By: Whitney Punnoose

Column Writing
I looked at my mom and them back at my dad, finally my dad gesturing me to
start my speech. I couldn’t believe this day has come I couldn’t process what
was going on, all seven of my cousins standing behind me resting their hands
on my shoulder as a single tear drop came running down my cheek. Standing
in front of about 1,200 people each one showing a different expression. Some
people were crying some were just sitting there with no expression and others
couldn’t believe where they were at. I tried to start talking but no words came
out of my mouth, I remember looking down at my sheet of paper that I had
stayed up all night trying to find the exact words to use. But nothing, I
thought to myself “nothing in this very moment would be the right thing to
say”. Friends and family in that very room all staring at me waiting for me to
say anything at all. The only people that would be able to comprehend what I
was going was the fourteen hands resting on my back and shoulders. A
couple of days before when I got the news, I supposedly went into shock
where I didn’t move for 13 or more hours. My parents wanted to call 911, but
my cousins convinced them not to, thankfully, otherwise that would have
been two 911 calls with 24 hours. I looked up and felt like I was gonna pass
out I started to hold onto the podium incase I did. I saw people crying and I
saw my parents sitting their, more importantly I saw his parents sitting there.
What are they to do, I felt helpless I felt like my soul was taken out of my
body and put sitting in front of me. Words finally started to come out of my
mouth “Hi my names Whitney Punnoose for all of you that don’t know me I
was Sean Cyriac’s cousin”. My heart was beating like someone was hitting
me with a baseball bat, I could barely get those few words out, how was I
supposed to get a whole speech out of me?? I looked at the 1,200 people
staring back at me, but all I saw was Sean sitting there in the middle of the
church staring at me. I looked at him, sitting there looking so alive, I turned
to the casket and saw this dead 11-year-old boy. As I mumbled to the alive
version of him that my mind had made up to keep me from going completely
insane I spoke the only true words that needed to be said “how could you
leave me Sean, I loved you so much, how could you willingly volunteer to
leave me!!!”.