A thought about high school football and more importantly life in general

[JohnKleeb]

and those bastards at the washington post still havent ranked us yet. That is high school football. Go Herndon. We won today and big at homecoming. I had a good time, and am exicited for the dance tonight. However as I walked home I began to think about stuff, well I always take that walk to think, today I thought about my classmate who died the summer I was gonna be a sophomore and how literally he was right across the street from us, theres a cemetery across the street. The beautful remisces his friends put still are in the neighborhood of Kingstream. Poor Donny, he never got to live life like many of us will, I wasnt a friend but we knew each other, so
i think about it. I remember when I found out. I was speechless. Well heres to Donny. RIP my classmate and fellow 2005er. You have not been forgotten. I am serious guys, I dont know why I am saying this but I think about it often because I see the spraypaint on the sidewalks: DS etc. I just feel so bad. Ok I changed the title of the thread now maybe its more appealing.

[Cheswick2.0]

1. When I was in school someone died every year

Most of the deaths were from car accidents.

The death that really bothered me was when a guy that was a couple of years behind me died rock climbing with his two older brothers. He was such a funny, charming and smart kid. He played soccer and worked backstage.

It still bothers me to think how it must have felt to be his brother and watch him die. We are talking the 1970s here but it still hurts a little.

It is sad when friends die.

[JohnKleeb]

3. People still die here too but this one hit it hard

I knew Donny and was in the same class of him. I think I remember the last day, I saw him, it was a couple of days before school let out. I remember that history class, at HHS we have block scheudling but I had this class everyday, boy oh boy was Mr. Spear a jerk imo but fun to laugh at because he misprounced words like shrub. My dad lost a friend one time and he could have been dead too had he not decided to stay and party.

[HEyHEY]

2. It's a fact of life unfortunatley

I had a friend die by being crushed between a runaway car and a parked one. He died in the arms of his best friend coughing up blood and gasping.

I heard the ambulance and got a bad feeling so I drove to the bottom of my street, there was an ambulance a white car and a girl crying. I figured okay false alarm - something bad but no one I knew.

What happened was my friend put him in the car and met the ambulance half way, at the bottom of my road. The car was his sister's boyfriends and the girl crying was a sister of his I barely saw, so through the tears I didn't recognize her. I still have a chip in my front tooth from the night he died.

None of my friends even know about me and the ambulance that day, I've told one or two, but I'm sure they forget the story.

The one thing I learned is how fast something can go very wrong. I also made a promise to myself never to hold a grudge. Me and this fellow had not spoken in over a year for a stupid reason, he even came to my house once to make up but I refused to see him. A month before he died, we made up. I was always thankful for that.

John - I now that football and such may seem tivial compared to your friends life. But it is the opposite, live the best you can, and do what makes you feel good, even if it is something most may say is trivial. You never know when an e-brake may fail. So remember the lost while wondering "Why have they not ranked us!" It's all important.

[JohnKleeb]

4. I know

It is just I think of it constantly, constant reminders day by day. *puts on beautiful music in head* I always find someway to connect music to my mindframe at the moment. I wrote a short story last year, and I basically infered to myself but I wrote something like about an old person male or female and being the last survivor of the class of 2005(my class) and visiting the cemetery across the street and seeing Donny's grave and thinking about the past and then seeing him or herself young again then it becomes a memoir of that year. The that would be perfect for that situation would be the music they play in Saving Private Ryan at the cemetery in France. I dont know honestly. I think a lot, thats what I am all about, I think of my ancestral homelands, the past, and so much more. I see constant reminders of it day by day. No I enjoy football much, I am pleased at how good we are doing I just thought about the fact that Donny is literaly across the street and in a spirtual way watching over. I just feel sorrow for his girlfriend who lives in my neighborhood, she must have been heartbroken. I dont know, with the reminders of it day by day I tend to think about it.

[nini]

5. you're an exceptional young man John .

I love your insight on many things. It is easy for me to forget you ae still in high school as you are so wise beyond your years.

Death is tough at all ages, but always the worst for kids. I was in the 4th grade when a girl at the school I went to was killed riding a go-kart. It scared the hell out of me. In high school we had the usual accidental deaths all young people seem to be affected by.. whether you are good friends with them or not. Life lost at such a young age is a tragedy regardles of who or how it happened. Feeling bad about a death such as Donny's is normal and healthy, if you didn't have a healthy respect for life and for those around you - you wouldn't cared to even post this.

And cool on the football win. I love high school football and still like going to games even though I'm approaching my 30 year reunion.

take care JOhn

[JohnKleeb]

6. Its just something that pops in to my head every day

I am unique from my classmates in this respect and it has nothing to with being political, I walk to school while most drive, so I walk through the neighborhood near the school and IIRC thats where they live(his family still lives there, his sis is a grade younger than me), so I see all these things spraypainted on the sidewalks, thanks for the compliment/

[Rowdyboy]

7. On April 1st my senior year one of my closest

friends was killed (1972). Thrown from a car after being sideswiped by a truck. I think about him often. His name was David Lopez, he was the oldest son of a single mom....School, for me ended that day. I just went through the motions and somehow still managed to graduate. I still miss him.