Everyone not living under a rock has heard the bad news by now. Hell, it might’ve gotten through to the people living under a rock too. There’s a certain shock to anyone dying, but especially someone larger than life like Kobe. What qualities would you associate with life? Passion, energy, vivaciousness? Kobe embodied all of those. And for a college student whose Mamba Mentality throughout any given year sums up to a fraction of what Kobe had in a day, it’s a sobering reminder of my mortality. This was the face of a generation of sports. The strongest. The best. And he’s gone, just like that. If he’s not safe from death, then I’m sure as hell not.
I can’t memorialize Kobe any better than those who knew and loved him did. All I did was catch a couple of highlights on ESPN when I was maybe 14. His teammates, coaches, friends, and family have offered gut-wrenching yet beautiful tributes. Yet, though I cannot offer anything new to say about Kobe, we can all stand to learn a bit from it. To quote Marcellus Wallace from Pulp Fiction, “That’s pride fucking with you.” We often hesitate to say what we really mean to those we really care about, all because we don’t want to be in a position of vulnerability. But guess what? Pride doesn’t mean shit if you’re dead. If Kobe died in an instant; we can too. So tell your loved ones that you love them. Check up on your friends and let them know what they really mean to you. Life really is this precious, so that’s what I’ll be doing tonight.
Contemporary American Poultry 