Only the Good Die Young

It's a life altering experience. You find out the news and it's as if your whole reality somehow becomes altered. You're brain starts to turn off, I think this is your body's natural way of trying to desensitize the experience of the death of a friend.

It's hard to believe at first. Mostly because you don't want to believe. This young kid, a person you've known for so long, all of the sudden just doesn't exist anymore. It can't be true. I just saw him yesterday. What are you talking about. I thought he was indestructible. Here's a newsflash: NOBODY is indestructible. We are all human, and we are all disposable. You aren't supposed to start losing friends until you're all aged, and have had great life-long experiences. Not when you're 18-years-old. Nobody should have to lose any friends when they're 18-years-old. It sends a shock through the community. How could this happen? I thought this was such a perfect suburban place to raise the kids. I had no idea there were drugs in my town. It was supposed to be safe. Drugs are everywhere.

Why you don't see them, is because people have gotten very good at covering up the fact that their town has a problem. Nobody outside of this suburbia knows a thing about it's drug problem. Go the outskirts and there are people putting needles in their arms. Go to any local bar and find three grown men in the bathroom together. Why you may ask? I'll leave that up to you to determine. Visit any local park or designated "hangout spot" and there is sure to be marijuana. The town however, brands itself as the best town in the area with the best schools, best neighborhoods, and definitely no drug use or alcohol abuse. That's the problem. People don't talk about subjects like this because they're too afraid. It's too real and people are afraid of what is real.

People are blind to the fact that there is a serious drug problem all over the country. It doesn't matter what state and what city and what town. It's everywhere. You cannot escape it. I would suggest you take a closer look into your friends lives, and if you're a parent take a look into your kids lives. There is always something that gets overlooked. You never can truly know what a person is going through beneath the surface. You can never change them or tell them what to do, but you can be an ear to listen or a shoulder to cry on. You can give all the advice in the world but they can only change when they themselves want to change. Nobody in my friend group ever would have guessed that one of us would die. It was talked about before, but nobody ever actually thought the day would come.

Seeing a funeral home filled with dressed up kids anywhere from 17 to 22 is probably the most unusual and heartbreaking thing you can ever experience in your life. In the moment you know it's wrong. Everyone gathered together for an event like that is not normal unless you're getting up there in age. Not 18. It is justified now, after all the tears and the questioning, that only the good die young.

At first you're confused. Why did this happen? Then, you remember that person. You remember their infectious laugh and how every time they walked into the room or the area they were like a beam of sunshine. Everyone was automatically drawn toward their energy. They made people laugh. They had a big heart with enough room for everybody and eyes that were always smiling. They were too good for this world, and now they're on to bigger better things. They are at peace and they are watching down over us. Only the good die young, and that's a fact.

Dedicated to Ryan.