Shreya Panathula Week 14: Thou Shalt Not Question the Murderer in My Friend’s School
“So…this guy in my school may have murdered somebody.”
That’s the text I open my phone to the second I step out of sixth period. And since my friend cannot just leave me hanging like that, I immediately start bombarding her with the obvious questions anyone who has just been told that there is a literal murderer in their friend’s school might ask.
"What do you mean 'may have'?"
"What happened?"
"Like—actually 'murdered'?"
After five entire minutes of an anxious and excruciatingly long wait, she texts me back the details. Apparently a senior at her Texan high school—someone well-known, a football player—had been arrested and charged after a violent altercation at a track meet. The other student involved, one who was from another school, tragically lost his life during the confrontation.
By the time paramedics arrived, it was too late. The student died in his twin brother’s arms (Guerrero).
Memory, arguably, isn’t just based on facts or details—often emotions are what define them. Emotions are what end up shaping what we remember and to what extent we remember events, whether it is the shock, the disbelief, or the sadness that we pair with certain recollections. It is the reason why some memories remain sharp and crystal clear, due to the sheer strength of the emotion that is attached to them, while others just fade into the background.
And memories like these, with the pain and heartache that often accompany them, do not fall into the category of fading into the background. They stay because they are more than just events—they are reminders of how fragile life is, how quickly things can change, and how deeply loss can be felt even by those who only knew the story from a distance. For some with personal ties to what happened, the memory isn’t just something they recall—it’s something they must learn to endure and live with.
Some memories are ones that we bear on our shoulders, carrying them with us forever, changing the way in which we choose to see the world. Others drift away, becoming hazy with time, as they become unimportant and therefore forgotten subjects. But whether clear or distant, memory is what reminds us of what mattered, of what changed us, and of what we can never truly fully forget. Because, at the end of the day, it is our emotions that decide which memories are to fade and which ones are to stay as they etch themselves into who we are and shape our entire perspectives.
Heinz, Frank, et al. “Man Says Son Was Stabbed in the Heart at High School Track Meet, Died in Twin’s Arms.” NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, 2 Apr. 2025, www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/student-stabbed-frisco-track-meet/3806667/. Accessed 02 Apr. 2025.
Hi Shreya! I wholeheartedly agree about jarring memories staying with us forever. Although this is a vastly different take on this idea, I found that the same is true for my memory of the last day of actually going to school in sixth grade— the day that the lockdown began. This event had not directly affected me just yet, but even five years later I can still remember the dreary atmosphere on that day, how anxiously we were all waiting for our teacher to deliver updates about the status of school for the next few weeks, and my last few words to my friends before walking to my car in the pouring rain. Although other memories, such as embarrassing ones, or those when we were slightly hurt, eventually fade, significant memories like these will always stick with us.
ReplyDeleteHello Shreya! Your story telling completely hooked me into your content, especially the dialogue you began that displayed the precise tone that teenagers communicate with on text. The sensory imagery you used to describe the influx of emotion as a short time period, a menial 5 minutes, can amount to such a buildup that it ends up forming an important memory with weighted importance. Although your subject was dark, your approach to transitioning from this moving story of a killing to how this speaks to human memories is artful. I think we often consider how meaningful memories are based on the content of them itself and whether it was an important event in our life, but true memories are actually formed from the emotional response we associate with them. I think your blog beautifully captures that idea with a simple, yet poignant example that you explore creatively in your blog. I would love to read more about your personal experiences and human nature!
ReplyDeleteHi Shreya! Your blog was very well written and easy to follow because of your organization and transitions. The news about the murder is an extremely clear example of your message. I completely agree that emotions can make or break a memory. Some of my clearest memories are when I was super happy or triumphant, while during the quarantine when I felt generally apathetic every day, I can barely remember anything about it. For years since I moved to the Bay Area, I clung to my memories of where I used to live as they were where I felt most happy, and now I also find it difficult to remember my first years living here.
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