I remember that night more clearly than any night in my life. I was on the computer playing World of Warcraft with some friends, and I was so happy that my character was almost at the highest level in the game, which all my friend’s characters were already at. My Mom called me downstairs, and I assumed she just wanted to use the laptop. I went offline and carried the laptop downstairs to her. My Mom and Dad were both sitting in the living room and I immediately knew something was wrong. My Mom was crying. I had only seen my Mom cry a handful of times in my life.

My Dad proceeded to tell my brother and I that they were having troubles, and were going to get a divorce. My mom began to cry harder and harder. I was devastated. The divorce was completely unexpected. I went upstairs and shoved my iPod into my ears and chose the “shuffle songs” selection in an attempt to think about something else. The first song that came on was “Stay Together for the Kids” by Blink-182. I cried for the first time in years that night.

That summer was the worst summer of my life. I grew more and more depressed as each day went on. My parents began to fight in front of my siblings and I, something we had never seen before. I had my mom cry on my shoulder more times than I can remember, and that’s something that no teenager should have to deal with. I lost all motivation: I didn’t play guitar, or skateboard. It felt like everything that had been stable in my life was crumbling around me and I was powerless to fix it or to even save myself from the depression I was falling into.

Then a friend of mine who had moved away to Kansas moved back to Maryland. She became my best friend. When I was drowning in my depression, she dove in and pulled me out. She made me leave my house, and play my guitar, and she made me smile. Something I hadn’t done for real in months. I had forgotten what it was like to be happy at all, and she reminded me. She was the sun, shining in the middle of the storm that had become my life. She made me realize that no matter how bad my life gets, it will always get better in the end.