R.I.P. Buddy

I was on Facebook the other night and got into one of those 'search on every name I know' jags, seeing who had a profile and who didn't. I got to searching on some students I once taught to see how they were doing and to my utter shock, one name came up with a memorial page.

I'm not going to go into his name or his picture, but he was one of my favorite students ever. Even though we were 15 years apart in age, he was still loads of fun to talk to at school. He was a bit of a computer wiz, creating his own websites and his own text game. I remember he even hacked into the school computers once to retrieve some internal memo he wanted to see. Even after I left the district for another job, we would periodically keep in touch online or over the phone to see how the other was doing. I saw big things for him in the future and am just devastated that his life is cut short at 19.

I don't know all the details, it sounds like it was some freak medical thing; I just hope he went quietly and peacefully and is able to keep up his love of computers whereever he is. Hopefully someday I'll be able to say hi to him again.