Saying Goodbye...

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” - Mahatma Gandhi

“Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows.” - Pope Paul VI

I went to bed on Tuesday night just as any normal Tuesday, having finalized my first contributions to this very blog. I woke up the next morning to find out that one of my best friends since high school was gone. Forever.

Admittedly for whatever reason (him moving, school, work, different circle of friends, etc), I hadn't reconnected with him in a few months, and to gain knowledge of his passing by way of the local paper's obituary was most regrettable and upsetting.

He was taken by (of all things) swine flu, as he was susceptible to it due to his asthma and the relative weakness of his lungs due to their numerous bouts with pneumonia. I take some solace in the fact that he actually contracted the disease while doing something he loved: going to concerts.

I still feel the same emotion that I felt as I stared down at his lifeless body on Friday during the visitation. Disbelief that he is gone forever; incomprehension of the manner of his passing; contemplation of: "what if I had met up with him recently? Would I have contracted swine flu as well?"; anger at the hospital who may very well have been able to prevent his demise but couldn't; regret that I hadn't stayed in contact over the past few months, and most of all grief, especially for his parents who lost their only child.

Too often, whether in wars or natural disasters, or in this case a pandemic: we see statistics and words such as "casualties", "cases" and "displaced".

Well, this case of the swine flu hit home. This specific case of H1N1, clad in his favorite shirt, accompanied by his favorite hat and adorned with his beloved ornate pocket knives, was... gone. I went to the same Elementary, Middle and High School, was in the same cub scout troop, drove to Miami just to see a movie premier, went to Halloween Horror nights and even got my car silly-stringed by this case.

I was there to see the disgust on his face after he was told that he would receive a zero on a final project because he forgot to put his name on it (even though he did a vast majority of the work) and thus failed an english course by 3 percentage points. Therefore, he would not be able to walk with the rest of us at graduation, and would have to pass a semester of summer school to be able to get his high school diploma. I still remember the happiness that overcame him when this case finally found something that he enjoyed doing: being a meat cutter. I shared his happiness when he got his first car and endured with his frustrations as I had to follow him down US1 because the power steering belt on his car fell off (if you've ever had to drive like this, you know how frustrating it is).

His name was Jason Christopher Schenck.

Rest in Peace, good buddy. I'll both miss and never forget you.

PS, make sure to hold a good seat in heaven's movie theater for me.