My dad died of colon cancer on August 16, 2020, the night before my first day of high school. I was fourteen years old, and as the oldest of five siblings, I felt his loss the hardest. Before his death, I considered my dad my best friend. He and I loved the same music, TV shows, and movies. We would often drive around together, and he would introduce me to some of his favorite musicians and songs. We would always go to Sonic at the beginning of every drive, and we got the same thing every time: a cherry vanilla Dr. Pepper. We would sip on our drinks and drive around town, talking and listening to music. Although his taste in music is one of my favorite things about him, my favorite thing about my dad was his sense of humor. To this day, I have never met someone who could make people laugh like he did. He always knew the perfect thing to say and could instantly get a room erupting in laughter. Every Sunday since I was young, our entire extended family on my dad's side would get together in the afternoons after church at my grandparents' house. Everyone would bring food, and we would just spend the entire afternoon hanging out with each other. The kids would play outside, and the adults would sit around in the kitchen or the living room. However, sometimes I would enjoy being with the adults more because of the laughter and enjoyment it would bring. My dad and all of his siblings were blessed with the gift of wit, so I always left the room with my face almost hurting from laughing and smiling too much. After my dad died, we all slowly stopped getting together on Sunday afternoons. That is one of the things I miss the most, just being around family and enjoying their company. My dad's death due to cancer has impacted me in a number of ways, but the one thing that I have been able to take away from this experience is to never think "this kind of thing could never happen to me." Growing up, I never imagined this could possibly happen. I had never even experienced the death of a grandparent. Selfishly, I always thought that cancer was something that happened to other people's families, but never mine. However, I learned all too quickly that anything is possible. His death taught me to never take anything for granted and to spend time with the people that matter most in this life. To this day, I always wish I had just one more minute with him, to tell him how much I loved him and appreciated him. I wish I could go back in time and tell him how much of an impact on my life he had, and how much I try to emulate him in my life every day. His death has encouraged me to work towards my goals because I want to make him proud.