Although I'm a lot older than you, I can hear you completely. You sound just like me at that age. We take refuge in our depression; we adopt it; we define ourselves by it. The truth is, we are inside of that depression. It is not us. We are submerged in it like a pearl in an oyster. It is true that depression has shaped us like any experience in our lives, but we are separate from it. We can shine without it in a way that our submerged self can only begin to imagine.