Recreation What a Friend means to Us

One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw
a kid from my class was walking home from school. His
name was Kyle. It looked like he was carrying all of his
books. I thought to myself, "Why would anyone bring
home all his books on a Friday? He must really be a
nerd."

I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football
game with my friends tomorrow afternoon), so I
shrugged my shoulders and went on.

As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward
him. They ran at him, knocking all his books out of his
arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt. His glasses
went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten
feet from him. He looked up and I saw this terrible
sadness in his eyes.

My heart went out to him. So, I jogged over to him and
as he crawled around looking for his glasses, and I saw
a tear in his eye. As I handed him his glasses, I said,
"Those guys are jerks. They really should get lives." He looked
at me and said, "Hey thanks!" There was a big smile on his face.

It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude.

I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where
he lived. As it turned out, he lived near me, so I asked him
why I had never seen him before. He said he had gone to private
school before now.

I would have never hung out with a private school kid
before. We talked all the way home, and I carried some
of his books. He turned out to be a pretty cool kid. I
asked him if he wanted to play a little football with my
friends. He said yes. We hung out all weekend and the
more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him, and my
friends thought the same of him.

Monday morning came, and there was Kyle with the
huge stack of books again. I stopped him and said,
"Boy, you are gonna really build some serious muscles
with this pile of books everyday!" He just laughed and
handed me half the books.

Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best
friends. When we were seniors, we began to think
about college. Kyle decided on Georgetown, and I
was going to Duke. I knew that we would always be
friends, that the miles would never be a problem. He
was going to be a doctor, and I was going for business
on a football scholarship.

Kyle was valedictorian of our class. I teased him all the
time about being a nerd. He had to prepare a speech for
graduation.

I was so glad it wasn't me having to get up there and
speak. Graduation day, I saw Kyle. He looked great. He
was one of those guys that really found himself during high
school. He filled out and actually looked good in glasses.
He had more dates than I had and all the girls loved him.
Boy, sometimes I was jealous.

Today was one of those days. I could see that he was
nervous about his speech. So, I smacked him on the back
and said, "Hey, big guy, you'll be great!" He looked at me
with one of those looks (the really grateful one) and smiled.
"Thanks," he said.

As he started his speech, he cleared his throat, and
began. "Graduation is a time to thank those who helped
you make it through those tough years. Your parents,
your teachers, your siblings, maybe a coach...but mostly
your friends. I am here to tell all of you that being a
friend to someone is the best gift you can give them. I
am going to tell you a story."

I just looked at my friend with disbelief as he told the
story of the first day we met. He had planned to kill
himself over the weekend. He talked of how he had
cleaned out his locker so his Mom wouldn't have to do
it later and was carrying his stuff home.

He looked hard at me and gave me a little smile.

"Thankfully, I was saved. My friend saved me from
doing the unspeakable."

I heard the gasp go through the crowd as this handsome, popular
boy told us all about his weakest moment.

I saw his Mom and dad looking at me and smiling that same
grateful smile. Not until that moment did I realize it's depth.

Never underestimate the power of your actions. With
one small gesture you can change a person's life. For
better or for worse.


Sent to me in an E-mail...

Read it well and never forget it.

KaMe

 

Wow,what a great story.Thanks for sharing that,Kame.

 

*sniff*
Beautiful

 

omg. that is possibly the best story i have ever heard. its so touching.

 

Zanza, you should not be so cynical about such things, take something good as something good. You shouldn't be afraid of it. And this is coming from a cynic among cynics.
It is a very nice story, I'd like to think I'd be able to do the same. Unfortunately, it's not always that easy. Everyone's got there own problems, but I reckon that shouldn't stop people from helping others with theirs. I hope I can have that kind of impact on somebody.

