Life just isn't fair. People don't deserve to die, others don't deserve to lose them, and those of us that are left become broken down through the course of time because these voids in our hearts will never be filled.
Reading the Palm Beach Post this morning when I arrived at the office was just the same as I begin every other work day. I read an article about a crash on Glades late the night before in which one person had been killed and scrolled onto the next article. When I got the phone call two hours later, I couldn't accept that the article was about our very own Zack.
I'm at a loss for words just like everybody else. Part of me still can't believe it's true. The pain in my heart is wrenching. To put it simply, we lost a great one today and we all know that.
Zack affected each of us in his very own way. Anybody who knew Zack has stories about times with him that never get old. We all have some great memories that we must cherish because a person as special and irreplacable as him is undoubtedly impossible to forget. This world will not be the same without him, none of our worlds will ever be the same.
I know my words are generic, but there are no words that could do him justice. His mind, heart, personality and smile were too big for most people to handle in this world. We all accepted him and embraced Zack's qualities that others thought were borderline nuts, because that's just how he was and that's why we loved him.
He brought a lot of us together; a lot of you I would have never befriended otherwise. He turned us from strangers to friends, and from friends to family. We are all in different states, living different lives, and were parts of his life at different times and phases, but we all have something amazing in common. Zack was the glue to keep all of us together. This is not a time for us to "move forward"- Zack never moved forward without taking all of us with him.
We can't sweat the small stuff. We need to be good to each other. A lot of friendships and relationships have been damaged amongst this general group I'm speaking to. It's time for all of us, myself included, to grow up and be strong right now. We have always had each other's backs when things went wrong and this is definitely not the time to stop. Pick your heads up. Support Josh. Tell everyone you know the crazy stories about times with Zack. I couldn't help but smile even though I was gushing tears today whenever I would think about him or talk about him with Rocky. We have all done some crazy shit, some of the best times in my life thus far were spent with this crew.
I wish we could bring him back, I wish this wasn't happening- but it is. We won't "grieve and get on with our lives," like people say to do when they lose somebody. We will live like Zack is still here. Laugh often, smile at the authorities when you're in trouble, take care of each other, and most importantly never quit. Go hard, bastards.
