Emily’s story

My Chemical Romance sort of performed an intervention on me. In the 04-05 school year I was horribly teased for being so different. I was made to feel inferior to everyone else daily, and on top of all of that my mom had TMJ and was out of work on disability for a while so my stepdad and I had to take up a paper route for the extra money. Life was complete Hell. Then one morning close to the end of the school year I saw the “Helena” video. I thought it was absolutely amazing. That summer I had to go to my dad’s house for six weeks, though, and I didn’t get to watch much TV.
 
While it might have seemed nice to be able to escape my dad’s house, it wasn’t much better. There was a girl I had to be around all the time who was completely horrible and her family totally let her treat my siblings and me like we were sub-human. I started pulling my hair out. After I got back to my mom’s house I became more and more interested in MCR and I eventually stopped pulling my hair out. I began to feel free to express myself. I also started going to a new school that year and while I didn’t know anyone, MCR made a great ice breaker and helped me put the past in the past. They also helped me get in touch with the girl who would become my best friend until this year.
 
My best friend and I parted ways and she started a full-out smear campaign against me. It was horrible because it seemed as if only a select few people hadn’t fallen under her spell (not that I was a social butterfly to begin with). My dad had also quit that job that summer and had a really low-paying one, which was wreaking havoc on the everyone. Due to the lethal combination of a smear campaign and a crappy home life, I started pulling my hair out for the second time. Again, I turned to MCR. All of the things they were saying at that time I could totally identify with. I also met someone new. MCR saved her life, too (my old best friend had only “liked” MCR).
 
MCR helped me through both of my downward spirals. The darkness in their music is combined with a sense of hope that MCR fans can identify with. They remind kids that things might not be so hot right now, but they get better and that they need to hang on and do what makes them happy even if it cheeses others off (that’s the thing that’s stuck closest to my heart). That’s exactly why MCR saves lives.
 
I’d say I don’t know where I’d be today without MCR, but the truth is, I do. I’d be dead.

–Emily