"Fake" Eulogy

--commemorative speech about me, written in the third person from my sibling at my funeral with "hypothetical illustrations." Half of the stuff I hope to do, and the other half is stuff I think would be fun to do but probably never will.

From an early age my sister Christie was someone who knew what she liked to do and knew what she wanted. When asked as a child what she was going to be when she grew up, she said a teacher, and that never changed no matter what happened in her life. She also loved to write and started off by making simple stories on our family's computer with a storybook program. It evolved into making elaborate tales with her action figures until she was using pen and paper, and then it came full circle when she used whatever word processing program she had at the time. All of these things helped shape who she was and how she led her life.

Writing was always a part of her being. The same year her teacher recognized her talent and submitted her short story to a contest was the same year she met her first real friend. They made fun of me back then, but I know how close they were. They were two peas in a pod-they were so much alike it was scary sometimes. Together the two of them joined our middle school's newspaper in eighth grade, where both put their interest for writing into print. She started then what would become one of the biggest fanfiction series anyone could find. She was also a big fan of video games and Japanese animation, so it was natural to combine the two into one large set of stories that may never have concluded if it didn't have to. Her best friend would soon join in, and by the end of high school, just the last part to their series had reached over a thousand pages. I tried writing a story like theirs, even though I never really watched any of the shows it was based on. She told me it was funny, but I think she was just being nice. They both knew they could never publish it, but that didn't matter. It was the perfect creative outlet for them both, and with the fading away of that story, she had the chance to develop her own unique characters into yet another epic plot. It was her master work, but she never wanted it published, either. She just worked on finishing the series, and only those who were close enough to her were lucky to read it. Instead, she focused on getting through school to reach her most important goal.

She worked her way through college by remaining employed at our local supermarket. It was the same store our father used to love to shop at when we were kids, and she always thought it was funny how she ended up working for them for eight years. I would come up to annoy her so often that everyone there knew who I was. She loved her co-workers and enjoyed helping customers with what ever they needed. During this time she also worked as a tutor for high school students until she earned her education paraprofessional certificate from Chaffey College, at which point she became an instructional aide in a high school science class under Miss Kathleen Darina. She would become my sister's mentor and help her get to her goal of being a credentialed science teacher. She also earned her Associates Degree in Biology from Chaffey College before transferring to California State University at San Bernardino, where she majored in anthropology, completed her credentialing work, and earned a Masters in Education. She once told me all of the hard work it took to become a teacher was worth it and how grateful for she was to that one teacher in tenth grade who instilled in her a love for biology. She taught it for 34 years before retiring at age 60 and traveling the world like she always wanted to do.

Despite how she said she would like to move out of California one day, she never did. In fact, she ended up teaching at the very same high school she graduated from, wanting to help her alma mater become a good school once again. She never stopped writing, even when she was a full time teacher and helped co-author a series of very popular biology textbooks for high school students. It was hard to be taken seriously at first since her degree was in a different field of science, but her passion and knowledge helped her persevere. She also wrote and published a series of short, funny stories based on her time worked at the grocery store. She usually had something to say when she came home every day so it was fun to see them in print.

She loved to write, she loved to teach, and she loved to help people. My sister and I didn't always see eye to eye, but she was there if I needed help with anything. I know I was frustrating sometimes, but she believed in me until I finally found my place in the world. I never really said thank you, but I hope she knows, wherever she is, that not only will I miss her but so will her husband and all of the students she touched. Goodbye, sis.