This I Believe - By Crissi Harper

Crissi Harper is 19 and loves staying active. She loves everything about the human body and enjoys hiking, biking, surfing, snowboarding, listening to music, learning new skills, and hanging out with friends and family. Though she is young, she learned one of life's lessons. There are situations that we must deal with and depending on how we deal with those situations deciphers our mentality towards life. She learned this through losing two friends and her grandfather, and watching those close to her spiral down the wrong path. Life is short and if we wake up everyday regretting and maintaining a negative mentality we will never fully live the life we are meant to live. So she believes to Live, Love & Laugh. She lives by this now, and despite the bad days, she makes her best attempt to stay positive and make the best out of every situation. ~ C.L.Harper

This I Believe…

Today I tell you to live, love, and laugh. This I believe… Life is a gift that we should never take for granted, but how is it that each day we continue to create confrontation, war, anger, hostility, sadness, inequality, and the inevitable death? This life we have is too short to hold grudges, and to argue about minor things or immature actions. To my misfortune, and many others’, I have learned to love life the hard way. My senior year I lost two amazing friends and this is my story.

Think about your life and how you have cried, laughed, argued, shouted, and acted immature. Many times do we may wish to go back and not do such actions, so why can’t we just learn to avoid those actions and enjoy ourselves? I met a boy who is just as I described. His name is Brandon, and we met during our 7th grade year at Shivela Middle school. He was bright, fun loving, outgoing, spontaneous, and smiled continuously. He had a smile that could make the most irate person weaken into a smile. Brandon loved surfing, racing motocross, hanging out with friends, going to the beach and much more. He was an amazing person and every one of his family members and friends loved the spirit that he had while present. The same goes for my friend Steven, who I met my senior year of high school. He was out going, loud, silly, and was never afraid to just be himself. Most of us wish we could have the spirit of these two; there was never a time that I saw either of them angry or upset about anything, regardless of life’s trials. I must admit that I did not life in such a way. I can remember being moody, selfish, and was inconsiderate to others’ feelings, and definitely did not appreciate those round me.

I was good friends with Brandon, going to the movies, talking on the phone and just hanging out. Yet, during my freshman year we slowly lost touch, I had moved away to Valencia. When I came back to Murrieta we attended the same school, but we still weren’t as great of friends as we used to. Half way though our junior year Brandon moved to Orange County in order to live with his father. Much to my surprise I was shocked that he was leaving all his friends and loved ones, he did not have many friends in Orange County, and not to mention he had to start a new school entering his senior year. So as does everything life went on, and some of us kept in touch with Brandon, I rarely talked to him, however, he always managed to invite me to his races and birthday parties and I’m not too sure why I never accepted his invitation. On October 6th, 2006 Brandon came to a senior trip that was held at Knott’s Scary farm. Majority of the senior class met at the high school beforehand and to our surprise Brandon was there. All of us smiled and laughed at his appearance, then went in to hug him and question him about this new life. As I went in to hug him, I noticed the thin look of his face that continued down his neck and reached as far as his feet. There was something wrong. I ignored the signs and probably should have talked to him about it. His twig like arms wrapped around me while his oblivious looking face whispered a ‘hello,’ yet again I noticed he was not okay. It would be the last time I could help him or lend a helping hand. The last time I could hug him and look into his bright blue eyes and recall on all the great memories that we had created through the years. On November 14th, 2006 I received a call from my boyfriend Tommy and he broke the news that Brandon has committed suicide that morning. My jaw dropped and tears filled my eyes; the rush of water came shortly after. I was devastated. Not too long after Brandon another death occurred. I arrived at school and was socializing with some friends near class; I noticed Steven rushing to class so I quickly stopped him for a brief hello. The two of us had little time so we agreed to talk the following week around the same time. Little did I know there was to be no following week for Steven. On September 30th, 2007 Steven Harris was killed in an ATV accident. Again all of his friends, including me, were beyond shocked, two of the most wonderful people had been taken from our lives as easy as day turns to night. Again I felt devastated and depressed.

These events changed my life in so many ways. They showed me that you need to appreciate who you have on a daily basis and love them and enjoy their presence. In addition, it opened the door to a new way of living; living to the fullest. We take these breathes for granted at times and it may be only human to do so. Everyone, in my opinion, could afford to stop, relax, and look at our life and understand that it is a great life, even when we do not get what we want. Since Brandon and Steven I have learned to take on the spirit they maintained daily, such as laughing often, living life like there’s no tomorrow, and riding on even when life gives you obstacles. So to you I say Live, Love, and Laugh…this I Believe.

R.I.P. Brandon Kenneth Nash 1989-2006
&
Steven McCormick Harris 1988-2007