John

It's clearly not a poem. It's a speech for my friend who died in a car accident. I was asked to speak at his funeral and am a bit nervous and would like to know what you think.

It's still hard to believe that just like that, people can be taken from us. It's like one day they're there laughing with you and the next morning you wake up to find out that that person is gone, and is never coming back. John was one of the best things that ever happened to my life. We met on a day that was so long ago, I don't even remember it. I was around eight months old and he was about two years old.
We grew up together, played together, laughed together, and cried together. Well I cried and he gave me one of those looks as if to say, "Stop being such a baby." He was there when I took my first step, and "John" was my first word. Over the last sixteen years, I've accumulated many memories that I will forever hold in my heart, so though he is gone, he will always be with me. I can always look back on that day that we went sledding and he got thrown head first into a rock and split his head but wouldn't cry because he would show no weakness in front of me. He was a great guy.
On the outside, he looked like the type of guy that had no feelings and had no heart. To most he was just that extremely cool senior who had every college in the country coming to offer him everything but the world just to have him play hockey for them. But in reality, he was so much more. He was the kind of guy that would sneak out of his house on weekends and go to a children's center to play with all the kids. He was the kind of guy that would hold the door for a woman with a stroller, or load an old lady's groceries into her car so that she would not have to lift the bags. He never showed people that side of him because he thought it made him look weak and people would call him a wuss. And you know what, I've seen high school kids and I see what he was talking about. It's a shame that people never got to see that side of him because maybe he could have done for them what he did for me.
I will never forget the summer I was six years old and my sister came to visit. My sister never really like me but when I was little, I looked up to her and held on to every single one of her words. One day, she was watching me while my mom, my dad, and my brother went to the grocery store. She told me that she and my entire family hated me and hated that I even existed, and that I should just run away. And I believed her, so I ran. Of course I was only six so the extent of my running away consisted of across the street to John's closet. When he found me there crying, for the first time I didn't get the "stop being such a baby" look. Instead, he gave me a big hug and asked me what was wrong. I told him what my sister had said and how I was running away because nobody loved me. Then he said, "No, you can't do that." Then I said, "Why not, nobody cares anyway." And then he turned to me and said, "Because I love you, and I care, and I'd miss you way too much." Though I probably wouldn't have really run away that day, I still think that he saved me. My entire life he was there for me to make me smile, support me, and listen to me.
Today, I'm not here to say "good bye", but rather to say "see you later" because any time I need him, all I have to do is look to my heart and he'll always be there. He always used to tell me that nothing in the world would ever stop him from caring about me, and John never lied. So though his life has ended, I know that even death won't stop him from caring about me. I know that he will always be looking down on me and making sure that everything's okay. I'm going to miss him more that anyone could possibly imagine. He was, still is, and will always be the best friend I could have possibly asked for. I loved him more than anything and will think of him everyday and eventually be able to smile again. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, or the next day, but maybe, just maybe, the day after that because I know that he would want me to be happy and would hate to see that he was making me or anyone else cry. So for his sake, we should all learn to remember him and smile at the memories instead of cry at them. I love you man. I'll talk to you later.