Another from a long time ago... (Except)

...I'm starting to give up again. I can't do this anymore, I just can't. I can't swallow every damn tear that threatens to spill over!

The despair is drowning me. Hopelessness engulfs me. And I can't fight the rolling waves any longer; I cannot even take a breath of freedom before I am swept under...

~*~

Sadness. I fall beneath the surface of despair and open my eyes. And what do I see?

The skeletal corpses of all those who have fallen before me. All those who let themselves get sucked in, down so far there was no way back. Off in another corner, there are those who threw themselves in, fools that they are.

I stare around in horrified amazement, recoiling at every sight. Fear pumps into my heart. Out. I want out. I have to get out of here.

My lungs start complaining for air, for freedom, and my muscles act instinctively. As my mind is horrified, demanding to get away, it cannot compel my body to get away. My lungs start sending dangerous signals, and without warning my head breaks the surface again, and as I regain control, I claw desperately at the surface, breathing in quick shallow breaths of sweet, sweet freedom.

I don't want to let it go.

Yet I know I will be dragged under again, once in a while. The trick is knowing the old cycle, and not letting yourself get dragged under for good, like the other poor souls. Learn from their lesson...