“I’m Sorry, Eric” by Avi Lurie was truly an eye-opening article. A story about a best friend leaving a suicide note and the trauma that came alongside that always sounded more like a work of fiction to me, something too horrible to occur often in real life. It’s hard imagining the suffering numerous people go through watching their friends get teased and bullied and not knowing how to help, but when one of them takes their own life without warning, how can someone possibly deal with that? Victims of bullying go through tremendous amounts of pain, but not many people seem to acknowledge the damage done to those who care for those being tormented.

When Lurie states Eric was like a brother, it just adds to empathy readers can feel. Of course, it is useless to say bullying is wrong, because that goes without saying. However, I feel like more attention should be paid on those affected by others getting bullied and doing drastic things such as killing themselves. Feeling helpless and responsible for someone’s death is a whole lot of guilt for one person to handle, and it can’t be buried or forgotten forever.