HagridOfTheDeep
Junior Chimp
Posts: 8,763
Political Matrix
E: -6.19, S: -4.35
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« Reply #1 on: April 25, 2013, 01:35:58 PM » |
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All right, here's a serious one.
When I was in grade 11 (which I believe was 2009), a girl in our circle of friends died as a result of an epilepsy event. I guess it would have been different at school if a bad student had passed away or if know one knew who the person was, but this girl was honestly the nicest person in the world. She treated everyone with warmth, she had the greatest smile, and everyone knew her. She wasn't some bimbo whore popular chick—she was honestly just the nicest person.
So it was extremely tough. I remember the day it happened: I got called out of class thirty minutes before school was set to finish, and I was told to bring all my stuff with me. Walking to the office, I knew something was up. I thought maybe my grandpa had died or something. So, I confess I was very relieved when I saw that all my friends were sitting around a table waiting in the guidance office too. We were just going to get in trouble about something, I thought. Not so. We were told that our friend died. It was devastating.
So in honour of her and out of respect for other people with epilepsy, everyone wore purple to school in the days following her death. I went out and bought a purple shirt because I, being one of the first people who was told, didn't want to seem like I didn't care. I cared.
Unfortunately, these days became pretty political, because what you saw was people trying to one-up each other with "how much they cared." Her real friends decided to start an epilepsy drive, but then other people jumped on it and eventually took over. These people who were hardly even friends with her organized school buses to her funeral. These people charmed her parents with their messages of respect and their fundraising. So what happened was that one emo douche guy who had always been so into his image managed to weasel his way into the "honour guard" at this girl's funeral... at the expense of some of her real friends. Basically, all this stuff really made me feel uneasy. This girl was my friend, and I was very sad... but suddenly I was made to feel "not sad enough."
I realize I've gone on a bit, but I think it's important to explain the context. What you should also know is that a facebook group was set up for people to post their words of comfort.
Here's the personal confession: I despise this facebook group. Every year on the anniversary of her death and on her birthday, dozens of people still post superficial messages to this girl (who never even had facebook in the first place). "Aimee, keep dancing in the sky." Garbage like that. And, of course, when one person posts to the group, everyone gets a notification, so they all rush to do it too. And too me, I just think it's disgusting, because you can tell that everyone is doing it because they think they have to and because they want to look good. I hate it. And it's probably unfair of me, because it's quite possible I'm reading into it too much. But everytime these people post in that group, I judge them. It's been four years. What happened to "moving on?"
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