My Obituary (A Class Exercise)

Heather Pape, an 18-year old student at Biola University, died yesterday in a tragic and surprising shark attack off the coast of Newport Beach. Heather was an aspiring journalism student who enjoyed watching movies and playing sports in the time when she was not trying her hardest to excel in school.

Pape loved the beach so in an ironic twist of fate, it was on her favorite beach where the shark attack occurred. She was out in the water, alone, farther than recommended, and a shark had ventured closer to shore than expecte. There was no escape from the hungry jaws that took her life.

Pape's life was a full one, yet one short lived. She spent a lot of her time building relationships with her family and friends, and working at the local movie theater making minimum wage. It was not about the money for her though--watching movies was one of her passions. She was highly active through middle school and high school, playing volleyball for three years, track for two, and softball for five, as well as helping out with various student governments throughout the years. She also participated in drama for 4 years and was in a variety of different shows.

Being a resident of the California Bay Area, she was a huge San Francisco Giants fan, because that is the way her father raised her. She attended such games as the Division Championship in 2002, and Barry Bonds 500th career home run and 72nd home run in a year.

Throughout the first two years of high school, Pape dealt with scoliosis and had surgery for the correction of it in August 2007. This was a huge struggle in her life, but one she overcame with poise and style. This was a major event in her life, and one that affected her in a very permanent way in the time that followed.

As a child, Pape was the apple of her parents' eyes. She learned to read and do complicated math, like division, at such an early age that by the time she got to first grade, the public school system could not keep up with her. Every day she was forced to sit in the back corner and read to herself because she was so far ahead of the class and the school could not cater to her needs. That is when she started attending private and Christian schools, and that changed her life. Her intelligence was what helped her stumble upon the Christian religion.

While in recent years, she may have been just a normal smart kid instead of the child genius her parents thought she was when she was a kid, she still made her mother, Sandra Pape, and her father, Mark Pape, very proud. She often tried to help her younger sister, Ashley Pape, follow in her footsteps, but she and Ashley were very different people and they often dealt with a disconnect of cultures, one being in private school and one being in public. Despite all of that though, she was very close to her family.

 

Heather believed very much in fairness and equality, especially when trying to find scholarships to pay for college. As a result, Heather's family will be establishing a scholarship fund that gives money to students who do not qualify for minority scholarships or scholarships of poverty. She believed that those who have the smarts to get into college, should be able to find money to pay for it as well. If you would like to support Heather and her family at this time, please donate to the Heather Pape Memorial Fund and help students just like Heather pay for college.