Just Drew It

It seems like ever since I was little people have been telling me that life is short, and live it to the fullest. We all know deep down that this is true, but at the same time we generally chose to ignore this piece of advice as teenagers, or we over live it thinking of YOLO, or you only live once.

This past Monday at our school a student lost his battle to cancer, and he truly lived life to the fullest. Even though Drew Wall had been battling cancer since he was 11 years old, he never let it bring him down and he never used it as an excuse. Drew was an athlete, who participated in swimming, golf, and martial arts; never letting the fact that the cancer had already taken his leg, get in the way.

I had the opportunity to have Drew in my Chinese class the past 3 months, and even as he struggled with cancer he wanted to feel normal. He attended class as often as possible and right up to the very end he still wanted the teacher to send him homework assignments so that he could complete them. Drew wanted to be normal and to fit in. Our Chinese teacher shared one touching thing with us a few weeks ago that he had put on one of his homework assignments he had sent back to her, one of the last ones he had ever done. The homework assignment asked us to translate the sentences from English into Chinese characters, and the sentence read as follows:

“Do you remember me?”

This would translate to:

“你还记得我妈?”

However Drew instead inserted one character we had never even discussed before in class to make it read:

“你还会记得我妈?”

This would instead translate to:

“Will you remember me?”

I am here to say to Drew:

你将会记得.

You will be remembered.

Drew was truly an inspiration to all he met, and a friend to anyone and everyone. He will live on in all those whose lives he touched.  I know Drew was a true inspiration to many and will continue to be for me.  He never wanted others sympathy and always tried to continue life as though nothing was wrong.

“Just Drew It” Go out there and participate, be a good student, and a friend to others.  Life is short and you never know when it might end, so live every day like it might be your last.

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

 

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