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Blue Andrews is a stay-at-home dad living across the lake from Seattle with his beautiful wife and four incredible children. Andrews' first career was in sales. He spent over fifteen years in the technology industry working for startups, some successful and some not, a mid-sized company, and IBM. He has a BA in Economics from the University of Washington and Certificates from Bellevue College in both Software Development and Database Development. Andrews grew up in Oregon and has also lived in Southern California and Atlanta as an adult. These days his favorite things to do are spending time with his family, exercising, listening to live music, and going on road trips.
Reviewed by Vincent Dublado for Readers' Favorite
Blue Andrews is a suicide survivor who managed to turn his life around. Choosing Life is a candid confession in which he details his descent into depression and alcoholism. He begins his story from his early junior year of high school in Kirkland, Washington. Once a high school football hero with a traditional Christian upbringing he degenerates due to losing belief in himself which causes him to lose his self-esteem. Questions arise in his mind about how the world measures a person's worth according to its particular standards. In 2010, he attempted to take his own life and came close to succeeding. He divides this book into two parts that he aptly entitles Up and Down. He wrote this book to assist him on the road toward healing and for those who care enough to listen.
As Blue Andrews says in his preface, stories like his are nothing new. Suicide is a global phenomenon that continues to plague society, and it commonly springs from depression. Even if Andrews’s story is familiar, it is still worth reading Choosing Life because every suicidal person’s circumstances are different. We can all learn something by increasing our awareness and helping those we know and hold dear who may be manifesting symptoms of depression and contemplating suicide. In this case, Andrews managed to figure himself out after making a careful assessment of his choices and decisions. He decided that he wanted to continue living, and his tale proves that we can help those who have a predisposition toward suicide. Andrews didn’t allow his life to end or fall apart because of things that were beyond his control. That is enough to inspire anyone to read about his triumph over torment.
