Every school year leaves its unique print, like the unrepeatable design of each snowflake. A school year has so much pattern to it, so much repetition, yet each one will stand out or stand down for a specific reason. This year, it was a death.
Anika Holt suddenly died. She was here one day and gone the next. It is diffiuclt to process, that sudden nonbeing. You go on, the school day went on, and yet there is a vital piece of the whole synergetic structure that is a school missing. One vital piece. On vital person. And you feel the nudge of the other side of life, of death.
I knew Anika pretty well as a student. She was not a good a student in the way of grades, of doing homework, of being on task, of following the rules. But all the rules she broke, all the contrary directions her life took her, she never went there without a smile, without kindness, without love for people. For everyone in her circle.
No. Not an A student. But she had game. She had life. Lots of it.
I will write more on Anika tomorrow. She was a beautiful young soul.
Tom Biel (Welcome to The Badlands) 