Child Abuse And Its Effect On Children - 1719 Words

Many grandparents are happy to take care of grandkids in their parents’ absence, but with this responsibility comes added stress, possible negative physical and mental consequences, financial stress, and unanticipated legal issues. The number of these households has been on the rise in the recent decades and none for positive reasons. On an optimistic note, there is also the richness and complexities of the experiences of grandparents raising their grandchildren, the positive aspects of feeling love, pride in responsibility, and feelings of having value and purpose in old age. Skipped generation households, households where the parent is absent and it is just the grandparent and grandchild, are becoming more prevalent in our society. Unfortunately, none of the reasons are positive. Nancy Hooyman (2014) cites this new form of household is because the parents are unable or unwilling to care for their children for a variety of reasons including, substance abuse, incarceration, child abuse, or military deployment. Currently there are over six million grandparents caring for grandchildren under the age of 18 (Hooyman, Kawamoto, Kiyak, 2014). Glass and Huneycutt (2002) go on to elaborate with reasons of teen pregnancy, AIDS, divorce, mental and physical illness, and crime. African American children are more likely to live with their grandparents than any other race in the US and this is in relation to historically high rates of poverty and single parenting (Baker, Silverstein,Show MoreRelatedThe Effects Of Child Abuse On Children935 Words   |  4 PagesChild abuse has been an issue in America since the beginning of time, but lately there has gradually been an increase in reported incidents of abuse. There are several types of child abuse that are present in today’s society. The different types of abuse include physical, emotional and sexual abuse. Of the different maltreatment types, four-fifths (78.3%) of unique victims were neglected, 17.6 percent were physically abused, 9.2 percent were sexually abused, 8.1 percent were psychologically maltreatedRead MoreChild Abuse And Its Effects On Children Essay1489 Words   |  6 Pagesindividuals corrected. However, there are cases that have not been solved or not stopped by the law. Child abuse is common. Child abuse can be caused by a variety of reasons. Scientist have been studying and they have some ideas on what prompt people to harm children (Ian Hacking). They are trying to end child abuse, but there is so much they can do. Many children abuse incidents are not reported. Child a buse may have many causes as in way the abuser does it. One specific factor is the background of theRead MoreChild Abuse And Its Effects On Children913 Words   |  4 Pagesseveral types of abuse, there’s physical, emotional, verbal and several others abuses. But the abuse I would like to focus on is child abuse. Domestic violence towards children is important because there is a way to prevent it from happening. Typical parents and caregivers do not intend to abuse their children. Abuse is mainly directed toward the behaviors that are given off towards one another. Author David Gil defines child abuse as an occurrence where a caretaker injures a child, not by accidentRead MoreChild Abuse Is An Effect On Children1657 Words   |  7 PagesIn 2010 according to the census bureau there were 74,100,000 U.S children between the ages of 0-17 being abused and 3.3 million referrals. This effected on average 1-10 U.S families and children, there were more than 32,200,000 U.S families with children under the age of 18 according to the 2010 census bureau. From the 3.3 million hotline calls in 2010 there were less than 475,000 sustained cases (2010 NCANDS: 436,321 sustained +24,976 indicated = 461,297 total) resulting in about 15% of hotlineRead MoreChild Abuse And Its Effects On Children1317 Words   |  6 PagesChild abuse has long been an ongoing social problem; this abuse has been one of the repeatedly difficult accusations to prove in our criminal justice system. Child abuse causes many years of suffering for victims. Children abused suffer from chemical imbalances, behavioral issues and are at high risk for becoming abusers or being abused in adult relationships. This cycle of learned behavior and suffering will be a hopeless reoccurring problem unless the criminal justice system and protocols for abusersRead MoreChild Abuse And Its Effects On Children1488 Words   |  6 Pages â€Æ' In addressing child abuse we are confronted with a series of problems. On the one hand, there is a lack of the true extent of the phenomenon because no data are available and that the issue, often refers to the most intimate spaces of family life. Furthermore, cultural and historical traditions affect the way each society faces this problem. Finally, there are varying opinions as to its definition and classification, as well as the consequences of child abuse may have and its subsequent therapeuticRead MoreChild Abuse And Its Effects On Children1263 Words   |  6 Pages Child Abuse Child abuse is any behavior which, by action or omission, produces physical or psychological damage to a person less than 18 years, affecting the development of his personality. In homes, it is believed that the most effective way to educate children is using the abuse. This form of punishment it used as an instrument of correction and moral training strategy as it is the first and most persistent justification of damage and maltreated mothers parents