Death. The most uncertain thing in the world. One day, everything is normal, and everyone is happy. Then, all of a sudden, it all changes. Your happiness has disappeared and you mind is confused. Someone you saw everyday, is not there anymore. You're not passing them in the halls or watching them play basketball. Everything is different and I think that's the hardest part about death. The change, the disappearing of them.

I remember the day I found out Daniel died, very well. It was a sunday. I had gone to church and after, Texas, Jon, Chloe and I went to Aunt Nancy’s for lunch. Earlier that morning I had saw on facebook that a wreck had happened but I did not expect it to be someone I actually knew. While at Aunt Nancy’s house, I was on the couch when Angelica sent me a screenshot of the post I had recently saw. She asked if I had saw this and I said yes. That’s when she told me that it was Daniel. As I read that text I could feel my entire world just shift. Time had stopped and tears fell. The first thing I did was text Molly because I knew they were close and she told me about it and I told her I was there if she needed me.

The next day at school was probably one of the worst days I had every experienced. My first period was band and it still hadn't really hit me. Walking into that high school was a feeling that I will never forget, even if I wanted to. There was not a word said. I had never felt silence, but that day I did. Everyone just looked like they were just all in shock, myself included. I remember people just sitting in the halls against the walls, just searching for an answer. Wondering why him? Why now? What was the point in everything? That whole day was dedicated to grieving, to comfort. It didn't really hit me until second period when Mr. E was talking about Daniel and how he was a great guy. That is when I really lost it. I was starting to feel everything that everyone around me was feeling. In Mrs. Burrows class, we went over the stages of grief. I think that really helped people a lot.

By lunch there was more people talking, mostly about Daniel. Even people that didn’t really know him, were sad. Teachers, students, parents. Everyone in the whole Town of Simms were affected by Daniel's death. Schools in the whole bowie county just about. Daniel was a great person, kind and giving and always so funny. I may have not been extremely close with him but it affected me in a great way. 

During the time after Daniel passed, people started to cling to anything that helped them be happy again. Anything that helped them feel close to him. They clung to music,books, and to baseball, his favorite sport.
You think that death would have been the worse thing ever, and it was at the time. But, eventually, we realized that Daniel’s death taught us how to come together and love each other in the hardest of times. He has taught us that it's okay to cling to hope. Hope that we would wake up one morning and the people we had loved and lost, would be waiting for us. After death, you take it day by day, and our pain gets smaller and our hopes to see them again, grows stronger.