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Just before college graduation in 1969 a friend of mine killed hm
This confession or story of mine is a condemnation of over critical parents who drive their children either away from them or in the case of this tale of mine to suicide.
My friend and I were preparing to graduate in June and in March we got our grades. My friend had a C in Economics and when his father saw this C he cursed his son out and suggested he would go nowhere in life with grades like that. I mean here he was on the verge of graduation and his father said a thing like that to him.
The boy who was jewish was unhappy to say the east. I also think he was a bit angry at his father but he didn't say that.
For reasons of his own he blew his brains out. He put a .38 cal S&W revolver to his temple and pulled the trigger. I had tried unsuccessfully to console him but to no avail.
The father was my own fathers lifelong friend and I told my father I never wanted to speak or be near the man again. My father asked me to calm down but I never did. I never forgave the man. Both my father and this man have died and I kept my word. I never spoke to him again.
Ironically the boy made better grades overall than I did. Most of his grades were either A's or B's whereas I had a sprinkling of A's, lots of B's and more than a sprinkling of C's.
His father had told him that he was never going to amount to anything because of the C on his report card.
Well I got a job in Insurance and worked for the same company for over fourty years and I retired nearly seven years ago. I certainly don't feel like a failure. I put my two children through college and I may help them put my grandkids through college. My wife and I both draw a decent pension.
Looking over my life I tried to understand why the man had reacted so harshly to his son and I believe it was his own life that made him act the way he did. He had not been able to go to college even though he was a Captain on The police force. Thats no excuse though because he actually did get a degree in police science even though it took him twelve years of off and on night classes to do it.
The man should have kept his mouth shut or perhaps he should have gently encouraged his son not to make a bad grade the rest of the short time he was going to be in college. He chose instead to scream in his sons face.
You get a 'C' for spelling.
It's FORTY not FOURTY.
You dumb pr*ck.
I'm no genius, but I'm intelligent. My life would've been average to above average-- not stellar, the way grade-hungry parents love to envision, but totally acceptable-- had I had a supportive father.
Mine was a lot like OP's friend's. Obviously I never blew my brains out, but my life has been shitcanned by confidence and self esteem issues stemming from being screamed at and kicked across rooms when what I needed was guidance or reassurance.
That of course is on me now and has been for years, but it's ** hard to do when you're so busy trying to replace narratives of "I **" that you don't have enough mental energy left over to go out there and get you some.
I don't get angry or condescending at suicide cases like OP's friend like most people do. Looking back over a lifetime of uphill battles while less-intelligent people with no such baggage cruised along, I sometimes think that wouldn't have been such a bad option. Or turning that .38 on a few deserving other people instead!
I do all right for myself, but it's left me pretty cynical about this world and how it works. Oh well, if life were fair, sites like this wouldn't exist, would they?
YOur story is the kind people need to hear but won't because it is not in fashion, unless you are black or LGBTQ
Fucken repost