Today I want to do my first interview. The person I am interviewing is a friend of mine who has an inspiring story for anyone going through something tough. Her name is Megan Campbell; she’s 17 years old and she’s from England. We could say her story started when she started Secondary school. She started feeling different and sad like she didn’t belong so she started ditching school. When her parents found out they sent her to a doctor and she found out she had severe anxiety and depression. She stopped going out and her parents called in a counselor to help her. But Meg didn’t mind; she thought the only way for her was staying the way she was. However, she had a friend: music. She understood it and it kept her going. In fact, it was a song that made her decide she wanted to live. She wanted to get better so she went to a place called Home Hospital Service which was like a school with two teachers and ten students and all of them were going through something similar. She started making friends and everything was happy until she gave up on herself. It was time to start college and Meg wanted to do music badly but she decided she wasn’t going to be good enough. She gave up on herself and went to an art college instead. It wasn’t long before she realized that was a mistake. She studied there for a month and decided she wanted to drop out. On September of last year, she followed her dream and started at a music college and she’s doing what she wants to do.
1) When did you start feeling depressive and like you didn’t belong? I think it was when I was about 12 and I was in secondary school. I can remember looking around at everyone who had found their friendship groups and who were getting on with their work and they didn’t seem to be overwhelmed or exhausted like I was. They could be social and happy and I just couldn’t be. It was like, I felt like I was drowning and I didn’t understand why they didn’t feel the same way. 2) What did your friends or people you knew think about the way you felt and how did you explain it to them? A lot of people my age just kind of shrugged and said ‘Yeah I know what that’s like,” which was very discouraging because I know that they didn’t. They meant that they had felt sad before. They didn’t know what it was like to have a mental illness that you have to live with every day. 3) At first were you scared of how you felt alone and sad (or whatever you felt really)? I was confused mostly. I felt low all the time and angry that it seemed that I was on my own and that nobody seemed to understand me. I was [more angry] than scared of being on my own. 4) What did your parents think when they found out you were skipping school? My dad was more understanding. He could see that something was wrong and even though he was stressed by it because [he] and my mum were starting to be fined for not sending me into school, he knew that I wasn’t just being lazy and something was up. He knew the signs and how to look after me because he’s been with my mum since they were teenagers and he’s supported her for years. My mum has depression herself, and seeing me go through it, plus the stress of being fined when they couldn’t afford to pay got to her and her moods got lower too. She [understood] what I was going through, though, and she helped to get me to talk to a doctor so I could be diagnosed. I hadn’t explained to anyone what it was like before, and I was really scared, but she stuck with me and was really encouraging even though she felt bad too. 5) After you went to the doctors, why didn’t you want to get better and what made you decide to get better? I’d become almost comfortable with the idea of not living. I didn’t see a future for myself at all and the depression takes away your motivation. It’s part of the illness. You don’t feel motivated to do anything, not even live. I was ready to just fade away. I decided to get better because of the band My Chemical Romance, I listened to them a lot. Music was the only thing I got excited about anymore. I was listening to the song “It’s Not A Fashion Statement, It’s A Death wish” and I realized that everything that Gerard was singing I wanted to scream at my depression. I realized I was basically living like I was already dead and I didn’t want that anymore. 6) You’re learning music in college now. What made you decide music was what you wanted to do? Music was the only thing I never stopped loving. Even when I didn’t have the energy to feed myself or even wash myself, I could still listen to music and feel like I had some hope. Now it’s basically my whole life. I live and breathe music. I couldn’t imagine studying anything else. 7) You’re one of my personal heroes because when you were falling down you stood up and you kept going. What advice do you have for people going through something similar? Just keep on going, keep fighting and trying to reach for something better, because you won’t feel the way you feel at your lowest forever. It won’t be easy, in fact it’s going to be really hard, but it’s going to be worth it. 8) What do you think you’ll be doing next after college in the future? I really want to be a musician, I want to write songs that give other people the sort of hope and comfort that my favorite artists gave to me.
I just want to thank her for agreeing to do the interview. Her story, I think, is one that we can all learn something from.
So now you know if you have any kind of illness that you think and see is stopping you, don’t ignore it, try your best to get help. You don’t have to be healthy to be amazing and an inspiration to those around you. It’s kind of like scraping your arm; it will hurt and be a bother for a few days, maybe even weeks, but if you take care of it, it will get better. Nothing is stopping you from doing what you want to do. There is always light at the end of the tunnel - you just have to walk far enough to find it. Don’t give up on yourself or on what you want to do.
