The original plan, Sunday night after returning from Berlin, was to use my relatively free Monday to write a recap of last week and then spend about 500 pages talking about Berlin (how awesome it is, how much I want to go back, how I (not-so-)secretly wish I were German, etc. etc.). However, I got some shocking and very sad news on Monday morning, and I just don’t think this is going to happen. I’ve got a lot of pictures from Berlin/WTCD and stuff that I’ll post on Facebook, and maybe Berlin will find its way into a future entry.
I’m going to be totally honest here: I’m just not that good at dealing with or writing about life’s curveballs, and if this were an internal struggle, then I would probably leave it off of the blog. The thing is, though, that what happened to my friends on Sunday evening in Farmville is still very much a part of my life in Prague, so I don’t think it’s out of line to say a few words.
If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you already know what happened Sunday evening, but in case you don’t, a friend from my graduating high school class drowned in a lake when his canoe flipped. One of my friends who was in the canoe with him tried to save him, but he couldn’t pull him to shore and nearly drowned himself in the process. He’s still in the hospital. Multiple friends of mine witnessed the scene, but the canoe was far enough out on the lake that they were helpless to do anything.
It is the utter tragedy of the situation and the pain I feel for friends of mine who were closest to Donte that have taken the strongest hold of my mind and heart. If I could drive to Farmville and be with my friends right now, I would be there in an instant. In situations like this one, though, when I’m away from the community, I think that the only real option I have in Prague is to just stay focused as much as possible on my daily routine and stay distracted. Yesterday afternoon, after the initial shock of it all had started to subside a little, I went in to my internship, and today I’m going to class and everything as usual. I’ve talked with friends from home via Facebook chat (a means of communication that we all agree is less-than-ideal but better than nothing at all) and filled up spare time with walks, music, and mindless but distracting games on sporcle.
This is not the first time in recent months that tragedy has hit Farmville, but tragedy is something that one cannot ever get used to; to the contrary, the more frequently these things happen, the more terrible each sequential event is. Although I saw him frequently when home from Richmond, I was not a close friend of Donte’s; however, we had many close mutual friends who will suffer from his absence deeply and for a very long time. He will be very much missed by all those who knew him, and never forgotten.
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