About a week ago, my hometown — Smithtown, Long Island —tragically lost 18-year-old Liam Armstrong. He was crossing subway tracks on his 18th birthday and was hit by a northbound 2 train around 6:30 p.m. From all the stories I've seen on the incident, the only one I found with a personal profile on Liam was on the Huffington Post. Other news outlets simply referred to him as a "teen," disconnecting readers from the situation entirely.
Liam went to my high school and I didn't know him personally, but I did recognize his face. I remember seeing him around the halls of my high school, and knowing how brutally he died made me feel helpless.
I found out about the incident via Twitter because I follow many people from my high school that were close to him. I instantly had a pit in my stomach just thinking about how they must have been feeling.
When we hear stories like Liam's over the news, we think about it for a bit and then carry on with our lives. However, when it happens to close to home, the effect is much stronger. Smithtown came together through Twitter, using hashtags like #StayStrongSmithtown and #StayArmstrong.
I only wish the best for Liam's friends and family during this hard time.
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