Occupy Daily Prompt

Write about how your world (or another person’s), or your attitude/perspective of the world/life changed because of a dramatic event or particular experience.

I feel like I have had so many, it’s hard to pick just one. A lot of them I have mentioned or wrote about fully, so there’s also the added weight of finding something I haven’t written about.

There is one event though, one I don’t think I have written about yet.

When I was going through college there was a guy named Derrak. He had super long, curly, grungy hair, wore black t-shirts, and was your classic ‘metal fan’ type of guy.

When I first met him I was mildly terrified, and immediately figured we would never have anything in common, and that I could be polite and nice, but that’s about as far as it would go.

Derrak ended up being a very good friend. He is actually the person who got me interested in Character Rigging because he would sit and show me all sorts of awesome things. Extra stuff that wasn’t being taught in the class.

He was a year ahead of me, and so he graduated before I did. He stayed around for an internship or two, but eventually he left. We stayed in touch through Facebook, but it was always more of a, “We’ll talk later,” situation.

We were both so busy. Always busy and pushing things back until later, until tomorrow.

Derrak ended up fighting against cancer, a battle which he lost.

He was only a few years older than me. My age, young, ambitious, living the dream.

And he died.

There wasn’t a tomorrow… There wasn’t a “We’ll meet up later,”. There was nothing. It was over.

It was a very sobering moment in my life, and I spent a lot of time angry at the world. Derrak was my mentor. How was I supposed to function without him there? What was the point of doing anything if all we do is die in the end? Why was I putting all of this effort and time into trying to be better, why was I beating myself up for ‘not being good enough’ when I was going to die, just like Darrek?

This event happened shortly after I broke up with Warren #2, while I was living in Clavan’s living room. It was before my first 30 Day Challenge.

I spend days in bed trying to figure out why I should do anything.

I eventually found my reason. The one that works for me, and the one I have lived my life by for the past two-ish years.

My purpose is to be happy. My purpose is to live life as fully as I can, to experience as much as I can. It is my life, and as long as I live it the way I feel I should then I am doing it right. It doesn’t have to make someone else happy. That’s why they have their own life, so they can make their own choices.

I actually did a presentation about this very event for my students last year.

It can be viewed here if you are so inclined.