When Netflix announced that there would be a second season of 13 Reasons Why, it was only natural to assume that it might be a big let-down. Well, the second season came out on Friday and I have to say…

It was well worth the wait!

Unlike the first season where the narrator is for the main part Hannah, slowly letting us into her version of the story, in season two the insights are coming from different characters, which makes the episodes tinted with extra shades of truth and clarity.

There is at least one secret in each of us that’s so intimate — perhaps shameful or painful — that we are willing to let it stand in the way of communicating who we truly are to other people. A secret that in our personal opinion defines us in such a despicable way that we let it suffocate us from within.

Season 2 of 13 Reasons Why brings life back into the show and there are a couple of details that make the return of the show so precious: not just for the fans, myself included, but also for the realm of the television industry right now.

Here are 5 life lessons to be reminded of from the second season of 13 Reasons Why.

Female protagonists are as complicated, if not more, as male characters.

Just think about real life for a second. Girls are known to mature faster than boys and to generally be more complicated in their ways of blending logic with emotion on a daily basis.

For a very, very long time we were witnessing one-dimensional female characters whose actions were dictated by men both on the small and the big screen. Well, I can tell you this — the male gaze will no longer be in charge of the rules of the game.

Our mothers, sisters, daughters, the women we know and admire, even the women we don’t relate to or dislike – none of them deserves to be a victim of the male ego. What’s more, none of them should be told to stay obedient or silent.

Male characters are allowed to reveal their emotional depths. 

This is, of course, old news. If you go back to Good Will Hunting (1997), you’ll be given all the lessons you need to know about becoming a man. Yet, even today for the majority of boys and men to reveal too many emotions is still a sign of weakness. When it shouldn’t be.

Bottling up feelings is how you — bit by bit, day after day, slowly but surely — destroy yourself. You become a stranger to yourself who cannot recognize his or her own fears and dreams anymore. You end up hurting not only yourself, but also the people around you.

Teenage years are often confusing. Nonetheless, we should teach boys and girls to express their feelings, no matter how ugly or unbearable they might appear to them, because that’s the way to encourage their growth.

Change is inevitable and we need to let young adults know that at the end of every messy transformation there is peace and joy that awaits us if we only stay stronger for a little bit longer.

Life can be uncertain at times but perhaps that’s where its true beauty lies — in the mystery that’s in possession of all the promises, of all the dreams, of all the knowledge.

There is no universal formula for happiness.

Society has a way of dictating how life should be lived. You need a degree, a partner, a job, a hobby, a child, etc. But when there’s an issue suddenly society remains silent. With its silence turning all heads towards you as if you’re the problem.

Sometimes a relationship is not going to fix your state of loneliness. It will be the solitude that reveals to you what you truly need.

Other times it won’t be the solitude that will help you, but the presence of those who care about you and their support.

Letting go of people and feelings is not the easiest task. Moreover, letting go doesn’t always mean giving up.

“I can love you and still let you go.” 

In that case letting go merely means that you are ready to begin your healing and you’ve realized that certain emotions, places, people or memories need to make room for new ones.

The answer is always love.

As cheesy as this may sound, the answer to all our problems is love.

To love yourself, to love your family and friends, to love the universe, to love your hobbies, to love solitude, to love the rainy days, to love long walks, to love binge-watching shows, to love… even the smallest of things.

You are not alone.

If you end up feeling like both happiness and love are slipping through your fingers like sand, that instead sadness and pain are spreading through your mind and body like lava destroying everything it touches… just remember that you are not alone.

The truth is that even long after the teenage years, adults continue to feel lonely and misunderstood from time to time. But in everyone’s life there is at least one person who truly cares about you and at least a thousand people out there in the big, vast world that think and feel exactly the same way as you do, even if they are miles away and living in a different continent!