Good Night, Sweet Jinri

Today is a sad day as our beloved Sulli (Choi Jinri) passed away. As someone who witnessed her debut and followed her career through the years, it came as quite a shock when this morning she was found dead. While it doesn't appear to be confirmed yet, it appears that she had taken her own life.

I don't know the exact reasons for what happened but I guess most people will suspect that it's likely due to the negative feedback from many people. Sulli was a fairly outspoken woman that bucked the trend of what you might normally see from other Korean idols. She didn't really conform to the mold of a typical idol as she would frequently speak her mind even if her opinion was unpopular and for that she received a lot of hate.

It's quite sad that it came to this especially after the unfortunate demise of her SM Entertainment labelmate Kim Jonghyun from SHINee back in December 2017. I don't think it was really a secret that she was struggling with her own mental health but I think sometimes there just isn't anything you can do in terms of things that you can control. Haters aside, anyone that knew her likely never wanted anything like this to happen. It's likely that no one really saw this coming either. I see a lot of people online placing blame on doctors or SM Entertainment for not doing more to help her but you know, sometimes there's only so much you can do.

A few years ago I had a good friend from high school. He was a great person. Outgoing, friendly, considerate. Little did I know or many other people for that matter, he was fighting with his own demons. One day I got a message. Seemingly out of nowhere, my friend had taken his own life. It came as a shock to many people I knew. One day they seemed perfectly fine and the next, they're gone. I don't think you can blame anyone for his actions. There's only so much you can do especially when there weren't really any "signs" that he would have done something like this. Similarly with Sulli, while there may have been issues there, I don't think anyone would have thought anything this extreme would happen.

One thing I hope is that the community learns from this and stops being a bunch of jerks. The internet is full of cancerous people that will never change though so this is more or less a pipe dream...

I'm not great with words but if you want to read an article commemorating her life, this article over at Billboard is a decent read. I'm not a fan of Billboard or the writer of the article but the article itself I think is fairly well written.