This is Donae James Johnican. Last month he won the Silicon Valley De-Bug Schoolin' the Schools Media Contest. He taught himself to play guitar and this is his song.
Donae was a junior at Lincoln High School in San Jose. On Tuesday afternoon, he was struck and killed by Caltrain as he was crossing a platform. He was 16.
He was a student in Ryan's English class.
I never met Donae but I can't stop thinking about him. It is hard to understand how and why these things happen; if the universe is random, if anything is possible, if everything is possible. And how, sometimes a person's essence is so unshakable, you can miss them, even if you've never met them.