we met through wrestling
but i guess thats not totally true
it seems that you knew me
long before i could remember you
you weren't the best at wrestling
and you got us in trouble a lot
but you seemed worth it
cause you sure did smile a lot

well i met him through wrestling and instantly didn't like him. He was loud noisy and a fair bit of a show off. now When i say met i mean my first memory of him, i guess that he knew me all the way back in kindergarten and when my mom would come into class to help out it wouldn't be me up in her lap it would be him. If i remember properly one of the first things we do is argue about whether he knows me or not, needless to say i lost that argument. Wrestling in eighth grade was probably one of my favorite things i have done and chandler did play a fair part in that as well. Some of the most memorable times i have about him though is when he got us (the team) in trouble. like this one time on the bus ride back from our Houston wrestling tournament trip he put dirty lyrics to the popular Queens song, "we will rock you". Evidently the coach wasn't to happy about that and ended up giving him push ups to do, and us being a team and all had to do them with him. Man i was so ticked about that one but with his goofy smile and that spark in his eyes it was hard to stay mad at the kid for long. Unfortunately after wrestling season was over and eighth grade ended i didn't talk to him much anymore, the most contact i had with him since then was probably just when we would see each other in the halls about to be or already late for class and he would tell me how i should play football next year and i would humor him with simple "we'll see" s and "if i can get the money". The more time i have to think about this the more i find that i messed up and missed out with chandler. if i would have known the chance to talk to him would have been gone in just a few years back in eighth grade i would have tried a lot harder to actually give him some of my time every once in a while. ha-ha if i actually would have known that it would be more than just every once in a while. so tonight i went and i plugged in my hard drive and pulled up those wrestling videos. i couldn't find a single one of him. what i did find though is him always next to the mat cheering someone on. The one that stands out to me the most is one video of me wrestling though he gets down on his knees as close as he cans and though you cant hear him cheer you can see his mouth move shortly after the match ends with me wining and i get up and collect my win. The reason why this stood out to me is that i cant remember him there and he obviously must have cared enough about my match their to go alone to the other side of the mats where we had no team members cheering and stand there
and watch.

rest in peace chandler