Candle Light Speech

It was the morning of March 30, 2010 and I was in a helicopter on my way to do the one thing I had always dreamed of doing. Conquering one of the gnarlyest mountains no one else had in the mountains of Norway. I had the helicopter all day and I wanted to get my money’s worth and get as many runs in as I could before dark. A few hours went by, and things were going well. I was having an experience of a lifetime! I was getting comfortable with the Norwegian mountains and its terrain, and decided to try and conquer what I had came to do. We flew around a bit and figured out a plan. The wind was starting to pick up so the pilot said we wouldn't have much time left. He soon dropped me off at the ultimate summit. My adrenaline was pumping and I could feel the rush. The rush that I had longed for my entire life. I began down the treacherous mountain. It wasn't going to be easy, but it was going to be exhilarating! Everything was going awesome! Just as I had planned until I got off course. I knew this area was a danger zone, but I thought I could make my way out of it. I had almost made it back on course until I heard a horrible noise. The noise that I had dreaded hearing my entire snowboarding career. The ground began to shake and I lost my balance falling head first into an ocean of snow. My body was thrown around wildly for several minutes never knowing which way was up or down. Then it all stopped and everything was black I tried to move my arms and legs but it was like I was in a cemented prison. From everything I learned about what to do in an avalanche I stopped struggling and realized the fact that I would probably die here. I began to think to myself did I live the way I was supposed to? Was I the brother or the son I should have been? I loved to pester my brothers and little sister. That made them stronger, right? We always felt the love that siblings should feel. The love that can be hard to find in this world. My parents were separated in 2004 and divorced soon after. This was a very hard and confusing time for me. Many years have passed, and I have endured. I am coming to accept these changes. It has been difficult, but my friends and family have helped me along the way. Sometimes it’s hard to know who your real friends are. A real friend is someone who is always there for you. Someone you can always count on. Sometimes these friends aren't easy to find. I was pretty active in the LDS church until I hit high school. I believed in all of their teachings I just hated going to church and sitting there for three hours. I also believed in a life after this one and knew I had family and friends waiting for me. I didn’t know how much time had gone by and I didn’t think I would live this long. I must be in a pretty good sized air pocket. The next thing that came to my mind was all the things I had accomplished in my 18 years of life. I managed to learn how to work hard from my dad and to teach myself how to do many things, to do the one thing I loved, snowboarding. I also realized I had learned how to love someone and how to move on and get over the person I had loved. I was always good at making friends and getting to know people never really saying rude things unless it was a joking matter. I never got to live on my own like I wanted to making my own choices. I also never got to go sky diving or deep sea diving. I never got to have two dogs of my own. A Great Dane that I planned on calling Zazoo, and a Doberman, I wanted to call Grifiki. I always wanted to have a family but not too big. I wanted to have two sons that I would call Rory and Tripp. And I daughter I would call Destiny. What would my parents think when they heard of my death? I remember them always telling me to be careful in everything I did. They didn’t approve of many things I did. Even though my family is large in number. From my Mom and Dad, and from my oldest brother all the way to my youngest nephew. Even the large amount of cousins. I knew each one of them would miss me. They would miss me giving them a hard time all the time and being the smart a** I always was. I'm sure they would miss my stubborn self too. I would like to think that it would be the happy things that they remember. I knew all of my friends would miss me, and all the great times we had but, I would want them to remember me from those great times as well. I can tell I’m running out of oxygen and my breathing getting deeper and deeper. I can feel myself fading away from life. I take one last breath and I’m gone.