More Student Stories
Ella M.
By Poppy Dames
I’ve seen this before. You pull back a curtain, and a ghost or a ghoul jumps out at you. I’ve been in a haunted house, and felt the exciting moment when you turn a corner and find a rush of adrenaline, and an exciting skip in your heart. But this is a different feeling. Instead of pulling back that curtain and finding a ghost or a zombie, you find a friend. A friend lying so still that all the memories of your time with them fade away, like it was a dream all along. And you’ve just woken up to find that none of it was real. But the reality pierces your heart. It’s October 30th, and your friends are paying to find death. But when you look death straight in its face, you can never return to the acceptance of the unknown. When you see with your own eyes, a person with no soul, it’s hard not to say “where did they go?”
“I wish that time could halt.”
It was a pure moment of happiness. It was the most infinite feeling that I have ever experienced. It was an evening in August. After a full day of driving, we had finally arrived. This was the moment that we had awaited. We had begged and Ella saved every penny she had so we could go to this concert. But this was more than just a concert for us. This was a celebration of the music that got us through our worst days. It was the music that saw our moments of complete bliss, it explained Ella’s days in peaceful solitude she appreciated, and the days of the interaction and coming out of her shell that she also appreciated because they helped her grow. But you see, Ella was already an old soul. She was so wise, even from the youngest time I knew her, but she was also so playful with people she felt comfortable around. So you see, this was not just a concert for us. This was what we had dreamed of for months and it was now here.
Our afternoon was spent swimming and splashing at our cheap motel’s pool, and being crammed in the small bathroom, that we devoured with our excitement and inexperienced makeup application. I remember that we got sushi, which we downed too quickly to enjoy in our unnecessary rush to get there early. I guess we thought somehow it would make it more real. I could see the excitement igniting in Ella’s eyes. It was that feeling where all physical senses are put on hold, and all you can do is be. And when the music started, we all exploded, in the way young girls do.
I remember Raven, with the nervous look in her eye, expressing her legitimate concern in us all getting struck by lightning. Brian and Ella and I couldn’t help but laugh because the threat of such an occasion was slim, despite the dark clouds that began to hover over the outdoor amphitheater. And what I remember next, was a feeling that I will never forget. It was dark. The music was louder than ever, our heartbeats becoming synchronized with the tempo of the drums that vibrated the ground below us. Had there not been an array of spotlights before us, we would be sitting in complete darkness. The much-needed rain cascaded over the amphitheater, drenching the crowd, but we didn’t mind a bit. We sang every word to every song. Our voices became hoarse, but we still belted out those words that meant so much to us. It was a moment of pure euphoria that can only be described as epic. And when Isaac Slade, the lead singer, made his way through the crowd, Ella and I were lucky enough to get a high five. And raven started crying, she was so happy for us. It was a moment where nothing else mattered, just this. And we felt so infinite.
It was a pure moment of terror. Everything around me was shattered into oblivion. The day we got the phone call that Ella died in a plane crash, I thought I might not make it. Losing the best friend I was ever fortunate enough to have, was the most broken I had ever felt in my entire life. There are parts of me that Ella’s soul knows, that no one will ever see again. And looking back now, I cannot fathom how I was ever so lucky to not just know Ella, but to know her soul, to know her silly side, to know her mind. The young moments in our lives that we shared, made us wish that time could halt. But now I wish, with my whole being, that time could halt, and replay, and halt again.
Lately I find myself categorizing things as “before the accident” and “after the accident.” This is why it is so hard for me to move on, because reminiscing is so painful. It seems as if every memory I have with Ella is like a scene in one of her videos, filtered by Sepia and put in reverse.
Olivia Moritz
Untitled
By Austin Heintz
I hope time never stops
In the same way I hope trees keep growing
Water keeps flowing
Winds keep blowing
I want peace
I want serenity
And if time stops
Then we see the moment with too much clarity
Overanalyzing the situation until
What was once peaceful
Has turned to chaos
Like a stone to toss
Into a pond but frozen before it hits the water
Like a man frozen before he knows he’ll be a father
You don’t know
It’s impossible to know what impact it will make
To know the energy it will take
To keep time flowing
So get with the times!
Look up to the skies,
Remembering who was lost but not losing who you are
Who you were makes no difference to the current moment,
As long as you love yourself now, stand triumphant.
If you don’t,
That’s okay, too.
Just give it time.
Because time never stops
I Wish by Daniel Gruszka
There are two moments in my life that I wish it could go on forever. The first is on Christmas day. This is one of the only times of the year when all of my family is together. Christmas day is always a good day. In all of my Christmas days I have never had a bad Christmas. One thing that makes Christmas so good is me being with me brothers and sister. I cherish my connections with my brothers and my sister.
The second moment is when I go to Flagstaff, Arizona and see my grandma, cousins, aunts and uncles. I want time to stop there because I have so much fun when I go. Sometimes all of my brothers and sister are there so there is twice the fun. How I know I wish it would last forever is that after it is over, I am always sad.
