"Funerals are for the living."Once, in her biology class, the teacher started the year by telling the students that someone was going to say "orgasm" instead of "organism", just as someone did every year. The students did not believe her. Sydney did not believe her. Needless to say (for you may have heard it from someone else), Sydney was the one to say it during a presentation on genetically altered food. Also needless to be said (but will be said regardless), she had yet to live it down, nor did she expect to. She took it in stride, tried to forget about it, and avoided the subject of biology like the plague. It didn't really work out for her.
- John Green, The Fault in our Stars
But that's how most things went. At least for Sydney. But she joined in on the laughter because really, the situation was funny.
If something had to be said about her, it had to be that while she was not nice, she was not cruel. While she was not selfish, she chose herself when it mattered to her. She was more full of questions than answers. She did not handle failure well, yet she was accustomed to it. She preferred anonymity but was too loose-lipped for it. She rambled on and on and had ideas for miles.
She blogged incredibly too much.
No. Seriously. Incredibly too much.
Rather than believe that everyone is beautiful (because beauty is subjective and crap), she believed that no one has the right to make you feel ugly. She believed that we were mere mortals foolishly trying to understand a language not meant for our ears or lips. She believed in many infinities and not caring because there's a long run. She believed in reading for fun and discussing with people you don't know and the importance of moments to yourself and playing video games even though you're bad at them.
She was attached to her laptop and her iPod and lived an only child kind of life. Which may be why she tried so hard when it came to her friends.
And tried she did. She tried and tried and tried and if she succeeded with her friends and with the ones she cared about, then it was all worth.
As long as she did that, as long as she questioned people and gave them something to think about and filled in the empty spaces of silence, as long as she wrote and imagined and thought her thoughts for herself, she'd die happy.
Not quite sure who is to say she did.
This eulogy makes me feel like mine sucks. There's a lot more details about you personally. Mine sounds more like an obituary than a eulogy. Obviously, I still have some work to do. Overall, great job.
ReplyDeleteKhalil!
DeleteYour does not suck. It may be a bit more traditional though. I tried to think about times I've seen people speak at people's funerals in movies, specifically Angel's funeral in RENT. I've thought about my own funeral and how I'd want there to be more happy than sad there. So I tried to get the important bits. That helps out a lot with the blog posts, getting to the important bits. What will matter when you're dead and gone? What would you want people to know and remember? That said, I'd write more about you but I have to comment on your blog anyway so toodles and thanks for popping over.
You did a really good job on making this flow. It's definitely a more realistic eulogy than the one I wrote, at least in how honest it is and how it relates back to an imperfection in life. This makes me a little concerned to get to know you though...
ReplyDeleteHi Katherine! Thank you for your comment! I tried to think about it as if I was giving an eulogy at a friend's funeral and what would I say. I'd tell the most embarrassing story possible and be painfully honest because that's what would I want. To go out with a laugh, even at my own expense, because there's no shame in death. No one is perfect and people tend to be glorified post death. I believe it's the best opportunity to see who a person truly was and to appreciate the good and the bad. (I actually wrote out several friends' eulogies before I wrote mine, taking the basic form and changing facts and such).
DeleteWhat do you mean by "This makes [you] a little concerned to get to know [me]..."?
I agree with Katherine. You make your eulogy flow, as if it were a story instead of a boring story about someone's life. It's in a language (if you will) that us teenagers can understand and not some ramble full of words that we don't understand.
ReplyDeleteWell written.