Sheridan Vahldieck 12/11/13
Essay English
What The World Ends With You Means To Me
Joshua Kiryu once said “ Give up on yourself and you give up on the world” This quote means a lot to me and in this essay I’m going to show you why as well as what the game this quote came from means to me. I got this game at a very hard time in my life. I was bullied and didn’t know what was going on as far as whom to be. One part of me wanted to block the whole world out so I would never have to worry about any more pain or sorrow. What I didn’t realize was that no matter how hard I wanted to I never could…the words they said would always be their torturing my sprit, soul, body and mind. But I pretended and that pretending made me feel happier….made me feel as though I didn’t need friends even though I knew I did. When I began playing the game I was immediately entranced in its characters and the similarities to both the main character Neku, me and the main antagonist Joshua. As I played the game both Neku and I would go through a journey we would never be the same again. This essay explores that journey.
First I’ll start with the quote I suppose. This quote means so much to me personally because it got me through many hardships that I still face today. I didn’t worry about many things and eventually I got to the point of not caring about anything. I was letting life pass me by. The first time I read the quote I cried myself to sleep that night because of it. I knew I was doing something wrong…and I hated it. Joshua and I were very alike. He hid his true emotions through snarkiness and a mask of condescending so other people didn’t want to be around him. He hid behind a mask of lies. I hid in the shadows making myself as invisible as possible. Yet if anyone talked to me I was the perkiest girl in school. I hid my emotions behind a mask of lies. Pretending I was happy when I wasn’t at all, pretending I had a perfect life when I was afraid to go home to more mental agony. To where I would cry myself to sleep because of the bully’s and him. Joshua helped me at the time find security when I thought I felt alone and lost in every way. I found myself through him.
Now, onto Neku. Where to start? We’re alike in so many ways. We both blocked people out. We both tried to be as invisible as possible. We both loved music and used it to block people out. We even based our opinions of people on that music too. We believed that everyone hated us. We also believed that the world was against us. That we couldn’t trust anyone with anything. That we were completely and utterly alone and could only rely on ourselves. We genuinely thought this way. Another thing we have in common is that we both changed for the better. Neku also helped me not feel so alone. Now, I’m going to tell you how.
Neku is an antisocial teen and I was an antisocial 12 year old. He died and while I didn’t I felt like I did with him. He had to go through three weeks with a partner to get his life back....
