A girl died yesterday from my hometown.
She was a freshman who committed suicide from bullying, and it's only been a few weeks into the school year for them. I didn't know her, but this is rocking our community.
It's amazing how different an experience can be for some people. Saratoga is known as being "the Bubble," a tight-knit community of friendly old white people and successful Indian CEO fathers, but also of helpful and thoughtful young adults as well. Our streets are clean (well, we really only have suburbs and mountains) and there is no crime (except right next to the freeway and kids stealing beer from Safeway). The biggest thing that had happened to our high school was a cheating scandal about grades. And then my senior year there like 30 juniors got suspended for marijuana. But that's it. I wasn't the most popular person, but I still had a lot of friends. Even though the music department ruled the school and most of my friends were in band, I had no problem talking to other people from different clicks. I was friendly with the sports people (my volleyball prowess didn't exactly make me a jock) and I could always strike up a conversation with the thespians or the Yu-Gi-Oh kids or the guys who were always playing games on their TI-89s. I hung out with underclassmen, talked to parents that knew me from something random, and never, ever felt threatened in my community. That's the way it was for me in Saratoga. Middle school was awkward,
girls friends had drama, but we led a safe, content life.
My girlfriend says that kids today are getting a lot meaner, and I would have to say that this is true. There are so many heartbreaking examples of kids doing horrible things to each other, when I can't think of ONE example right now when kids in my grade growing up would ever do anything less than help out. We were good kids, made form a good mold, and even though we were different on the outside we all had good hearts. And now, look at this. The bullying in MY community led to this result? I don't believe that people are born this way, they pick up this behavior because they haven't been brought up in an environment that makes kindness and empathy a priority. That is not the Saratoga that I grew up in.
Is it wrong to feel anger now? This is a community where everyone knows everyone, or at least knows someone who knows them. How would parents feel knowing that their little shit of a child bullied this poor girl so badly that she felt she needed to do this? If I wasn't considered an adult, and I had a time machine, I would go back and talk to this girl. Be her friend, show her empathy and kindness. I feel like I am the type of person who tries to help the outsider fit in (hopefully I don't sound too conceited here). I would walk with her while she was at Redwood (our middle school) and beat the living crap out of any boy, girl, or retarded annelid gonad of a child that thinks it is ok to pick on someone else. Kids these days need a direction and support.
This anger does not drown out my sorrow, or the support from our neighboring communities, rival high schools, and alumni. But in some words, as already posted on my Tumblr, and taken from one of my friends who has already said this, "It is so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shown at all." - John Steinbeck. I hope my kids will be good people.
A little kindness goes a long way.
