(if you're here to bitch and moan at me that i'm not a teacher, you can kindly get the forget out, this isn't about that)
well over the past week, one of my students and close friends from a class last year has been acting kind of funny. the previous evening, i suddenly received a text message (actually, because of the limitations of how much my phone can receive, it was 9 of them) explaining that because of a recent and particularly emotional break up with a boyfriend, she wanted to kill herself. honestly, this was irresponsible and inappropriate of me, but i acted a friend first and a teacher second. she said she wanted to do it tomorrow morning (which would be this morning now) because today, december 10th, would mark her two year anniversary with the guy. i maintained a two hour long exchange of ridiculously long messages, a debate on how silly a decision this was.
now, normally i would not really believe that story at all. however, when i first mentioned her to another teacher (i can only guess why, i hadn't been friends with her yet and it was probably more of an academic discussion), he explained to me that in the eighth grade a similar thing had happened to her and she had actually jumped into the nearby des plaines river fro ma bridge. i found this difficult to believe at first, as she seemed like one of the happiest kids in all of my classes. but i began to notice some weird little things about her that just seemed off. when she told me she wanted to kill herself again, i immediately took that pretty damn seriously.
once she eventually stopped replying to my messages, i wigged out and did what i should have done in the first place, called the la grange police, called her parents, contacted LT's "ROAR" hotline (a cheesily named drug and emotional help thing the school has) and spoke to her class counselor.
she had already disappeared from her bedroom by the time her parents checked as i was on the line. in fact, about half the time she was messaging me she had been out of her house already.
the police did a lot of searching and i tried calling and messaging her phone throughout most of the night and today.
approximately fifteen minutes ago I was trying to distract myself by foruming right here, and my phone began to vibrate on my bum (turns out i was sitting on it). seeing it was her number, i half expected it to be some poor sap who'd found it, but it was in fact her, calling me safe and sound from her home.
it turned out that all she needed was a break, and the cold might have also convinced her that drowning is not fun. the police found her wandering around countryside, and immediately brought her home.
i've seen to it that her parents will be particularly delicate with her, having gotten off the phone with them only a short while ago, and am on the line with the counselor now, discussing what we can do to help her.
really, i'm just glad that she ended up safe and, at the least, happy enough to continue living.
pardon any errors here, this was typed pretty hastily with a phone on my shoulder and my hands shaking with relief.
discuss any similar stories here and stuff. i just felt like sharing this with you all to give you a glimpse into my life, i guess, and maybe to create that "feel good" atmosphere. if you notice me in a good mood for a bit, here's why, try not to ruin it.
