From Daniel’s best friend, Jeremy Baker: In 1991, my family and I moved to Colorado after being in Maryland for four years. Even though I did not have any friends when the first day of school rolled around, I didn’t have any problems making friends. From 5th to 8th grade my mother decided to home-school my sister and I. We thought this was going to be really cool–except for the fact we might lose some friends. What I did not know is that I would lose all of my friends except for one. That was Daniel Mauser.
The song “Take A Picture” by Filter takes me back to the times that I had with Daniel and I wish I could go back to those times and take a picture. Daniel was somewhat of an outcast because he was not really into all the things that other people thought were cool. His different lifestyle was probably the main reason why I thought he would be a good friend to have, because I found him very interesting. What I did not know at the time was that he would become the best friend I would ever have. Even after I started home-schooling, Daniel stuck with me and either he would come over to my house or I would go over to his house about 4 or 5 times a week. The line “Could everyone agree that/No one should be left alone” was a lesson that Daniel taught me.
I started going back to public school my freshman year of high school. Daniel introduced me to some new people who I am still in touch with or are still my friends today. When my sophomore year rolled around, everything was going well and I thought I was discovering who I really was. Just when I thought things could not get much better, April 20th, 1999, a day that started just like any other, would rock my world.
April 20th, 1999, was a day that no human being should ever have to go through. Especially when you lose somebody that is so important to your life. That day I lost my best friend, Daniel Mauser. The song “No Way” by Korn goes through all of my toughest emotions, the emotions which were the hardest for me to understand. Leading up to April 20th, 1999, I felt like everything in my life was going really well. I was “Feeling there’s no way” that anything truly terrible could ever happen to me. The previous year my mother had almost died from a massive blood clot attack. She made it through and everything was okay. Before my mother’s massive blood clot attack and the summer before my first year of high school, my dog Ben had died.
Even through all of these hardships, everything turned out fine. Then on April 20th, every aspect of my life seemed to be crumbling around me. It was like being a freshman again and trying to find new friends because the friends I had I did not like. It just seemed that “Lately things won’t go my way/Lately everything is gray” in my life.
The song “Higher” by Creed means a lot to me because it gives me a feeling of recovery and the ability to move on. Even though my life has faced a lot of hardships, I have the comfort in knowing that I have always had the stability to get past those hard times. There would not have been any way for me to get through those hard times if it were not for God.
I have learned to deal with my emotions and even though they were eating me up at one point, they know longer do. There are still times that I think about Daniel and wish that he would come back when things start going rough. He was always there for me. I have made new friends now and I thank God for them because without good friends, life is almost impossible to go through. The one thing that still leaves a gap in my life is that I do not have a best friend. If there was one message that I could tell the world, it would be that everyone should have a best friend because a best friend is always there for you.
Daniel Mauser Memorial Website 