The Kids Aren't Alright

Image: Simon Howden
FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Kids Aren't Alright - a strange video, but one of my favorite songs on my "Angry" play list.

Monday is not my favorite day of the week. In fact, all Mondays have earned the title "Evil Monday" among a group of my friends. Last Monday was no different. Between issues at work and all the things going on in my life at home, it was a pretty evil Monday.

I don't use Facebook very much. Once in a while I'll log on and maybe post a comment for someone's birthday. Sometimes I chat with old friends on there. I use an app on my phone that updates both my Twitter and Facebook status, but that only saves me from logging in more often. Unfortunately, last Evil Monday, I thought I'd try to relieve stress by looking through pages from old high-school friends that have added me over the years. I also took the chance to clean up some of these so-called "friends" who I didn't really talk to in high school, but who have added me for some odd reason since then. While going through this list of friends, I discovered some crazy things that I didn't really want to know about them. Consequently, I disabled my Facebook account - I'll turn it on again, this is mostly to prevent me from looking into even more. Here's some of the craziness I found:

One of my better friends from high school has really taken a turn for the worse. She was a little over-weight back then, but now she's huge. Not only that, but she's decided she's a lesbian and likes to spend her time drinking in bars. Maybe that's how she gained the extra weight, but that's not something I would have imagined from her. To add to that craziness, and maybe this is part of the cause, her father committed suicide when she was younger.


Last time I saw friend #2, she was working as a waitress by where I went to high school. At the time, she was pretty happy and was preparing to go on a mission. Fast forward about 5 years to present. Now she hates the church and declares herself independent from it. She also hates guys. I don't think she's a lesbian, but who knows. Silly girl, I hate it when that happens.

Friend #3 was totally awesome in high school. She came from a pretty well-off family and had lots going for her. She was really talented musically and, if I remember correctly, was a sterling scholar at our high school. She was also really pretty and very nice. Not only that, but she was smart. She really could have had anything she wanted in life. But, I guess she didn't want anything - she decided to kill herself. Sad day.

Friend #4 is really an odd one. I knew he was headed down the wrong road even back in high school. He decided he was gay and then started experimenting with drugs. He's interesting because I couldn't really find much about him. I know he decided to change his name and his whole appearance. My guess is that he either finally decided he was a girl and so I can't find "him" or he decided to do himself in too. I actually wouldn't be surprised if he did - I know he started doing some crazy self-mutilation stuff for a while.

Friends #5 & #6 are doing alright. But I didn't recognize them at first because they had gained so much weight. Both were really skinny in high school, I guess they just let themselves go afterward. It could be worse, they could be like the other friends, but it's still surprising.

 Friend #7 lived on the next street over from where I lived. Friend #7 is doing just fine. But their neighbors also went to our high school. Neighbor girl was murdered by her high school boyfriend in the mountains just west of the high school. Holy cow!

There's plenty more, but I think that's a pretty good taste of what has happened with some of my friends from high school. Being more positive, many of my friends from back then are doing very well. Some have even changed for the better - they were in to some horrible things in high school and are now doing just fine. I'm happy for them.

On a separate note, I didn't think suicide was really all that common. Looking at this list, I have two friends directly affected by it (possibly 3). I was also dating a girl here in Utah for a while when her uncle suddenly killed himself. One of my good friends from college also lost his sister to suicide. Maybe it is more common than I thought.

Looking through this also makes me feel very blessed. Sure, I've had trials in my life, but I've never been worried about a girlfriend murdering me and I've never had to deal with being attracted to guys. A lot of the trials I face now are things like picking one opportunity out of four fantastic options. I can't complain about that.