keep your friends close

in the wake of the death of my former journalism teacher last week, i had a wave of nostalgia about some of my former fellow newspaper staffers. some of my most defining high school moments took place in the back room of the journalism lab, and i credit a lot of my passion for writing to mrs. o. and her expertise and wisdom. i also credit most of my editorial tendencies to my stint on newspaper staff. thanks to google and myspace, i was able to find a couple of former staffers.

one of them, nathan, was one of my closest friends on staff. i met nathan when he was a freshman (i was one year older), one of only two freshmen on staff. we were both sports junkies, so we hit it off right away, and i kind of took him under my wing. we toyed with the idea of dating, but i think both of us were too naive to take any of the steps towards doing anything about it. we went to a dance or two, and ended up spending a lot of time together (both long hours in the journo lab and socially). we started a junior statesmen club in my senior year, and he was going to carry on the torch in his senior year.

as things go, i got entrenched in college life following graduation and let a lot of my high school friendships lapse. i expected that i'd reconnect with some of those friends down the road, and i figured nathan was one of those people. given the impetus of mrs. o's death, it seemed like a good time to try to reach out to him. i found him online, and was delighted to see he'd stuck with journalism-- he was the editor-in-chief of the newspaper at fresno state, and had gotten a job at the merced sun-star as a copy editor. away went my little "hi, remember me?" greeting to him.

this morning, a response showed up in my inbox... from nathan's younger brother, who informed me that nathan had passed away in november 2005 from a brain aneurysm. he was 26.

even now, i hardly know what to say. nathan is very alive in my memory, as i associate him with some of my best recollections of high school. i'm so sad for the loss, even though we haven't been close for nearly ten years. i wanted to write about him, because that seemed like the best tribute, considering what he loved. i'm just sorry i waited too long to be able to say hello again to my old friend.

i guess the moral of the story is to keep your friends close. the little things and the small conversations may not seem important among the trials of everyday life, but they will when you no longer have the chance to enjoy them. rest in peace, nate.