Dear James,
This year, I celebrated my 21st year of life. My family bought me books I love and my best friend bought me the wonderful gift of meeting two people on my bucket list - one of which being my favorite author, John Green. I started reading when I was a sophomore in high school. No one really shared this love of books with me except for my cousin James. James lived far away and we didn't see each other much but that didn't stop us from becoming very close when he moved to Montana. I had just started my love for reading and he only stopped at our house for a day, but that day will be etched in my mind forever. He spent the whole day with me looking for a book, by my favorite author (John Green), titled "Paper Towns". We drove back and forth across town scouring for this book and we couldn't find it anywhere. Eventually we gave up and he gave me the only book he had with him, a copy of "Champion" by Marie Lu. That was the last time I would ever see James. We spent the summer calling each other at strange hours and discussing whatever book we were reading that week or whatever drama we caught ourselves in. He told me about the beautiful Montana sunsets and how he couldn't wait for me to come visit him. To this day, I still haven't seen a Montana sunset. I'm not quite sure if I'll ever want to. After he died, I found myself clinging to writing. I had just started a creative writing class and I fell madly in love. I wrote short stories and character descriptions and went through books like I go through a container of tic-tacs. I consumed myself with this world that he had loved so deeply. I promised him that I would live a life he never got to live - I would make a difference in the world and do lots of crazy, fun, meaningful things.
