The Echo of Sadness

[punkmastasteph]

To start off with a rather sad note, for those of you who haven't heard, Chris Inouye, Rowland High School Class of '03 died Saturday night after being shot at the TGI Fridays in Puente Hills. I was shocked when I found out who it actually was. My step-dad had told me this morning that there was a shooting and that someone was killed, but I never thought it would be someone I actually knew. I have known Chris since we were both in elementary school. He was a year behind me and he used to ask me if I would do his homework when we were at Options, which was an after-school daycare. This is just another death following Jonathan Lee from my class of '02. I can't believe the people I grew up with and around are starting to die already. It is so sad that they are dying in such tragic ways. They aren't dying because of disease...they are dying because someone made the wrong choice. Someone made a choice that they wanted to take the car keys when they were drunk and another person made the choice to pick up a gun and shoot someone over something as stupid as a verbal fight. It's so sad and yet, so disgusting. I can't imagine what a family goes through when something like this happens. I can't imagine how parents feel when they get the phone call or visit to their home from the police telling them that the person they raised from birth up to this point is gone from their lives forever. How do you cope? I can't imagine and I pray that it doesn't happen to me nor anyone else anymore.

If you are a friend of mine, or just someone reading, I am pleading with you...MAKE GOOD CHOICES! Please, do this!

I also found out on Friday that my mom's coworker died from complications of a stroke, caused by undetected brain tumors. He was only 49 and has a son and daughter.