After senior Mitch Sauls got a DUI last August, nothing was easy. He was $3000 in debt and he had no car and he wouldn’t have the DUI off his permanent record until he is 27.
He was lost. He didn’t know what to do. He started slacking in school, moping, losing himself. Any chances he had with a job or college were tossed out the window. His DUI messed everything up. And he knew he had nobody to blame but himself.
But Tyler knew what he was going through. And every day, he’d text him, checking on him, making sure he was OK, making sure he was keeping his head up.
Hey man, how are you doing?
Sauls had known Tyler had been acquaintances since freshman year, but it wasn’t until Ty reached out to him junior year that they became good friends. And without Ty, Sauls isn’t sure he would’ve gotten through it. Without Ty, Sauls would never have gotten out of that dark place. Without Ty, Sauls doesn’t know what would have happened.
Remembering the good times. That’s what he did on Monday, along with some of his friends in the corner of the senior lot. And that night, it came to him. The idea for the memorial.
So on Tuesday morning at 6 a.m., Sauls and a few of his friends started building it. They spent hours working on it. They covered the ground in mulch and used white rocks to spell out “14”, Tyler’s number in soccer. And on Wednesday, they decided to add two trees.
They didn’t ask for approval from the school. In fact, they didn’t even go to school that day. But it didn’t matter. It was all for Ty.
“He was always the warmest person,” Sauls said. “He would always try to do things for others and help them out in any way he could.”
And in that way, he’s connected to Tyler. Sauls will always remember how Ty helped him when he needed it the most, just like he helped so many other. He’ll always have Ty in his heart.
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