Other Birthdays
Other Birthdays
Depression party and listening walk
2018
TW: Writing about suicide. If you are having thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 (TALK) or text TALK to 741741
On April 2nd 2012, I reached a limit with depression: I sat at the Humboldt Park lagoon in Chicago, watched the water for a long time, then biked to a Whole Foods to see how easy it would be to fall off the rooftop parking lot. It did look easy, and I stood there for a long time. I consider April 2nd my "other birthday", since it was a palpable moment of deciding to keep slogging through life, rather than the alternative.
In April 2018, I organized this listening walk which roughly followed the same route from 2012, a distance of about 6 miles. It was a celebration for people who have other birthdays, or love people who have other birthdays, or love people who have killed themselves. We ended the walk at the same rooftop parking lot, where we created big, floating soap bubbles, and a person we didn't know played the trumpet nearby.