Just Hold On

There's a song that I listen to all the time. It's call Twin Skeletons (NYC) By Fall Out Boy. Some of you may not have heard of it, but some of the lyrics are:

"I don't want to remember it all, the promises I made if you just hold on"

Now, while that may sound insignificant to you all, I do in fact have a point to this. All of us have had friends come to us and say that they are having some kind of problem, whether it was family problems, friends problems, relationship problems, anything. I am going to throw out a question to you all: Count it up, How many times have you, when your friends were in the middle of freaking out, have said "Don't worry. Everything is going to be all right." in a text? Yeah, neither can I. Even if you don't think you do it very much, you will find yourself doing it more and more. It's just a scapegoat we use to "avoid the drama", yet, when it comes to the end, we find we are fully enveloped in the problem, only having our own selves to blame.

We all have had those times when our phones randomly die, our computers malfunction, or our credit/debit cards are canceled and we freak out. The first instinct is to do our own investigation. The second thing is we violently snatch up a working phone,  push the keypad, and press it to our ear with an frustrated glare imprinted permanently onto our faces; to top it all off, when we finally get through to someone, their first words are "Hello, you have reached: (Name of the company), please hold." Once we hear the obnoxious elevator music turn on, we immediately press end. It usually finishes with us throwing our phone across the room in frustration with angry tears streaming down our faces because something has gone wrong and its only 8 in the morning.

The people who have suicidal problems just want to reach out to somebody; just as we would do for an appliance of ours that is "out of operation". So does this mean we have stooped so low that we put appliance over person? Think of all the people who are crying out we can help if we didn't put them on hold.

We can't simply tell them to "hold on" and watch as they crash and burn. The definition of a friend is "A person whom one knows: with whom one has a bond of mutual affection"; some synonyms of a friend are: Companion, Soul-mate, Intimate, Alter Ego, Play-Mate, and Familiar.
I don't know about you, but I don't think I would want to lose something that is familiar just because I didn't pick up that phone or, because I reach out to them.

Why is it so hard for us to just sit on the phone and listen to people's problems? Why can't we just shut up and listen for once? We always run our mouths "She did this", "He did that", "I love Pizza!", "Bla bla bla", Yeah you get the point. But why is that? I mean, I have the same problem. Sometimes, sometimes I just go on these nervous rants and talk my family members ears off but, you know what they do? They sit and they listen, because they know that that is the only way I can vent about  things. That is one thing I have always loved about my family. They listen.

But, even though I ramble a lot, I keep track of the signs and signals that alarm me that my friends are having problems. Of course, I will not get to those today, but I will eventually in the "Signs and Signals". When I see the sign that something isn't right with a friend or even someone that I barely know, I pull them aside or call them and just let them ramble and rant. And, of course, being me I say, "O gosh. God bless my families soul." because I then know what they feel when they have to listen to me. And yeah, it can be annoying when I am right in the middle of dinner or the BEST ACTION SCENE OF THE FLASH I have ever seen in my entire life that someone calls me or texts me "Can I call" but you know what? That scene can wait, that chicken soufflé can wait, that whatever "important thing" you are doing can wait.

I make the effort to reach out to my friends or whoever before they even have to ask for me to reach out. I make that uncomfortable effort so they don't have to. Talking, and opening up to others about problems they are having is not easy in anyway shape or form. Even if that person is the best Public Speaker in the world, they, somewhere deep down, is scared about talking about their own problems they are having. They think that they can just put it away in a bottle and throw it in the ocean but, eventually, even the ocean becomes full and overflows too.

Think about this situation:
We have all had those moments in life when our phone dies, our computer crashes, or our credit cards have been canceled. The first reaction we have is to do our own investigation but, before we can even turn the device over, our working phone rings. We groan as we see an unknown number pop up  and, pick it up anyway saying "What do you want? I am kind of busy trying to fix this stupid thing!" and the person on the other side responds in a calm, collected voice, "I know, and I have already sent an appliance worker to fix your item. To fix your problem."