R.I.P. Carly Henley

"A few messups but we're all human right? haha and well honestly I don't really like taking video after video so you get the raw version. :) LOVE Gav and love this song. Happy happy!"

-Carly

Attempt to capsulize "The Carly Henley Story"
I certainly don't feel qualified to attempt to summarize the story of the late Carly Henley, for the fact that I'd never heard of her before she took her own life at the age of 20. Since there aren't too many other attempts out there I am inclined to react to some of the Google searches that have brought a few readers to this location.

It seems that some have typed "Carly Henley Story" into Google, and it makes sense that they should find more than just the considerable fragments which exist all around the web.

So... Carly Henley came into this world on July 30, 1990. She was born in California to career-minded parents who eventually moved to a suburb of Seattle, Washington. Carly has an older brother and a younger sister and they grew up in a pleasant neighborhood. By most accounts Carly and her siblings were well provided for while they were surrounded by good people in just about every direction. Her parents were divorced at some point and each remarried.

Carly somehow mastered the mix of outside and familial influences to create quite the earthy and sought-after personality. That factor remains central to how captivating her story seems to be. A significant point in Carly's life came when her brother took interest in playing guitar at some point in high school. It seems that, in due time, Carly herself took a natural liking to the new instrument and she became inspired to express herself through music.

She became considerably popular in high school and it was then that her music really seemed to be recognized as documented by her many YouTube videos. She was homecoming queen, student-athlete (tennis), and she with her music even won her school's talent competition. Perhaps most of all she seemed approachable to just about anybody and that brought admiration from scores of her peers.

It is really difficult to measure any amount of personal insecurity Carly might have felt while all the while seeming especially enviable to those in whose circles she lived her life. This observer has significant regard for those who aren't inspired to go all-out with their appearance most of the time. The high school-aged Carly Henley clearly projected herself as she wanted to, and without giving into the demands and pressures of adolescence all around her. Her college years certainly seem to suggest that Carly had her feet firmly on the ground in high school and that she had plenty in reserve in terms of projecting her image outward.

The lyrics of the songs on Carly's "Love The Skin You're In" CD inspire some to question whether she was a troubled soul all along, perhaps moreso than were random high school classmates. I 'get' the train of thought known to those who ponder that aloud, but I really don't feel that anything sets Carly apart from other students who perhaps don't afford themselves the expressive outlet that Carly manufactured for herself.

It seems to an outsider that Carly was blessed by an environment of wholesome people, with big, giant hearts, and that Carly enhanced that environment during every moment she was on this earth.

The compelling factor to Carly's story is that she was truly envied by most of those around her, AND that she developed her expressive soul to a depth seldom demanded of people so attractive on the outside. Nobody can understand why somebody who lived and experienced life to a fullness most may never know, would be inspired to end that life. This corner is fully confident that the impact of Zoloft was the determining factor in Carly's eventual choice to die. (after telling of feeling depressed during the summer of 2010, Carly eventually started taking Zoloft some 10 days before her death. On the weekend before her passing she had gone on a road trip to a concert with her family and was singing and dancing quite contently while there.)

With many suicide victims, we need not look too far below the surface to find significant reasons why they thought they didn't want to live anymore, but with Carly Henley, those around her were far more inclined to think: "hey, can I know your life if you're not going to use it?"

I was rewarded recently when descriptions of Carly's songs confirmed that she had known "heartbreak" of her own, presumably romantically, and that such was the catalyst for some of her songs. I was so glad to know that Carly Henley got to love, and I sense that she KNEW how to love purely on instinct and examples from her family alone. (note: I perceive that heartbreak to have been some time earlier, and not near to her death, but I am not familiar with actual details in that area of her life)

She was a person whose feet were planted ever so firmly in the ground, and whose spirit just soared in nearly every facet of her life. I'm convinced that the many human elements which fully surrounded Carly Henley's 20 years on earth, couldn't have created a Carly Henley if at the same time they could have been a direct or indirect inspiration for her demise.

Significant in Carly Henley's story is the huge outpouring of care and concern from far and wide which was so very prominent in the days, weeks, and months after Carly's passing.

In the days immediately following Carly's death of Wednesday, October 6, 2010, there was a giant memorial service on the campus of the University of Washington. An outdoor event, attendance was said to be in the thousands. Elsewhere kids from her high school sat outside on a rainy night 24 hours later singing songs in memory of Carly Henley. Even Carly's obituary includes: "She loved the rain."

Two weeks later a local coffee shop hosted an Open Mike night in memory of Carly Henley. Carly had played her music there many times, singing to friends and locals. The crowd in attendance on the Open Mike night was intimate, genuine, and caring.

Soon Carly's family got the idea to put together a CD of her music which was the centerpiece of "The Carly Henley Project". They also have wonderful t-shirts emblazoned with "Love Wins" (one of Carly's favorite sayings, and one that was taped onto her guitar). The project was introduced at kickstarter.com and was fully funded nearly three times over within a couple of days. They sell totebags, songbooks, the CD of Carly's music, and even a DVD of various Carly performances (wish I'd noticed the DVD before). The proceeds go to charities of the sort Carly would probably like.

Because the media generally doesn't publicize suicide news, it wasn't easy for the general public to learn a great deal about Carly's story. That presents something of a conundrum in that Carly's vast appeal could potentially inspire people everywhere to change the stigma behind depression and suicide, if only more mainstream attention could be focused on her story.

It just so happens that Carly's cousins are firmly entrenched in the local music scene. With that it was only a matter of effort that they could bring together and pull off the big event that was the CD release concert of June 2, 2011 before a sold-out crowd of 1100-plus. Concert-goers flooded the nearby area with Carly's "Love Wins" t-shirts.

The whole event was a stirring testimony to the kinds of human spirits which surrounded Carly during her entire life. The only way one can lose a Carly Henley is to have known the vast satisfaction of having had Carly Henley in one's surroundings for up to twenty years.

The most common phrase associated with suicide victims is that she "had everything going for her", and the mental challenge known to most who have taken-in significant amounts of Carly Henley's story is tied to the fact that Carly Henley probably DID...

http://inspiredby-carly-henley.blogspot.com/2011/06/attempt-to-capsulize-carly-henley-story.html