Image Credits: Antonio Rivera instagram @_tone1k
Summertime. You think that summer is a time of fun and excitement. Nah, 2020 showed me what life is about.
In the midst of the Covid-19 lockdown. I had not seen my family or friends in months. I was just in the house all day and all night. It took a toll on me mentally, made me feel locked up in my mind and physically. Days and weeks just come and go. Then boom, reality hit.
It was a hot July day; I was on the phone with the guys talking about our final year playing football in high school. Waking up and talking about football — can’t get better than that. It’s Covid so, at the time, we could not really do much of anything but talk on the phone and play the game together, so that’s what we were doing that whole day.
Then I got a call from somebody I had not talked to in months.
“Yo bro, what happened to Taz?”
Taz was my best friend and teammate on the football team. He never puts himself in a position where he is in danger. So, I was confused and chuckled saying,
“Nothing wrong, we were just on the phone an hour ago.”
So, I went to social media to check and all I saw was “pull through bro.” My heart dropped, and my head was all over the place. I called Taz’s sister and asked her what had happened. She told me.
“Taz and his friends got into a car accident, and it was really bad.”
I asked, “How bad?”
My body and voice are shaking as I am talking. What broke me was when she said,
“He was bleeding from the inside of his brain. He is in the ICU.”
Tears started to fall as she told me this and I instantly started to pray and ask God to heal his body because I didn’t want to see my best friend die.
Hours ticking away one by one. Everything felt slow as I lay in my bed just thinking about every possible outcome. My emotions are mixed around like a smoothie, but only this isn’t a good taste. Waiting for a response from Taz’s sister, I try to stay positive and think everything will be okay and he’ll walk out of that hospital that night. Hours are still passing by. It is like I can hear the tick tock of the clock in my head. I remembered me doing everything possible to try to stay positive and wanted to have hope. I played the Xbox for a bit, then I got a text from his sister. I remember asking, “any good news” she replied with “no” she added “it’s all over.” And I told her not to say that then she said, “Taz died.”
After seven hours of trying to stay positive and keep my head up I lost all hope and happiness. My heart shattered. For the first time in my life, I felt empty, as if my soul left my body. That moment became one of the worst of my life. Tears and sounds of a crying baby came from my room. I was hurt, shocked and lost all at once. It felt like a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from. From the balloon release to the funeral, it broke me down. Seeing my best friend in a casket was the hardest thing I have ever had to experience. He looked as if he was sleeping. I almost wanted to walk up to him and wake him up. It did not feel real at all.
As much as I cried and felt hurt, I will always remember the moments we shared. From eighth grade to 11th grade. I know he would be proud of seeing me live out our dream. I love you, Taz. Thank you for allowing me to be your friend, classmate, teammate and, most importantly, your brother. Keep shining down on me. 2020 brought us all a lot of change but that change of losing a friend is something that can’t be changed. That was the hardest moment of my life, and it changed how I viewed life. That hot summer day turned into a cold summer in an instant.
LONG LIVE TAZUAN “SHIFTY” THOMAS.
Antonio Rivera is a second-year Undecided transfer student. ARivera552@wcupa.edu.