[Peregrine]

"Suicide is another thing that's so frowned upon in this society, but honestly, life isn't for everybody. It really isn't. It's sad when kids kill themselves 'cause they didn't really give it a chance, but life is like a movie: if you've sat through more than half of it and it sucked every second so far, it probably isn't gonna get great right at the very end for you and make it all worthwhile. No one should blame you for walking out early." - Doug Stanhope

I don't know that he had it in him to improve himself. Instead of doing so, he went through a two year process of convincing others (read: himself) that it was a lost cause so why bother trying. Some people get up after getting knocked down, and others stay down and mope.