I don't normally post this sort of thing here, but I put this on Facebook today, and thought I'd copy it here.
People that know me well know this, but I lost my best friend at a very young age to a medical problem a few years ago. He was 33. We were like brothers, and it crushed me.
April 6, 2011 - This was at the Memphis Zoo. Last time we hung out in person. IT WAS HOT AS HELL.... which is why we both look miserable. It was actually a really fun day with he and my wife. Pre-beard for me! :)
I was in the middle of nursing school as well when he died, and I came very close to failing what was already an insanely stressful program. Lots of support from the wife, friends, & family and a year of Lexapro later, I passed.
As corny as it might sound, these movies like Avengers & GOTG (and just about anything related to comics & games) always make me think of him. We met working together at Kmart in 1997, and at work, when it was slow, we would spend hours creating fantasy casts for all the superhero movies that -- at the time -- no one was really making. This was even before the first X-men movie.
A younger Jack Nicholson as Wolverine. Patrick Stewart as Prof. X, but that was a no-brainer. Angela Bassett as Storm. Clive Owen as Magneto. Didn't care about Iron Man then... which is funny now. DiCaprio as Spider-man. Brad Pitt as Gambit, etc.
He died a few months before the first Avengers movie came out, and I remember getting a misty-eyed during the final battle scene when Cap reflected Iron Man's repulsor beams off the shield - just like the combo move from the Marvel Ultimate Alliance video game - which we used to play for WEEKS. It was such a crazy spectacle on the screen.
Copyright Disney/Marvel/whoever. :)
Anyway, this video from Avengers: Infinity War just reminded me again of what he's missed and how much he would have freaked over these movies, and for some reason, I felt the need to type all this out. But I feel a bit better now... maybe that's why. :)