Dear Shaishav and Shweta,
I was informed last week by Aryan and I’s mutual friend, Shivek Sharma, of Aryan’s passing.
In this devastating time, I could only strive to add to the bliss of viewing the life that Aryan has created; so I thought I’d write about Aryan from my perspective.
I first met Aryan when we were 3 years old, when he was first childminded by my mother. By that time, I’d had recurring friendships, understood the concept of it, but they had mostly been orchestrated friendships; as many of them are at that age. When I met Aryan, immediately I knew we would become best friends - it was the commonality, and the thrill of shared experience that attracted me.
It was my first introduction to true brotherhood outside family, we did everything together: began karate together, football, playdates. One night we had finished Karate, and Shweta had driven me back to my house, where my father had experienced a concussive injury, needing paramedic attention, and to go to hospital. With my mother going with him, I was offered for either my neighbour to look after me, or to have a sleepover at Aryan’s. Within 10 minutes, we had arrived at Aryan’s house, and I can remember Shweta making the most delicious hot chocolate I had ever tasted. I stayed over, and that sleepover is still one of my fondest memories of us.
I can also remember vividly a snowy afternoon returning home from school. My mum being a childminder, she would pick us up and walk us home with many other children and their childminders. Being in the snow, we gravitated toward snowball fights, which always went too far and were stopped by the adults. Yet one child refused to stop, and continued to endlessly launch snowballs at Aryan. Being so astute, Aryan understood adults would not resolve the issue, so he turned around and pushed the boy over, who was in the year above, and punished him. This is the first time I had ever seen another boy stand up for himself, someone that wasn’t my father, and it captivated me unequivocally. I learned that true friends were your most tangible role models.
We stayed best friends throughout primary school, he pushed me further than anyone through competition, and he excelled in everything he attempted from the start. The only individual that could keep up with me on my times tables!
In Year 3, he moved out of Cambourne, and we fell out of touch. I remember seeing him once again when he visited Cambourne a couple of years later, but we had lost communication from the age of 8.
When I heard of Aryan’s passing, I felt unrestful for not being in the know of who he was and who he’d become. Yet when when I came into the knowledge that he had continued to pursue all he had started; a grade 8 in piano, a black belt in karate, and an Oxford undergraduate, to name the cherries of his amassment, a beautiful pride overcame me.
I send you all my love and strength, and may Aryan rest in eternal peace.
Jack Broderick
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