Friday morning comes around and it’s a normal day. Wake up, roll out of bed, throw on a t-shirt, grab a bite for breakfast, and catch the bus. Still, when I arrived at school, it felt just like any other day. Except for the fact that it was Friday and our Hockey team was headed to the Semi-Finals that night. The locker banks were filled with students yelling and shouting. You could see the excitement in their eyes. Everything was normal as we headed to class for first period.

My teacher was more quiet and not as fun as he normally is, but no one seemed to notice anything was wrong. For the class period, we chatted with friends and worked on homework because there was no lesson. A few minutes before class was scheduled to be dismissed, there was an announcement on the PA saying to stay in the classroom, and for all teachers to turn on their projectors for the streaming announcements playing throughout the school.

On the screen showed Mr. Philo, the Assistant Principal of the school. He started off by saying that something tragic had happened over night. He explained that another student from our school had passed away. Senior, Ryan Fischer. I didn’t know why this was happening. The second student that week. Why Alyssa? Why Ryan? Why our school? All of these questions running through my mind.
Ryan was found in his bed Friday morning, and later said to have passed because of an enlarged heart. This wasn’t hard to believe because he really did have a huge heart. He put everyone before himself and was the best son, brother, friend, and teammate anyone could ask for. I had just seen him the past week at my cheer competition, and watched his last hockey game two days ago. I walked out of the classroom and face hundreds of other students probably thinking the same thing as me. It was the weirdest thing I have ever experienced. The school was dead silent, you could literally hear a pin drop even though there were around 1,800 students there.

Instead of the loud, excited students I saw in the locker banks an hour ago, there were devastated students hugging each other and sobbing uncontrollably. I headed to the project room to meet up with my cheer team so we could get away and calm down together.

That day at school was not like any other day you will ever experience. It was so surreal, I can hardly remember it, but I will never forget.