A Tragic Reminder of What People Will Remember

A young man passed away in South Texas last Friday.

By all accounts, he was a great kid.  I know he was consistently upbeat when I saw him around the barns, he was well respected by his peers, and deeply loved by his family.  

I only met him directly one time and it was nothing more than that way you meet so many different people at stock shows.  It was a conversation amongst several people that he was a part of where at some point everyone goes around the circle and introduced themselves to the people they don’t know.  

I say that because I don’t want to sound like I’m in any sort of position to eulogize the young man in any credible way.

No, this post is about just one extremely small aspect of his life, one of his last Facebook posts.

When I heard that he had died in a car accident, I was fearful but not 100% sure that the news was about the young man I thought it was.  In fact, I had to go to Facebook to double check and see.

I’m not embarrassed to admit that I shed a small tear when I pulled his Facebook page up.

His Facebook page, at least the publicly available version of it, wasn’t the page of a young man doing teenage boy things.  It wasn’t a bunch of snarky and sarcastic memes.  It wasn’t anything the slightest bit inappropriate.

It was an extremely touching photo of him hugging his sister after he won his county show earlier this year.

I can only imagine what my Facebook page would look like if I were to unexpectedly pass away.  There was a time when it would have almost certainly been a picture of a steer’s butt or some sort of stock show humblebrag.  Nowadays, it would likely be a picture of my kids doing something at a tournament or playing whatever sport is currently in season.

As trivial as we can pretend Facebook and social media is, nowadays it matters.  It’s the last way many people will connect with you if you are taken too soon.  I don't think the young man could have picked a much better way to be remembered if he had tried.

When people go to Kollyn’s Facebook page now or years into the future, they’ll be reminded of a young man who loved show cattle and loved his sister.

What would they see on yours?