Heros do redirect our own stories without necessarily changing them completely. A friend of mine, who will remain nameless, has taught me this greatly. She and I met freshman year and clicked almost immediately. After about two years, she came to me with terrible news that she was being sent to a therapeutic boarding school to treat her suicidal thoughts and self harming tendencies. Knowing her the way I did, this came to a complete shock to me. But as I looked back on the experiences we shared, I began notice the warning signs I completely ignored even when they stood right smack in front of my face.
This hero didn’t just teach me a different way to look at mental illness, but she also changed the way I see people tolerating the intolerable; how it’s not always clear to others and why there exists such a grand importance of the obliteration of loneliness.
This a really tough situation, sorry to hear about your friend. I do really like your take on what a hero is to you. Hero's shouldn't always be depicted in moments of greatness, but its when they're faced with difficulties we truly see their strength.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this. I can see how you would view your friend as heroic. It must have been tough for her to come and explain all of that to you. It does seem like she's opened your eyes. Do you do anything differently, now that you're aware of how lonely some people are? How has your behavior changed?
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