My Farewell Speech.
Hello everyone!
This is Mercy. I am a listener on 7 Cups. I am writing this to inform you that I will unfortunately be leaving the teen side today. I turn 18 in February but I need to take a break now due to academic stresses. Ive made many friends here and gotten the chance to empower many people, and I am very glad because of that.
I started on 7 Cups in grade 9, when I was 15 years old. At that time, I got a concussion, and I was very bummed out because of it, so I sought support and came across this website. I first wanted someone to talk to, but upon seeing the opportunity to become a listener, I jumped and got so excited.
Today I have a 5 star rating, lots of good reviews, and I am very confident in my abilities as a listener. However, my first chat went very wrong! I got 2 stars, and the member told me I was very robotic and failed to help at all. But I did not give up. I continued to chat. I had a few more bad chats and I kept going.
This is what happens when you fail. You fail, you learn from it, you pull yourself up, and you keep going like a warrior.
Anyways, 2 months later, I got hit with anxiety. Severe, crippling anxiety, about the fear of being a bad person and harming people. I would be afraid of cheating on tests. Ive had this anxiety for very long, for years, and I still struggle now. It is very painful, but something you learn is that when pain hits you, you have the choice to be strong and continue to push through life. And I chose that.
Fast forward to around 1 and a half years later, when I started grade 11. As some of you may know I am in an accelerated program (international baccalaureate, if you guys know that). Its very intense and you must work hard. I also wrote animal rights articles a lot and had many extracurricular. This was quite difficult with anxiety and all, as i often did not have the will to get up and do these things. Yet, I persevered. I did what I could. Some days I couldnt do them, other days I got them done, and done well. I learned that its okay to not be productive every day. What matters is that you are focusing your time and accomplishing what is meaningful to you. It is your overall progress that matters more, so dont beat yourself up if you have a few unproductive days. Just keep going.
Fast forward to today, and Im sitting on my proud 91% academic average, with over 10,000 words of articles written for animal rights, multiple internships either completed and underway, and 300,000 cheers on here. I am showing you that you can do a lot if you put yourself to it. Anxiety, depression, mental disorders and struggles do not have to limit you. At all. I am a passionate believer in seeking support, persevering through, and focusing on your priorities. That is how you win the battle against mental health. I struggled with severe feelings of anxiety . And burnout. And some depression. But I pushed through. And so can you. Today, I am proud to be me. And my anxiety does not want that, haha.
Six months ago, I got a video game called Dance Dance Revolution for my console. You should definitely play it, it is very fun. Meanwhile, I had just quit dance club at my school. I was in my schools dance club and I was the worst dancer, and I constantly had very low confidence in my abilities.
When I first started playing Dance Dance Revolution, I was able to clear some light to medium songs. But to my real surprise, one day I managed to clear a hard song! I was in disbelief. Ive always seen myself as someone uncoordinated.. how could I be good at something.. dance-related?? When I was... kind of a flop at my dance club?
I kept practicing and I pushed through my barriers. And I got to the hard songs, then the very hard songs, then the hardest songs in the game. Those songs where you step on... 400 arrows in a minute. What I learned was that... you never know how good you could be at something.. unless you try. Do not doubt yourself for a second.
The next time you start wanting to be a listener but afraid you will not do a good job, try. Try. And fail. And learn from your mistakes. And seek help from a mentor. And read the training guides. And improve. The next time when you want to take that job interview, take it. Dont be afraid to mess up. Who knows? You lose nothing by failing, and gain everything by succeeding.
The next time when you want to pursue your hobby and be good at it, take the chance. Even if someone thinks you wont be good at it. I failed many, many, many times on DDR Kimono Princess Expert before I passed that monster song. And thats okay. Its perfectly okay to fail because it allows you to become wiser and eventually succeed. Dont be afraid of trying. You never know the greatness you could create just from trying.
Im not perfect. Ive screwed up so many times. Youve seen a lot of the good side of my life due to me talking about it, but in reality I struggle too. My relationship with my family is somewhat cold and distant, I struggle to take care of my health a lot, I beat myself up constantly. Ive cried myself to sleep at nights sometimes, Ive had crippling anxiety attacks and vicious spirals, sometimes I even felt as though all I do is screw up. Ive broke someones heart before due to forgetting to talk to them. Ive blown opportunities, and I got rejected to many positions Ive applied for. Ive made mistakes everywhere: including acting unprofessional on 7 Cups. But what matters is that we push through these challenges and persevere. And love. And encourage. And achieve. And today I am proud of myself. As a listener, Ive always believed in empowering people. I would often say things like I believe in you to people when I meant it. Because you are loved. You need to believe in yourself and treat yourself with kindness. And persevere. And love. And encourage. And achieve.
