Shaken by suicide of teen girl

4th suicide in three years among NSBHS students

Morgan Tuck, vitim of suicide / Headline SurferPhoto for Headline Surfer / Morgan Tuck, 15, of Edgewater and a New Smyrna Beach High School student, was a victim of suicide Saturday. 

"A moment of self-compassion can change your entire day. A string of such moments can change the course of your life."

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Today is an overall very sad day for everyone who does or has once called Cuda Country home.

I can't put into words how unreal this feels to me to even type out, but another soul was lost from my high school. A girl I only knew from passing in the halls, but the sister of one of my very good friends, committed suicide this morning. Her name was Morgan Tuck.

She had been out the night before ice skating with friends; something I was invited to but wound up canceling. I’m finding it so hard to fathom, let alone accept, as most of my friends are relating to. Facebook and Instagram are full of pictures of her beautiful smile and remembrances of her beautiful soul.

All we can do right now is pray for the Tuck family as they deal with the incomprehensible loss that they’re experiencing.

In addition, we can pray that this is the last student death of its kind, or at all. The idea that “teenage suicide” is something to be linked together is disturbing, frightening, and utterly heartbreaking.

In just my three years at the high school, there have been four suicides, this being the first where I was familiar with the victim in a friend of a friend kind of way. This is not an occurrence solely surrounding my school; this is an epidemic happening everywhere.

In addition, we can pray that this is the last student death of its kind, or at all. The idea that “teenage suicide” is something to be linked together is disturbing, frightening, and utterly heartbreaking. In just my three years at the high school, there have been four suicides, this being the first where I was familiar with the victim in a friend of a friend kind of way. This is not an occurrence solely surrounding my school; this is an epidemic happening everywhere.

I went through my day today very numb, knowing that the girl I passed everyday on my way to 4th period was no longer with us, knowing that my friend had just lost her sister. It’s very challenging to find the words to memorialize a victim like such, but she was truly a remarkable girl that was well-liked and respected.

I hope that her family finds the strength to grieve and someday, be able to move forward with their lives with her in their hearts. I ask today that each of you reading this, reaches out to everyone you know and care about to tell them what they mean to you because you never know what that means to them.

Love others like their lives depended on it, because we’ve seen that most do. Finally, love yourself. No matter what you’re going through, what may be crashing down around you, life goes on if you let it. I know some nights are hard,

I know people plain out suck sometimes, that you get to the point where you don’t want to be let down anymore, and you get so far as to think that maybe giving in to the temptation of giving up will solve everything… But you have family, you have friends, you have people that will carry the guilt of your desperation around with them for as long as they live. Don’t ever resort to giving up.

I guarantee that you have at least one person in your life that values you, that thinks you’re worth the fight, and if you’re reading this, I can be that person for you.

For those of you that come from an earlier generation and are caught off guard by this kind of story, I do understand. I understand that suicide was unheard of in the halls of your high schools, but we’re living in a different age.

The years of middle and high school contain some very dark times for everyone. We’re in this in-between of being past childhood but being too young to be taken seriously as adults.

Classes are difficult, girls are mean, guys break hearts, and these are just a few of the pressures that a teenager must deal with. I wish there was something further we could all do. It is our personal responsibilities to realize that every encounter we have with someone may possibly be their saving moment, or their breaking point. We need to accept the influence that our words and actions have on people’s self-esteems and we need to choose them wisely.

Classes are difficult, girls are mean, guys break hearts, and these are just a few of the pressures that a teenager must deal with. I wish there was something further we could all do. It is our personal responsibilities to realize that every encounter we have with someone may possibly be their saving moment, or their breaking point. We need to accept the influence that our words and actions have on people’s self-esteems and we need to choose them wisely.

Further than this, our society needs to stop discounting the lives of teenagers in general. Just because we’re young and haven’t experienced as much life, doesn’t mean that our experiences don’t affect our matured emotions nor does it imply that mature emotions haven’t developed yet.

There’s no such thing as, “small stuff” for a person my age for it’s all we know, all we live, and all the moments that we’ll look back on knowing they were anything but minor.

We love and hurt and cry just like anyone might of an older age and we also get to the point where it’s too much handle. I want to do more to help.

I wish the high school had some sort of a hotline; a number every student knew that they could call in times of irrational thinking or hopelessness. We need something to stop this from happening.

We need to stop the morbid routine of every year, a page in the yearbook being dedicated to a student that died. To put it simply, to avoid all elegancy and extended metaphors, we just need to be nicer.

Hafiz once said, “I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness, the astonishing light of your own being”.

I wish you saw your light, Morgan. We’ll love you forever and always.