her shirt. “See, this is why I don’t need a shrink.”

“Psychiatrist,” Jen corrected her. Both Ashley and Erick looked at her like she said the wrong thing. “Sorry.”

“Tell everyone I’m in the bathroom and I’ll be out in a minute,” said Ashley.

“Are you sure?” asked Jen. Ashley nodded. “OK.” Jen headed back toward the alley. “Coming, Erick?”

“Go ahead,” said Erick. “I’ll be right there.”

Erick sat down next to Ashley and wrapped his arm around her. “I’m so sorry,” he told her.

Ashley shook her head. “Don’t be. Please.” She hesitated and then shook her head. “You know, people like Jen, they’re the reason I don’t like telling people. Like, I’m not some charity case looking for pity. I’m just trying to, like, forget about it, you know?”

Erick shook his head. “It’s not that simple, you know.”

Ashley sighed and rolled her eyes. “Well, staying here all day won’t solve anything. Come on. Let’s go.”

Erick helped her up and they both went back to join their friends.

Content

Content- satisfied with what one is or has; not wanting more or anything else (source: dictionary.com)

So that is what feeling content is like. However, you can only feel that way for so long. Once you feel like everything is perfect, you start becoming more self-conscious of what could screw it all up. Take me, for example; once things go great and I finally feel content with the way things are going, something small happens that ruins it. Usually it wouldn't bother me, but that's when you over-think the smallest occurrences. Thanks to a domino effect, your feeling content goes away.

Honestly, though, who can really say their life is 100% OK? This is when we have to re-think our definition of 'content.' There may be bad things still happening, but everything else is still going good. So good, in fact, we don't want to let the small things get to us. Sure, we all have our problems. Really, though, we can at least try to overlook the small things and realize how precious life is.

If you think things are going bad, look at how worse things are. I know, that sounds like cliche bologna, but hear me out: I was walking home after a kind of bad day from school and passed an adult. It hit me: I'm only in high school. None of this will matter in the long run. Sure, it makes me more anxious to graduate, but at least I know that none of my problems will last forever. Don't ever say "If worse comes to worse." Rather, think "If best comes to best."

OK, enough cliches.

Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem