Tag Archives: John Walls

Remember You’re Alive

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I just heard news about the drowning of Wilsonville High School junior Colton Holly. He was near Albany, Oregon with his wrestling team at camp. They went in the river, and an hour later the coaches and team realized he was missing. Holly’s body was later found twenty feet under water by rescue divers.

I never stop thinking about the life of John Walls and Tommy Egger, but now another young life is lost amongst the flurry and confusion of fate. I can only imagine what the family, friends, and Wilsonville student and faculty body are going through. They are in my thoughts and prayers. We go each day and often take for granted each breath of air our lungs take in. Remember you’re alive because your next minute can be gone in an instant. People young and old die each day, let yourself not be one of them just yet.

Stay safe, my friends.

I Ask One Favor…

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In remembrance of Edward Johnathon Walls (1989-2009), please help me raise research minutes for Stand Up to Cancer, an organization looking to put an end to this horrible disease. Getting involved is quick, easy, and free. In the widget to the right, simply click “Help Now”, watch the short advertisement, and rate the video. It’s that easy. One painless rating is all it takes. You can be done in under one minute. Please help me and join my cause. Thank you.

Wilsonville High School + Doernbecher

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Via a posting on Facebook within the past couple of days, I discovered that Wilsonville High School raised nearly $4000 for Doernbecher! That is amazing… and a new record! The previous bar was set last year (my senior year) at around $2500. What contributed to the spike in money raised? Edward Johnathon Walls. He is such an inspiration to so many people, and his passing being so recent, the feelings were still fresh in the hearts of staff and students. It is my belief this is what caused the great increase in contributions. I really wish I was there to have witnessed something so remarkable happen. What I do know is that, for perhaps the rest of my life, I will never think of Doernbecher Children’s Hospital the same way. Before, in my mind, it was only some building – some structure that just takes care of youths with cancer. But with the heartfelt feelings over John’s passing away, and the fact that he was a victim of cancer, I will always remember him when I hear or see the word Doernbecher or cancer. I will also consider all the other teens, children, parents and siblings going through the same emotional rollercoaster. Sometimes I think that we as a society consider sickness and disease another world, and we selectively turn our heads and leave it in the shadows because it doesn’t affect us. What a shame. I was truly touched by John’s life, and I will never have the same mindset again.

Home Stretch!

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There are incredibly four weeks left of freshman year at Oregon State University! I am looking much forward to summer and working at Haggen Food & Pharmacy again. This time around, though, I will be mostly checker, with some parcel duties. This sounds exactly like what I was aiming for. I’m so excited! Plus, I will get to see all my friends that have been off to school or busy with other affairs. We can go see movies, chillax at Shari’s, or kick it at Sonic.

But, you know, I will probably miss campus in some way. I will probably end up longing for the freedom I have here. I eat better here too! I love my mom’s cooking – it’s always so delicious, but when I’m here at OSU, I can make my own decisions on what to eat and really how much I eat. Also, I am committed to exercise through my HHS fitness class. At night, I can go out for a run if I so desire. I once told my parents that I go out for a jog at 10 or 11PM, and they were all worried and protective. They were concerned that someting would happen to me while I was out there. I respect that worry and care, but these types of choices I enjoy being able to make on my own. You can’t let risk take control of you.

A little over half my classes are a joyride, the others I do not enjoy so much. In math, I’m hoping to smooth sail it to the end. In physics, it’s gonna be a fight – lots of studying. There’s another midterm this Wednesday, and still the final to come. Plus, our labs are so boring and hard. In end, everything should be okay though. I can’t allow “summeritis” to get to me. That’s all for the update… John Walls’ memorial on Saturday went well –  the weather was hot and the sun was right on us. Many of my past classmates attended. It was like an unofficial 1-year reunion, except we were there for a different reason, and it certainly did not turn out to be a time to converse with people for me – it was kind of a bummer. I sort of felt invisible… Strange. Anyway, that’s all folks… yeah… my crowd of five people.

