As a regular blogger and social media contributor I’ve kind of gotten roped into this underworld of geekdom.  Not quite the Dungeons and Dragons/ Harry Potter/ Hobbit relm but Poindexter in its own right.  I’ve had the opportunity to meet online, and fortunately meet offline as well a wealth of great minds in the space of online content providing.   One such person I never had the pleasure of meeting and unfortunately now never will was Trey Pennington.

Pennington, a Greenville businessman, social media enthusiast, author and speaker ended his own life Sunday morning outside of a Greenville church, the sad end to months of personal struggle.  According to friends, he was battling depression and going through a divorce after 25 years of marriage.  Those that knew him used words like passion, desire, genuine ability and was defined as “one of the good guys.”

Before his death Trey shared more than 70 photos of family and friends, on Facebook and posted this ominous status update to his 111,386 friends.

“Sure am thankful for online friends who are real friends offline, too. Love you,”

Its amazing how someone who was valued by over 100 people could feel so abandoned but not uncommon.  The reason Trey’s story is one that I felt the need to share was because Trey is no different than me.  We share many things in common including owning a business, our activities and passions.  While our ethnic backgrounds and geography might have been different the world of the internet scrubbed all that clean anyway.

For me personally this has been a summer characterized by sadness.  I shared a story with you all recently of how I lost my stepmom.  She too suffered from some of the same demons as Trey.  I know many people who do, I too have had self doubt and bouts of depression.  We as a society however, need to learn that this does not mean we’re crazy.  We’re human.  Our minds are a powerful tool, often too powerful for our own control when mixed with emotion.  As I said I don’t know Trey but I feel like I did. I felt a part of his extended family and I am saddened that he’s gone.  I wish that we can begin to become more open and conversely accepting that such conditions are common place and “seeing someone” is not taboo.

Jason Trey was 46. Rest easy fam.