I’m here to talk about some memories I had with Arnav. I started this with a long list of moments, but here are the ones that are closest to me.
The first time I met Arnav was at a boy’s soccer game freshmen year. He was sitting on the sidelines watching his brother, Dhruv, play on the field. I had walked over to him after realizing who he was. I hadn’t thought about that day for a while, but Mrs. Krishna reminded me of it the other day. Before I went to see him, she stopped me and held me by my arm saying, “I remember you. You came over to me and Arnav at the soccer game. You two had started talking and I slowly eased away from you guys.” She had mentioned how nice it was to see Arnav making friends even though he was out of school. I never realized how much it meant to Mrs.Krishna that I spent that day talking to him.
During freshman year I remember Dhruv showing me pictures of him and Arnav from middle school. I would always try to decipher who was who, and once I thought I knew who Dhruv was, I would smile and point to him on the phone and say that’s you. He would just laugh and shake his head at me saying “No, that would be Arnav” and I think I did that for every single picture he showed me. But now, looking back on those pictures after getting to know them both, I can easily pick the twins apart.
Going into sophomore year I found out Arnav was being placed into my advisory. Our advisor, Ms. Jackson, loved to play games like spikeball, frisbee, and smaller games for the colder months. One day, once we all sat around the table, she asked “have any of you played Pass the Pigs?” We all looked at her like she was crazy. Yet next thing we knew we were rolling two little pig figures as if they were dice. Depending on which way they landed, whether it was on it’s back or side or feet, was a different amount of points. You could pass the pig whenever you wanted or until you land on “Pig Out”, which meant you lost all your points. As we played for the first time we all went around thinking it’s so easy, but soon enough we would roll the “Pig Out” and lose all of our points. The best player was Arnav, yet none of us realized until we had already lost. He quietly racked up the points while the rest of us trash talked and focused on ourselves.
I feel like these memories show who he was as a person; and even though he spoke softly, his actions were always louder than his words. He showed everyone how to celebrate the little things and appreciate every day. My favorite memory by far is another example of him showing me how to smile and have fun. I got to see this everyday on our walk to Honors Chemistry. He crutched his way up to the labs every day from Walter Hall and refused to let the security car take him to class. When he first got off of his crutches it was still noticeable that he had a limp, but he still powered on. I remember the day that Arnav finally surrendered to Will Bingham’s constant asking if he could carry him to class. The other day I rewatched the video of that moment and saw the bright smile across Arnav’s face as Will ran down the path with him in his arms. The camera then focused on Dhruv, who was carrying both of their backpacks while quietly smiling at his brother and friend running away.
Dhruv and his family have been so strong in all of this. My heart goes out to the Krishna family. Their relentless positivity and constant smiles are what keep me going.
Thank you.