For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

-William Wordsworth, “I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud”

The world lost a lot of people in 2021. Some of them were good people. Others definitely were not. Today, we at The Alternate Universe remember those who lost their lives in the service of nothing.

First up is world famous mountaineer, Colin Haley. After summitting some of the world’s highest peaks, he took on the legendary RB stairs. Haley eventually lost his battle with the steep incline and passed.

Later that month, Katherine Spendlove died of COVID-19. Her son ended up selling her house to the first buyer. This allowed couple Raysen and Rayson Turley to move into their first home house. Stories like this remind us all that it’s the little things in life that we need to appreciate most.

On the first day of fall semester, Jordan Larsen died after giving the opening prayer in his Statistics 121 class. He volunteered enthusiastically and prayed in his mission language, Portuguese. No one said anything about it to him after class, and this lack of attention crushed him beyond belief.

In September, Austin Holmes did not physically die, but may as well have. Working as a social media intern for BYU, Holmes handled all the comments and DMs after Elder Holland’s address. Holmes said he would rather die than deal with something like that again.

During mid-terms, Andy Adams passed away while standing in line for the Testing Center. Adams had been in line for three days when he succumbed to the elements. Most of his classmates were upset that his zero on the test affected their curve.

Lastly, just before Thanksgiving, Chase Stoops died in the library. In a quiet section of the library, Stoops opened his laptop and Spotify started playing the last song he had selected—Toxic by Britney Spears. The embarrassment was so great that all his organs refused to work.

We are grateful for the sacrifices of all these people. There are many lessons we can learn from them. The most important is definitely, “Borrow money from a pessimist. They won’t expect you to return it.”