Well, that concludes my inspirational speech, haha. I wish you guys the best of luck on 7 Cups! Hugs. Hugs for everyone.
@MercyHealsYou Mercy you're awesome! I didn't get the chance to know you better. But with the little time we spent chatting you've helped me pull through a lot as a member and listener.. Honestly I was considering leaving this world for good earlier today but when I saw this post I remembered everyone who helped along my journey. I've came a long long way and improved my mental health tons cause of 7 cups and the awesome people who helped me along the way. Seriously I wouldn't have gotten this far if you guys weren't there for me. It'd be such a waste, and a selfish choice if I give up now.. When I first joined 7 cups I was like barley allowed to be on 7 cups. I was 13 back then. I had so many mental health issues. I was a violent, ignorant, depressed and anxious person. I used to allucinate. My parents were and still are the worst (dint get me wrong I know a lot of peoplehave gone through worse please don't turn this reply to a competition of who had a tougher childhood) I was born in Turkey but I had to live in Iraq for quite a long time cause of my dad. He's a veteran. So when I came back to Turkey I was just different. War had changed me tons. I got so violent to the point my parents wanted to hospitalize me and I was diagnosed a sociopath at school. So when I came back to Turkey I didn't speak a single word for 2 years. Not to teachers nor to classmates. They used to say hilarious jokes to make me laugh but I would Justin there and stare at them blankly. I was such a creep. I felt so lonely so I Googled "I'm lonely" and 7 cups was the first thing that caught my eyes.it didn't require an email so just made a new guest account everything I wanted to chatting someone. When I first logged in Noni (the bot) instructed me and stuff. Just the usual. And then I was finally in a chat with a listener. I don't remember exactly whittle listener was called but I think their account was "GoldenWolfie" with some numbers. They were the kindest person I've talked to since the day I was born. So I had a chat with them they encouraged me and made me feel better. So I kept logging in to 7 cups everyday since then. After that I just created an official account. Some stuff happened in between I had to contact some people etc nothing interesting. So after that I met my first like long term listened before long term listeners were a thing. She was just and amazing person. She was 16 back then and I was 14 so she made me call her grandma xD *-TRIGGER WARNING-* after that j got so depressed things were getting worse and I made probably the stupidest choice in my life. I started self harming. For months my arms were all cut from wrist to shoulder. Things kept worsening, I cut my wrist thinking about giving up but I just retreated. After a while I felt completely numb. I couldn't see or think of anything so Igrabbed lots and lots of pills. Antibiotics birth control and just so many different pills and just took them all trying to take my own life. I survived somehow. I was in agony. It hurt so much I still am belive I survived. The same listener who made me call her grandma was freaking out telling me to go to the hospital. I felt like I needed someone to help me. Like classmate. After I survived the attempt. So I thought to myself, who could I trust? Is there any person in class that'll casually help? And then a girl came to mind. I tested her telling her the self-harm and suicide attempt story. Next day at school she was trying her best to help. The pills effect lasted for like a week so throughout hat whole week she kept asking me if I needed anything every recess. I was in such pain I couldn't even stand up so I asked her to buy me a bottle of water and stuff. But she changed school next week so she hugged me and told me that I could always text her if I ever feel down. I met 3 awesome listeners during that period. Hey were and still are always there for me. But since that day things just keep worsening. I mean I stopped self harming, stopped smoking and just stopped harming myself in general cause of.. A friend. I'm not gonna say much about her. So yeah that's my story. Things just keep worsening. I feelers and worse everyday. But I'm never going to give up. After all the way I've come. After everyone support. I'm not letting it go to waste. And I might have skipped some parts of the story in between for my own reasons.
@Bingo222
Dont feel ashamed! I myself have had a upside down life and have started to get very violent. Panic attacks lead to violence with me , but mercy helped settle me down enough that I felt liked again.
@MercyHealsYou mer I'll miss you can we still talk tho
@MercyHealsYou, you helped me when i couldn't even help myself. i'm forever grateful . thank you Mercy.
@MercyHealsYou
Thank you so much for posting your story, it's so motivational, especially since i woke up today thinking there isn't a purpose in life and why should i move on and burst into tears a couple of times. You gave me strength, i am eternally grateful.
I wish you the best in your life, and many great chats in the adult side. You will be missed, we all love you very much!❤