Life is Fragile

In 2010, a student from Murray left this earth. The statistics say that every graduating class will have a death of some sort. My class just happened to come across that death early into our high school career. This past week, we lost another member. Now I don't feel qualified to write an amazing story about Artem Milne, for I didn't know him especially well. But what I can say is that I worked with Artem for over a year and at least I have happy memories to remember him by. I have a few memories that I would like to share. 

Any one who knows me, knows that I can feel uncomfortable driving at times. I just don't trust other drivers and so I don't tend to "experiment" or do things that I don't trust. One of these things would be backing up into a parking stall. I am fine with backing out of one but for some reason, I have never fancied the art of backing in. Artem made fun of me one day for never backing in. I explained how I had never done so before. He told me that he would talk me through it. It took a solid five minutes for me to fill satisfied with my parking job. But now, every time I back up, I think of Artem and that very first time. 

The second memory I have of him is every time my boss needed his car washed he would asked two cadets to go. One day he picked Artem and I. As we were driving the two blocks to the car wash, we almost get in an accident for a person ran a red light (slightly ironic, for we were in a undercover cop car). After the scare of almost wrecking my boss' car, Artem said "if we get in an accident, we will tell him that I was driving." At that moment, I knew that Artem was one of the better guys in this world.

Even though I wasn't extremely close to Artem, I still felt comfortable enough to say hello to him every time I saw him Whether this was in the hall way at high school, or on the street down at college. Even if we weren't besties, he still acknowledged my presence. (Which is more than most human beings do these days.)

I think we forget how temporary our lives are here on earth. We get so caught up in our day to day activities that we forget that there is an end to this earthly madness. The news is filled these days with accidents and deaths. It is tragic that so many have to leave this earth so young, and unexpected. Really, after writing all of this, I have one request: live your life. Don't let it pass you by. It is cliche, but it is entirely true. You shouldn't be living in slow motion. Seize every moment. Tell the ones you care about how you feel. Don't assume that they know. Even if they do know, it will always brighten someone's day just to hear it said out loud.

Life is a gift, that is why it is call the present.