Welcome To A Scary Reality

It Started With A Fairly Normal Saturday...

Yesterday was scary, different, and thankfully ended with everyone alright.

It started out as any Saturday. I had to drag my sleepy self out of bed to go to the DMV and finally change my plates to New Jersey plates (guess I'm officially from New Jersey now). It took forever to go through the lines and finally hand over all of the paper work.

I finally made it home, put the plates on, grabbed some grocery bags and headed to the food store. As I was leaving a cop car pulled into our complex. I didn't think too much about, someone had pulled the fire alarm in the building next to us last weekend. Maybe the cop was following up on that.

If only things had been that simple.

I get back to my apartment complex after shopping for an hour to see cops everywhere. I was told I couldn't go near my apartment. I called my roommate who was still in our apartment.

The Story

From what I understand, a young man who lived in the apartment building next to mine was threatening to commit suicide and claimed he had a bomb. We did not know about the bomb threat until much later. They wouldn't let my roommate and our friends who had lived next door to the young man leave the second apartment building until nearly an hour after the whole thing started. By then, I had been watching the SWAT team suite up (which was very intimidating). I decided to just get out of the area.

I ended up going to a friend's place to wait. Nearly two and a half hours later I got another text from my roommate telling me we could go home. However, our friend couldn't go home yet, so they stayed over at our apartment until the police left.

We found out through a local new source that the young man had been taken to a hospital for treatment. I am glad he is getting help. It was a nerve racking couple of hours. Especially since information was shaky at best and I had no idea what was going on. I at least knew my roommate and friend were okay, but nothing outside of that.

I am thankful that everything turned out alright. I pray that the young man gets the help he needs and that he will one day be okay.

Being new in town, I felt helpless not being able to get home, I was worried about my roommate and friend and frustrated that the police wouldn't give me a clear picture of what was going on. I'm thankful that a friend was able to help me out.

It was an experience I hope I never have to go through again, but I can't know that I will. No one plans for these kinds of things.

I do encourage anyone who is feeling depressed, anxious and/or suicidal to please reach out to someone. If you don't feel comfortable going to a therapist or social worker at first, that's understandable, but please reach out to someone. Friends and family (blood related or not) are there for you. There is also the National Suicide Prevention Hotline available 24/7 in both Spanish and English at 1 (800) 273-8255. Do not hesitate to call.

If you enjoyed this post (or possibly found it informative), please like, share or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me. Remember someone is always there for you, even if they are a million miles away.

Until next week.