Betrayal is wrong; or so we are taught from a young age. However, there are times in life when betrayal is not only the best choice but also a virtuous choice. Cassandra Perkins learned this in her life when she betrayed a friend only to save his life.
Growing up, Perkins had always thought of herself as a kind, smart, intelligent person. “I’m kind, I’m smart, I’m funny, I’m loving, I’m passionate. I’m Cassandra Perkins, and I love myself.” However, Perkins did not feel this way forever. She encountered the harsh reality of bullying when she was in middle school and spiraled into a depression. She “became very depressed and very suicidal and actually attempted suicide. The Cassandra Perkins that I knew and that I loved started to change in the mirror.” As Perkins struggled with bullying, she began to question everything she thought she knew about life and about who she was.
Yet she found a light to pull her through when she met a boy named Chandler. She recalls her friendship, saying, “It’s funny how God puts people in your life at the right time, isn’t it? Chandler was an amazing friend to me from the start. Kind, loving, compassionate. A good person.” As you can understand, Chandler was a good friend. He helped pull her out of depression. He was not somebody Perkins had ever meant to hurt. He was definitely not somebody she had ever wanted to betray. But the day came when she was forced to betray him.
Perkins was called out of class by Chandler one day when he requested her presence, sending her a text message saying, “Come outside, I need to talk to you.” What happened next was the last thing Perkins could have predicted. He told her that he intended to kill himself that night. He said that he could not live anymore. His depression was too strong. He told Perkins she was the last person he wanted to say goodbye to before taking his own life.
“I had two choices there. Number one, go back to class. Go sit down and act like nothing happened and let my friend, who was there for me, kill himself. Or number two, be the voice. And that’s what I did. I walked straight from there and…. Went upstairs, got the principal involved, got the police involved, and by the end of the day he was in the hospital. Six months.”
Six months later, six months of silence, Chandler thanked Perkins for her betrayal. “He says, ‘I love you. And thank you for saving my life.’”
Unfortunately, this tale does not have a completely happy ending. Chandler ended up committing suicide much later in life, but his family was blessed with more time to spend with him. Chandler’s friends and family were able to enjoy his presence on earth for a longer time because Perkins had realized the virtue in betrayal. She realized that despite Chandler’s attempt at saying goodbye and hoping Perkins would stay silent about his intentions to kill himself, she needed to speak up and tell somebody of his decision. She found the virtue in betrayal and for that, Chandler lived much longer than he would have, had Perkins returned to her classroom and remained silent.
The takeaway from this is, “No matter what you are going through, you have a voice and you are important. With work, with school, with depression, with suicide, with sadness… there is a light at the end of that tunnel. My tunnel was black, and so was Chandler’s. But know that no matter what you are going through in your life, you have a voice and you are important.” Use that voice and use it even when you don’t want to hurt somebody’s feelings. If it is the right thing to do, you’ll know when there can be virtue in betrayal, when you can make a difference.
