The Memorial Stone

In the north campus of Broward Community College, between the science and admissions building, there is a section of landscaping that has become part of what that little school is. Three years ago, there was a small tree planted there. the tree was not durable enough and died so in place, there was a series of concentric circles placed around a stone that bore the name "Darshit Patel" in English letters and in his native Gujrati letters. After tutoring on Saturday, i walked from the library towards the bookstore in BCC. on my way to the bookstore, i saw the admissions building where the clubs used to be. I remembered going in there for our meetings with our very own Desi SPICE club. Well the club dissolved and it seems as if everything around those two years pretty much dissolved. There is a bunch of people who went to school at that time who are only connected by the memories of Darsh. at times, we even forget that many of us got our associates degrees in the same year. whenever we meet, we know that we are only friends because Darsh was our friend and we all feel as if he was just as close to us as he was to the other. I looked at the stone and i thought to myself that the school, being a two-year college, will not have the students that were there three years ago. therefore, the new bunch of students will pass this stone everyday and not know the face that went along with this name. they will never know that a smile was such a valuable thing especially when it came from the face of Darsh. a smile on darsh started at his lips and it lit his whole face up. he was always so happy. these students in the school will never know why it was so necessary to have that stone placed there. many of us, especially the members of the various clubs at the time, were joined like family. when Darsh died, we felt it as if we had lost a member of our little family. I remember the fun times we had in those cubicles....trying to finish up some last minute homework and still partying at the same time with the other club members. having that stone there is very much like having a tombstone without a body buried below. it reminds us that Darsh's presence once lighted up our lives and even after he is gone, the stone still reminds us of his very contagious smile. i think of it and even now, i smile. the attached picture was the picture taken of him by his friends in the International Club. it was the picture used for his funeral and the one that reminded us the most of him and how he always looked.