Does anyone here remember how and when they learned about death? And that

[Orrex]

5. Now that you mention it...

My first close-up experience with human mortality occurred when a high school classmate died in a car accident about five weeks before we would have graduated. We were a small school, so everyone knew everyone else, and it really crushed us.

I was working at a restaurant about two miles from the site, and we saw a shitload of police and EMS racing down the highway. We assumed it was an accident but didn't know that she'd died until a few hours later.

It's a strange moment when you're confronted with human fragility in that way. I suppose I was lucky to have been spared this kind of first-hand exposure for so long, but it was still a great shock when it happened.


Funny ol' world.