Aaron D. Neufeld- Blog #42

BLOG POST #42- The Ironic Suicide of Zev

Back in the summer between 7^th and 8^th grade I went on a travel camp program that traveled up and down the East coast of the United States. It was a lot of fun but there was this kid Zev who was always getting into trouble. He was a mischievous one. He was always cursing and walking away from the group. Anything to be bad and difficult.

In one of the hotels that we stayed at, late at night after we were all supposed to be in our rooms, he decided to sneak away and try out the roof of the hotel. Of course opening the door to the roof set the building’s alarms off and the hotel security saw him on the cameras and told the group leader. Zev was almost kicked out of camp for disobeying orders and being so careless to do something so dangerous as to go onto the roof of a hotel at night without telling anyone where he was going.

Not even three years later, Zev became heavily involved with drugs. He was removed from regular high school and enrolled into a special program for troubled teens called Priority One. I would see him occasionally but we lost touch after he joined the program. The program didn’t help him either. I would always see him smoking cigarettes around the neighborhood. One weekend, Zev got himself stoned at home alone. He jumped off his roof and died on impact. Ironic death. I knew him best for getting in trouble for dangerously going onto a roof. Now I know him best for his death from jumping off one.