Out…

Edward Johnathon Walls (Updated)

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I’ve thought about it for days, and I have come to the conclusion that I don’t really know how to start this post. On or around Wednesday, May 6th, 2009, I first learned about the digressing state of John Walls’ life expectancy via a Facebook status update submitted by one of his closest friends. The news was a moderate shock to me. I had heard various gabber about him, and I knew what he looked like, but I think I had only seen him at school maybe once, and that being only after someone pointed it out to me. I did not know John Walls had leukemia prior to the revelation that his life was declining, however, I had some idea that he had cancer. Back in June of 2008, everyone stood and applauded for John Walls at our graduation ceremony. I had no clue what we were doing. Beyond that, I acquired more information little by little until my quest for understanding faded away.

Fast forward to last week, and this news uncovering sparred a swell of wonder and concern. I wanted to know more about John and why his friends say he was dieing. Furthermore, I wanted to know more of a history. That is when a good friend of mine forwarded me a link to his parents’ online journal. When I visited the website, I was taken back by what I discovered. Apparently John’s mother has been writing and sharing a journal entry about  every other day all the way back since 2005, resulting in the “Journal History” page being enormous in length. Also astonishing was the abundance of warm wishes left in the guestbook. Get this – over 310,000 people have visited John’s site! That is incredible.

But here arrives the hard part. Being busy with classes, Friday sweeps around so quickly, and by then I become really fixed on Glenda (John’s mom) posting a new update on John’s condition. In math, I had my iPhone out and was periodically refreshing the page in search of any new information. I checked the website one last time at about 10:40AM, to which then my class was dismissed early. I bike back to the dorms, and open the door to the news from my roommate that John had passed away. I marked the time – 10:55AM when I found out. John had passed away at 10:25AM – I was crushed.

Some people may become irritated with me that I was so closely following John’s last couple days of his fight with cancer. They would probably say how I never knew him – never even seen him, and I feel heartbroken that he passed away? Yes. Over the following day or so, I went back and breezed over the many journal entries – and it was so saddening! There were posts here and there revealing his good and bad days, when the cancer had gone into remission, or when it would be really giving him pain and difficulty. It was so hard reading about how this person bound by cancer is in so much pain, and the rest of us just go on our unaffected lives and have fun and go out and do things, and run, play, and go to school. I felt so bad for John. I try to imagine how hard it was for him to see all his friends and people he knows sprout off to college, going their own way. And John was just trapped at home. No longer could he keep up with everyone else as they were once attending high school. Everyone was gone now, except for him. Glenda’s many stories make my heart feel so heavy. My point here is that although I was never a personal friend of John Walls, nor did I ever vividly see him roaming the halls of school, but with the words of his mother, I feel so connected – I feel as if I was there experiencing it all with the family.

There was something extraordinary that happened though. Within an hour of Glenda’s news that John had passed, I posted a “Rest in Peace, John Walls” status on Facebook. From that point on, I witnessed an intriguing chain of reactions. Just momentarily after I submitted this micropost, I started a series of refreshes to the Facebook page. People’s “RIP” status updates could be seen being submitted at a phenomenal rate – I took note that there was about one post no more than every 2 minutes initially, with microposts continuing shortly after the beginning 30 minutes at about one update every 3-5 minutes. There were a total of approximately 23 “RIP” status updates within the one hour the chain reaction started. I find this all very interesting as I am considering focusing my studies in New Media Communications. The mass majority of people learning about John Walls passing away within the first two hours was not accomplished by a telephone call, text message, or word of mouth – it was done by a modernized form of communication… Facebook. What does this suggest our nation of youths is turning into or looking toward for information? This is evolution of technology and communication at its finest.

Yet despite this revelation, it is the cause that matters. On May 8th, 2009, Edward Johnathon Walls passed away, freeing his body of pain and suffering, and releasing him to a better place. A memorial is set to take place Saturday, May 16th at 3PM in the Wilsonville High School stadium, with a celebration in the commons thereafter. I will be there, and hopefully I will see you too.

Rest in peace, John.