Suicide sucks. We lost a legend on Aug. 11.

Robin Williams was a personal inspiration, and his death was heartbreaking. Our generation grew up with “Jumanji” and “Mrs. Doubtfire.” We watched Peter Pan learn to fly again in “Hook.” Robin Williams was all of those characters and more, and he was funny and great and bright and he was depressed.

And maybe I don’t keep up with celebrity news enough — which seems unlikely — but I had no idea he was battling depression. Because he was Robin freaking Williams, he was a father and a video game nerd and a great comedian and we loved him. No one would ever suspect someone like him to be depressed. Without the literal dark cloud that we associated with depression hanging over a person’s head, how are we supposed to know someone is suffering?

Depression is sneaky like that. It can ruin your life. Even those whom seem the happiest, like Williams, can be suffering. And with the current stigma associated with mental illness, it’s hard to come forward and admit it’s something you’re struggling with. Depression may be cruel, but it’s an equal opportunist. Depression doesn’t care if you’re an over-privileged white girl in a stable home or anyone else, and this tragedy is proof of that. Even a famous comedian with a family and a great career can get hit with depression, and depression hits hard.

I keep hearing the people around me ask “How could someone who had everything want to take their own life?” But that’s just it: depression doesn’t care what you have. It seemed like Robin Williams had everything he could ever ask for, but it didn’t matter in the slightest. Williams was very sick and must have felt that he couldn’t do it any longer.

I know people say suicide is selfish — and maybe it is, I don’t know. But what I do know is that you have to be in a very dark place for a very long time for it to get that bad and I am so, so sad when I think about the great Robin Williams going through that.

While I, along with millions of others, am devastated at this tragic event, we can’t let this event blow over like so many other celebrity deaths. We mourn them, we post pictures and watch their movies, and we forget because what else can you do? Well, here we’ve been given the opportunity to start talking about depression and suicide, and we can’t let that opportunity slip us by.

Depression is a very serious illness and can clearly affect anyone. Depression is not just for the emo teenage girl or the lonely old man. Depression can hit anyone at any time, including our loved ones. And we need to make sure that we don’t think of depression as just being sad or having a bad day, but as a real disease that needs real help.

I’m sure I’ll re-watch Williams’ movies in the future, and I can only hope that when others watch his movies they’ll see what I see: a great man with a terrible disease. And although suicide sucks for everyone involved, I would never call him selfish, or stupid or anything else insulting for what he did.

When I remember Robin Williams, I will remember the genie from “Aladdin,” the therapist from “Good Will Hunting,” and the many other great characters he played. And, of course, I will remember that he was so depressed he decided to take his own life. But that’s not all I want to remember him for.

Robin Williams made millions of people laugh and we can’t forget that in recent light. Yes, he was depressed and he struggled with it, as well as with drugs and alcohol for most of his life. But he was still the Robin Williams our generation grew up with and nothing, not even something as tragic as this, can change that.

_If you are in crisis, National Suicide Prevention Lifeline counselors are available to talk 24/7 at 1-800-273-8255. _