Really?

So finals week is finally over and that means that I have a couple of weeks to recoop before the summer sessions begin. THANK GOODNESS!! I am going to need a break for sure after this week.

So I went to high school with a kid named Kalen Earle. I must say Kalen is probably one of the greatest people to ever go to Chino. He is one of those kids that made an impact on you instantaneously. He was always so kind and thoughtful and aware of other people. I knew Kalen from playing on sports teams together and we were in the same spanish class for a couple of years. In Spanish there was a group of four of us and we would just sit and talked. Mr. Cahue always pretended to be mad but we always knew he wasn't. We were some of his best students and he knew it. Anyway, with all of this time spent with Kalen, there were many conversations that I remember. They were conversations about his hopes and his dreams. They were things he wanted to accomplish in life. About two years ago he was diagnosed with shoulder cancer. The cancer spread into his lungs. On Friday he was taken to the hospital because he stopped breathing. They took him off of life support and he breathed for himself for a lot longer than they expected. Today he was being transferred into Hospice care but he also died today. Now I realize that I am writing very early friday morning but he died on May 8, 2008. He had about a month until he would have graduated from high school. He was an amazing person. He made a big enough impact on my sister in the year that she taught him, that her youngest son was named after him. He was just that type of person. When I found out the news... it felt as though my heart would explode. I was instantly devastated. However, I do know that he is in a better place and he is no longer in pain. I feel for his family. They were an amazing family and very close to each other. I will be attending his funeral on Wednesday, and I am not looking forward to it. Kalen did live a good life. He did things that made his life complete and even in the last two years he didn't let the cancer stop him from doing things that he wanted to do. I really am going to miss him. In fact Kalen is so well liked that they have to hold his funeral in the gym because it is the only place big enough to fit everyone. It will be nice to see the community come together again.

There have been days in college where I question what I am doing. I question why I am here or whether it is all worth it. The last year has been really hard on me and I have wanted to quit more than I would like to admit. But I can honestly say that people like Kalen and Ryan really have inspired me. Ryan is an 8-year old that I know from working at the school. He was diagnosed with brain cancer this last year. He has at least another year of treatments ahead of him but it looks like he will be okay. But after watching these boys and especially Kalen. I know that he won't get a chance to fulfill all of his dreams. It makes me want to strive to fulfill mine. It makes me want to do everything I can all the time because he can't. I hope in some small way that this will make him live on... even if its only in my heart. I really will miss him but I know that everything happens for a reason and that there is a plan and everything will work out. Life will go on... it just makes me sad that the world is oblivious to the fact that they lost such an amazing person today.