Thoughts by Hannah Michelle

Just over a week ago there was another tragic school shooting, this time in Parkland, Florida.  Let's be clear.  School shootings have been a problem for basically my entire lifetime.  The Columbine shooting was in 1999, and I was born in late 1997.  So for as long as I can remember, this has been a problem.  I am not writing this to start online debates, because those do not solve anything, but just to share what I have learned over the past week or so. Something I am happy with however, is that this shooting doesn't seem to be passing news.  It is holding on in the media, and for that, I am proud of Americans.   This week in Bible study, we discussed Palm Sunday.  (We are doing a Lenten study on the last 192 hours of Jesus's life - the passage we studied was Mark 11: 1-10.)  I'd like to point out that they story I am about to explain is part of history - there was a man named Jesus that claimed to be the Son of God that entered Jerusalem for the Passover.

Last year, I abstained from social media for Lent.  It was a great experience and it helped me to change my outlook on my phone.  I no longer have notifications on for any social media, and that has really helped me to limit my time on social media throughout the year. Jesus spent 40 days in the darkness, and that was my what I also experienced last year, being "in the dark" about the things happening on social media.   Focuses for Lent 2018 This year, I have many things I am planning on working on during this season.  I'll list them to make it a bit easier to read.  Feel free to steal some of my ideas if you feel called to do one of them!   Fasting Traditional: no meat on Ash Wednesday or Fridays throughout Lent No eating after dinner - Jesus fasted for 40 days and nights.  I love to sit around and snack in the evenings, and it is going to be really hard for me to cut this out.  In this way, I'll be able to experience a bit of what Jesus did in the desert.

Hope. (The story behind my latest tattoo.) I have dealt with depression and suicidal thoughts throughout most of my life.  Though I have worked through most of my suicidal thoughts, there were three times last year that were really bad, as I have previously written about.  There was a book that really helped me move past these thoughts, and it is called "Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland."  The font of my tattoo is from the cover of this book.  The way these girls were able to continue to be hopeful and keep faith in God throughout what can be described only as hell helped me to realize that I can get through anything in my life with hope in God.   Recently, I have come to realize that though I have moved through most of my problems with depression and being suicidal, (they may come back eventually), but I will have to live with my anxiety my whole life.  It might not always be a day-to-day issue, but it is something I will always have to live with.  This doesn

Hey y'all.   On this blog, I can see the number of people that have read each of my posts.  I never made this blog for tons of attention or views.  I made it just to have a good outlet to write, a place to update my far-away family on my life, and to be able to bring awareness to some issues.   My last post, about my "Me Too" story, has been read more than any of my other posts.  While many of my posts come in at about 100-150 reads, my big mental health blog I posted got 350 views, as I allowed it to be shared.  However, I kept my latest post on private, and I only posted it last Monday.  I saw tonight that it has been read over 500 times.  570 times to be exact.   My first thought: NO! 570 PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT IT!  But my second thought? Wow.  Maybe I really helped some people.  I started to think about the comments on my post that helped me.  And I started to think about the dozens of women that messaged me, thanking me for sharing my story, and sharing their storie