Rest In Peace, Rahul.

Today, (technically yesterday now) after work, I found out from Shiva that a past friend from college committed suicide. I logged onto Facebook to see if there was anything else. It happened a few weeks ago. The handful of people that posted about Rahul's death all mentioned that they had a serious falling out with him years ago and regret or don't regret the events that took place between them. That's really all I know. And I probably won't hear anything else about it.

My initial reaction was shock, obviously. My brain refused to process it. My face started making that awkward smile that creeps up when my brain wants to be in disbelief. And when I couldn't fight it anymore, the sadness and tears came. The remorse too. But the remorse came slowly. Shiva even advised me about that before it ever occurred to me that I felt remorse. Even though I felt shock, I wasn't surprised. I don't think anyone was really surprised to hear the news.

We knew he was dealing with a lot of issues. We knew he was depressed. We knew he was angry. Many of us wrote him off as hateful and abrasive. He started ignoring us, cutting us off from his life. We didn't fight to stay in his life. I hadn't held a conversation with him for at least two years.

He was a good friend to me during the period that we still considered each other friends. He listened, and he gave me advice and pep talks. I did the same for him. We had fun together. He once told me that I was a good person, a good friend, someone who deserved the life she was granted. That meant a hell of a lot to me because he never really seemed to trust or believe in anybody.

This is where the remorse comes in: I should have tried harder with Rahul to be his friend. I knew he did listen to me at one point, for a while. But when he started cutting everyone I knew out of his life, I didn't bother to try to be there for him. I wrote him off too, based off of what everyone else said about the things he did to people. I didn't approve of the things he did, but he never did any of that to me. Now, I wonder if I could have at least made a tiny, positive difference in his life, if I had tried just a little bit.

A part of me just thought or maybe hoped that, one of these days, our paths would cross again, and we could pick up where we left off. And now he's left us, so that chance meeting isn't going to happen in this lifetime.

I know I'll eventually reconcile the remorse, but the weight of knowing that he's not here, that he felt so alone, feels like it's pressing down on me, reminding me that I could have done better. But I know Shiva and Vivi are right: We aren't the people we were when we knew him. We didn't know enough to help him then. If we had the knowledge and experiences we have today, we may have been able to help him and support him. We have to accept that the people we were then weren't ready or able to handle the issues that came up. Now, we can learn from it and hopefully be ready and able.

Sometimes, I just wish I was perfect. Perfect at reading people, interacting with them, helping them, making their lives better or at least much more bearable. But the best I can do is to try. I hope that it's enough.


In lighter news, I logged onto Facebook for the first time in about a year. I've been meaning to log in the past three weeks but just forgot or didn't feel like it. Rahul's death gave me a reason to log in. I stayed on and looked around. Read a few messages that I've missed. Looked at the friend requests. Looked at photos I've been tagged in. Kat uploaded three photos of me with my first fauxhawk haha. I miss that fauxhawk.

Last thing I did on Facebook was to send a long message to Tina, apologizing for how immaturely I handled our issues and ended our friendship and hoping for new bridges. One of the main reasons I've wanted to get onto Facebook was to contact her. I feel like I've taken enough time to grow up and learn how to better deal with conflict and negative emotions. I suppose some people would say it's better to leave burnt bridges alone, but I'm not that kind of person. I'm too hopeful for that. I've improved myself over the past year, and I'm in a relatively better place. No better time to build a new bridge.

Tina seems to be doing better too from what I can see on her Facebook. Her old one was deleted, I guess, and she created a new one. She seems to be in a relationship. I'm hoping we've both grown enough to be able to be friends again. Of course, I won't hold it against her if she chooses to not accept my offer. I understand when people move on. I just don't want to lose any opportunities.


Anyway, yeah, this is all I can really remember from this day. I'm glad it's the weekend and I don't have any plans. I can stay home, process things, and move along.

Life goes on, yeah? And we go on with it.

I'm digging a Facebook grave...

So I was recently on a two-week Facebook hiatus. It was nice. I became much more socially withdrawn haha, but I was happy. No triggers. Few people talked to me, and I talked to few people. It was really nice. I had more time for myself, instead spending it staring at my newsfeed.

