Hye Hyon Kim
Prf. Jonny Bahk-Halberg
Intermediate English Writing (2)
15 October 2015
Sound Body, Sound Mind
On a typical school day, I step inside a convenient store and look for something that I can drink my sleep and tiredness away. As I look down the drinks isle, I can see so many bright colors, many varieties of energy drinks, sports drinks, juice and alcohol. Suddenly, my eyes spot a Gatorade and I forget that I was ever tired. For a brief moment, I pause and smile as I think of one special person.
Every time I see a bottle of Gatorade, there is one person that comes straight to my mind. His name is Nathan. Nathan's eyes are turquoise blue and his hair is light brown but the color turned darker when winter came as early as October in Minnesota. He is a head taller than me and his body is firm and strong from training. Throughout his childhood and school years, he has always played some sport. He began with wrestling from when he was just a little boy in elementary school and then he moved onto American football. He told me once, "I needed extra protein to build more muscles so I always used drink all the milk in the house. That is until my Mom got mad at me so I had to buy my own galleon of milk and marked a big X on it so my family would know it was for me."
Nathan is very outgoing, active and liked to be outdoors. We used to take walks in the park, or cycle across town to get some ice cream or throw Frisbees to see how many times we could pass it without it touching the floor. He had a sweet sense of humor and laughed not with his mouth but with his nose. He breathed quickly so it sounded more like he was sniffling than laughing. One time he beat me in a game and told a joke. Knowing I majored in English Literature he said to me with a smile, "I won… but maybe next time we could have a reading contest and you could beat me." All the time we were outdoors, he would always bring a drink. Most of the time it was Gatorade, one for him and one for me. He not only liked sports but liked watching them. He supported the hockey team, Minnesota Wild but his love was for Minnesota's football team, The Vikings. Even before he told you about his love for sports, you could tell because when the football season came around, he wore their purple jersey or their cap with a capital V or even their sunglasses which had a tiny drawing of a Viking on its rim. When I had tried on one of his jerseys, he grinned so big and told me, "I think I like you even more."
He was a full time student but he also worked in the computer technology store on campus called Husky Tech and that is where I met him. He was very amiable and explained to me carefully about a campus account ID issue I had. He showed me how the problem could be solved and told me to come by or call in again if I had any further problems. Everyone in the store knew Nathan and saw him as the helpful, reliable, hardworking consultant. Other workers at Husky Teach have told me, "Nathan works very hard to meet everyone's needs and helps them in a friendly manner. He like people and also likes to help them, so he is a very suitable person for this job." That was how Nathan always was, friendly, welcoming and warm in your heart.
It has nearly been a year since I have last seen Nathan but I know he won't be easily forgotten. Gatorade may have been his drink to energize and refresh his mood but for me, my thoughts of him always makes me think back and smile at all the good times we had.
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