Rather than watch the big game on Sunday, I reminiscenced about why Feb. 2 is a date engrained in my memory.

It was three years ago when I finally snapped out of a state of general depression after more than two years. I can remember that day in 2011 like it was yesterday.

Oddly enough, the video game “Red Dead Redemption,” by Rockstar provided the snap. I know, of all the games, right? Bear with me, though.

On Feb. 2, 2011, I passed the game and I decided to ride my horse, in the game, back to a certain save-point before I turned off my X-box 360. 

At one point, I rode past a fort in the game, where the majority of the storyline began. When I passed the fort, I put myself in the character’s shoes and imagined how he would probably be thinking along the lines of: “This is where it all started for my father and I.”

I don’t know what it was about me doing that, but my response caused me to snap out of my depression. After saving the game, I went back upstairs to my bedroom and daydreamed for a long time. 

Mostly, I just thought about my life and everything I had been through in that time. What I thought about the most were my “bad days,” the days I sank into depressive thoughts and felt like I didn’t exist, like I was nothing more than a shell. 

I realized the time had come for that to stop and it did so immediately. I have never experienced another “bad day” since. I snapped out of the depression immediately and found myself feeling happy again for the first time since December 2008.

It wasn’t just me passing a video game that got me out of the depression. That just set off a chain of events.

 I got inspired to write for fun. I had written for fun before, but for the first time, I had an itch to write constantly. So, I wrote numerous FanFiction pieces, some poetry and several short stories, most of which I haven’t shared with anyone, because they were just for me.

In addition, I started watching old movies and television shows that gave me feelings of nostalgia, which further helped me recover from the “bad days.” 

The biggest part of my recovery process came from my friends. Before I snapped out of the depression, I prided myself on being an outcast and being separated from others. Afterward, I seemed to become friends with everyone. I even became friends with people I never in a million years would have dreamed I’d be friends with.

I have 12 friends in particular who helped me during my recovery. I refer to these people as “The Big 12.” They cannot know how much they mean to me and what they contributed to me becoming the person I am today. I want to say “thank you” to Alicia, Callie, Katie, Darren, Asia, Megan, Alexandrea, April, Chase, Elodie, Deirdre and Andrea. Special thanks to my “Band Family” for especially helping me during my recovery process and for reminding me to remember the good times. 

If you are suffering from depression, realize you are not alone. Whether you know it or not, you have people in your life who care about you and want to help you. 

I know it may be hard, but simply talking to someone can make it better. It takes the pressure off. Talk to someone. You probably won’t realize until later how much that person can mean to you. As I was recovering, I had no idea how much my friends would mean to me. 

Now, I appreciate them more than anything, certainly more than watching a hyped-up football game.