Yesterday night, I logged in. Sixteen notifications were waiting for me. Only half of them actually had anything to do directly with me. And four of those were redundant notifications about someone posting a photo about me and someone else liking that photo or liking my latest status. All the other notifications were event invites; I missed two events /: That made me sad. I completely forgot about one of those events. So sad. But it's ok; I spent yesterday hiking with Vivi instead of going to the party I missed, so it was worth it.

After responding to and liking a few things, I decided that my life feels good without Facebook. It's nice to stay connected with friends, but I'm not that connected to most people on Facebook. I spend most of my time looking at my news feed, trying to absorb the details (I'm compulsive in that way), instead of actually communicating with friends. I tried the whole commenting on people's statuses to communicate with them, but I really prefer having an actual conversation no matter how rarely it happens. The few people to whom I am very close call or talk to me in person when they need talk to me. They don't use Facebook to tell me urgent things. This can apply to everyone I know. I'm going to make it apply to everyone I know.

So I'm weaning off Facebook. Really, this time, I mean it. I like not being constantly updated about other people's lives. It confuses me about whose lives I know about. I'm sure I'm going to occasionally be anxious about what I'm missing out on, but I know I survived life without Facebook before it came into being.

If anyone wants to reach me, I left a nice status with a list of various means of communication.

I'm simplifying my lifestyle... That's the best way I can put it. I like simple. One could argue Facebook is simple because it aggregates all of your friends on one website. But that's not simple to me. There are levels of friendship, and most of my Facebook friends are not on the top levels. My closest friends talk to me face-to-face or via phone. My less close friends occasionally like my status, respond to my messages, and comment on my page or photos. My least close friends don't reply to my Facebook comments. Ever. The least close friends are connected to me because we've met at least once and Facebook says we know each other.

It's nice to be connected and to reconnect. But I would like to let life filter my friendships naturally. I'm hanging on to friends who don't talk to me but constantly wish to add me on Facebook.

And really, leaving Facebook isn't a big deal. Most people won't notice, unless they decide they want to talk to me. But hey, if they want to talk to me, like I said, I made a nice list of media through which communication  may occur. The friends who talk to me like they always do don't need to worry about my leaving Facebook. The friends who don't talk to me often will have to decide if they want to talk to me and make an effort to do so.

I, on the other hand, am honestly content not talking to most people. We can occasionally catch up, and I'll be happy with that. The constant bombardment of updates, however, is not my cup of tea. Reminders of how I don't talk to most friends don't sit well with me either. I guess I'm maintaining my "out of sight, out of mind" mentality. With Facebook out of the way, I won't fret about the numerous friends who are actually more like acquaintances. Or sadly, friends who become acquaintances. Instead, I can do what I've wanted to do: Let my friendships go wherever they go and be happy with what has taken place. If friendships fade away, they fade away. I can let go of those.

If I want to reconnect, I will find a way to reconnect. Or let life give me a way to reconnect. Facebook was once that way of reconnection, and that was great. I thank Facebook (and Myspace) for helping me reconnect with childhood friends, but Facebook has done all it can for me in that department.


Hmm, this probably says a lot about me and how I handle friendships more than anything else. I'm rationalizing leaving Facebook. I like it, but I'm dependent on it for human connection. And that's just not how I want to live. I'm leaving Facebook, so I can be a better, closer friend to some people, instead of being "that one friend" to so many people on Facebook.

Remember that question about whether you would prefer to have a few close friends or a lot of not-so-close friends? This is my answer: A few close friends I can feel personally connected to. And the few friends I've chosen to be close to don't need Facebook to keep our friendship.

All of the other amazing friends I have that I really only talk to through Facebook... I love you, but there's more to communication than Facebook.


Maybe it's just me, but I feel like this whole thing is a part of my recent need to clean out parts of my life. I've been getting rid of clothes, school memorabilia, papers, and a lot of other fond-memory-related things. Mainly because I don't need them. But also because they cluttered my room and reminded me of the past. My way of holding on to the past was through keepsakes. It made me feel good to let go of the things that I gave or threw away. There's still more I could do without, except I'm sure at some point my mom will yell at me for not keeping them. She's already done that because I got rid of so many articles of clothing.


Simplify. Simple living. That's what I want. Also, to do things I've been afraid to do. Like throwing out "memories." I'm holding on to some memories. But I can't hold on to everything. I need to get that engrained in my brain.


Blah. Rambling.


Wow. Just realized we're halfway through July... Whaaat?