I decided I wanted to try and make amends with someone today.
When I was younger I used to knock about with a lad...well let’s just call him Billy.
Billy and I were inseparable from the ages of 12-14 and in truth we got into a lot of trouble.
It wasn’t like were involved with the wrong crowd. We were the wrong crowd.
As I grew older and went off to University, I often wondered what would have happened if I had chosen the wrong pathway. I had no real mentor to guide me. No-one to put me on the straight and narrow as they say. Somehow, I ended up studying and I was going to try and make the most of it.
From time to time I would hear some tales about Billy, how he had turned to selling drugs and beating people up on the street. To look at Billy, you would never think he would get into any trouble. With golden blond hair and glasses, he just didn’t look the type. Things got progressively worse for Billy and he ended up on prison, to this day I’m not sure why.
I was nearing the end of University and I had begun packing up my things when I heard that Billy had committed suicide. I was in complete shock. How had our journeys been so different from each other? Why had I been so lucky? I had been caught stealing from a car when I was 14 along with another friend. For some unknown reason we had both said that Billy was there when he wasn’t. We all ended up getting prosecuted and I received a 5 year criminal record. I still don’t know if this applied to Billy. Had this been the catalyst for his subsequent journey into crime?
I decided that I wanted to make some kind of amends. I have written to Billy’s’ Mother to explain that I wanted to create some kind of mentoring platform. I have as of yet told her about what I did all those years ago.
This is what I said.
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