And I Walked For Hours The Mist

A Week Went By And Nothing. But Eventually, As They Always Will, The Rumors Reached Me. And Everyone Knows You Can't Disprove A Rumor.

Everything About It Was False. Right Then, In That Office, With The Realization That No One Knew The Truth About My Life, My Thoughts About The World Were Shaken.

That's Why You Did It. You Wanted Your World To Collapse Around You. You Wanted Everything To Get As Dark As Possible.

I Felt I Had A Very Innocent Childhood And I Feel Privileged By That. But As An Adult, I Know That There Were People Who Didn't Have That. There Are A Lot Of Teens Who Haven't Had As Easy A Childhood As Me, And Having Literature That Explores These "darker" Parts Helps Relieve The Burden And Stress They May Be Feeling. As A Writer, There Is Often A Temptation To Draw Back When We Write For Teens - To Preserve Their Innocence. But The Reality Is, If Someone Has Already Had That Innocence Taken In Their Life, Then Not Writing About It Is Just Brushing It Under The Rug.

Then Come To Realize That You're Making Mountains Out Of Molehills. Realize How Petty You've Become. Sure, It May Feel Like You Can't Get A Grip On This Town. It May Seem That Every Time Someone Offers You A Hand Up, They Just Let Go And You Slip Further Down. But You Must Stop Being So Pessimistic, Hannah, And Learn To Trust Those Around You. So I Do. One More Time.