I’m 17 years old and experienced a bunch of heartbreaks. I’ve always been insecure and depressed about myself, and as much as I wanted to change, I just couldn’t keep pushing myself to change. I was talking to this girl, she was my close friend for a while, and from the start, we always spoke freely about feelings, which helped us build a strong friendship. One day, I told her I was suicidal and wanted to kill myself. She then wrote a whole paragraph with reasons why I shouldn’t kill myself and, at that moment, I knew I was falling in love with her. Life was getting more colorful, I had hope growing inside me again. I then told her I was in love, and her reaction was unexpected: She seemed cool with it and didn’t say no as many other times I fell in love. We kept talking for a couple of months and it seemed clearer to me that she was feeling the same way, then I asked her about it. She told me she didn’t and didn’t tell me earlier because she was afraid to hurt me, and told me to try and see her only as a friend. I stopped messaging her after that. I was in the mall, there was this big balcony. I was ready to jump a 15-meter fall, but I was listening to music on my headphones. It was Juice WRLD, he sang “take my hand, don’t give up”, the song is “Fighting Demons” from the album “Legends Never Die”. I then held myself back, took a couple of steps back and put my hand to the sky. I then promised to me and to Jarad Anthony Higgins that I would never take my own life, as hard as things are. I’ll take Jarad’s hand and will go through whatever it is. After this story, I then thought of the 999 meaning, “take whatever hell, whatever struggle, whatever bad situation you’re going through and turn it into something positive, to keep pushing yourself forward”. So I did. I started spreading comments all around Instagram saying that if people are feeling depressed and have no one to talk I was there to listen. Messages kept coming, I was really saving people from suicide and I was just so happy because I was doing what my idol Juice WRLD loved the most and I had a small chance to do what he did to me. While I was helping, I found this girl, she had an eating disorder and self-acceptance problems. I told her my story of suicidal thoughts and she broke down. She said I was too good to ever kill myself and that just made me so happy. It wasn’t just like any other person I was helping, I felt more than usual and we started talking more and more. She’s my girlfriend now. She saved me, I saved her. And now the message I spread is different: “even when it seems like there’s no hope, there is”. I’ve been spreading this story around to people and I’m literally so happy I tried the 999 and it worked. All the people I save now I dedicate to the name of Jarad Higgins, the man that saved me. Thank you, Juice WRLD, for being who you are. You changed my life and even tho you’re not around us anymore, you’re watching us from heaven and I feel like you’re proud of me. I love you Jarad Anthony Higgins.
