I’m going to log off for a while. I just found out a former student of mine died of Covid-19. He was 31.

Carl (middle) was a brilliant thinker and loyal friend to many. He would walk into a room and it would brighten up immediately.

He won many debate tournaments by clear, logical thinking and explanation. Never used SAT words, always played to the judges.

He would post memes about "fake people" because he was a very genuine person who would easily get frustrated with people who weren't the same. He was the first student to call me out as a first year teacher when I was on bullshit.

When other students would simply act up to rebel, Carl took me aside one day and said that no one thinks I cared about them. It changed my teaching from that moment.

When I started the debate program, he was one of the first to sign up. We got as far as St. Louis regionals, narrowly losing to Whitney Young.

On that trip, he bought a Scarface (the movie) dog tag on a chain at the mall and I made fun of him for it for years. He would always clap back harder, and we would laugh.