“I was really bullied during my last years of primary school and throughout middle school. I felt like I had no friends, or that they didn’t feel comfortable hanging out with me because others would bother them. Many people held a grudge against me, and I didn’t know why. I was always the one they would make fun of. So, it was a pretty rough period. But when I started high school, I made a whole new group of friends. And having this super caring group of friends, I realized : fuck, if everyone was like this, no one would get bullied and have negative thoughts.

Even in our group many people had been bullied and had suicidal thoughts, depression, etc. It comes out during parties, under the influence of alcohol and emotions. There’s clearly a huge rate of depression and suicide in our generation.  I’ve met a lot like that. I’ve been to the psychiatric wing of the hospital several times because I knew people who were there and who were distressed. This isn’t normal… it has become usual, but it isn’t normal. Now I click whenever I see someone in this situation. You feel like helping out right away, making sure as gently and warmly as possible that they won’t put themselves in danger.

We don’t have any spiritual education nowadays. We don’t know how to deal with ourselves, our emotions, all the questions we have as teenagers. We have no answers, no guide, none of this is ever addressed at school or anywhere else. Actually, the only place where you can find this is in the arts, and especially in fiction. When a character is going through these things, you can identify and… it can actually save you. It can show you that, yeah, what you’re going through is universal, you’re not actually alone. Because it’s the worst thing to be alone in this. So, no, you’re not alone, everyone is going through this. My character is going through this, but my character is everyone.”

(MEG, Jonction | translated from French)