- Invitation Status
- Looking for partners
- Posting Speed
- Slow As Molasses
- Writing Levels
- Intermediate
- Adept
- Advanced
- Adaptable
- Preferred Character Gender
- Male
- Female
- Primarily Prefer Female
Warning: This post includes references to suicide ideation which is a topic that doesn't usually make it into positivity threads but if it's one you can stomach I think my story ultimately belongs here.
Having a best friend who is suicidal is an isolating and desperate experience. It's like I'm a very small and damaged life raft and the rest of the world is the ocean. I fear that without me my friend would sink below and never return to the surface.
Earlier this week we had some really bad nights. The worst in a long time. So yesterday morning I drove into the city with my roommate to get them their favorite coffee. Sometimes the little things are all you have. As we crossed the bridge I spotted a man straddling the divider. One foot was on our side, the other dangled over a 60 foot drop to the concrete below. There's a lot of homeless people in our city so a bearded guy in dusty clothes sitting alone is easy to overlook but I saw him and I knew that he was deliberating that drop. I considered telling my roommate but I didn't think she could handle it after what we'd been through with this mutual friend of ours the past couple of days so I held onto the image in silent anxiety.
On our way back across the bridge the man was still there in the same exact position except this time he wasn't alone. A young guy had pulled over and now stood in front of him with his hand outstretched. He didn't have a uniform so I knew he wasn't a cop. The two were of different races so I doubted any familial relation and the younger man's expensive clothes made it unlikely that these two had ever even crossed paths before. In spite of all this, he had stopped and was talking the other man down. He radiated a calm and gentle good will that I had not seen in a long time. The sight was surreal and disarming and I felt-- I feel-- deeply grateful to him.
I don't know what became of these two, if the stranger's efforts were successful, but it instilled in me a seed of hope for the world, for my friend, for the future. Thank you to the young man on the bridge and the other life rafts out there. Today I feel a little less alone.
Having a best friend who is suicidal is an isolating and desperate experience. It's like I'm a very small and damaged life raft and the rest of the world is the ocean. I fear that without me my friend would sink below and never return to the surface.
Earlier this week we had some really bad nights. The worst in a long time. So yesterday morning I drove into the city with my roommate to get them their favorite coffee. Sometimes the little things are all you have. As we crossed the bridge I spotted a man straddling the divider. One foot was on our side, the other dangled over a 60 foot drop to the concrete below. There's a lot of homeless people in our city so a bearded guy in dusty clothes sitting alone is easy to overlook but I saw him and I knew that he was deliberating that drop. I considered telling my roommate but I didn't think she could handle it after what we'd been through with this mutual friend of ours the past couple of days so I held onto the image in silent anxiety.
On our way back across the bridge the man was still there in the same exact position except this time he wasn't alone. A young guy had pulled over and now stood in front of him with his hand outstretched. He didn't have a uniform so I knew he wasn't a cop. The two were of different races so I doubted any familial relation and the younger man's expensive clothes made it unlikely that these two had ever even crossed paths before. In spite of all this, he had stopped and was talking the other man down. He radiated a calm and gentle good will that I had not seen in a long time. The sight was surreal and disarming and I felt-- I feel-- deeply grateful to him.
I don't know what became of these two, if the stranger's efforts were successful, but it instilled in me a seed of hope for the world, for my friend, for the future. Thank you to the young man on the bridge and the other life rafts out there. Today I feel a little less alone.