 

That really IS beautiful, how someone can make that big of an impact on someone's life, saving it without really consciously doing so

And one shouldn't be teased just for studying a lot, "nerds" can be cool (unless they're the jerky ones that act like they're all superior, I know one of those types...) man I mixed up my words. ^^;;

 

Depression isn't a thing to take lightly. When it hits, it hits hard, and many people don't know how to shake it off. The ones without friends - or who think they are friendless - are the most succeptable.
At my private gradeschool, there were three male cadres: the jocks, the geeks, and the freaks. If you were a jock, you were treated well. The platitudes and compliments were empty, but petty people feed as well on empty friendship. The geeks were mercifully left alone. It was the freaks, those on the outside who took the s***. We fought amongst ourselves, we fought with the jocks, we caused hatred. My gradeschool class was identified for being a group of kids who couldn't stand each other for more than 2 or 3 hours. There were 9 kids on antidepressant drugs, 12 on ritalin, and me. I was good at hiding my emotions. I was a cutter. Cutters cause themselves pain for various reasons. In mine, the physical pain dulled the emotional pain. Through the years I've nearly killed myself three times, and found an aptitude for putting myself back together (superglue really does bond skin instantly, and is better than stitches - the hospitals use it now).
I had never thought that I had friends, and only learned the truth in high school. I attend a selective school, so the students are mostly clean, decent folk. During my freshman year, I joined the football team because I felt that if I broke something on the field, it would hurt enough to clear my head of loneliness. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) I discovered that I have asthma strong enough to keep me off the field. I tried to retreat. I continued to cut.
Sophomore year, I tried again. This time people reached out to me. It felt better. I just couldn't respond to their offers of friendship.
But in my junior year, I finally tried the marching band. One day into our in-town band camp, I still felt down and didn't believe I could make it with the band. I thought that I'd give it one more day, and then go on to the end of it all. That second day, I saw this weird tall kid. I knew him from somewhere.
Then it hit me: it was that pathetic little crap from frosh history, the one that tried to copy my Italian-style slicked hair. The guy with the anime songs CD. This is the kid who got me into anime. I figured, if he's that weird and has all these people around him laughing, maybe I can leach for a few days.
Right now, I'm a senior, I'm out-and-about, learning new things (7 new musical instruments this year alone), joining groups and clubs, and not cutting myself.

Thanks, Artemis.






note: this was really friggin' hard to admit, but each time, it feels better. As I admit to and let go of more of this pain, the load on my heart gets lighter (though the one on my waist just won't go away )

 

AWWWWWW thats the most touching thing I've heard in the longest tim eleeSleknuD! I cant believed that you had to go through all that! its sad a lot of people I know cut themselves its not your fault you suffer why do you cut yourselves. A friend of mine said that they did it because they thought tha it wouldnt hurt as much as the emotional pain..I cant see why you would do it no matter what the reason...sigh..its sad...I cant say ive ever had the guts to do anything like that. Thats so sweet of Arty to be there for you!
*KaMe wasnt that from a forward...I think ive had a email like that..*

 

awww. i is happy u didnt kill ur self eleeSleknuD. and im so glad that u had artemis there to help ya out. im happy to say that iv never been depressed. and i hope i never will be.

 

wow i read that before... makes me all warm and tingly inside..
thanks for sharing kame..didntget to read other stuff... mannn but wow thanks
and being being teased is the worst... darn bullies >=(

 

Wow...that's a really good story...*sniffle*

 

Humans are generally stupid.
Emotionally, and especially ignorant of the truth.

Men more than women find difficulty dealing with emotions because we are told from the time we can watch TV that acknowledging our feelings is a horrible weakness. Everyone has experience with bottling pain, but you have to pull the stopper and deal with the crap or else things go horribly wrong.

Friendship and kindness are easily ignored. I had many people try to be my friend because they saw my troubles, but I ignored them. Ironically, when they tried to bring up the scars on my arm (there is a spot where I didn't let the wounds heal properly) it made me more nervous, which lead to more cutting. Artemis was, I beleive, unaware of my injuries, and was kind to be because he wanted to be (and partly because I had hung on like a leach ) not because there was pity.

 

There's a similar story found in Chicken Soup for the Soul, but your version is more elaborated, more detail ulike their version.

Great story with great moral.