watch out for this week
(I wrote this last night, just didn't put it up here yet..)
We've experienced two polar opposite types of death in the past two days... Yesterday, my great grandma who would be 98 on Thursday passed away after about two weeks of saying goodbye to her loved ones. http://www.reporter.net/obituaries/local_story_170022020.html Not that being able to say goodbye makes your death less sad, but she had a long, good life and just decided it was time to go.
Then today, a 20 year old friend of mine from high school died in a motorcycle "accident." I put accident in quotes, because it was really a motorcycle "stupidity." http://news-gazette.com/news/local/2008/06/18/truck-motorcycle_crash_kills_champaign_man He died because of a stupid mistake he made, and that is SO frustrating to me. He had such close best friends (me not being one of them, but still a friend).. He seemed to have a promising future as a cop and whatever else he wanted to be. He should not have died today.
It's weird thinking about his death and Austin's death over a year ago now. For one, I was a lot closer to him than to Austin. For two, both deaths were completely unexpected--the difference is that one could not have been prevented, and the other could have been. I don't care what people say about the warning signs of that kid who shot up Virginia Tech. You and no one else could have ever expected him to just walk into a building on campus and start killing random people. Even if they tell you to always expect the worst, they don't mean it... The people who do always expect the worst are calling paranoid schizophrenics and are thrown into hospitals.
So, in my mind, there was nothing that could have been done to prevent Austin's death--I mean what if she had skipped class that day, what if they had a better alarm system, what if, what if, what if.. no one ever thinks anything like that will happen to them, so nothing can be done to fully expect it without making people crazy. The problem with Caleb's death is that it could have been prevented. Caleb--you don't pass semi's on the right. Ever. Especially when you're on a motorcycle. You know that truck driver cannot see you. You know that they make wide right turns. It's just so frustrating, he should have known better. Passed on the left, or something. Maybe he wasn't thinking clearly... I don't know. It's frustrating though. It seems so silly to try and make excuses for why he shouldn't have died.. there's nothing that can be done to bring him back. So here we are.. It's hard to be sad instead of just angry.
And I feel really bad for crying when I read that article, and not crying when I got a phone call from my mom at lunch yesterday. The thing is, I never saw my great grandma... I mean whenever we did, she was fun to be around, she had a hilarious and sharp mind, even last Saturday when she was just four days from her death. It didn't seem like it was her time to die. She seemed ready though. So, I don't feel as sad about it. Caleb, on the other hand, I actually talked to.. actually had his phone number.. actually saw him around champaign quite a bit. It's just weird. I mean he died like two blocks away from where we live... on a street we drive up and down at least 4 times a week. Just weird. And so frustrating. I hope he's with the man who inspired his coolest tattoo.
We've experienced two polar opposite types of death in the past two days... Yesterday, my great grandma who would be 98 on Thursday passed away after about two weeks of saying goodbye to her loved ones. http://www.reporter.net/obituaries/local_story_170022020.html Not that being able to say goodbye makes your death less sad, but she had a long, good life and just decided it was time to go.
Then today, a 20 year old friend of mine from high school died in a motorcycle "accident." I put accident in quotes, because it was really a motorcycle "stupidity." http://news-gazette.com/news/local/2008/06/18/truck-motorcycle_crash_kills_champaign_man He died because of a stupid mistake he made, and that is SO frustrating to me. He had such close best friends (me not being one of them, but still a friend).. He seemed to have a promising future as a cop and whatever else he wanted to be. He should not have died today.
It's weird thinking about his death and Austin's death over a year ago now. For one, I was a lot closer to him than to Austin. For two, both deaths were completely unexpected--the difference is that one could not have been prevented, and the other could have been. I don't care what people say about the warning signs of that kid who shot up Virginia Tech. You and no one else could have ever expected him to just walk into a building on campus and start killing random people. Even if they tell you to always expect the worst, they don't mean it... The people who do always expect the worst are calling paranoid schizophrenics and are thrown into hospitals.
So, in my mind, there was nothing that could have been done to prevent Austin's death--I mean what if she had skipped class that day, what if they had a better alarm system, what if, what if, what if.. no one ever thinks anything like that will happen to them, so nothing can be done to fully expect it without making people crazy. The problem with Caleb's death is that it could have been prevented. Caleb--you don't pass semi's on the right. Ever. Especially when you're on a motorcycle. You know that truck driver cannot see you. You know that they make wide right turns. It's just so frustrating, he should have known better. Passed on the left, or something. Maybe he wasn't thinking clearly... I don't know. It's frustrating though. It seems so silly to try and make excuses for why he shouldn't have died.. there's nothing that can be done to bring him back. So here we are.. It's hard to be sad instead of just angry.
And I feel really bad for crying when I read that article, and not crying when I got a phone call from my mom at lunch yesterday. The thing is, I never saw my great grandma... I mean whenever we did, she was fun to be around, she had a hilarious and sharp mind, even last Saturday when she was just four days from her death. It didn't seem like it was her time to die. She seemed ready though. So, I don't feel as sad about it. Caleb, on the other hand, I actually talked to.. actually had his phone number.. actually saw him around champaign quite a bit. It's just weird. I mean he died like two blocks away from where we live... on a street we drive up and down at least 4 times a week. Just weird. And so frustrating. I hope he's with the man who inspired his coolest tattoo.