This week in my community back home has been a tough one. In the early hours of the evening last Sunday, a young man named Jon Andrews decided to take his own life. Jon was a senior at my alma mater and was 1 of the 4 captains on the soccer team. He was a young man who knew nothing but how to make everyone else feel good. In the short time after people found out about his suicide, social media and other media outlets were buzzing. The way the people in the area, and even other schools, showed support for each other and Jon's loved ones was unremarkable. If only Jon could see how many lives he touched. Social media brought out the best in the people that Jon touched and for a good cause. His love, memory and life were all shown through multiple posts on multiple channels. I remember the first time I ever met Jon, he was doing what he did best. Make people laugh. He was a bright young man and a hell of an athlete. I still can't believe I am talking about this in past tense. "He was" is such a hard concept to grasp for not only myself and the community, but his family. His older sister, in the picture above, and his brother and his parents. All of them are going through a pain I can't even comprehend. In the scheme of things, this post is to show that social media really did make this coping process a little easier and it helped celebrate the life of Jon with all of the goofy pictures of him and the funny videos taken of him doing his signature dance. The social media aspect also helped spread the awareness of teen suicide, depression and most importantly, the strength of Shawnee and its community suffering from this tragedy.
