13 Reasons Why

I watched 13 Reasons Why a few days upon my friend’s recommendation. She warned me that it may affect my mood negatively. To be honest, I had heard that the show is about suicide but almost all the shows I watch are about death and gore so I didn't know how this one is going to be different. But it was certainly different and immensely depressing. It is one thing to see someone’s head being chopped off and another to see someone pushed to a limit where they take their own life. The show is about a high school girl named Hannah who commits suicide in the beginning of the show and leaves behind thirteen cassettes each explaining a reason for her suicide. Watching the first season made think how each and every person in our lives has the ability to have a significant impact on our lives or how we can change somebody’s life by our behaviours towards them. It made realize how awful school life can be and how it can maim somebody’s self esteem for life. 

The show discusses issue like bullying and sexual harassment. It lets us see how different people are affected by various kinds of abuse by seemingly harmless school kids. The most important thing, however, is not how somebody gets harassed but how people around that person react to it. The show depicts how people feel helpless and trapped after going through the traumatic experiences of harassment because they can tell no body about it. The school authorities, where all this happens, turn a blind eye to such instances of bullying for the fear of its prestigious reputation being ruined by them. The school counsellor also chooses to not understand the seriousness of the matter when Hannah goes to him to confide in her experiences of sexual harassment. I liked how the show highlights how we, while being in positions of authority, choose to always do what we consider is our “duty” and never ever more than that. The show emphasizes the importance of going an extra mile to help another human being because we may have the possibility of saving their lives. 

So what I learned from the show was that we should always make an effort to talk to our friends and make sure they are alright. There are so many layers to a person and it’s not important to know each and every thing about their lives but what’s important is that we let them know that we’d be there for them if they need us. The biggest regret that continuously tortures Clay, the protagonist of the show, is that he never got to tell Hannah how much he cared about her or what she meant to him. He feels like things would have turned out a lot differently for Hannah if he had expressed his concern for her. 

Now I would like to address people who feel that they are all alone in the world. Please know that you are not. I know things may feel really intense and out of hands sometimes, but taking your own life is not an option. Try to talk to someone, anyone. And if you feel like they don’t understand, try someone else. I know abuse can leave behind deep scars on your soul that are not easy to let go of. Well, you can’t really let go of them because scars stay with you for life. But it’s important to know that they are not all there is to life. There is much more and you deserve all of it. 

This was kind of a random post but I really wanted to write a few words about the show and how deeply it moved it. Hope you enjoyed reading it. See you soon with another one, GOODBYE!! ;)