inflict on their children. SocietyRead MoreChild Abuse And Its Effects On Children1160 Words   |  5 PagesMost parents and other caregivers do not intend to hurt their children, but abuse is defined by the effect on the child, not the motivation of the parents or caregiver. Tens of thousands of children each year are traumatized by physical, sexual, and emotional abusers or by caregivers who neglect them, making child abuse as common as it is shocking. Most of us can’t imagine what would make an adult use violence against a child, and the worse the behavior is, the more unimaginable it seems. ButRead MoreChild Abuse And Its Effects On Children1227 Words   |  5 Pagesreports of child abuse are made involving more than 6 million children. The United States has one of the worst records of child abuse losing 4-7 children a day to the abuse. Abuse is when any behavior or action that is used to scare, harm, threaten, control or intimidate another person. Child abuse is a behavior outside the norms of conduct and entails substantial risk of causing physical or emotional harm. There are four main types of child abuse; physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, andRead MoreChild Abuse And Its Effects On Children1132 Words   |  5 PagesIntroduction Child abuse takes many different forms. Including physical, sexual, emotional, or neglect of a children by parents, guardians, or others responsible for a child s welfare. Regardless of the type of abuse, the child’s devolvement is greatly impacted. The child’s risk for emotional, behavioral, academic, social, and physical problems in life increase. According to the Child Maltreatment Report by the Children’s Bureau (1999) the most common form of child abuse in the United States is

The Constitution Reforming Responsible Government ...

Democratizing the Constitution: Reforming Responsible Government: Ensuring National Interest Introduction In 2011, three legal and constitutional scholars, Peter Aucoin, Mark D. Jarvis and Lori Turnbull set out to write a book detailing what they believed to be obvious and egregious errors in the way in which the current form of responsible government as it was practiced in the Canadian federal government, fell short of operating within basic democratic parameters. Canada has a system that is based one the Westminster system, in which its the Constitution act of 1867 is influenced by British principles and conventions. â€Å"Democratizing the Constitution reforming responsible government† is a book that makes an analysis for the reform of responsible government in Canada. The authors believe that from the unclear rules, pertaining to the role and power of the prime minster foresees for a failing responsible government. In this essay the functions of the government , conventions of the constitution, the a proposal for reform will be addressed. Principles and Structures of Responsible Government Responsible government is a fundamental convention of the Canadian constitution. It is built around different structures of the government the presently exist. The authors main belief of how responsible government should function goes back to the adoption of responsible government from the political reformers, from the time of Joseph Howe. This looked at the two functions of theShow MoreRelatedThe European Union1823 Words   |  8 Pagesthe structure and the very nature of European Union, and pronounced that it suffers from a democratic deficit. It has been argued that, the European Union is not firmly made to democratic pressures and that it gives a privileged position to the national executives, allowing them to escape proper parliamentary scrutiny. â€Å"The European Union has been further described as not transparent, and distant from its citizens. Looking in details the institutions within the European Union (EU), analyzes theirRead MoreThe Contrasting Views of Milton Friedman and Ralph Nader on Corporate Social Responsibility2452 Words   |  10 PagesCorporate social responsibility is the duty of a corporation to create wealth in ways that avoid harms to, protect, or enhance societal assets. The idea of Social Responsibility interrelates the obvious interrelationship between business corporations, government and American society, is based on the fundamental idea that the corporations have duties that go beyond carrying out their basic economi c functions in a lawful manner because the overall performance of a firm is to maximize the social benefit. Read MoreRight to Food an Instance to Human Rights3185 Words   |  13 PagesDEPARTMENT OF LAW, UNIVERSITY OF KERALA UGC SPONSORED NATIONAL INTERDISCIPLINARY SEMINAR ON REALISATION OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC RIGHTS PAPER ON TOPIC RIGHT TO FOOD: AN INSTANCE OF HUMAN RITHS Submitted by Sajisivan.s 3rd Semester LLm Department of Law Kariyavattom campus RIGHT TO FOOD: AN INSTANCE OF HUMAN RITHS The human right to food has its contemporary origin within the U.N. Universal Human Rights framework. Ensuring the right to adequate food and consequently the right toRead MoreUniversal Health Systems ( Canada And United Kingdom ) Systems2200 Words   |  9 Pagessystems in efforts to contain cost. Developed countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom have focalized on universal health systems tailored to their needs to contain healthcare costs. Although universal health systems are idealistic for the government and its citizens, quality and access of care is a continuous issue. Before discussing the problems related