Kenzie Cuba "Chasing Sunsets" by Natalie Grace

Having depression and anxiety is like being thrown into a raging, surging ocean,

When you don't know how to swim.

Meanwhile, the whole world expects you to keep swimming forward,

To keep excelling and moving onward in this thing called life.

But you feel like you're dying.

You're gasping for air.

Every breath is a struggle.

Your feet can't touch the floor,

You feel all alone,

Waves crash over your head and pummel you with water.

You want to give up the fight to stay afloat.

Help comes in the form of pills.

They become your floatation device.

You're no longer relying on sheer willpower to stay alive.

Now at least you won't drown, 

But you still don't know how to swim.


- I choose these lines in this poem because it really explains what its like to have depression and anxiety. I like how every word and stanza in the poem creates an image in the readers mind because then it can really explain how it feels to deal with the struggles of having a mental illness like depression and anxiety.
- If i were to read this poem to someone or a group of people i would probably read this to raise awarness and educated people about these kinds of mental illnesses, because some people just dont understand what its like to be going through each and every day having depression or anxiety or any other mental illness, and people think that teen depression isnt a big deal because if you think about it its sort of a stereotype that teens dont have anything to stress about or be sad about because we're just kids, but in reality we have alot to stress about, some of us stress about school, friends, relationships, family, sports, and some teens have jobs on top of all of the other things going on in there life.

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