Today I want to tell a story about a journey that most of us find ourselves in these days of social media. A couple of weeks back I decided to take a break from logging on to Facebook, but this weekend Hurricane Irene was moving through its path of destruction, so I decided to check on my friends that could have been affected by Hurricane Irma. As I opened the Facebook application, the first news feed I read was from an old friend from school. He was letting everyone know that a mutual friend had passed. Not many details about the incident were shared, so I reached out to him and another friend to find out more. The truth is that I wanted to hear something along the lines of ‘he is really sick, we had low expectations, but we have hope’. Something that would tell me that I misread the posting.
I had a meeting to go to, so I got into my car and departed to my destination. As I was driving on the small roads, I started feeling a little strange. A minute after I took the highway I felt a rush of dizziness that led me to decide whether to keep on driving waiting for it to pass, or to pull over at the nearest exit. The feeling didn’t go away, so I pulled over. As I stopped at a parking lot, I could feel my legs shaking, so I tried to calm down. When I felt better, I headed to a nearby Starbucks. It was there, that I got confirmation of the death of our dear friend.
I felt my eyes watering and feeling a deep loss. We hadn’t seen each other for many years, but he was one of those school friends that leave a big impression in your life as you grow up. The boy that made you laugh, by inventing different ways to get into trouble. The boy that no matter what was going on, would find a way to make you laugh in the most inappropriate places. The boy that always had a smile on his face and as he grew, his soul just got happier and brighter. He was a soul full of life and play. That is the boy I remember today. The boy that brings tears to my eyes, but that I’m so thankful that I met.
Sometimes we take for granted that we are in this world for a brief moment in time. We should remember to savor every moment and every being that touches our lives. I’m really thankful to carry with me beautiful memories from the past and building new ones in the present.