to universal health systems, we must first understand the benefits of both (Canada and United Kingdom) systems. After analyzing the pros andRead MoreFiscal Policy of India from 1991 to 20118862 Words   |  36 PagesIntroduction Fiscal policy deals with the taxation and expenditure decisions of the government. Monetary policy, deals with the supply of money in the economy and the rate of interest. These are the main policy approaches used by economic managers to steer the broad aspects of the economy. In most modern economies, the government deals with fiscal policy while the central bank is responsible for monetary policy. Fiscal policy is composed of several parts. These include, tax policyRead MoreCritical Evaluation of Fiscal Policy of India9150 Words   |  37 Pages 30 1. Introduction Fiscal policy deals with the taxation and expenditure decisions of the government. Monetary policy, deals with the supply of money in the economy and the rate of interest. These are the main policy approaches used by economic managers to steer the broad aspects of the economy. In most modern economies, the government deals with fiscal policy while the central bank is responsible for monetary policy. Fiscal policy is composed of several parts. These include, tax policy, expenditureRead MoreUnited States V. Arizona14319 Words   |  58 PagesDiscriminatory 23 A. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Correctly found that S.B. 1070 is Preempted Because it Interferes with the Administration and Enforcement of Federal Immigration Laws 24 B. S.B. 1070 Discriminates on the Basis of Race or National Origin 32 V. Comment and Conclusion: Effects of the Arizona Law 36 I. Introduction The Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act (â€Å"S.B. 1070†) has been the subject of many debates for both its potential impact on federal immigrationRead MoreLaw Enforcement in the 21st Century15936 Words   |  64 PagesPentagon, neither the average American citizen nor the government was particularly concerned with the prospect of international terrorism on United States soil. This was the case even though a number of reports, such as the Hart–Rudman Commission on National Security in the Twenty-First Century, had concluded that the U.S. government had no organizational capacity to either prevent or respond to terrorist threats (Flynn 2001). Moreover, a 1999 government report intricately profiled the leading terroristsRead MoreFinancial Reporting Council: the Use of a Sector Neutral Framework for the Making of Australian Accounting Standards49538 Words   |  199 Pagesoverseeing Australia’s accounting standard setting process. One of the key functions of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is to provide broad oversight of the processes for setting accounting standards in Australia. Specifically, the FRC is responsible for determining the broad strategic direction for the setting of standards to be followed by the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB). The AASB has functions, as set out in section 227 of the ASIC Act, which include: (a) to develop a conceptualRead MoreSources of Company Law48332 Words   |  194 Pagesto know and love. Included are some extracts from the recent ofï ¬ cial reports that led to the enactment of the Act which give a readable account of how company law has developed over the years and how it is being reformed and modernised in the interests of promoting a competitive economy. There then follow some readings on how our company law has been amended to ‘harmonise’ it with the company laws of the other member states of the European Union. Finally a case study of the life of a ï ¬ ctitious

Simulation Free Essays

string(57) " the profit before tax or 1 5 percent times the revenue\." SLIP is a privately held investment corporation founded in 1961. It had become a diversified company consisting of a total of 9 subsidiaries. The oldest three were In the home products business: a Virginia-based brass software company, an outdoor lantern company based In Maine, and an antique reproduction furniture company in Maryland. We will write a custom essay sample on Simulation or any similar topic only for you Order Now A second group of four subsidiaries formed in the sass’s was focused on research in the fields of consumer product marketing, computer software, tax research, and investment financial analysis. Hoping to capitalize on their tax and investment expertise, they recently armed Spring Lane Development Corporation and Spring Lane Natural Resources, which were Involved In real estate development natural resource exploration, respectively. Spring Lane employed a total of 525 people and had revenues of $30 million in 1987. Spring Lane Natural Resources was formed to pursue natural resource exploration because SLIP management felt that favorable tax laws provided them opportunities to achieve significant profits In this arena. Their primary goal was to find and produce natural gas from shale, to capture the so-called â€Å"Section 29† tax credits associated with such gas. Ingress passed this tax credit In 1978 as part of the Natural Gas Policy Act in order to stimulate drilling for natural gas found in shale. Although natural gas exploration was clearly riskier than their other investments, SLIP felt the risks could be managed by drilling only sites that were surrounded on three or four sides by existing wells. To date, SLUR had drilled four wells. It wasn’t difficult operationally to drill the wells, but It was challenging to find enough