Remembering Mike Essay, Research Paper

Remembering Mike

The death of my friend Mike Walker taught me the true meaning of the clich?, ?Life does not last forever, so live each day like it is the last.? I treasure my friends and family more than anything in the world. A good friend is hard to find. I thought this was true until the first day I met Mike. I remember the day perfectly and I will always remember it for as long as I live. To me Mike was a great person. He was always laughing and telling jokes. Of course he had his down times like everyone else, but he did not allow himself to stay down for long. He was the type of guy to just walk up to anybody and say, ?Hi, I am Mike Walker.?

The first time I met him, I was sitting down to lunch with my friend, Andrew. We were not there long when another guy sat down. He immediately looked at me and said, ?Hi, I am Mike Walker.? I was so surprised by his welcoming smile that I was left speechless. After a slight nudge from Andrew, I responded with my name and was greeted by yet another charming smile. It was not long before I realized I had sat down to lunch with the golf team. They were all talking and goofing off while I quietly ate my lunch. When I looked up, Mike was staring at me. He looked right at me, as if he were reading my mind. He looked around the table before saying, ?All right guys, subject change. What do you want to talk about, Stacy?? I never got the chance to answer because lunch was over. As we left the cafeteria Mike turned to me and said, ? Don?t worry we will talk about what you want next time.? With a smile on his face (as well as mine), he was gone. From then on Mike and I had a friendship. We talked in the halls and after school. Mike was a great person and could always make me happy.

One day I was talking to Mike before school let out. We were laughing and joking as usual. He told me he was going to be around after school and to find him later. So, I went happily to band practice. The next thing I knew, my teacher was telling us practice was cancelled. So I got up ready to find Mike. When I walked out of the school, I saw nothing but people and an ambulance. It was so quiet; I never thought there could be so many people in one place and not a single sound. I could not hear anyone move, cough, or even breathe. It was as if the world was holding its breath. I started walking and asking people what was going on. At first they said someone had hit their head, but they were ok. The farther down the hill I got, the more the story changed. They said it was Mike who fell off his four-wheeler and hit his head. I started walking faster and faster in a panic to see Mike. Someone then suddenly stopped me. It took me a minute to realize it was my best friend Mat. I knew as soon as I saw him Mike was dead. His eyes said it all. I stayed a little while staring at the ambulance hoping that maybe Mike would get up and the ambulance would drive away. But it did not happen.

That night I cried so hard. I could not sleep due to the tragic sight I had just seen. I had awful mental pictures in my mind. I called Mat for comfort. I was so upset that words just flew out of my mouth. I said, ? Why did I even have to know Mike. This would be easy if I had not ever met him.? Mat put me on hold and when he came back a song was playing. It was Garth Brooks ?The Dance.? I never really listened to the message of the song. It is about the dance of life. It says that he wished he could have missed the pain, but then he would have missed the dance. This is how I felt. I wished that I was not in so much pain, but then I would have missed all the fun and great times with Mike.

Mike left a lot of people behind. When everyone left the school for the funeral, only 100 people stayed behind. Mike died doing what he loved most, having fun. He was not wearing a helmet, but in a way that was a blessing. When he fell off of his four-wheeler, a metal pole went through his head. Then the four-wheeler landed on his head. If he had been wearing a helmet, he would have ended up with serious head injuries. He died instantly. They said he did not feel any pain, but the pain that everyone else felt was unbelievable.

Mike?s death made me realize how important life is. It also made me realize how important friends are. For years I fought with my neighbors. They were some of Mike?s best friends. After his death we apologized to each other. Now I care about them a lot. I also took the time to make friends with Jeff Walker, Mike?s identical twin brother. I would not trade these friendships for anything.

I grew a lot from this experience. I always thought clich?s were kind of stupid, but then I learned from one. Life doesn?t last forever. Even though you always think it will never happen to you, it could be you next time. This experience made me realize how important friends are. I learned not to take friends for granted because you don?t know if they will always be there. It may sound sappy or boring and you may have heard this a million times, but live each day like it is the last. Do not let a day go by where you don?t let the people in your life know how much you care. I make sure to tell my parents that I love them at least once a day. I would hate for something to happen to them and have to wonder everyday if they knew how much I cared. I also make sure to check in with my best friends often, just to say hey and make sure they are doing ok. Some people would call this just being paranoid, but I call it caring about the people in my life. Sometimes it is that one person who cares that changes everything. You never know when a tragedy like this will happen to one of your friends, or even yourself. I will always remember this day for the rest of my life. I will also always regret not saying the things I should have said before it was too late.