Impact

     I recently finished listening to an audio book version of Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher. Normally I don't listen to audio books, but the majority of the story is Hannah Baker, a high school student who committed suicide, speaking on tapes. She records the thirteen reasons why she chose to kill herself. When she was a new student at the school, one little thing happened, which people chose to make into a bigger thing, and work off of it.
     Hannah Baker spends several years living in an area that believes many rumors about her, which are all lies, and treats her differently, sometimes badly, because of them. During those years, she handles the rumors, the lack of friends, the inability to trust anybody, and the overall struggle to connect. As she goes through the 13 reasons why she did what she did, she mentions, over and over, that nobody realized what they were doing to her. Some of them knew that their actions were far from kind, but they didn't even comprehend what kind of an impact it had on her. One small rumor about Hannah caused many, many more rumors, which everyone chose to believe and act on.
     Hannah tried her best to find someone she could confide in, and trust. Every time she tried to, she got hurt, because the person was using her. She had to learn to cope. Eventually... coping wasn't good enough. She had decided to float through high school, making no connections with ANYONE. Or she'd just get hurt again. That decision didn't last long because of other events that happened, and she gave up.
     No one knew or even noticed what was happening with her, and if they did, she pushed them away. Jay Asher's book causes so many questions to arrive. How do we impact others? And how much?
     It has to be different between each person, right? Every person has to be different...able to handle and react to things differently. How often do we pay attention to how we treat others? And when we do.. do we let ourselves get away with treating others badly? Could it be that, sometimes, what we view as okay, could be viewed as awful or terrible to someone else? Could what we do, even if it is completely innocent, cause a chain of events that slowly get worse? Is there any possible way to prevent this? If a chain of events is started, can it be stopped? Why don't we notice when someone may be slipping away? And if we do, why is it that those people are ignored when they need help the most?

"I guess that's the point of it all. No one knows for certain how much of impact they have on the lives of other people. Oftentimes we have no clue."-Hannah Baker