high- quality investment opportunities. In the first five months of production, one of the wells had already paid back 52 percent of its initial investment well ahead of the argue payout. The other wells were also doing quite well and all were on schedule for meeting their target return on investment. SLUR hopes to drill 20 more wells in 1988. Formed. This gave SLUR full responsibility for choosing the sites and managing the well if gas was found. SLUR would retain about 25 percent ownership and sell the rest to several general partners. As managing general partner, SLUR was responsible for hiring a general contractor who would do the drilling. Slur’s geologist, Brad Thomas, would determine whether there was enough gas to make it worth completing the well. If he decided to go ahead, the general contractor would be in charge of the day-to-day operations of the well. SLUR had entered into a Joint venture with Excel Energy of Bridgeport, West Virginia, in which it was agreed that Excel would act as the general contractor for all of Slur’s wells in West Virginia. Excel also agreed to take a small ownership interest in each of these wells. The Bailey Prospect: Base Case Analysis Exhibit 1 is a copy of the spreadsheet developed by Lisa Weatherboard to analyze the Bailey Prospect. The Bailey Prospect is surrounded by four producing wells from the target gas formation. Thus, SLUR was pretty confident that they would hit the gas formation, but they were mindful that there is always a possibility that due to geological anomalies (e. G. , drilling into a fault), a well might fail and result in zero production. Brad Thomas (the geologist) estimated the probability of this kind of failure at the Bailey Prospect to be about 10 percent. If they were successful, SLUR would sell the gas to pipeline distributors who would pay a price for the gas that depends on the BTU content of the gas. [2] The BTU content of the gas would not be known until the well was producing, but once reducing, the BTU content would not change over the lifetime of the well. Brad Thomas estimated the BTU content of the gas to be 55 BTU per cubic foot; this was the average of the BTU contents at the nearby wells. The current price paid by the pipeline is $1. 90 per AMBIT (million BTU); the price paid by the pipeline would be tied to the market prices for gas and, hence, might change over time. 3] Lisa assumed that prices would grow with inflation over time. [4] The rate at which gas would flow from the well would not be known until the well was completed. Brad estimated that the gas would initially flow at a rate of 33,000 Mac thousand cubic feet) per year and then decline following the schedule shown in Exhibit 1. The spreadsheet shown in Exhibi t 1 is essentially an income statement over the life of the well. (The spreadsheet goes out 25 years; only the first 13 years are shown in the exhibit. ) The gross revenue is the price per Mac of gas times the Mac of gas produced in a given year. To get to net cash flows, royalties, expenses, and taxes must be deducted: 1) From gross revenue, a 12. 5 percent royalty payment to the owner of the mineral rights is deducted, leaving net revenue. This royalty rate was the standard argental pall to ten property owners In ten west Valhalla area. 2) Excel Energy would be paid approximately $300 per month to operate the well. Lisa had budgeted an additional $3,000 per year for other expenses associated with the lease that might be incurred but couldn’t now be accurately forecast. These costs were increased annually to reflect inflation. 3) Local taxes of 4. Percent times the gross revenue would be paid to the county and a severance tax[5] of 3. 4 percent would be paid to the state of West Virginia. 4) Depreciation expense for year O equaled the intangible drilling cost[6], which as 72. 5 percent times the total well cost. The remainder of the drilling cost would be depreciated on a straight-line basis over seven years. 5) To co mpute profit after tax, depletion[7], and state and federal income taxes were subtracted from profit before tax. Numerically, depletion was the smaller of 50 percent times the profit before tax or 1 5 percent times the revenue. You read "Simulation" in category "Papers" ) The state income tax equaled the tax rate multiplied by the difference between profit before tax and depletion. This tax was then reduced by a credit equal to one- half of the severance tax paid to the state. ) Federal income tax was calculated by multiplying the tax rate times the profit before tax less depletion and state tax paid. The federal tax was then reduced by an energy tax credit as allowed in Section 29 of the tax code: the tax credit was determined by multiplying the current tax credit rate ($0. 