Friend #47

I'm finally back from the cabin. I tried keeping up with my computer needs, but my dad's annoyingly flat keyboard drove me to the point of "no internet"! Can you believe that?!?
Justin is Matt's (friend #46) step-son. I have met Justin a few times in his childhood and knew of his life stories, but had not met him as an adult until the 4th of July weekend.
Justin's father killed himself when Justin was just 2 years old. Since then, he was raised by his mother until she met Matt and they got married. As one may assume, Justin has some skeletons sue to his father's death. Justin graduated in 2008 and went to college in Montana to "find himself." As he explained to me, he wanted to create "The Perfect Justin." Great idea, I thought. And there's no better way to do that then go away to college, learn about new subjects and ideas, meet new groups of people, and grow. Justin soon found out that he is who he always was: a boy from Grand Forks, ND with a scarred childhood. He returned home after his Freshman year feeling like a failure in his quest to reinvent his persona. He decided to stay home. Between Justin and his mom, they decided that a college two hours from Mom would be a happy medium. Sophomore year was no luckier in finding a new personality, lifestyle or interests. Justin just no longer wanted to be the kid whose dad killed himself 18 years ago. He wanted to rid his life of antidepressants and negative thoughts.
As we chatted and Justin opened up to me and a few close friends. He is now 21 years old and a nice young man who wants to be a nurse. I told him that this was a step in the right direction. He wants to help people who are lost like his dad once was.
The first four nursing classes Justin had last year helped him to see that he can use the life experience he was trying to repress to help others. This was not something his mom ever thought of. She was trying to help her son move on and forget his father.
Now that he's on the right track, I can't wait to see how he turns his thought-process around regarding his "troubled history."