I remember the first time I heard anything about suicide. I was much younger. I'd move from the busy city of Nashville to West Tennessee in a town that had literally only about 1,200 people in it.

Behind my house was around six miles of cornfields and ponds mixed with small patches of wooded areas.

Even in a young age, I wasn't sure how I was going to take the change from city to country life.

It was around 1990 when I moved there.

The internet wasn't really even a thing yet.

Most people didn't own a home computer.

Cell phones were something that you only saw in the movies in huge cities like New York or L.A.

And they looked like someone holding some sort of an electronic brick with an antenna.

There was no social media, no Facebook or Twitter, no video chats, nothing to keep you connected like now.

It was different back then, a lot different.

The connections you made with people only happened in real life. Sure you could talk on the phone,

but that was either going to be done with an earshot of the rest of your family or with a phone cord

stretched into a different room, so maybe they couldn't hear what you're talking about. And even then,

you're likely talking about where and when you can hang out next with whoever you're talking about. And even then, you're likely talking about where and when you can hang out next with

whoever you're talking to.

For me, when I first moved there, I met other kids around my age while I was riding my bike

around the area.

This turned into us going fishing, waiting in creeks, catch them crawled ads and snakes,

and maybe midway through the day if you wanted something else to drink other than the hot water

from the water hose outside a house, and you were lucky enough to have a few extra cents in your

pocket, you could walk down to the only gas station in town and get a slush here or a coke.

I was doing all the normal things you would think boys do with that age,

...