The ripple effect

Recently, I was told about someone who lost a friend/love interest. It sort of brought back some memories for me that I never shared with anyone but JL. Not that it even compares one iota to the loss of this person, but on some minuscule scale, I understand.
When I was the new kid in a new high school a thousand miles away from anyone I knew in my senior year, there was a kid who was nice to me. He helped me find my way around and introduced me to other kids. Your senior year should be one of the best times of your life, surrounded by friends and events and dates… mine was kind of lonely, especially at the first. Eddie sort of took away some of the feeling that I was a third wheel in little cliques. He actually introduced me to JL’s nephew…which is how I’d go on to meet JL.
My mom thought Eddie was a good kid, but a troubled one. He was. He did run with a rough crowd and made some bad choices. He ended up in a lot of questionable predicaments. But who hasn’t at some point? In the way that most moms wouldn’t understand that, mine would not permit me to date this young man. He was “too fast, too free, too everything over the top” for her liking and the ever present studded leather jacket wasn’t helping. Note after note he slipped into my locker, date after date I had to turn down.
One Friday night, I decided I would tempt fate and go on a Saturday without asking for my mom’s permission. Saturday never came. He was killed in a car crash on a country road. I never knew the real details as stories about incidents like that take wings and have everyone’s opinions added until the real facts are so distorted, no one knows what really happened.
About two years ago, I found an old jewelry box that I had a bunch of papers and pictures stashed in. I discovered those notes. They weren’t dated, and in a fleeting moment I thought “if anything happens to me and these are found, they’ll be taken the wrong way” and I tossed them. It was a part of my history and I regret that I did that.
Hang on to your mementos of the people in your life who make you feel special or accepted. Even if it’s a momentary blip on your life’s radar screen and you think it won’t matter, it will some day. We all touch the lives of others in everything we do. Like the ripples you make in a pond from a simple pebble toss, they reach further and further before finally meshing back into one, we are all connected.