Life After 9/11 Reflection

and did. After I lost a very close friend, I realized, you never know what anyone is going through. Now I am a lot more cautious about what I say to people.
The first few months of my senior year in high school were normal. I participated in all of our school activities, like football games, class meeting, senior activities; you name it I was there. Anyone who walks in to the building can just sense the happy vibe, no matter what happens outside of the building, whether you have had a bad morning, or problems at home. The school was a cheerful place, where you could escape from all the negativity in life, well at least that's what I thought and felt about it. Everyday I dreaded getting out of bed in the morning, most days at that. I was lucky to be in Mrs Wedlich's 12th grade English class. Walking into her classroom was like walking into a movie. She was a spiritual teacher and does things like always keeping some thyme somewhere in the classroom. If you ask her about the thyme, she would look up at
you with her gorgeous white hair and her beautiful brown eyes and say “Everyone always seems to run out of time, so I keep some extra thyme in my room just in case.” There were some days we got all of our work done and there were days we sat in class just listening to Farod’s favorite songs at the time. He usually listened to underground rappers that have some pretty awesome beats. Other days Farod would let me do his eyebrows. Farod was one of the funniest, yet sweetest person I knew. He was one of those people that would make you mad then do everything in his power to fix what he did.
Mrs Wedlich gave us a research project todo, I did mine on How Muslim’s lives changed before and after 9/11, we had to make a PowerPoint along with our paper.
We had people do their project on, famous people, teen suicide, secrets of the illuminati, and many many other topics. November 10th, half of the class presented their projects. Teen suicide was the last project to be presented to the class. Farod sat unusually quiet until, the person who was presenter said “Pansexual identified people have the physical/emotional/spiritual capability of falling in love or being with someone regardless of their
gender.” “So pansexual people are thots,” Farod blurted out and everyone busted out with laughter He always knew how to break an awkward silence. A few moments after, the bell rang allowing us to go to our next class. The day went on as any other day. I went to my next class, which was a math class. Something went wrong with my schedule, so I got put in A.F.D.A., Algebra, functions, and data analysis. This is a class you're supposed to take after algebra one but before algebra two. I already knew everything the teacher taught in this class because of the mess up. It was the easiest A I have ever got. Later, when I go outing school, I took my daily after school nap. By the time I woke up, my mom was home and she had already made dinner. I did what little homework I had and studied for my test upcoming tests and went back to sleep. The next day was Veterans Day, so we didn't have school. I woke up at seven in the morning, which is very unusual for me. I checked my phone, I looked at Instagram to see if any new photos were added, and I checked Facebook to see if there were any cool updates, or funny videos I should see. The moment Facebook opened my heart sunk. For a moment the world stopped. I could not believe what I was seeing. I clicked on Farod’s Facebook all you could see was “R.I.P. Fredo,” and “ I will see you again I love you,”was plastered all over his wall. I could not believe my eyes. I had so many emotions running through my head. I did not want to one of my friends were gone, the thought of never speaking to him again made me want to cry the most. I got up and I got in the shower, I figured maybe, if I showered and cleared my head I would wake up from the dream. I listened to a mix of mine and Farod’s favorite songs.when I was finished I checked my phone once again to see Farod really passed away. I couldn't believe what was going on. I continued the day as if nothing had ever happened. When I got to school the next day, you could sense a gray cloud over the school. The moment I walked into the school I felt the urge to cry. When I got to the front desk the lady “hey did you know the kid that killed himself?” I immediately started crying uncontrollably. I sobbed my way to Mrs Wedlich’s room where I could gain enough self-control to even walk into the classroom. The school had a lady come to each of Farod's classes to talk to the students about teen suicide. The school allowed students to go home who couldn't sit in class. I chose to stay in school because I wanted to stay with Mrs Wedlich. She was strong for all of us. Over the next few days the school was very glumly and dull.
Nothing was the same; Farod had affected every class.
The days leading up to his candle light vigil, I began talking to everyone everywhere I went. As I watching Farod being lowered into the ground, I realized days on Earth are not guaranteed, and days with loved ones are not guaranteed either. Everyday I try to speak to everyone, even if, it is just a simple
smile.
Losing a friend is a very traumatic, life changing moment. You never know what people are going through. Maybe someone needs a smile to get through the day. I’ve learned to live with out fear, and love with out regrets.