3R

This week I have not been in class. On Saturday January 25, 2014 at 12:36 my very close friend from home was murdered to death. This young man was only 19 years old. He was at a party at home in Bristol, just like we all would be. Instead this time it was serious. There was a fight, a stupid fight that was always happening. This time it was over a game a beer pong. How stupid teenagers could be right? Except something different about this party from all the rest was that there were more than just teenagers there.

Accompanying the teenagers were a group of older men, in their late twenty’s. No one knew what they were doing there or who had invited them, but they were present. Better yet the group of men were involved in the fight that took place.  So was my friend Joey. A girl tried to step in between to stop the fight and instead of backing down the 27 year old man, Joshua reached around her and stabbed my friend twice, once in the stomach and once in the heart.

Joey was able to walk out the party fine, and headed toward the hospital on foot. His friends followed where he then collapsed, and they put him in the car. Racing to the hospital as he was bleeding, a cop pulled over the boys. Once the cop realized what was happening, he let them go and gave them an escort. That night my dear friend Joey passed away.

This moment will forever be with me. The amount of pain and sadness that I went through was like no other. You can imagine the kind of person Joey was with over 1,400 people attending his wake, a great individual taken from us in an instant. My mother tells me that as sad and tragic as this incident was, there is a message to be learned from it. Personally, I learned not to take life for granted.

Life is a miracle we are given at birth. We are all blessed to be here, and this blessing could be taken from us at any moment. Joey makes me appreciate life, and the things that I have. I will forever miss Joey and he will always be my angel. Rest in sweet peace my baby.