Don’t take life for granted

Someone in the country loses a loved one, family member, friend, classmate or significant other to car accidents many times every day.  But never in a million years do you think that it would be you who loses that person.

I lost a friend and former classmate to a car accident in April.  His name was Jonas Tayong “Tay” Tabeson. During the night of April 19, Tay was the driver of a car that rolled over on an off-ramp of Highway 101 in King City. The two other teenagers inside were injured and Tay died because of severe impact.

Tay was a former Bishop O’Dowd student who later transferred to Skyline High School for his senior year. He was 17 and on his way to graduate. Tay was a genuine, kind-hearted person who constantly had a smile on his face. I never saw him mad or angry and even when he did something stupid he took full responsibility for it. He also always had positive energy even if he was in a bad situation.

For example, one day he told me the story of how he broke his arm. Even though he looked like he was in complete pain, he told the whole story with a huge smile on his face.

Family and friends will not remember Tay for being gone but they will remember him for all the memories he had with each and every one of them. He was one of the friendliest people I’d ever met and it is a tragedy to know that I’m never going to have another memory with him. We all love and miss Tay, and it sucks that it had to be him but as Assistant Principal Jason

Whiteman said, “The one thing that we know for certain is that everyone dies.”

From this horrible accident, I learned two big things: I learned to pay attention more than usual when driving at night because accidents happen and I learned that life isn’t guaranteed tomorrow so don’t take it for granted.