Editor’s Note: In life and death, friends can teach us new lessons

By Zack Rosenfeld
Editor-in-Chief

As one grows older and more mature, it’s not necessarily only the classes and lessons one takes away from one’s childhood. Relationships are the strongest bonds people can make and even if they aren’t with you, it is the memories that last a life time.

Last year, my friends and I received some shocking news that our good friend, Jake Borson, had passed away at the age of 17. The news at first seemed surreal, but as time went on and the pain faded, I was able to appreciate my friendship with Jake

Jake and his twin brother, Zack, moved from Manhattan Beach to Boston in the summer of 2004, just after the end of fourth grade at Meadows Elementary School. The Borsons were a family known and loved by many, and we knew the boys as perhaps the wildest kids in Manhattan Beach.

I met the boys at the age of four and started a friendship with Jake and Zack which later turned into a large group of friends that went to Meadows Elementary. Although the Borsons left in 2004, the Meadows group lasted through high school.

Even though the boys were gone, we still would talk to Jake and Zack, and some of us would even visit them or go on vacations with them. This trend for most of the “Meadows gang” ended in high school when many of us found other friends to spend our time with and our communication dwindled little by little.

After a long battle with cancer, my grandmother passed away last year. One of the first friends to call me after the funeral was Jake.

It meant a lot that Jake had called. I told him I was interested in being a journalist after high school, and Jake spoke about how excited he was to go to college and finding his calling.

Although many of my other friends had comforted me in my time of mourning for my grandmother, Jake’s call was notable because we hadn’t spoken in about two years.

Only later did I learn that Jake himself was struggling, making his phone call in my own time of need that much more meaningful.

Although it was a terrible week a year ago, Jake’s passing had brought together that group of kids from Meadows to support our good friend. I will always be reminded it was friendship that came first with Jake. It is my friendship with Jake that I will treasure forever and a bond we will never let go of.