To All the Nameless Faces & the Lovers That Lost,

I’ve barely brushed the ashes from my boots.
My heels still burn from the embers.
Life is changing—and I am changing with it.

But I can’t shake the most harrowing truth:
There were times I screamed into the void
and believed I wasn’t worth saving
because no one answered back.
I thought no one cared.

That wasn’t true.
And now—I see it.

Most people aren’t ignoring your pain.
They’re surviving their own.
They may not know Hell like I do—
like you do—
but they know drowning.
They know silence.

They’re too busy holding their own lives together
to hear even the loudest cries for help.

And here’s the truth:
They don’t have the answer.
They never did.
That answer is yours to find.
And that—is the real battle.

For me, rebellion was the spark.
It lit my way back to the land of the living.
But you?
Only you know what drives you.
Only you know what wakes your soul.

And hear me:
You are worth it.
You are the only you this world will ever know.

So stand beside me.
Let’s carry the light to others.

I don’t care where you are,
who you are,
what you’ve done wrong—
or even what you’ve done right.

I care that you find the light.
And once you do—
you share it.
With the next lost soul.
And the next.
And the next.

Because mental illness is still ignored.
Addiction is still whispered about.
We’re still losing our children to bullies,
our lovers to lies,
our friends to the needle and the noose.

We can’t let it go on like this.

We are the ones who made it out.
Who saw Hell, and lived to tell it.
That means something.
That demands something.

We must hold up mirrors
and reflect our light
into the cracks of those still breaking.
And they will carry it forward.
And on and on it will go.

It’s sacred.
This isn’t survival.
It’s legacy.

This is a battle cry
for those who’ve found the light—
and are brave enough to bear it.

This is your call.
Your duty.
Your way of clawing redemption
from a universe that said,
“Not yet. You’ve still got work to do.”

This is how we save lives
already halfway in the grave.

Not by shouting from the mountaintops—
but by kneeling in the dark beside them,
and saying:

“Live. I’ll show you how.”‘

With love & Sincerety,

William David “Chip” Pence – Writer & Mental Health Advocate