Well, it makes me sad that I got to this so late. I can't even express how sad I am, and it's been 4 months since it happened, though it may as well have happened yesterday with having just found out today. Brady was the singular reason I got as much knowledge early on about SK as I did. It was a mutually beneficial relationship between us, because he seemed like he needed a consistent SK "friend" at the time and I needed someone to get me into the game. I wouldn't have invested the hours I did had it not been for him. He was also one of the coolest people I knew I on the YIM environment, and I was always looking forward to conversations with him when I logged on. I've never been to Wichita, but I felt like I was one of the "krew", with how much Tyler and Brady chatted it up with me and we got along. I know he was a great person and I would have done anything to help him, had I been presented the opportunity. It's hard when you're hundreds of miles away... I know he's in a heaven of his creation right now, where he's no longer a slave to his environment and he finally gets to choose his happiness.
For all of you that don't have anything nice to say, or plan to say anything unkind when this comes back to light after my post, you have a lot of maturing to do, no matter how old you are. In honor of Brady's legacy, I'm sharing my knowledge and wisdom I've discovered with the rest of you, in hopes you find your path to understanding of the situation. I'll leave these quotes in dedication:
"Fly free and happy beyond birthdays and across forever, and we'll meet now and then when we wish, in the midst of the one celebration that never can end."
"If it's never our fault, we can't take responsibility for it. If we can't take responsibility for it, we'll always be its victim."
"You have no birthday because you have always lived; you were never born, and never will die. You are not the child of the people you call mother and father, but their fellow-adventurer on a bright journey to understand the things that are."
"Nothing happens by chance, my friend... No such thing as luck. A meaning behind every little thing, and such a meaning behind this. Part for you, part for me, may not see it all real clear right now, but we will, before long."
"In order to live free and happily, you must sacrifice boredom. It is not always an easy sacrifice."
"Every person, all the events of your life, are there because you have drawn them there. What you choose to do with them is up to you."
"Remember where you came from, where you're going, and why you created the mess you got yourself into in the first place."
"The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each others' life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof."
"The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."
"Don't be dismayed at goodbyes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends."
"You are led through your lifetime by the inner learning creature, the playful spiritual being that is your real self.
Don't turn away from possible futures before you're certain you don't have anything to learn from them."
"Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself. Being true to anyone else or anything else is not only impossible, but the mark of a fake individual."
"We wait all these years to find someone who understands us, I thought, someone who accepts us as we are, someone with a wizard's power to melt stone to sunlight, who can bring us happiness in spite of trials, who can face our dragons in the night, who can transform us into the soul we choose to be. Just yesterday I found that magical Someone is the face we see in the mirror: It's us and our homemade masks."
This last one I leave as a personal testament to you Brady, for your journey.
"That's what learning is, after all; not whether we lose the game, but how we lose and how we've changed because of it and what we take away from it that we never had before, to apply to other games. Losing, in a curious way, is winning."
(All quotes courtesy of Richard Bach.)
Kevin Couch
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