365 Days

There are certain days in your life you will never forget. July 11th is one of those days for me, and it will never again be just a random summer day. One year ago today I was sitting in the movie theater watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall and got a text message from a friend saying "Jason Powell died today." Seconds later my brother called and I knew it was true. It's the day one of the best people I've ever had the privilege of knowing was taken from this earth. I've know Jason since the 5th grade. He was a rock in my life, someone who was always there with a smile and just the perfect thing to say to make me laugh. I have more memories of him then I can possibly list, and I cling to them everyday. I will share just a few...I remember brainstorming with him all the best possible arguments so his parents would let him go to public school, and how thrilled he was when they agreed. I remember his first day of high school with us in LD and how happy I was he was there, but not as happy as he was. I remember sitting in his room watching him play his flight simulator game and talking for hours. He was great at talking. Every week he brought the Baseball Weekly to school and we would go through it, him looking for info on his teams, me looking for my favorite players, which usually consisted of who I thought was the cutest in their baseball pants. I remember countless hours of him talking about planes and girls. I remember countless hours of him talking, lol. I remember the ski trip where he crashed into the tree trying to impress a girl and we all chipped in to buy him a big book about planes so he'd have something to do while he was laid up. So many ski trips, World Changers, and youth trips and he was always there. I still have the encouragrams from World Changers and the notes he wrote me at school. I have kept them all this time and now I'm so thankful that I still have them. Jason was more than a friend to me, he was a brother and I love him and I miss him every single day. I take comfort in knowing he lived his dreams; he was a pilot, married to the woman of his dreams, and he was a daddy to the most precious little boy. Those are the things Jason always wanted. I know I'll see you again J, and I look forward to that day. Until then please know you are loved and missed.
My brother and Jason on our ski trip March 2000.