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      Hot Topic

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BlogsSliderViewpoints

The absence of your presence

January 29, 2017

 

News Editor Delia Adamson and Broadcast Editor Karla Dougan have been best friends since first grade at Barrow Elementary School. Dougan survived a car crash on Dec. 31, 2016 and is currently receiving treatment at Shepherd Hospital in Atlanta, GA. Throughout the years of their friendship, Adamson and Dougan have created many memories. Photo collage by Delia Adamson.
By DELIA ADAMSON – Print News Editor

Print News Editor Delia Adamson writes a letter to her best friend and Broadcast Editor Karla Dougan, who survived a car accident on Dec. 31, 2016.

To my best friend,

I often pick up my phone to text you.
To tell you about my day and then hear you rant all about yours.
We never go a day without talking to each other anyway.
We’ve always been known as the inseparable pair.
But then I am forced to remember that day in my life I can never forget,
Although I wish I could.

I remember getting the phone call from Saidee.
I remember dropping down to my knees.
I remember screaming, crying and hyperventilating.
I was supposed to go over to your house to get ready for that party,
remember?
But instead, I spent that evening in a hospital,
watching you be carried away on a helicopter and sent to Grady.

And that night my non-religious body knelt on the ground and prayed for so long, I fell asleep on the floor.

I don’t want you to think that I have forgotten about you.
As you lay there in that hospital,
67.3 miles away from me.
I miss you more and more every day.
I am not me…without you.

I miss hearing you yell my name loudly,
whenever I didn’t know what was going on.
How we were going to have a house in Spain,
and the beach,
and the mountains.
I miss us talking about the future,
about how we were always going to stay best friends.

Since the accident, people always ask me if I am O.K.,
but I always just say no.

I am never going to be O.K..

When people look at me now, all they see is the absence of your presence.
I often find myself looking to my left,
only to realize you’re not there.
It’s funny how someone can always be there and then,
they’re not.

I will always love you,
Your best friend, Delia

Print Lead Copy Editor Jordan Rhym’s song to Karla. 

More from Delia Adamson

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Delia Adamson

Delia Adamson is senior at Clarke Central High School and currently serves as the Managing Editor of the ODYSSEY Media Group and a Writing Coach and Facilitator of the Introduction to Journalism class. This her fourth year on staff and has also served as a News staff writer, Public Relations Manager, Writing Coach and News Editor.

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