Young life lost

These are my thoughts, after a tragic loss of a young teen this week. To the young teen's family, who shall remain unnamed, my deepest sympathy.

A young life lost. Gone forever. This teen will leave behind many people, asking, "Why?" "What could we have done?" "What did we miss?" "Why didn't we see it coming?" Yet, those answers are also gone.

I didn't know the teen. My son did, as well as the others in the same class and in the same activities. My son is angry, and sad. Angry that his friend and classmate didn't say anything. Angry that he left so soon, and didn't have to. It makes no sense, and yet, sense, is what everyone is trying to make of it. What would drive someone so young and talented, to take their own life?

Teen suicide is not a new phenomenon, and that is terribly sad fact. For someone to be so low in depression or despair, to not see any other option, is, well, a very sad prospect to even think about. To not seek help. To not seek out someone to talk to. To not reach out to a help line. Something, else, but not this. But this is what is in the now, and this is a sadness no one expected, or was prepared for.

This teen left behind a loving, hard working mother, and siblings. This teen left behind caring classmates. This teen, at some moment in that young life, failed to see any other way. Failed to see he had people who cared, if only he had sought them out.

We all touch other people. We all do. In some ways, it is very obvious and overt. In other ways, we touch people with a simple smile or gesture that we may not even know. We are all affected, even in the smallest of ways, by those we meet in our lives. So too are the lasting impressions, good and bad, of those we come into contact with. This one missed the good impressions that were made on others he had touched. Missed too, are the impressions this teen could have made on others along the way. Sadly, he missed seeing there was another way.

The legacy of this teen who left his family and friends, will be in the music that still stirs the air, the smile when he was part of the group, and the love that he one time shared with those he cared about. But that legacy will also be shared with a memory that another teen missed out on what life could have brought to them. Their family and friends will go on to do what they must, without them. Because, in the end, this young life was lost, but the others he left behind must go on, because, life does.

Closing thoughts - The only time its too late to say a kind work, is when someone is gone forever. Don't wait to say to someone how much you care, or to say a kind word, or to just give someone a smile. Be kind. Be a friend. Love someone, more than yourself. It just could be the very thing someone needs that day.

Dan