Photo by hunterseakerhk (Creative Commons)
Today is an auspicious day for my blog. I have my first guest post – so exciting. Even more exciting is that this post is from one of my favorite young authors. My son Jonathon Woodhall-Driscoll. Jonathon is a junior in high school with a dramatic flair. He enjoys theatre arts and music, and recently discovered joy in writing as well. While still finding his voice, he prefers to share fun and meaningful stories from his past.
The way that I met and lost two of my best friends was an interesting one. I already knew one of them from class. I punched the other in the face. Then we became the best of friends! Then we somehow separated. It began and ended in a very strange way indeed.
As I said before, I already knew one of the twin brothers. Tyler, from theatre. At first we didn’t like each other, at all, but then we started hanging out more and with that talked more. For reasons unknown to me, I started feeling more energized and in a good mood each day. Because of this, I started walking down a hallway in the Performing Arts Center while throwing punches in the air. I kept this up until someone walked around the corner into my fist.
After getting over the shock of hitting someone, I realized it was someone I had never seen before, yet he looked somewhat familiar. While pondering this, I helped the angry fellow from the ground and apologized, then I kept walking. The next day, Tyler introduced that same person I had punched as his twin brother Tayler. Realizing that there were no hard feelings, I began to relax and talk to the both of them.
Now that we all knew each other, we began to hang out more and then eventually became even better friends. It came to a point where the three of us were almost completely inseparable. Unfortunately, that’s when it all started to go wrong. Tyler was literally thrown against the wall by his grandfather who was in a fit of rage, and then later was hospitalized when he collapsed on school grounds.
Fearing his own safety, Tayler wanted to stay at my house until things died down at his house. Three days later, Tyler was released from the hospital with no major injuries and moved in with me as well. A week and a half after the incident, Tyler and Tayler went back to their house.
After things died down, nothing went back to being normal. The twins felt an immense hatred for the family and did everything they could to get away and escape. They got into drugs and shamefully, I have to say that I was tempted to join them in there sweet escape.
My parents had suspicions of what I was doing and of what the twins were doing. They soon decided to keep a closer eye on me and always look at my belongings in my room as well as my car. One day they found something, said the twins were a bad influence, decided that I couldn’t talk to them anymore.
It still saddens me to think about them though because of all the good times we had. From the punch in the face, to hanging out in school and each other’s houses, the trauma we all went through, and then even the bad things we did. What makes it even worse is that the State separated the two of them and didn’t allow them to contact friends anymore. Tyler was sent to California while Tayler was sent to Texas. I don’t know when they will be back, but my door will always open.
What is the craziest way you met one of your friends?
Would you give my son some love and encouragement as he ventures into the adventure of writing?
sometimes HOPE 