The story that I remember most vividly of Graham and I, happens to be one of the oldest memories that I have of Graham. I met Graham in first grade and we instantly became friends. I don’t quite remember how, all I remember was that we both loved math and science. Also we were pretty far ahead in the knowledge department so that may have been the biggest reason. One thing I liked the most about Graham was his ability to be happy all the time. Many other kids knew how to be angry jerks all the time. So Graham and I became friends, sitting together at lunch, working together in class. But we never really did anything together outside of school before third grade, and that is where this story begins.

Graham was the first friend I ever had that asked me to hang out, or as we called it in third grade, have a play date. Graham had invited me over to his house to swim. So, I came over, Caleb had one of his friends over, and all four of us went swimming. Graham explained to me that it was our job as the younger kids to annoy Caleb and his friend as much as we could. Using water guns, rafts, and really anything we could get our hands on. We took on the task and succeeded. If being annoying was a contest, me and Graham might have broke some records that day. Because Caleb and his friend left the pool after a half an hour.

Now we had the pool to ourselves. So after swimming a little longer, we ended up in the hot tub. We only stayed in the hot tub for a little while, because we wanted to got back in to the pool. The only issue was that now the pool water felt very cold. We had gotten used to the hot water and now the pool was too cold to swim in. So instead of taking the time to get used to the water again, Graham made a plan. He had a raft that looked like a red/yellow cylinder on its side. It was hollowed out so you could sit inside it. His plan was to pour the hot water in to the cylinder raft, carry it back to the pool, jump inside of the raft from the outside of the pool, and roll around inside the raft splashing the hot water on yourself. I of course thought this was a brilliant idea. So Graham and I took turns trying to get in the raft, only to fail over and over. Falling in to the cold water over and over. After a while Graham said, “I don’t think this is going to work”. I fell in to the water one more time and agreed.

The great thing about this story is that it shows how Graham was a thinker. He always had an idea. Graham was not only a thinker, but an accomplished thinker. Graham and I shared many beliefs throughout the past nine years. But I think the greatest belief we shared, was that sometimes it just good to sit and think about things. Graham did a lot of thinking in his days, it’s why he was so good in TSA. He had a talent of coming up with creative and new ideas. I will always remember Graham for his imagination, humor, and his ability to smile more than anyone I know. He made life easier to enjoy for all of us. He was able to brighten the world for every person he touched.