i've had a few big turning points in my life, 2 of the ones i remember the best are these-
i started talking to this really cute girl 2 summers ago. i'd always thought she was attractive physically but we literally hit it off like we had known eachother for years. unfortunately i was away for the summer so we couldn't see eachother, but we'd stay up on facebook or videochat just talking for hours every night the whole summer. after a short time i started really liking her, classic. eventually i found out that she had been through a lot of struggles in her life before i knew her (loss of family members, multiple moves, loss of close friends to suicide, etc..) and that she still suffered with mild depression. it killed me to see her upset but i did everything possible to cheer her up as best i could and towards the end of summer things were looking great. she was doing well, and i was the happiest i've been in a long time just because of her.
the first big turning point in my life was when she told me her best friend was suicidal, and that because of this, she herself was considering suicide as well. i knew that she used to cut, and had a few times recently, but up till that point i had thought i was making her happier. to say the least i was shocked. i was afraid to lose one of my closest friends and someone who i genuinely enjoyed knowing, while at the same time i was extremely sad to find that my efforts hadn't helped her at all. thankfully, i ended up talking to her friend about things and then her and neither took the route of committing suicide, but that was one of the most devastating moments of my life thus far.
the second turning point was the first time we got to see eachother after we started talking. yeah i had seen her around and heard her name before we got to know eachother, but since i was away all summer we had about 2 months between when we started talking and when we got to hang out. i came back like 3 weeks before school started and we got home at around 10:30. i couldn't wait to see her, so we ended up sneaking out that night. i guess most people don't consider leaving the house at 1 to be sneaking out but my town has a 12:30 curfew, and my parents wouldn't let me out on foot after like 12 back then anyways (i was 15). so we snuck out and walked to the elementary school by her house, where we had both gone several years before. it wasn't like any other time i'd snuck out with a girl, it wasn't crazy, we didn't go to a party, we didn't hook up, we literally sat there for hours on the swings just talking. it was like i'd known her my entire life and to top it all off, the weather was perfect. it was so quiet and peaceful, the sky was clear, and i was comfortable in a t-shirt and shorts. you know, the perfect summer night. we talked until 5:30, walked home to the sunrise, and had i known that she liked me then, i would've gone for a good night kiss. i didn't wanna risk it at the time though. either way, it was the best night of my life and 3 years later i still remember it like it was yesterday.
