There’s an endless possibility of things you could do with a magic potion. You could be indestructible. You could be a super athlete. You could be anything or do anything you want with a magic potion. The magic potion I want, though, is actually quite different then what most people would want if they received a magic potion.

I want a potion that will allow me to never lose hope and faith, no matter what the situation may be. Think about it. If you never lose hope and faith then you’ll always be optimistic and consider the glass to be half-full rather than half-empty. I’ve had a lot of things happen in my life that have diminished my hope and faith in a lot of things.

The ingredients for this potion are for one and probably most important, a bible. This will allow me to never lose faith and in our lord and savior Jesus Christ. The next ingredient is pictures of my family and friends so that no matter what they say or do to me I’ll never lose hope and faith in them. After that I would put in a football and baseball. I put these in so that I will never lose faith in my athletic abilities. The last ingredient is going to be the words true love. This is so I will never lose hope and faith that I may one day find my one true love.

Mix all of these together and, in my opinion, you have a perfect potion. Many people let their lives and situations that may occur diminish their hope and faith. If they had this potion that would never be the case. The best part about this potion is that it doesn’t have any side effects so you don’t have to worry about and antidote. I mean who wouldn’t want to always have hope and faith? If you think about it both of these things are truly what make us who we are as human beings.

———

Have you ever had a friend or family member who meant the world to you? No matter what they were always there for you through thick and thin. They were a shoulder to cry on and a smile you could always count on seeing. Sometimes these people are taken from you. You don’t know why. You don’t understand. All you feel is sadness and a longing feeling in your heart. You miss this person.

On Dec. 23, 2016, my girlfriend Katlyn was taken from me. She got in a car crash coming to see me. We both had lived roughly ten miles from each other in a little neighborhood in Myrtle Beach. She was three miles away from my house. I lost my everything three miles away from me. We had been dating for a year and a half. She was the one for me. She made me feel whole. She made me want to be the best person I could possibly be. When she was with me I felt safe and genuinely happy. I never wanted to be with another girl. She was my one and only.

In a split second that was all gone. The one thing that completed me had been taken from me. Saying that I miss her would be an understatement. She’s what had kept me going. When I had found out that she had died I shut down. I fell to my knees and broke apart. I miss Katlyn more and more every day. She was the best thing that had ever happened to me and I lost her just like that. It was supposed to be a surprise. She was supposed to be on vacation with her family for Christmas. She stayed in Myrtle Beach because she was going to surprise me by spending Christmas with me. She never got the chance.

To this day, I still can’t wrap my head around it. I’m confused why it had to be her. I’m sad that I lost the most important in my life. I’m angry that she was taken from me. No matter what I will always miss her. Nothing will ever change that. I’m going to make her proud of me. I know she would want me to continue to be the person that she fell in love with. I think about her every day. Ever since I lost Katlyn I’ve developed a new understanding of not taking your loved ones for granted. You never know when they could be taken from you. Always make sure they know that you love them. They may be here today and gone tomorrow. I sometimes look up into the sky and I know that Katlyn is looking down at me, missing and loving me just as much as I will always love and miss her.

———

(Austin Evers is a senior at Harlan County High School and is a member of the Bear Tracks newspaper staff and student in a communications/creative writing class at HCHS. This is a continuing series of columns produced by student writers)