Deadline - A Thank You Letter to Zach Sobiech:

A Writing Containing Optimistically Jumbled Thoughts for the Sobiech Family and the Senior Class

My name is Joey Cameron, Im a 22 year old college student attending the University of St. Thomas, and Im a deadlineaholic. (Deadline aholic) About two hours ago I received word that local Minnesotan Zach Sobiech passed away of Osteosarcoma, an often fatal form of bone cancer. His sister, Alli, is getting married this coming Friday. A friend of mine named Jenner pointed this out via Facebook and believed it would be thoughtful for the University of St. Thomas to reach out to Alli and the rest of the Sobiech family to show support in a time of loss.. I guess Facebook can be used for good sometimes, huh? I wanted to use this opportunity to explain to all of you what I have learned and what insight I feel Ive gained from Zachs inspirational life story. (Im a little goofy and sarcastic at times, but please bear with me, its just my humor by no means am I being offensive, I hope you enjoy what Ive written and take something valuable from it). Dont forget to smile I find it ironic, the word deadline. I sit here at 4:07am on a Tuesday, the week of finals in my last semester as a college student at the University of St. Thomas. I have a deadline. By tomorrow (I guess thats today) 12pm, not 12am, noon oclock, I have both a take home final and a final research paper due. Thats it, and then Im done, ADIOS! I met enough deadlines to graduate from college in my predicted 4 years (my personal college deadline). I just emailed my psychology professor Dr. Awesome stating that I was not going to be able to meet the proposed deadline for the final

paper. The guy is pretty cool so I dont expect any issues regarding this missed deadline. Zachs life and touching story became my priority at 4am this morning. I find it ironic, the word deadline. Because I dont believe that this is a word that is used correctly, and I dont believe there has ever been a deadline that Ive personally missed that has caused me to, well, actually die. It seems as if we constantly go through life trying to meet these deadlines that are either proposed by ourselves, or given by others. They instill a fear in us by the possibility of not meeting our own or someone elses expectations. Its a concept of failure that actually feels as if we are going to die if we dont live up to those expectations or meet those deadlines. Zach Sobiech had a REAL deadline, and it gave me an opportunity to take a step back to realize how irrelevant and sometimes even unimportant some of my current deadlines really are. It is amazing how important and significant something can feel when we are so tied up in it. They may feel relevant and important now, but are they really? Or are many of our priorities just misplaced? How did we get so caught up in these perceptually important but unimportant deadlines? They can become a part of us, attached at the hip, blinding us like a drug addict unaware of their own problem that everyone else can easily see. We become self-consumed, sometimes causing us to shut others out, becoming more individualistic, competitive, and unaware of our surroundings and other people. Zachs deadline did just the opposite; it brought his friends, family, and community together. Strangers of different gender, race, and ethnicity resonate with his story in the same way I did. For the vast majority of us, we always want to meet our deadlines. Zach experienced a deadline that was almost inevitable and unpreventable, that no one wanted to see him reach, because for Zach, meeting that deadline actually meant a flatline.

I hope you never become so used to the world that it no longer seems so wonderful As college kids/students/adults, we are constantly bombarded and consumed by existing deadlines. Yeahh, it is extremely valuable to have goals and approximations as to when you would like to accomplish those goals, but the internalized and societal pressure that surrounds them often leave us astray from what we are actually trying to accomplish. We are sometimes so consumed by meeting our next deadline that we forget to enjoy the steps it takes to meet the goal along the way. That is the key; we sometimes forget that many of these deadlines are goals that we set out to accomplish, whether implicit or explicit goals. As college students we often jump from deadline to deadline not realizing that we ARE actually accomplishing our goals, and that we are meeting our deadlines along the way. But we never take the time to take a step back and appreciate the effort we put into reaching those goals, as well as the people who got us there in order to have the opportunity achieve them. Without many of these people some of our goals may feel or even be impossible. How are we supposed to enjoy our accomplishments, or the people who helped us get there if we are never aware of when a goal has been met? If we are always set on the next deadline, we will miss the opportunity to not only appreciate the ability to reach a goal, but the many people who helped us get to where we are today. As a senior student/kid/adult in college I am guilty of ALL of these things. I guess Im what you would call a deadlineaholic. I can meet a deadline down to the minute, and sometimes it feels as if its to the tenth of a second. I guess you could say that my life is filled with these deadlines. Somewhere in this tangle of deadlines I found a misinterpretation of my own real goals. As college students, we have many planned out deadlines: Finish college in 4 years, get a job right out of college, get a girlfriend, financial stability, move-in with girlfriend, marriage, bigass house, children, cabin, another big-ass house?, retirement/lots of fishing and golfing, death.

