This article, ‘Buddy Check on 22!’ Veterans Use Social Media to Fight Suicide, shone a positive light to social media and while the statistics and things these people who sacrificed their lives for the country go through on and off the line of duty are alarming and horrifying, it is so nice to know that they have a support system if they need one. This entire article was compelling, sad and positive all at once but the lines that called me from the page were, “It was March 22. To many civilians, just another Tuesday. But to thousands of veterans and active-duty soldiers, the 22nd of every month is a reminder to make a suicide prevention spot-check on former comrades.” To think of thousands of men and women feeling a certain way on a certain day every single month, having flashbacks to war zones, was hard to believe but the lines had tones of compassion and camaraderie and it was so positive and uplifting to think of these thousands of men and women being able to have an accessible safety net of people to turn to. Unfortunately, those who have support systems are still afflicted to the point where a support system doesn’t help or matter. My life had never been touched by suicide until last spring when a girl that I had gone to school with took her life a month before her expected high school graduation. Once word got out and the school brought in grief counselors, I remember everyone going back through her Facebook, Instagram and Twitter trying to find a clue or something foreboding that we all had missed. Word got out that she had sent text messages to four or five of her closest friends minutes before she decided to take her own life but those people thought she was being her usual sweet, thoughtful self and had no idea that those would be her final words. She had been active on social media but there were no signs that anyone felt pointed to what she was going to do. I began to wonder if there really had been no one for her to talk to who could have helped her make a different decision. I looked at my own life and thought of the people I would go to if I were having similar thoughts. However, Natalie, like many other people, was afflicted with depression and while I could think of a list of people a mile long to help me out, her brain blocked her from thinking of a single person. I can only imagine my brain blocking me and then being filled with war images of death, violence and dust like the veterans that suffer with PTSD. We will never really know the thoughts that go through a specific person’s head before they decide that life is no longer worth living, but it is comforting to know that those that come home alive from the war, have a growing system of support. It would be nice to know that every person had this same net of support through an accessible social media platform. Are schools, private agencies and the government doing enough to raise awareness about suicide across the country?