76 per AMBIT in year 1) by the amount of qualifying production that year. The tax credit rate was increased each year with inflation, but its future value was in the hands of Congress and far from certain. The after-tax cash flow is given by adding back depreciation and depletion to the after-tax profit. Finally, there is the issue of the lease bonus. A lease bonus is a cash payment or bonus paid too landowner in exchange for the drilling and mineral rights. The proposed drilling area at the Bailey Prospect lies on a farm where the owners Mr.. And Mrs.. Bryan Cotter had been reluctant to allow drilling on their land; this is why the surrounding areas were developed and this property was not. Mr.. Cotter had recently passed away and Mrs.. Cotter (at the urging of her children) was now willing to allow drilling and production on her land. Though no offer had yet been made, SLUR had proposed offering Mrs.. Cotter a bonus of $40,000; the lease bonuses for similar properties in the area had been in this range. Financially, if the well is successful, the lease bonus comes directly off the bottom line, providing no tax deductions or depreciation. [8] on ten Dad’s AT tense mummers, ten prospect looked good It NAS an rater-tax equity payback period of about 35 months and an internal rate of return of about 29%. To calculate the net present value (NP), Lisa discounted the cash flows using a discount rate of 15 percent, which was Slice’s hurdle rate for projects like this. The result was an NP of approximately $79,000. Your Assignment Your boss, Steve Bodily, had presented the results of Alias’s analysis to Henry Oysters, a potential general partner. Oysters was impressed with the base-case scenario, but was very concerned about the potential downside risks. â€Å"What if the well doesn’t work? How do you know that it will produce that much gas? What if gas prices continue their recent decline? Just about every number in here is a guess. † Bodily was prepared for the first question and knew that, if the well failed, the pretax loss would be approximately $170,000 the cost of drilling the well plus the lease bonus or a net after-tax loss of Bodily was not prepared for the other questions but promised Oysters that he would get back to him with a complete description of the risks associated with the Bailey Prospect. The goal wasn’t Just to evaluate the Bailey Prospect but, more generally, to get a better understanding of the risks associated with the kinds of investments SLUR was pursuing. Since Lisa Weatherboard is out of town, Bodily came to you and asked you to examine the risks associated with the Bailey Prospect. Your report will go to SLIP as well as to Oysters. In your conversation with Bodily, he posed the following questions: ) What are the key risks here? 2) What is the project’s expected NP taking into account all of these risks? 3) How risky is this project? What is the chance that we have a negative NP on this? 4) How big lease bonus can we afford? Not that I plan to offer Mrs.. Cotter more than $40,000, but it would be good to know how far we can go and still make money. ) What if the Section 29 credit goes away? Congress has been making some noise about that lately. 6) What if the well fails? While we’ve got the crew out there, should we drill another well? 7) Finally, I know that you don’t have time to run numbers for our whole portfolio f properties, but suppose we had 20 opportunities Just like the Bailey Prospect, how risky would this portfolio be? Which would the key uncertainties be? A qualitative discussion will suffice: we don’t need hard numbers on this, but we should be prepared Tort ten question. Bodily concluded, â€Å"Those are the kinds of things that come to mind. Of course, I haven’t had much time to think about it and could be missing some important issues. I’ve scheduled a meeting with Oysters and some of the SLIP partners for next Thursday. Could you prepare a 20-minute presentation on this for then? Good. Thanks. I’ll be out of town until then. If you have any questions about doing these kinds of analyses, you might try Jack Grayson. He’s done a lot of these risk analyses and will be at the meeting on Thursday. You might want to talk to Brad Thomas as well. Additional Information Fortunately, Brad Thomas (the geologist) was available and offered to help. As far as drilling another well in the event the first one fails, Thomas said, â€Å"Yeah, that might be a good idea. A second well would be cheaper to drill. Of course, it would also be less likely to succeed. If the second one fails too, it would be pointless to drill a third ell. â₠¬  He estimated the cost of drilling the second well to be roughly 75% of the cost of drilling the first well â€Å"you don’t have to truck all the drilling equipment out again and you don’t have to pay another lease bonus. The cost of completing a second well (if successful) would be the same as the cost of completing the first. Thomas estimated the probability of the second well succeeding (given that the first fails) to be . 50. He also indicated that, if the first well fails, he would revise his estimated initial flow rate down by a third. The decline rate would remain the same. Thomas also indicated that it would not make sense to drill a second well if the first is successful since the two wells would be draining the same area. A second well would speed production you’d get roughly twice as much production at first but you probably double the decline rate as well and end up with about the same total amount of gas (maybe slightly more) and be stuck with t wice the drilling cost. † On the other issues Thomas said, â€Å"Yeah, this business is pretty much a crap shoot. I’m a geologist. I can’t tell you much about Congress or natural gas prices, but I did work up some ranges on the estimates I gave Lisa. See Exhibit 2. ) I’ve found that I give better estimates if I think about the ranges before I give a particular value. I actually keep track of my estimates and then later see how I did. While I don’t always get the right answer, my ranges are pretty good. † These ranges, Thomas says, can be interpreted as 10th and 90th percentiles numbers such that there is a I-in-10 chance that the true value will be below and above these amounts. The base case numbers used in Alias’s