Just Finish Your Test...written by Judi

Life is interesting isn't it.  One of the more interesting things about Life, is that you often don't appreciate/contemplate/enjoy life enough until you are faced with death. 

A friend from High School passed away last week in a terrible accident.  He also happened to be my cousin-in-laws brother.  It was extremely tragic.  Tyler was such a fabulous person and I have been reliving memories and things that I learned from Tyler in my head this week.   I can see him sitting across the room from me in band class playing the clarinet (which he was exceptionally good at).  I can see him putting his arm around my shoulders asking how my day was going.  I can see him being friends with everyone.  The cool kid, the band nerd, the jock ect...

The one memory/lesson I keep thinking of happened in AP English our senior year of high school.  Tyler was very, very smart (he was the valedictorian of a class of around 500 students).  He was also a very good writer.  AP English was a breeze for him.  He always knew the deeper meaning of the poems and stories that we endlessly analyzed (they mostly sounded like gibberish to me).  When it got close to the end of the school year, we would take practice AP exams (if you passed the test, you got college credit).  Inevitably, Tyler would finish the test first (and always have done wonderfully).  I, on the other hand, would usually take most of the allotted time and struggle through all of the writings.  When it came time for the final "real" AP test, once again, Tyler finished FIRST and passed with flying colors.  I also finished and also passed, but I definitely didn't finish first. 

As Tyler has now finished his life TEST, I just can't help thinking that similar to AP English, he has finished his test first and I am sure he passed with flying colors.  I am still chugging along, taking more time to "analyze" and learn lessons and learn the things I need to learn.  Tyler lived a 100 year life in a short 25 years. 

So give yourself a midterm today.  How are you doing?  Are you plugging along, never giving up, and trying to "PASS" the big "TEST" at the end?  I am terribly sad for his family and mourn for their loss, but I am grateful for this chance to be reminded of the Plan of Salvation and to be reminded of this experience in AP English, and I am going to keep on keeping on with the reminder that I passed the AP test, and I will someday hopefully PASS life's test.

Thank you Tyler.  You were a great person.