This is a story about a girl, her name was Amilia. Amilia always tried her hardest on everything she did, whether it be at school, at home or with her friends. She easily made friends, and they were great friends; always helping her when she needed. She always returned the favor, helping her friends when they needed.

As Amilia worked through her school years, the rules began to get harder and harder, adding the stress on her shoulders. Although she was under stress, she always made jokes about it, saying the stress on her shoulders was what was making her short, always pushing past the issue.

Amilia was great at many things, she could write stories no one would ever think to write, she had the voice of an angel, children loved her and always gave her hugs, and she had what appeared to be an endless supply of determination. She had many successes, but many failures as well. As the failures began to overweight her success, she began to grow self conscious of herself and her abilities, what others thought of her. She began to compare her work to that of others, her worries growing at she how much she differed from people, how much they were moving forward while she stayed stuck. “You shouldn’t compare yourself to others.” She told herself over and over but the thoughts just kept creeping back in.

Amilia’s friends began to grow worried for her, asking her what was troubling her. She told her friends of her woes, and they respond with open arms, giving tip after tip on how to improve. Amilia had a new sense of hope, putting those tips into action. But the more she tried, the harder she seemed to fall. She saw as her classmates grew and took leaps towards their goal while she stayed in the mud. She quickly began to give up hope for herself, but never letting it show.

Later at home, she saw her grades beginning to fall more and more, something in her snapped. She had a sudden realization that she didn’t matter. The choices she made didn’t matter. No one had noticed or told her anything, not her teacher, not her parents, and her friends seemed to be blind at how bad the problem really was. As she came to this realization, she made another one, that she was just a burden to everyone around her. To her teacher, who had to stop to go over the lesson again, to the students in the class who had to wait for her to understand, and to her friends for making them deal with her problems.

As Amilia came to that realization, she understood there was no point to her being there. There was no point of her being alive. She then prepared for her end that night. She wrote the note, she wrote her apologies, she prepared the rope and grabbed the chair. Just as she tied the rope around her neck, she went over the words in her note over and over. She thought of the words no one else could think to write, she thought of the kids she apologized to, she thought of her friends that she would no longer see, and she thought of the pain she would give her loving parents.

As she thought of them, she came to another realization, that she WAS needed in this world. She had to write the words no one else could, she had to be a role model for those kids, she had to be a rock for her friends, and she had to be an amazing daughter for her parents. She removed the rope from her neck and threw it away, she tore the note apart and tossed it, and went to bed.

Amilia woke up the next morning with a newfound determination, her smile back once again. From that day forward, she wrote stories no one else think of, she helped teach kids how to be the best they could, she helped her friends move forward, and she lived up to everything her parents hoped she would.

Every now and again, those bad thoughts would come back and she would feel lost but she would remember her worth, and that filled her with enough determination to last her a lifetime.