spreadsheet can be interpreted as 50th percentiles or medians. â€Å"Let me know if you need anything else. † Jack Grayson at SLIP could only offer general advice. As far as developing ranges for the other uncertainties, use your Judgment. I can send you some historical data on inflation and natural gas prices (see Exhibit 3), but looking forward we’ll have to guess. If it is important, I may be able to get you more information next week. I know a consultant won may De addle to Nell us Walt ten gas price Toreros t. He could probably get us more on inflation too. I also know a lawyer in D. C. Who has been working with the IRS on Section 29 issues. She might be able to tell us more about that. But I don’t want to call these people unless it is important. Let’s talk on Monday ND we can decide then whether to call them. † Grayson also suggested that you should be careful about the discount rate. â€Å"The 15 percent rate that Lisa used is risk adjusted – it informally adjusts for the possibility that the well fails, uncertainty about operating costs, etc. Since you are going to explicitly model these risks, you should use a lower discount rate. Because all of these risks with this investment – including natural gas prices – are pretty much uncorrelated with the market as a whole, I would suggest using a risk-free discount rate. The yield of 5- to 10-year treasury bonds is currently around 9 percent why onto you use that rate instead. See you on Monday. † [pick] [pick] *Note: The production decline rates – shown near the top of the spreadsheet – are highly correlated. If you have rapid decline in the first year, you are likely to have rapid decline in subsequent years as well. Similarly, if you have slow decline in the first year, you are likely to have slow decline in subsequent years. To capture this dependence, we need to vary all of the decline rates together. How to cite Simulation, Papers

Angels around us Essay Example For Students

Angels around us Essay Song: Remember Me This Way or Ill RememberIt wasnt until I started to write this testimony that I realized that there are two special angels in my life. One in heaven and one on Earth. I had the general reasoning of any teenager: run to your closest friends, boyfriend, girlfriend, family, teachers for solutions to your problems, or for guidance, but thats not always so. Sure, some good friends and family are close enough to relate to, but its the people that can read your face like a book that I am speaking of. The people that always bring a smile to your face even when youre in your deepest turmoil. These are your angels. Adam has been and always will be my angel. He was my salvation when I was weak, my shoulder to weep on, a joker, and an all around nice guy. If if it werent for him I probably wouldnt have auditioned for Juilliard a few weeks back. I owe so much to him, but the biggest thanks I could ever give would be his persistent manner in getting me to audition for the drama plays. I have always had a passion for drama but didnt want to pursue it in St. Paul. I was so depressed about leaving all my friends behind at Whittier, that when I came here I didnt even give up- I just didnt start at all. It wasnt until my first week of school that I met Adam, the boy who smiled from ear to ear Little did I know that he would be the best friend I would make at St. Paul, and the first to leave me behind. Over the next two years we had gotten incredibly close. We went out for weekends, celebrated his 15th birthday with Andrea and Crystal, and Miguelhis closest friends. We helped each other with our relation ship problems, family problems, school mishaps We were each others alter egos when we went out. We had a conversation over the Internet a week before he died. He was so mad that I hadnt auditioned for the musical that he forced me to join crew (which a few weeks previous I had). That night we were talking about all these pranks we would play on the cast and crew, and the cast party to be had, and all the fun He told me about all the traditions that go on backstage and it was going to be the best time, he said.He told me that I had to make it up to him, that in our junior year we would both go out for the fall play. He hadnt told anyone that he wanted to do that. He really wasnt sure whether he was going to do drama or football He wanted to do both but it just wasnt possible. So I promised to keep him happy. On April 23rd, the night of Sadies, I dont think anyone saw it coming, not even Adam, but it was that night that he was physically gone forever. That week, life as I knew it had ended and I was just lost. It was Adam who re-established my faith and got my agnostic self into church again. It was Adam who got me to audition for Drama, and yay for me I succeeded in getting lead roles. It was Adam who inspired me Freshmen year to take on the Leadership class, and it was Adam who opened me up and got me to wear colors instead of black all the time. Life was a burnt out candle before Adam stepped into my life, and for the short period that I had him on Earth, life was bright again. I didnt know how hard it would be without him. I didnt realize that I had to prepare myself for tragedy. I didnt know how dark the sunniest April afternoon could be. How sad a comedy musical could seem. Or how solemn school could sound after he departed for Home. I know that Adam still watches over me each day. In fact, this is the second time Im writing out this testimony because my original has mysteriously disappeared There isnt a