Evan+S’s+2016+OpEd+Article

Life is very short and you never know when it may end. Did you hear about my neighbor Jonathan Hernandez? Sadly a vast majorities of Ventura’s students have not heard this teenager's tragic story. Jonathan was my neighbor and he lived on Loma Vista Rd and played football this year as a Freshman at Buena. He will not get an opportunity to play another season, or the opportunity to even go to Buena with his friends. Jonathan was a victim of a double hit and run he was hit first by a tow truck and then by an SUV. He is gone but his story and friends are still freshly haunting my whole neighborhood. He was hit around midnight three days ago. Initially I was confused by why he was out on a Thursday night so late, but later found out he was trying to get away from all the noise in his house, it was his sister's 18th birthday but she had recently passed from a leukemia complication last October.

 I talked to one of his team mates and best friends Evan Tidwell he told me he thought that ‘Jonathan was a great kid and went too soon”. My little brother talked to me about it and he told me that three of his current teachers had Jonathon as a student and said he “lit up the classroom”.  No pictures can do this story justice, but I added a single picture from the Ventura Star that I saw the photographer take. I did not take pictures myself because I didn't wish further ruin this somber moment.

This horrid story has no light at the end of the tunnel or a run into the sunset. This important story of grief is one we need to remember, because like Chris Prewitt, Jonathan lived his life to the fullest and made it the best he could although he never imagined it would be such a short trip.

However, from his trip we need to learn from it and allow it to open our eyes to the fact that we all are human and our end may come any day at any age. This should not make us sad because dreading this fact would waste our life away. Instead we need to live our life to the fullest so when we leave we can be proud of what we accomplished and not have to think of “what if?”