Hello, I’m Michael Long, a friend of Arnav and Dhruv. I have so many memories of the boys. One that stands out to me in particular, one that I will never forget, is when I first met Dhruv and Arnav while visiting swain to see if I would go there during my 4th grade year.
I was toured by another student, but I still remember when I first met Dhruv and Arnav in the Cougar Cafe, and I thought I was seeing double. They helped me by pointing out the fact that they are identical twins, and Arnav showed me the classic blonde stripe in his hair to help me make a distinction between the two.
Later that day, a couple of kids and I were playing the beloved tetherball. After playing a for a bit, a tetherball smacks me right upside the face. I wasn’t sure who hit me, but later I found out it was Dhruv.
Before that point, I was doubting coming to Swain. Dhruv and Arnav comforted me right away, and so much so, that my confidence was regained and I knew I wanted to be at the same school as them.
There are also many smaller memories, such as the 8th grade trip where the boys, our friend Jared, and I all stayed in the same room, or our vacation to Jamaica, where we were all hung over, from the fun of course, and had to wake up 5:30 to go ATV riding. From the long nights of 2k grinding, sneaking goldfish in class, playing the beloved clash of clans in almost every class at Swain, watching Arnav and Dhruv pass me on the bikes in Cape Cod, with me exerting every ounce of energy in my body to keep up, and of course walking around for hours playing pokemon go. Other amazing memories include linking arms while going down the hallways of Swain with Ray, the boys, and myself, despite the teachers explicitly saying not to block up the hallway, which in turn we got detentions for, and running the 5k for osteosarcoma, where seeing Arnav’s smile, after him seeing me and Dhruv nearly passing out, made me smile for the rest of the day. These were some of the best moments of my life.
The memories go on and on, and I was so lucky to have Arnav right beside me in all of them. Reflecting on all of these moments made me realize how much more fun all of these trips and activities had been because I had both of the boys by my side. Through the good and the bad, Arnav was always the one who comforted us and never had one bad thing to say about anything, and I’m so glad to have known such a great soul through my childhood. I am so glad that we all were able to share our highschool experience with him, and I hope going forward we can all learn a little bit from him, as personally I have learned to be kind to others as he was so kind to me.
To conclude, both Arnav and Dhruv are two of the kindest boys I know and will know for the rest of my life, hopefully one day, everyone could be just like Arnav and Dhruv, because that would be one great world, thank you.