Journal three: John Long

Part One:

The reading is going really well for me actually. I find the stories to be fascinating and moving. It's hard to fathom the amount of remarkable people there are here in our our backyard who is just ordinary like you and I. I ask myself, what makes these people so remarkable? Really the only reason I can think of as to why they're so astonishing is, because they're so ordinary. They're ordinary people like you and I who have faced many odds in life and in this culture; and yet they still did the things they enjoyed most in their lives.
They strengths for the book is the emotional text that the writer was able to capture by using the interviewee's colloquial language. This really brings each profile in this book to life and is quite enjoyable to read. As far as I read, each profile isn't very long or difficult to read. I honestly can say that there isn't any weaknesses that this book has.
When reading these handouts and other reading assignments I use basic methods and strategies in order to obtain all the information that I believe is important. I like to read each paragraph at least two times. During my second reading I usually go through each line with a pen or pencil and underline each fact and idea that I deem important.

Part Two:

The theme I chose is "looking at death in the face" ...
You might be wondering as to why I chose such as strange and peculiar theme to write about. Well, the truth is I had a life changing event when I was eighteen. I witness a very good friend of mine pass away right in front of me. No one was around to help, but me. Was I scared? To be quite honest I really don't know. I had so many conflicting emotions running through me. It was hard to think what I was feeling at the time of my friend's passing. Now I won't say any names that might offend anyone, and don't worry what happened might not be what you think.
I can still remember the weather that day. It was in the middle of June. It was a Sunday and the sky was clear, and the sun was the brightest it has been in months. Summer hadn't taken its toll yet, so the mornings were still a little chilly, but by midday it would get really warm. It was my third year at my job. It was a paintball complex. My friend was an avid player. He'd always show up every Sunday with doughnuts to give to me and everyone else who worked there at the complex. He done it ever since I could remember. He was an older man who loved the sport, and the people who always came out to play. I also enjoyed the sport of paintball. I started playing ever since I was junior high.
Over the years of working there at the complex, I got to know my friend really well. Everyone who worked there knew him better than I did, but he always showed how much he cared for all of us. At the end of everyday he would always come up to the front window of the shop and thank us all for a great day of paintball and that we all did a wonderful job reffing the games. I always found that to be very admirable of him to say. That morning felt like any other morning to me. I had no idea that that morning I was going to witness seeing my friend die in front of me. I started off my morning like normal. I came into work dressed and ready to take on a long day of paintball and hearing over a hundred people complain about a million things under the sun. I walked into the shop and gathered my "ref pack" before filling up several hundred air tanks for the rental guns, along with my coworkers. It wasn't quite yet nine o'clock and there was already several hundred people there waiting in the staging area. So, I finished filling up the tanks and gathered my pack and went on outside to greet everyone. I figured that since I have to give everyone a safety briefing, wise well go ahead and get it over with so no one has to wait on the stragglers.
It seemed to be a promising day for actually. Everyone was smiling and excited to go out and play. I was just happy to smash on a doughnut, since I didn't eat anything before I came to work. It was Sunday. I know there would be doughnuts waiting for everyone once I got there. After everyone got signed in and there gear loaded and prepped for play, I got everyone's attention and had them follow me down to one of the closer fields for a warm up game of "capture the flag". It wasn't very far away. In fact, you were able to see the field from the staging area. Everyone loved the field. It was this long open field with these large mounds of dirt everywhere, which made it look like a World War One battlefield. It was surrounded by safety nets, so that if anyone wanted to watch a game they could. After we walked onto the field, I explain to everyone the rules of the game and where they were to go after being eliminated from the game. They crowd of customers seemed really excited about playing, especially the kids. I always got a kick out of the little boys who would come to play with their dad. They always acted like they were real soldiers or something. I always laughed seeing a group of boys running around out on the fields with their friends shooting at the other team. In some ways it reminded me of when I was a kid.
