the dark sayings of a teenager

Part of what I hope to do is to help parents and teenagers learn from things we saw in our son, and live as a result. I spoke with the mother of a struggling teen recently and she asked me if my son had any dark writings.Of course he did and we knew about them. He was a huge fan of dark, everything from clothes to music and movies. We were always trying to encourage his 'creative writing' while discouraging the darkness contained therein but he seemed bent on embracing the dark side of just about everything, especially music. I am not afraid to say that he loved Eminem and the song 'Stan.' (He had pretty much memorized all of the lyrics to many of Eminem's songs) Looking back now, the only thing I think I would do different is turn up the volume on the positive influence in the hope that I might overshadow the negative thereby diminishing its hold somehow. That is, of course, knowing what I know now.

I want to share some of his writings here and encourage parents to be aware of what your children are doing, writing, watching, listening to, and even who they are dating and hanging out with. Some of the things that we are yet discovering have stirred a lot of mixed emotions for my family, mostly the pain of the truth and the helplessness of not being able to have done anything to prevent them without keeping him locked up in the house or juvenile. If you really care about your teen/s, then become the best 'anti-drug' you can be while constantly affirming your love for them and helping to develop their character.

My son wrote this long before he took his life last year:
The light is slowly fading, turning gray
My only concern is, what should I say?
My last few words should reflect who I am
People should see them and think, wow, what a great man!
But the other side of me wants to say what I've hidden
But another side of me wants to say, I'm just kidding
 But the fact of the matter is that I'm still dying
And what matters the most is that I'm still trying
To please all my friends and the one that I love
 But I guess it's too late, I'm too high above

I sincerely hope this helps someone enough to save their life. I am tired of this teen suicide epidemic already.