Sad post again (Sorry)

I know I said that I wouldn’t blog about something sad again for a while, but recently my university has been rocked by the shocking news that one of the students had committed suicide. At first I was wary of writing a blog post about it, because I did not want to devalue his life by simply using it as a blog topic, but it didn’t feel right to write anything else at this point.

This is going to be a short post, because I honestly don’t know what to say. Anything I say will come off as being insensitive or unsympathetic. First I have to say that I didn’t know him well. We had all the same subjects; he was friends with many of my friends and we had chilled together once or twice, so a part of me feels like I should say something, but at the same time I feel like I don’t have the right to form any type of opinion about the situation. Many people who didn’t know him at all seem to think it’s ok to make judgments or assumptions about it. The thing I hate the most is everyone’s bizarre way of spreading rumours. But what I’ve learnt is  also that often the rumours are less horrific than the truth.

What scares me is that our lives in university are often so rushed that we don’t always know what is going on behind locked doors. People hide their emotions so well and there are times when our lives simply go by each other.

I walked into the dining room after the news of his death broke and a close friend of his sat quietly crying into her meal. I walked to her and hugged her tight for a few minutes and in that moment I realized that we often undervalue the connections and friendships we make at university. Whether we like it or not we are connected to these people 24/7. Even though we all come from different backgrounds we share a home with them. Whether it’s a res, a dining hall, a lecture hall or even a favourite club/ pub we are connected by this crazy little town. That which affects one affects us all. We should never forget this...

At this point all I can do is pray and be there for his friends… RIP Matty