A Strange Day

Today was strange. I got a roommate, and we had breakfast together, which was great. We said our goodbyes and I went to my first class. It was alright, the usual. On my way to my next class, I found a dead baby bird in the middle of the sidewalk, all alone. It looked like it had drowned in this week's downpour. I couldn't stand leaving it there to get trampled into the ground, regardless of it already being dead. So I grabbed some paper towels and a stick and moved it into a grassy area. I felt good about what I had done, because the bird could now rest in peace and decompose as it was naturally meant to. Though my morning was morbid, I thought it had to get better from there. I thought the karma points I had earned from moving the baby bird would make today good.

My roommate is also from hometown, coincidentally, and actually went to Lanier, the high school I was supposed to go to. I went to another school on transfer, but Lanier is in my neighborhood and I see it frequently.

Mid-day, shortly after the baby bird encounter, I got on Facebook and saw a status that my roommate made. "Prayers to Lanier students. Shot was fired". I immediately texted her asking her for more details. She told me that someone had shot themselves at Lanier, and that she had little other information. She had found out before it was on the news, so I couldn't find any information at that time. Slowly she told me more, bit by bit, as she was fed information by students at the school.
He shot himself in the courtyard, and it was fatal. He was a student there. He was a father.

I didn't know this boy and neither did she. But this event has really stuck with me all day. Someone who lived so close to me, who I could have known had I gone to Lanier. Life is so fleeting and there are many paths within it; some end prematurely.

Later in the day it was all over the local news. The part that was the hardest to read was that he was alone.

He left this world all alone, sitting by himself in a busy courtyard.

He had posted on Facebook this morning that he was planning to kill himself. He made a suicide note of sorts in the form of a Facebook status, hiding little to nothing about his intentions for the day.

This alarmed no one. He was not taken seriously in his warning this morning.

He left this world all alone, just like that baby bird. Life is fleeting and often ends prematurely.

I still haven't been able to figure out why it has to be this way, and I probably never will.