Hello everyone. Many of you probably didn't know that I am a youth worker. I mentor middle school students at a local youth center. Just recently one of my students that I've had the privilege of mentoring passed away from an aggressive form of brain cancer that doctors said was terminal.
This kid was a fighter. He had been battling cancer for over a year and I am so thankful that I was given the opportunity to mentor such a strong and inspiring dude.
A few months ago when the semester started up again I was at work and he came in and greeted me with a high five and wanted to hear all about my summer. We went to one of the computers and started looking up songs on YouTube. It was then that I learned he had been playing League of Legends.
He started to type a very familiar video name into YouTube and had me watch Captain Teemo. The song is found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTs0xdeMRDI
After I learned that he had been playing League of Legends all summer as a way to escape from the pain that his cancer had caused him we started playing games on a regular basis. I created a smurf account and I showed him some tricks that I had learned over the 3 years that I have been playing. His favorite champion was Teemo and I showed him my AP Teemo build that I had developed and he did better than I ever had. He would play Teemo and I would play Kennen, my favorite champion. Together we would own everyone at the lower levels.
This last month he has gotten worse. His cancer caused him to become weaker and he couldn't come to the youth center as often as he would have liked. The last time I saw him was Thursday, November 22. He came in with eyes showing that he was tired and weak, but with a smile that showed that he was loving every second of life that he had left. We went to the computers and listened to LoL parodies. As we were listening to all the epic parodies by Plentakill he was doodling on a piece of paper. He was drawing his favorite champion.
Before he left to go home he handed me the picture he drew, gave me a hug and said, "Thanks for being the only other person who cared about me."
Two days later I got a call from his mom saying that he had passed away. I broke down and cried for the first time in years, but I was at peace because a kid that was like a little brother was no longer suffering. I spoke at his funeral and told his family and friends how he was such an awesome student. Afterwards his mom came to me and said, "Hunter really loved being able to play League of Legends with you. You were his best friend. Thank you for all that you have done for my son."
He was 13 when he died.
RIP Hunter. I'll never forget you.
I don't shed a tear at a sad story often but this one really got to me.. I love League of Legends but this is just sad but moving. Please read it and comment how you feel about it.
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