Wednesday, the 16th of April, 2025. World Semicolon Day. Did you know about it?
Project Semicolon was founded in 2013 by Amy Bleuel as a mental health advocacy and anti-suicide initiative. Following this, there was a growing wave of people using a semicolon tattoo as a representation of mental health, be it their own journey, in someone’s memory, or in solidarity with a loved one.
A semicolon is a perfect symbol when you think about what it means. A writer uses a semicolon between two ideas; a semicolon is a pause, a breath if you will, before continuing the sentence. If you look at your life as the sentence, you are writing it as you live it. But instead of ending the sentence, take a pause. Take a breath. Keep going; your story isn’t over.
Tragically, people end their sentences, their lives, by suicide, putting a full stop and ending the sentence early. Project Semicolon has raised an enormous amount of awareness surrounding suicide and mental health issues and encourages people to take that breath, that pause, and persevere when life gets tough.
I know it’s so much more than things just “getting hard”. It’s a battle against your own mind. When your mind is trying to convince you that people are better off without you, suicide is the only way to make the pain end, and that you can’t go on anymore, it feels impossible. I’ve felt this, too. But my story isn’t over yet, and yours isn’t either.
It’s on days like this that I remember with a heavy heart one of my friends who took his own life. He couldn’t take the pain of this world anymore and sought a permanent solution to what could have been a semi-permanent situation. But he was depleted. He couldn’t keep going. I don’t think one ever recovers from losing a loved one like this. He still had so much life ahead of him, a thriving business, family, and friends. And now he’s gone. When I found out, I physically felt like my heart was being ripped out of my body, and I couldn’t breathe. And every year, hundreds of thousands of people experience this gut-wrenching pain. There are approximately 746,000 deaths by suicide every year. And that’s 746,000 too many. Sure, we as a society have done better at stopping the stigma surrounding mental illnesses, and we’ve made suicide something that is actually talked about. But it’s the epidemic of these generations. We don’t have the plague. We have death by suicide. And these people deserved better. My friend deserved better. All of our loved ones deserve better.
So I think what I’m trying to say is, don’t be afraid to start a conversation. Check in with a mate. Consider others, and be kind. We’re all on a journey. Some journeys are pretty chill and steady. Others are full of tumult and storms. And we don’t always know what others are going through. If you spot a semicolon tattoo in the wild, consider that maybe that person has been through hell and back and still chosen to keep going. It takes strength to come through the storm.
And if you’re riding the waves through your own storm right now, know you aren’t alone. Your story isn’t over. My story isn’t over. Press on, friend, take a breath and keep pressing on. Day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment. It’s okay not to be okay. And it’s okay to speak out. Your story isn’t over;