This is obviously stereotyping a vast majority of college students in Minnesota and everyones list is different, but the reality is that we ALL have some type of deadlines we would like to see ourselves meet in the future. Some of these deadlines are personally valued and some are expectations given by our peers and/or social norms. Most of the deadlines we set out for ourselves are ones that we believe will bring us the most happiness. These types of deadlines would be considered goals and having realistic goals is of course super duper fantastic and grand, but somewhere along the way our interpretations of which deadlines are of importance become skewed. If we do not accomplish one of these deadlines, If we do not get that dream job right out of college, if we arent married with children by 32, if we hate our career path and are now 55 years old (My worst nightmare), we feel as if it is the end of the world. Simply, we feel like failures. But how the hell did we get here? How did we let this happen? Somewhere in this tangle of deadlines, we can forget what actually matters to us. We forgot to take a step back and reflect on our goals and what we actually want to pursue and accomplish. We either settled or simply forgot to acknowledge what we emphasize and value in life because we can often be scared of failure. This word Failure, its such a broad term and holds a specific differentiated meaning to each individual. This word is only real if we acknowledge it to be real. Failure is a construct given by others outside of yourself as a judgment as to what you have and what you have not yet accomplished. Only you should be able to decide whether or not you have failed. Its true that no one is perfect, we are all crazy flawed humans and we all experience failure at points in life (No bro, you really arent THAT smart), but it isnt a failure if we have learned something valuable from the experience.

We can get so caught up in our own personal or societal view of what current deadlines need to met and are demanded that all we are really doing is jumping from deadline to deadline, with no feeling of real accomplishment. There is nothing else existing in-between deadlines, just more deadlines. We go from deadline to deadline. We need the in-between to feel ALIVE. Its what makes us feel alive; and where the core of our self-worth prospers. Without the inbetween we can never experience that I fucking did it! moment. Its the process of meeting those deadlines that makes the difference, because if you are not acknowledging the process, you are not acknowledging and have no way acknowledging whether or not these are the actual deadlines you want to accomplish in order to reach your overall desired goals. So what does this have to do with Zach? I dont believe the majority of these thoughts would have come into my conscientiousness without Zach and his incredible life story. His story really picked out something from within me that at one time seemed familiar but had completely forgot about and left behind. For me, as someone about to graduate from college and head out into the Real world (and Im sure I speak for many others), its incredibly easy to get caught up in your own trip. We are consumed by our futures, the expectations of ourselves and others, and meeting deadlines upon deadlines, sometimes not realizing that the goals and deadlines we are currently meeting arent the actual deadlines and goals we conclusively want to pursue. Earlier I stated the quote, I hope you never become so used to the world that it no longer seems so wonderful. This was a quote that was written by a friend of mine by the name of Ian David Selleck, an incredibly talented artist and musician who passed away much too soon from a drug overdose in September of 2009. Although circumstances were different, the same type of feelings arose when I heard about Zach. They were approximately the same age, both full of ambition and

ready to take on the world. Ian passed away within my first week at college, while Zach passed away within my last week of college. The comparison is specific to my individual experience and feelings but definitely substantial too. We can sometimes forget about the things we hold dear to us and we often take those things for granted. We need a reminder as if reflecting on why weve become the people weve become, acknowledging those that have shaped our many experiences. And it may sound strange, but its surprisingly easy to feel lost in a place that you feel like you should know and understand so well. A feeling Im only starting to realize now at the end of my college career. College really can be described as a beginning to an end, there is an entirely new chapter to move on to almost instantaneously upon graduation. Ive found my passion, and Ive met all my deadlines to reach my goal, but it is a possibility that I may not reach this goal. But Ive learned from Zach that there are always new goals to strive towards and something new to reach for. Im excited about my future and what it holds, and even if I meet all my deadlines and reach my desired goals, I still may not know what the future holds for me.. But thats what makes life beautiful right? As I move on towards those next chapters in my life I will never forget to embrace the moments that got me to my goals, as well as never forgetting the people who got me to where I am today. Ill always remember take a moment to step back and appreciate what I have in front of me. Thank you so much Zach Sobiech, in my mind your life will be in no way be described as a loss. Your life story was a gain to not only your friends and family, but to me and our community as a whole that I believe everyone could learn something valuable from. Youll always be remembered. Keep it real up there in the clouds brudda. Congratulations on the wedding Alli!! Enjoy the moment for all its worth!!