I counted how many players I had on my field, and I divided them up into two teams. Orange and Blue. My friend always like playing for the Orange team. It didn't mean anything. It was just the color of the armbands that we gave them to tell them apart form the Blue team. I think he just liked the color. I told each team to start on opposite sides of the field. I placed a large flag out in the middle of the field. Just so everyone is clear, the objective of the game was to be the first team to grab the flag and place it in the opposing teams starting base. My friend always loved the game. He said it always reminded him of football. I never really set a time limit on the games that I reffed, but if people weren't shooting or weren't going anywhere, I usually called out a two minute warning to get them to hurry up and try to complete their teams objective.
After I started the game, everyone from both sides rushed toward the center of the field. Orange team had control of most of the field and were pushing the Blue team back. I ran up on top of one of the mounds in order to get a better look at the whole field. As I was watching the game, I heard My friend yell out to me. I ran over to him and asked what he needed. He told me that the two players at the other end of the mound were out. He said that he had shot them out. I told him I would go "paint check" them for him. So I ran over to the other players and looked, but they weren't hit anywhere. I figured it was someone else he might of shot out. Then I quickly ran back over to My friend, and said to him that they were clean and still in the game. So I climbed back on top of the very same mound I was on earlier. The two teams continued to struggle with getting the flag and taking it to the opposing teams starting base. Within a few minutes, the two players from the Blue team that I "paint checked" earlier, asked me to go "paint check" My friend. They urged me to run other where he was and call him out. They told me that they shot him several times and he hasn't moved. So I did. I walked over around the other side of the bunker My friend was hiding behind. I noticed he was laying on his side with his gun under him. I first thought that maybe he had hurt his knee or maybe he had fallen. My friend at the time was seventy-seven years old.
I asked him if he was alright. I didn't hear him respond back. So I asked him again. Still I didn't hear him say anything. At this moment I felt an urge to place my earpiece next to his mouth guard. I laid my hand on his arm, and I yelled, asking him if he was alright. Again, I didn't hear him say anything. I leaned down and placed my earpiece next to his mouth guard. I heard a growling sound coming from his mouth. I after that, I knew what had happened. He had suffered a massive heart attack. The growling sound is what some people would call "the death growl". Not to get too vivid or graphic, but it happens after someone had passed and the air is leaving their body. At that moment, I felt all the blood rushing from my face. I quickly got on my radio and called for help from my manager and supervisor. I radioed my coworker to end the game and get the players off the field. I asked him to take them to the very back of the park to play on one of the courses in the woods.
I didn't know what I was doing at the time, but I felt that clearing the field and calling for help was the best thing for me to do. Two of my players happened to come running up to me explaining that they were paramedics. I instantly felt relieved.
Before the ambulance had shown up, I remember the two off duty paramedics pulled off My friend's mask. I looked and seen his eyes. It was like looking at a pair of dolls eyes. They life in him was gone. Some people might believe that we don't have a soul. When we die, we die. Nothing else happens after that. I can see why some people might believe that. You can't see a person's soul, and if you can't see it then it must not exist. I didn't see my friend's soul that day, but what I did see was absence. Something that once was was missing. I've heard before that people believe a person's eyes are the windows to their souls. I never really understood that saying until that day. That morning I looked into my friend's eyes and I saw his soul. I may not of noticed it at the time, but it was there. He was full of life. At the funeral his wife talked about the night before he died. She said he was like a kid gathering his toys before going over to a friends house to play. She figured that he might of known his time was coming and that he wanted to go doing what he loved. I hear these stories about people hurting other people on news and I often wonder, why can't people show the very same love and compassion like My friend did. He was the nicest man I ever met. His son told me about a time when he called him asking him if he believed in angels. His son told him that he did. He asked his father why he asked if he did or not. He explained to his son what happened to him earlier that day. An old man came up to him asking him if he had a dollar to spare. My friend said that he honestly didn't have a dollar to give. Then the old man reached out and handed My friend a dollar.
I believe things happen to us for a reason. We might see them differently, but there's always something we learn from our experiences. Sometimes we let our emotions get the best of us and we end up later regretting what we did or what we said. I learned that no matter what happens in our lives, that we must cherish what we do have and keep the ones we care and love so much close to us, and let go to everything else. There's  more to life than what we make of it.
I guess what I'm trying to say if I'm saying anything at all, is live your lives like it's your last day. No matter what the future brings, keep your chin up and your heart filled with love and compassion. You might changed someones life one day.