'Jumbo' Jeff was someone that would always make me smile every time I talked to him. He was always cheerful, friendly, funny, and super nice. He never said an ill word towards anyone and truly cherished every one of his friends and family members. He was the person that gave me my nickname, “Shaky”. He was someone that I considered my friend, but never took the time to really talk to for a long period of time. We would see each other alot when the Tarlach Fair staff was getting together again, but after the fair ends we go back to just him messaging me and me responding the next morning, not noticing he had messaged me because I was off reading manga or something.

Our friendship was very much a hit-and-miss, but it was good enough to hit me really when I heard the news. The tornado that recently went through Arkansas took his life. 

This incident made me realize how many friends like Jumbo I have. How many people I have on my in-game friend list, face book, and skype contacts that I hardly ever talk to. 

And then I think even harder about those that I’ve sent a friend dump. Those that I knew in elementary school and left for the people I started hanging out with in my middle school’s drama club. Those friends that started in that club and lasted through high school, then stopped talking to much anymore when we all graduated. 

I realize that I’ve lived in such a way to cause alot of regrets. If I could go back in time, the thing I would change is how I treated my friends. Jeff always took some time to go through and message everyone he knew, whether they responded to him normally or not. I never did this. If it wasn’t a person I saw on a daily basis, we fell out of contact.

Hell I even do this to my own father.

So from now on I really want to make a conscious effort to spend more time talking to everyone of my friends that hasn’t become fed-up with me yet. I don’t ever want to ignore someone and then wake up to find out on the news that they passed away, ever again. 

Life is too short to assume you can just reply tomorrow.