One year ago today. A day known as June 2nd, 2015.
One year ago today, seven 13-year-old friends, fresh out of the seventh grade, went on a day trip together.
One year ago today, seven friends went to a lake together.
One year ago today, seven friends set up a camp near a lake together.
One year ago today, four friends took a ride on a boat together.
One year ago today, four friends and a little first-grader took a ride on a boat together.
One year ago today, four friends, a little first-grader, and two adults, one a mother of three and the other a dentist and a father of three, took a ride on a boat together.
One year ago today, three friends stayed behind on the shores of the lake.
One year ago today, four friends, a little first-grader, and two adults were out in the middle of a lake on a boat together.
One year ago today, the four friends, the little first-grader, and the two adults were having so much fun out on the lake that they didn't notice the storm creeping up on them.
One year ago today, the storm reached the four friends, the little first-grader, and the two adults.
One year ago today, the storm winds were so high their boat capsized.
One year ago today, the four friends, the little first-grader, and the two adults were thrown off of their boat and into the freezing cold water.
One year ago today, the four friends, the little first-grader, and the two adults huddled together and tried to come up with a plan that would bring them to safety.
One year ago today, two of the friends stayed behind with the little first-grader and the two adults while the other two began to swim to the nearest shore to look for help.
One year ago today, the two friends who began to swim to the nearest shore to look for help found themselves stranded in the middle of a freezing cold lake with waves up to eight feet tall crashing from all around with the capsized boat no longer in sight.
One year ago today, the three friends who stayed back at the camp dialed 911 and called for a search-and-rescue team.
One year ago today, the two friends who went looking for help had swam for at least four hours before the search-and-rescue team found them.
One year ago today, the two friends who went looking for help were wrapped up in blankets, strapped to a cot, and taken to the nearest hospital.
One year ago today, the search-and-rescue team found the capsized boat.
One year ago today, the search-and-rescue team found three bodies.
One year ago today, the search-and-rescue team brought the bodies to the nearest hospital.
One year ago today, one body was still missing.
One year ago today, the doctors announced that the father, the child, and one of the friends, Kelsey, had died of hypothermia.
One year ago today, the doctors announced that the mother was still alive, but the search-and-rescue team had not yet found the missing body.
One year ago today, the search-and-rescue team finally managed to find the body. The body belonged to a girl named Siera, who was indeed dead from hypothermia.
One year ago today, the two friends who went looking for help recovered.
One year ago today, the remaining five friends, once a group of seven who only wanted a fun day at the lake, mourned for the loss of the father, the child, and their two beloved friends.
Jammers, believe it or not, these seven friends went to my school. We were acquaintances with each other, you could say.
I wish I could have gotten to know Siera and Kelsey better before they passed away.
If I had known when and how their death would take place, I would have warned them not to go to the lake and not to go on that boat.
But like they always say, you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone.
So, I plead of you to get to know your peers more, no matter how scary or weird they are, because we often take these kinds of things for granted as people. It's just human nature.
Thank you for reading.
#carrysieraslight
#spreadkelseyskindness
