Wednesday, April 15, 2009

New beginnings and old memories

Two years ago tomorrow, April 16, 2007, you may not remember what happened, but I'll never forget. I was at work, Bluelinx, just working away the morning. I checked CNN online like I do almost every day. Top news story was the shooting at Virginia Tech. I think at this point only the first two people had been killed and the massacre had not begun. It saddened me but I didn't think too much on it after I had closed it. After all, I only knew one person that went to VT, so what are the odds? Come to find out that night that my good friend, Ryan Clark, was one of those first two.


Ryan and I met our freshmen year in high school, we were both baritone players in the band. We grew so close over those four years. I used to drive him all over town and to so many band functions. I even started referring to my car as "our car." Ryan was absolutely hilarious. I'll never forget his laugh or his good heart. Every summer Ryan volunteered at "Camp Free to be me" which is a camp for handicapped/mentally challenged children. I have so many happy memories of Ryan and a blog post doesn't feel like it does my memories any justice but I thought you all should know what an amazing person he was and how my life was changed two years ago by losing him. I didn't see him as much after high school as I would have liked but I always knew he was there and would always have that smile for me. You can read more about Ryan here.

Here is a picture from high school of our friends in the band room. Ryan is front and center:

So tomorrow is a day to remember Ryan and a day for new beginnings as Matt and I move into our new home. Say a little prayer tomorrow for all of the families of the Virginia Tech victims.

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