Dear Alex: My friend recently passed away from suicide. I see a life she could have had everywhere I look. How do I grieve while still going on with my life?

– Grieving

Dear Grieving: First off, I’m very sorry you had to experience this. Nobody should have to go through losing someone they care about to suicide. Grieving is completely natural, and can be truly awful, especially when you know your friend had so much to live for.

You can’t always expect someone to understand, but you can at least try to let out the pain. Even though it’s hard, talk to someone about it. Talk to a Guidance Counselor, a licensed therapist, or someone that you can trust. Try to open up about your thoughts, feelings, the emotional impact of what happened, and do your best to release everything building up internally. I promise it will make you feel so much better.

All you can do is try to keep pushing forward. The best way to move on is to try to come to peace with the fact that your friend is gone and in a better place. It’s hard to say and hard to hear but all you can really do is try to accept it.

Now, how do you keep going on? You live the life you knew they could’ve had. You live the life you know they wanted you to live. You can only try to keep fighting because the last thing your friend would want is to see you in death. So try to keep fighting and pushing. Know that grieving is a natural part of life that all people go through. Talk to someone you trust, cry it out if you feel like you need to, and most importantly, try and live the life they wanted for you and you wanted for them.

– Alex