By Kailey Hancock –

CVTV –

There was this guy. He sat next to me in chemistry. He never really said much to me except “Hello.” I don’t think he knew my name, but that doesn’t matter. This isn’t about me. This is about Ryan.

It was weird sitting by him. He didn’t really know me and I didn’t really know him. But we both knew everybody else. I always found myself drawn into the same conversations as him, with the same people. But we never talked directly to each other.

On Tuesday, Feb. 17, he didn’t come to class. I didn’t think much of it and neither did anyone else. But during the last class of the day, there was an announcement from the principal. He told all staff to check their email. It sounded pretty serious. I didn’t know just how serious it was.

As it turns out, that guy, the one who simply sat by me in chemistry, would never sit by me again.

All of a sudden, the hellos became a lot more meaningful. I felt bad for never saying anything more to him than that. It was really hard to wrap my head around the idea of never seeing him again. But the crazy part was I had never truly talked to him, and now his absence was driving me insane.

Everywhere I went, people were talking. What happened to him? How do you cope with this? What’s it like for his friends and family? How are his teachers reacting? And the one that I heard the most: “Are you OK?”

Within the next few days, people were searching him on the Internet and looking at his profiles. It seemed like everyone had at least seen him once when passing in the halls. Once people put a name to a face, it seemed to affect them all. The whole school appeared to be a place of sadness. It was a lot quieter that week.

I saw how people who were close to him dealt with the pain. I saw how people who weren’t close with him dealt with the pain. I saw how people who didn’t know him at all dealt with the pain. It all seemed the same.

I think this just goes to show that you really do make a difference in the lives of the people around you. You can change someone’s day with nothing more than one word.

And I think that is incredible.

Ryan Mueller changed my whole life and made me see this idea a whole lot clearer with just the word “Hello.”