No, this post is not about the 99 restaurant. Yes I do love the 99 restaurant. Yes I am trash. Let’s move on shall we?

I saw a hoodie the other day that said 99+ reasons to stay another day. In other words 99 reasons not to end it, not to give up, not to kill yourself over temporary problems. It made me think, every day I should start with a reason to stay another day, and this doesn’t even come from a place of wanting to take my life, because like I’ve said before my suicidal ideation is very passive, no plans, never will be plans, just a thought of what the world would be like without me, and if it would be the better place I think it would.

Anyways it got me thinking, the other day I said to a friend, you ever tell yourself you’re gonna lay down for a second and end up laying there for hours? She said no every day my alarm goes off and I say thank god that’s over.

Ladies and gentleman that is the answer from my favorite psycho on the planet, my best pal, and someone who makes me a better person, Alison. Alison is the only fucking person I know who is excited to get out of bed every day, even on the days she went too hard the night before. Always ready for an activity, always ready to go. She is the person I’d call if I was down and out, bored, needed to hide a body, or decided I wanted to go skydiving, because she’d be there for any of it and rooting for me. To me that’s a fucking friend, and I think our generation has lost the idea of what a friend is. Lucky for me, she knows the job, and knows I’d do the same or more for her.

Alison’s response is how we got here, now I’d like to start doing something, and I’d like each of you to participate, but only if you want to, I’m doing it with or without you. Every day for the next 64 days, I’m going to wake up and decide a reason to stay another day. 64 days left in the year, and then on new years eve, I’ll make it a bigger goal, it’ll be a reason to stay for the year of 2025. I want to know your reason for staying every day for the next 64 days, and on new years day I wanna know your reason for staying next year.

You don’t have to join me in this quest but I realized this: one week from today our country gets a new leader, these are stressful, and arguably unprecedented times. People are more divided than ever, and people are beginning to believe that because you don’t agree on something you can’t have a conversation with someone, and it’s breeding hate into the world. Our generation has the opportunity to stop it. Let’s face it, every election the media scares us to death with the ideas of what’s going to happen if whoever they want to lose wins, and every four years we get a new president, and things never change as drastically as it seems. That could be different this year, but remember, the things these politicians say still need to be voted on, by congress, by the senate, and those people are elected by the people.

So, take a deep breath, we’re going to get through it if we stick together. Tomorrow, start your list. Why stay another day? Even if you don’t struggle with mental health, I bet this practice will bring to the surface some things you take for granted.

I hope you join me, and hold me accountable for this exercise.

Stay well.

J