Eulogy

Vlad was a good young man. He lived 18 full happy years on this world and enjoyed his time here. He always faced difficulties well starting with being thrown into first grade not knowing a word of English after moving to Chicago from Bulgaria. I remember when he was first learning the language at school and all he would do is play little educational games on the computers in school. Boy he loved his time with those games. His favorite part of the day back then was playing sports during recess and going to gym class. Vlad was a good student always doing his homework and class work and never talking or playing around with his friends too much during class. Well maybe once in a while, but for the most part Vlad was well like by his teachers. Vlad also had many friends that he loved spending time with and hanging out with after school or at sleepovers. But then, just as Vlad was happy and satisfied with his school, he transferred to an IB program at another school. This was the second major difficulty Vlad faced because he didn’t know any of his new classmates. Over time he got to know them and they became friends. Vlad loved, until his last day, to watch all types of sports on TV or live. Vlad’s favorite part of junior high was playing on all the competitive sports teams the school offered, especially soccer and track and field. Vlad was overall a very dedicated student athlete who loved to represent his school and compete. This characteristic did not change in high school where he was on the varsity football and track and field teams all four years. Vlad broke his wrist in his junior year which slowed him down on the field but he remained dedicated to his team and continued coming to practice with little hope of playing again just to help out where he could. Vlad was a young man of great loyalty both to his team and to his friends. He continued to hang out or at least keep in touch with many of his friends from junior high, middle school, and even as far back as first grade. Vlad also loved his family and it was hard being separated from most of them by the Atlantic Ocean but he kept touch as best as he could. Above all Vlad valued his family, friends, and all sports.