University of Dayton - MyLife

Tragedy Strikes!

I would first like to give a "shout out" to Mr. Diaz, an alumni from the class of '69 who has been giving me words of encouragement via e-mail for the past school year. Honestly, this is the reason why I came to the fine institute, because even after you leave, that sense of community and general sense of kindness never leaves you. Mr. Diaz, I salute you, you put the finishing touches on my college career that I will never forget.

Although the majority of my blogs are upbeat and dare I say, mildly humorous, today's topic is one of seriousness and sorrow. The end of the year for everyone is a time of rejoicing and happiness, especially for a graduating senior. Needless to say I embodied this mentality wholeheartedly. The end of the year for most University students, approximately 3,000 of us, includes traveling down to a place close to our hearts, a place so close in name to Dayton that one only needs to add an "A". Daytona, a lovely city which we students have been going to religiously (no pun intended) for what I understand is for the past 29 years. It consists of having what they say "fun in the sun" for a period of 1 week with fellow graduates and undergraduates as well. I see it as a time to wind down and get ready for the upcoming summer and reminisce with your peers before leaving to ones respective homes.

Although this story does seem like it is light-hearted, unfortunately, it takes a terrible turn as one of my friends passed away early Friday morning while in his hotel room. For personal reasons I choose not to disclose his identity, but rest assure that he was a dear friend to me. Everyone knows those people who you have had a few classes with, always really nice, you see them out in the Ghetto and they chill with you before moving on to the next house and such. This gentleman (we will give him the alias John to make it easier) was this very person. I never heard anything bad said about John and this is surprising because you would be shocked at what type of stuff you hear about stereotypical "nice" people. John always showed up to class with a smile and made sure to be polite to all. I had the pleasure of sharing a team sports class with him my final semester, just a few weeks ago, and to be quite honest, he was damn good at the majority of sports we played. I am not going to lie to you and say he was the best, but he was one of those solid players that you would want on your team because you knew he wouldn't make any big mistakes! The only regret I have in that class is that I should have known him better.

A loss, what is a loss, Webster defines it as, "the state of being deprived of or of being without something that one has had". This definition fits perfectly with this situation. I say this because John was a recent graduate, just like me, only a week or so of completing what most people in their life (statistically speaking in regards to the world population) will never achieve! I knew many of his friends and they explained to me that he had a job lined up just after this summer. This saddened all of us greatly on the trip as it happened Friday and we were scheduled to be there until Sunday. Breakaway tours, the tour company which was responsible for our trip, combined with SGA (our student government association) decided rightly so, that the events scheduled for the next few days would be cancelled. I talked to many of my colleagues and they had mixed feelings about this decision by the powers that be. I heard both sides of the story, both that we should respect John and not drink or party anymore, as well as a number of people who commented that we should continue to drink and party because, "that is what we came here and paid to do". On the other side of things I know several people who decided to drive home early on Friday because they were so distraught. As one could imagine this caused a huge commotion amongst us 3,000 individuals there and to say the least we were shocked that something like this, something that hasn't happened in the past 29 years, would happen to a member of our community.

My sincere condolences go out to his family, including his sister, who I hear is going to be a junior at Dayton, and his brother, Scott who I knew very well who just graduated as well. Keep them in your prayers as I know I will keep them in mine. I love you all, good day.

May 17, 2007 11:10 AM Permalink