From this:

“I was really close [to suicide]. I knew that I was going to leave the band or maybe just leave planet Earth altogether. I felt like it was either one or the other. I just thought ‘I can’t deal with this.’”

“I almost didn’t get through it.”

“It was like, I’m either gonna leave the band, or I’m gonna leave the planet Earth, or I’m gonna disappear and nobody’s gonna hear from me again.”

“It was a mixture of being 25 and of taking a cocktail of anti-depressants and then drinking on them. I had stopped doing drugs but I was really depressed. There was a lot of traumatic events that I had been through that I hadn’t properly processed or accepted.”

To this:

“I was brooding back [during The Black Parade]. There was turmoil. There was a storm. I barely remember that dude. We’re all in a different spot in life now. Some people think that life takes decades to change, but sometimes it changes in a couple of years. We’re all very optimisitic. Everyone has grown up.”

“My brother and I have a history of depression. It’s a genetic thing. People aren’t all wired the same. Me and him were born like that. So I take medication. And everything is great for us now. I’m happier than I’ve been since I was 14, I’m on top of the world, I really am.”

“As long as we stick together, we can smash the sadness.”

“[The band has] changed me a great deal, it’s made me be not be such a defeatist about things, to be more confident in myself, it taught me to constantly create, and constantly evolve. It gave me the power to be the best version of me, any day. I think for that I am eternally grateful.”

“I mean we all got over ourselves a long time ago. We are in it for fun, we are in it to create, we are in it for the fans, our friends, our family. We are in it for the greater good, we aren’t in it for the fuckin’ awards. If that stuff comes, that’s cool too, but we are in just to have fun, we never try to think about, ‘Aw, man this song is going to be huge.’ It’s not our driving source in doing anything. We are just going to create what we want to create. If people love it, they love it, if they don’t like it, then hey, they didn’t like it.”

“Don’t be afraid to try the most insane thing. Don’t think it’s too crazy. Just go for it.”

“Everyone expects us to be assholes nowadays. I think we’ve let them down. We’re regular dudes and dorky kids. Success doesn’t mean you have to change.”

“We’re really four best friends having the time of our lives, traveling the world, getting to see amazing things and getting to play for amazing people. I don’t see that ever changing. I’m just strapped in enjoying the ride, really.”

“Everybody needed to normalize and be a human being. We all learned that it’s okay to enjoy things. You can smile. You can have fun and not be such a defeatist.”

“Don’t do anything to try to fit in.”

-

This, this is why Mikey Way is my hero. This man gives me hope and will never, ever stop inspiring me to keep fighting and keep living. Thank you, Mikey Way, for being you, and Happy 31st Birthday. May it be awesome and ftw, you deserve it. And with that, I’ll leave you with some words from Gerard~

“Mikey inspires me in so many ways. He’s so talented. I think sometimes he doesn’t quite realize how special or talented he is.”