How Shinedown Helped Me Out Of A Dark, Negative Place

When I was in year three I was bullied real bad, I was left out of groups, had a lot of trouble making friends, had rumors spread about me and teased. All through out my primary school years except year six I had NO friends at all, it was real depressing. In year six I moved house and moved school to the BEST primary school ever. I made tons of friends and got along with everyone, I was quite popular. When that year ended I moved to the WORST highschool ever, I'm going to call it hell high.

I hated it, I got picked on, punched up, teased, rumors spread about me, groups leaving me out, unloyal friends, ignored and also I had panic attacks and sometimes they were so bad i'd forget what happened and go hysterical and try to run out of school. It was really horrible. Every other day i'd try to convince my parents to let me move and even told teacher but the kids would always twist the truth on me and i'd get into trouble, at one point I almost got expelled because the kid twisted the truth so much!

In year seven I won awards and stuff for fundraising and was generally a good student. The next year after those kids had messed with me I was horrible depressed. Everyday I would keep saying to myself, "Just get me out of here, let me die or something!" It's no way to live. In year eight the bullying got worse, the kids found a picture of me in emo make up that my friend had done for me and stuck it on my locker and tried to kick my lock in. It was terrible, I noticed that my moods were horrible, my music was all screamo and about dying and other stuff and my grades MAJORLY dropped, I kept getting kicked out of classes, I'd get angry at people if they said the littlest of things.

In september my friend told me about shinedown, I started listening to them and got hooked, one song in particular grabbed me, 45. It's a song about life and all, I listened to it continuosly and it kept my hopes up, the black mascara disappeared, white foundation, THICK eyeliner and black hair dye. Although I failed maths that year and I FINALLY after two years of hell moved highschools.

All the shinedown songs in some way or another and made me think and change something, Second chance is a great one, I moved and it seems like I was given a second chance and I took it! The current highschool i'm at is the AWESOMEST i've made a hell of a lot of friends, I'm doing well in my classes, got help with my maths, wear no makeup and don't listen to much screamo anymore, mainly shinedown and any songs about hope really. Those songs about life and changing something in some way have real helped me. Also brent's attitude to everything in life has really influenced me a lot, the way he thinks makes so much sense.

Now instead of looking on the negative side I am looking on the positive side. I am now in year nine, I love school for the first time in my life and am looking forward to my future. I plan to become a graphics designer or journalist. I'm going to go to university also and plan to pass year twelve even if it takes repeating to do so. Shinedown have such powerful lyrics. Everyday I listen to them, they keep me hopeful and happy.

Thank you guys, I'm sure you all have more interesting stories than I do but that's my one.