On the Topic of Dying Young

One of the worst things you can hear someone say seriously is "why is everyone dying".

I heard my best friend, Miranda say this on a phone call to her mom right after learning that Peter, a boy who I'd only met and hung out with once had been killed in a car wreck. 

Peter is the second boy my age who I've known who's been killed this year. Kyle was the first. I barely knew Kyle. He swam on a different team, at the same pool as me, and we'd only met in passing due to mutual friends. However, I'd heard a lot of stories about him because Miranda worked with him all summer and he was her ride to work from swimming. It was strange. Strange to know that that face was gone from my life and from the planet. His voice, never again to be heard joking around on the pool deck. Though I felt sad for his family and close friends, I could never get past that strange feeling. Someone my age, who was supposed to live so much longer was irreversibly gone. Kyle also died in a car wreck. 

Peter is the first young person I've ever truly known and hung out with who's died. He was a month older than me. The first time I met him was at a bonfire hosted by my friend, Adam.  Peter was Adam's sister's boyfriend. Peter and Hannah were adorable. Peter was witty, and fun. His smile and fun-loving attitude were infectious. 

On this past Friday night the world was 'cured' of that infectiousness. On the way home from dropping Hannah off after a date he "crossed into the eastbound lane, overcorrected and crashed into a mailbox on the driver's side of the car". His funeral is today. I cant even imagine what she is feeling, because I, who only met him once cried with miranda in the car as soon as we found out. 

The death of a young person is a horrible thing. In The Band Perry's song, "If I die young", they mention 'the sharp knife of a short life'. I know what that means now. It references the feeling you get when you think of them. The feeling of a knife in your stomach made up of sadness, and disbelief. It's crazy that I'll never see him again, or joke about being an adult vs. a child with him again. He was so real, I shook hands with him. That hand is now ice cold and being buried today. 

Rest in Peace, Peter

I was also in a pretty bad car accident earlier this year. It was actually so similar to Kyle's, except instead of hitting a mailbox, I hit a highway median. Why did both these boys die while I got lo live? I just don't understand.

Why is everyone dying?

In 15 years..

If I ever changed my name, I would probably make it Ari Anderson. In 15 years I will have graduated from William and Mary with a degree in buisiness. With that degree, I will eventually go on to open a buisiness, a snack shop to be precise. That snack shop will be pretty successful after a couple years, and 'in the black'. After getting my buisiness off the ground, I will finally agree to marry my college sweetheart and fellow team captain of the W&M swim team Matthew Warner.

Matt's an Actuary, and helps me with the fianancial side of the buissiness. After some saving, I put the assistant manager in charge for two years, and handle most of the affairs over the internet and with skype and stuff while traveling the world with Matt. After we get back life goes back to normal, and we have three kids: Peter, Teddy, and Evelyn (Evvey for short). We raise them in a pretty small house. The house sits on a pretty large amount of land, and we built a barn in which we now keep horshes. My Horse's name is Jack. He's a black clydesdale with a white stripe down his face. In my spare time I'll also read a lot, do triathalons, and cook.  Mission trips will be part of my traveling. I won't be famous or anything, I'll just have my close friends. Leftovers from my snack shop would also be donated to homeless shelters.
We will live in Wheaton, IL (where I grew up) in the house decribed above. It'll be about five minutes outside of downtown Wheaton, so close enough to ride my horse to work! 
I would like to be happy in the future, although I'm sure I will have to deal with difficulties as anyone does. I think my biggest priorety will be to surround myself with good friends and family.
The turning point in my life was when I was sitting in Ms. Smith's AP Lang class, reading Great Gatsby and realized that I don't want to be all alone when I grow up. Whether that means I get married or not, I just want to always have a good, constant set of friends that I can joke with, vent with, cry with, depend on, and just share life with.