Torva is your typical guy that keeps to himself and prefers to conversate through the power of the internet. Along with being a introvert gamer, he is also a military brat, which means he has a hard time making or keeping friends in school because his family gets moved a lot. He is the oldest child in his nuclear family; he has two sisters, a caring mother who takes lots of pictures whenever she has the chance, and a father who serves in the Military. Torva’s father does not care about his family - I have been told he is neglective and manipulative. This is not your average happy family. 

Torva told me these things like a person would tell a stranger - assuming that the secret would be dismissed and forgotten. I looked at Torva and told him something that a lot of people had told me, and probably told him. “Life will get better we just got to keep moving forward and hope for the best." Now at first, I thought that might be the most pathetic thing to say to someone with a problem like his. But he smiled. He didn’t shrug me off but gave me a genuine smile. I’d like to think it was a smile of hope, that there are still people who care in the world.

We met in the rain, each terribly depressed and each one the verge of ending our lives and our sufferings with it. We both felt there was nothing holding us back, but we had made it to here - to this moment - in the rain at 8th-grade retreat. We showed each other empathy. When it was time to leave 8th-grade retreat and move on to the graduation, I thought I would never cross paths with him again. Fast forward through a long and lonely summer break and now it’s the first day of 9th grade. I thought I would never see Torva again, but there he was, standing in front of my class door. I asked him if this was his class too and he said “yeah” - I responded with “cool." 

I have found a good friend in Torva - learning more about who he is as a person and he, in turn, wanted to know about me. I’m a wiz at math, but nothing ever seemed to add up positive in my life - I would always get negative. When I met Torva, his situation showed me there are others out there having similar issues adding up to positive, always getting negative. When we met, we helped solve each other’s problem. 

Negative (x) Negative =  Positive