Summer of 2011 was the best summer of my life and somehow it also managed to be the worst. That summer I had started working with a celebrity stylist on a movie set. My typical duties were to help organize wardrobe for the movie by the scene and day. Now this was no easy task. Since the scenes are not shot in order, it was my job to make sure the outfits the characters were wearing looked exactly the same as they did the previous day. Nevertheless, this was my dream job and I still was grateful for the opportunity and I worked very hard to prove myself.
As the summer went on everyone on set took a liking to me. Those little meticulous jobs I had to do were handed down to someone else. I started receiving the more “glamorous” jobs such as actually getting to go shopping for the outfits. I was really living my dreams. I was surrounded by beautiful actresses and actors, we shot scenes at very beautiful locations and I got to dress people all day. Soon, I started getting invitations to fashion shows, industry parties and fancy dinners. I would spend about 12 hours on set and go to a party straight from there. I spent so much time with these people my family barely got to see me. When I say they never saw me I literally mean it. I would come home at 4a.m and leave to be on set by 8am. I was skipping important family events to hang out with people that I had just met. I don’t know if it was the fact that I was busy or the fact that I wanted to live a socialite life. I started becoming a different person to my family.
My cousin Wesner he and I were very close. When you see Wes he always has this huge smile on his face no matter what. He had just bought a new house that summer and he had been asking me to visit. Every time he would ask I would just simply be too busy. Even if it was something I could get out of I still chose to do that instead. I used to see him every day but since I started working more and more I began to see him less and less. But I didn’t mind, I was just too into myself to realize that I was forgetting about the people around me that mattered most.
One Sunday I took off and I spent the whole day home just relaxing. My mom’s car broke down that day and Wesner had given her a ride home from work. Usually if he gives my mom a ride home he would just drop her off and leave. However that day he decided to come in and to say hi to everyone. I was sitting on my sister’s bed on her laptop. I think I was shopping for an outfit to wear to yet another party. Wes stood in the middle of the doorway and said, “Hi Sophie” I said, “Hey,” and went on with what I was doing. He jokefully said, “that’s it, you not going to give your cousin a hug. I haven’t seen you in a long time” Annoyed, I replied “No! Wes I’m busy this won’t be the only time you will see me.” He just smile and said “okay.”
A couple of hours later my mother got a phone call in the middle of the night that Wes had died. She didn’t want to tell us that he was dead. She just told us that something was wrong. I immediately thought about the way that I had reacted to him when he asked me for a hug. We drove down to his house and there was an ambulance there. I was so confused I didn’t know what was going on. I ran out of the car towards the ambulance. I asked the EMT what happened and he calmly said “There was nothing we could do he’s gone.” I kept telling myself to wake up because I honestly thought I was having a bad dream. But nothing was more real than seeing my cousin get carried of his house in a body bag. That night I cried myself to sleep. I cried when I woke up. I cried when I ate. It was like the tears were just falling I couldn’t control when I cried. I just kept crying until I had no more tears. I think I cried that whole month. The fact that the last thing I said to him was that I was too busy to give him a hug really cut me deep. I think I took his death the hardest because, we were so close and I had been acting like a jerk to him all summer. I guess I never thought that I could lose him so sudden. I had so many chances to spend time with him and I didn’t. It took me a long time to come to terms with his death. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about him and his big smile. You never know when the last time you will see or speak to someone. That’s why I believe that you should cherish everyone waking moment you spend with the people you love.