Crisis Averted:

When you’re in University you will meet all kinds of different people and they will all affect you in different ways. You may meet the outgoing socialite, or the friendly stoner, or maybe you’ll chum up to the tall, broad-shouldered jock. But of all the people you meet, beware of the unstable.

During my first year of University I knew a guy named Rick; he seemed like a nice guy yet there was something about him that made me wary, made me hesitate about forming a friendship with him. But in this day and age, of the hundred people you run up against frequently, maybe half (if that) are your close friends or even friends that you hang out with on a regular basis. Well Rick was one of those guys on my msn that I knew, may have hung out with in a group a few times, but who I really wasn’t close with.

One day in late March I had the bad luck to randomly start a conversation with Rick online. It started out normal, you know, “how’s your day going?” etc. Then he turned on me. I wasn’t a good enough friend. I didn’t care enough. Everyone hated him.

I didn’t know what to do. He started talking about killing himself; I told him he was overreacting. He said he’d tried it before and he’d do it again. I wanted out -- this wasn’t my problem, he wasn’t my friend. But I couldn’t stop talking to him: what if he was serious? I didn’t even like this guy; he was a jerk! But he was another human being and I couldn’t just leave, couldn’t just back out. If something happened I would forever blame myself.

I started texting everyone I knew who was closer to Rick then I was. No one was replying. I was starting to lose it. My chest was tightening, tears were welling up at the corners of my eyes and I was starting to hyperventilate. I wanted nothing to do with this; I was completely out of my depth.

Then my phone beeped. I had finally received a reply!

My buddy Kyle was going to take care of it. He was talking to Rick online and was trying to calm him down. He told Rick to stop screwing with me, to stop messing with my head and to leave me alone. He went over to Rick’s, pounded on his door and told him straight up that he was overreacting, that all his friends were there for him.

I turned off my computer, sat down and cried. I was scared.
You see Rick was somehow making me feel like all of this mess revolved around me and like it was all my fault. He was trying to guilt-trip me in a futile attempt to make himself feel better. What had really happened was that he had gotten into a fight with his best friend and didn’t know if they were going to be friends anymore. He had panicked, and that can happen to people. But that doesn’t mean you turn around and target someone. You need your friends more now than ever, so don't antagonize them. If you need to talk, if something is bothering you, there is always someone willing to listen.

In the end everything turned out fine. Kyle told me that he'd persuaded Rick to get some help from the University Clinic. But I never talked to Rick again; I had such bad vibes from him, and I didn’t need that kind of emotional stress on my plate. Some people may think what I did was cowardly, but then you’ve probably never had someone that wasn’t a friend, who wasn’t someone you liked, threaten to kill themselves and tell you that it was because they were angry with you. That is not your battle to fight if you can’t win it. I couldn’t, but I found someone who could and that is all that matters.

Crisis averted.