Ben's Speech for his memorial by Dana El-Khatib
I would like to start off by thanking Ben’s family for giving me this time to say a few words. I had the pleasure of getting to know Ben in the year of grade 8 and grew a stronger friendship throughout the years of high school. Ben was the one person everyone knew could light up the room. Every conversation I had with Ben was always very heartwarming and could be carried on for hours. On behalf of all us French immersion students, I believe I’m surrounded by such special people that I’ve gotten to know throughout my French immersion experience and Ben was a big part of that family we have and there wasn’t a minute gone by where we didn’t come together as a group.
I can speak for myself and others when I can easily say he was someone who inspired me in many ways as a person and really opened my eyes. I always reminded him how big of an inspiration he was to me because I felt so grateful to know someone like him and he truly had such a gift. He’s made an impact on many of us whether in a small or big way and I truly believe he was meant to be a part of my life for a reason. He never failed to look at anything other than the positive side of things nor did he give up when things got tough. He was the strongest person I’ve ever known and had taught me so many things in life whether it was the little things or how he demolishes a cookie in seconds. We’d always have our inside jokes and would laugh at ourselves taking silly pictures in class before we got in trouble and I think it’s important to always remember those little moments that I will forever treasure.
He had a heart of gold with the bubbliest personality; it changes your perspective on how to see things in different ways. We take little things for granted and fuss about little things but Ben has changed a big part of that in the way I personally see things because even through any hard time he had encountered, he found any way possible to keep his loving smile on his face and I’ve never met someone who could do that which I truly admired. Coming across such an amazing person by my side with the time I had with him was a blessing and I wouldn’t want to learn any better lessons in life from anyone else. A big thank you to his parents for raising such an amazing kid, that I’m so grateful to have known and for being his role models since day 1.
I can speak for myself and others when I can easily say he was someone who inspired me in many ways as a person and really opened my eyes. I always reminded him how big of an inspiration he was to me because I felt so grateful to know someone like him and he truly had such a gift. He’s made an impact on many of us whether in a small or big way and I truly believe he was meant to be a part of my life for a reason. He never failed to look at anything other than the positive side of things nor did he give up when things got tough. He was the strongest person I’ve ever known and had taught me so many things in life whether it was the little things or how he demolishes a cookie in seconds. We’d always have our inside jokes and would laugh at ourselves taking silly pictures in class before we got in trouble and I think it’s important to always remember those little moments that I will forever treasure.
He had a heart of gold with the bubbliest personality; it changes your perspective on how to see things in different ways. We take little things for granted and fuss about little things but Ben has changed a big part of that in the way I personally see things because even through any hard time he had encountered, he found any way possible to keep his loving smile on his face and I’ve never met someone who could do that which I truly admired. Coming across such an amazing person by my side with the time I had with him was a blessing and I wouldn’t want to learn any better lessons in life from anyone else. A big thank you to his parents for raising such an amazing kid, that I’m so grateful to have known and for being his role models since day 1.
